The Public Option and President Obama

Dear Friends,

I finally found a site that clearly lists the supporters of the Bennet letter to use reconciliation to get a Public Option in the Health Care bill.  It is in an article by Chris Bowers on Open Left (here).  According to Mr. Bowers there are now 35 Senators that have either signed the Bennet letter or have indicated their support for it.  Dare I believe that this essentially grass roots effort could actually work?

Well before you get too excited, President Obama is making it difficult to get the Public Option included in this bill.  The New York Times reports (here)

He told the liberals that a public option would never pass the Senate, but said he would be “personally committed” to pursuing it once the current bill became law, said Representative Raúl Grijalva, Democrat of Arizona and co-chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. He asked centrists for support.

If the President is "personally committed" to a public option and if there are already 35 Senators that support putting the Public Option in through reconciliation, why doesn't the President work to get the 15 more Senators and his Vice President so that we can have some real competition?   If he is "personally committed" to it, and we are this close, he should fight for it.  That is leadership and that is change we can believe in.

Thanks for reading and please comment,

The Unabashed Liberal