The strange politics of the public option revival

Washington Post by Ezra Klein | Feb. 20, 2010 (Opinion)

Trying to figure out the politics of this public option revival has been a bit of a strange experience. On the one hand, momentum seems to be building: The letter asking Reid to run the public option through the reconciliation process has 18 senators attached. Last night, Kathleen Sebelius told Rachel Maddow that if the public option is "part of the decision of the Senate leadership to move forward," then the administration would fight for it. Today, Harry ... Full Story »

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by Phil Snead - Feb. 22, 2010

Klein makes a brief commentary on the mini-resurgence of the public health care option in the W.H. and on Capitol Hill. He reminds us that the irrational politics of health care will likely defeat the advance of the public option in this case as it did before, despite its apparent popularity with the majority of U.S. voters.

“As of now, the strategy only has 20 or so supporters, and it’ll need at least another 20 or 25 to really be viable. But if it gets there, White House and Senate leadership are going to have some hard calls to make.”