Guys, Obama Supports the Public Option (Still)

Because so many conservatives consider giving private insurance competition in the form of a public health insurance option to be a non-starter while so many progressives proclaim any bill without a public option is a non-starter, the level of conflict couldn’t be higher. And the new gravitates to conflict stories like moth to a flame.  Reporters are convinced that President Obama will drop his insistence on a public option in health care reform as part of negotiations imminently, and are watching him like a hawk so they can be the first to report on it when he does. Commentators rack up fees proclaiming the imminent demise of the public option. Yes, even on NPR and MSNBC. And yet, in every public statement -- including today -- Obama spends a lot of time defending it and saying it's part of his plan.  Still.

In short, what gives?

I feel like I’m stuck in health care Groundhog Day. I’m literally having the same conversation about President Obama and the public option over and over again. I went back and checked out this post of mine from February 27, when the blogosphere was ablaze that Obama was about to drop the proposal. Suffice to say, it didn’t happen then, which is why we’re still talking about whether it's happening today.

I can’t prove, obviously, that somewhere within the sanctum sanctorum of the White House that high-ranking officials aren’t preparing a “Sorry, we tried” speech. But I do know these three points:

1. Say what you want about Obama, he’s pretty up-front about when he’s going to disappoint his progressive base on make-or-break issues. In 2008, he deviated wildly from his previous statements to vote for the reauthorization of a FISA bill that allowed for warrantless wiretapping. It was a blow for liberals and civil rights. But he then proceeded to explain his reasoning in-depth in public statements and interviews, including having his foreign policy advisory team answer questions on his Web site for hours. Obama has also been up-front about what he’s giving up on health care. We knew from the minute he took office that single-payer was off the table. We knew, despite progressive hopes to the contrary, that there’d be no additional funding for abortion or undocumented workers or a roll back of the Bush Tax Cuts for health care. We knew the requirement that every American buy coverage or pay a fine, which he had campaigned against, was now likely to be part of reform.  We knew because he told us.
2. The dude is expending a lot of energy defending a policy that people say he’s about to drop. It's pretty easy to tell the difference between something he weakly supports and something he strongly supports.  On Wednesday, has not Rep. Joe Wilson proven to be an ass clown, the main story of the day would have been Obama's seven-minute defense of the public option. Today in Minnesota, he devoted a couple of paragraphs to it, in contrast to medical malpractice (not one word) or the John McCain idea of high-risk pools for those with pre-existing conditions (not one word) [Correction:  he did mention this pool for those with pre-existing conditions.  I missed the reference the first time.] On his brand-new “Obama’s Health Care Plan” page on whitehouse.gov which only went up 3 days ago, he mentions it again. If he’s not seriously trying to get it, he’s wasting a huge amount of time making it look like he is.
3. The fact that commentators seem to have reached a consensus is uncompelling to me. According to pundits, we should be talking right now about how well President Hillary Clinton is doing. Or we should be talking about how prudent it was or was not for President Obama to put off tackling health care for a few years to focus on the economy.

Look, getting a public option is going to be the hardest part about reform, and the sexiest fight for the news. Winning a public option still has a lot more to do with who’s in the Senate than who’s in the White House. But the surest way not to get it is to stop asking for it.

(Photo credit:  Official White House Photostream on Flickr.)