Democrats Sneaky Plan to Slip Public Option Into Health Care Bill

Oh, they’re just considering it.

They don’t give a hoot what the American people want. They’re going to ram this through whatever it takes, and whatever the cost. Current estimates are only about $829 BILLION, but who’s counting? We all know government programs always come in way over budget, but the CBO says it won’t add to the deficit. Yeah, right, and I’m Michelle Malkin.

The Washington Examiner reports:

Senate Democrats desperate to find a way to pass a health care bill that includes a federal insurance plan may have come up with a way to do it without putting moderate members who oppose it in political jeopardy.

Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is weighing a plan to bring the final health care bill to the floor without a public option — making it much easier to get the 60 votes needed to prevent a Republican filibuster — and then adding the provision later as an amendment.

The public option amendment would be there waiting, but the 60-vote test would technically be on a bill without the government plan. Then moderate Democrats could drop out for the vote on the public option, which requires just 51 votes for passage.

“It’s brilliant,” said a top Senate Republican aide. “It gets you your votes on cloture for a package that does not include a public option.”

Reid has not revealed whether he will use this tactic, but he’s considering it.

“We haven’t made any decisions yet,” his spokesman, Jim Manley, said. “We have different options — that is one.”

Seeing that Dear Leader is “quietly pushing for a public option” is there any doubt Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi will find a way to make it happen? He’s pushing it quietly because he’s barely hanging on to a 50% approval rating. He wouldn’t want to face the ire of people like Rep. Israel’s constituents. Poor Rep. Israel had to beg attendees of his Suffolk County New York town hall meeting to stop yelling at him. If they think people are angry now, just wait until a trip to the DMV is more pleasant than a trip to the family doctor.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 7th, 2009 at 5:46 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.