Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley is one of four Democrats who’ve just announced that they’ve signed a letter to Majority Leader Harry Reid to put a public health insurance option to a vote via a maneuver called “reconciliation” that requires only 51 votes to pass, as is being reported by The Huffington Post and CBS. The letter reads:

We respectfully ask that you bring for a vote before the full Senate a public health insurance option under budget reconciliation rules. There are four fundamental reasons why we support this approach – its potential for billions of dollars in cost savings; the growing need to increase competition and lower costs for the consumer; the history of using reconciliation for significant pieces of health care legislation; and the continued public support for a public option.

and, via CBS:

“Put simply, including a strong public option is one of the best, most fiscally responsible ways to reform our health insurance system,” the letter says. “Although we strongly support the important reforms made by the Senate-passed health reform package, including a strong public option would improve both its substance and the public’s perception of it.”

Huffington calls the effort “uphill,” but the idea is obviously popular. The Progressive Change Campaign Committee and Democracy for America are rallying people to become online signatories of the letter, and gave CBS the following statement:

“Every day, it becomes increasingly clear that the best way to ‘fix’ the original Senate bill is to pass the highly popular public option through reconciliation,” the groups said in a statement. “It’s the populist reform that the House will need in order to pass both bills together and the key change Democratic and Independent voters will need in order to believe in health care reform again and show up in 2010.”

Hope/false hope?

Marjorie Skinner is the Portland Mercury's Managing Editor, author of the weekly Sold Out column chronicling the area's independent fashion and retail industry, and a frequent contributor to the film and...

One reply on “Jeff Merkley and The Fight to Revive The Public Option”

  1. Oh fuck. Isn’t this the “nuclear option” we were all up in arms about when the GOP-controlled Congress wanted to run over threatened Democratic fillibusters to pass the “Rape Your Grandma to Save Bald Eagles & Babies Act?”

    I see, now WE’RE the ones calling for populism, and the god-given fairness and decency of the up and down vote.

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