Taegan Goddard's Political Wire

October 22, 2009

Senate Health Care Bill Likely to Include Public Option

ABC News reports that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) "is leaning toward including the creation of a new government-run insurance program -- the so-called public option -- in the health care reform bill he will bring to the full Senate in the coming weeks."

After meeting with Democratic moderates, Reid "has concluded he can pass a bill with a public option."

Though some are still opposed the idea, Reid "is now convinced that Democratic critics of the public option will support him when it counts -- on the procedural motion, which requires 60 votes, to defeat a certain GOP-led filibuster of the bill. Once the filibuster is beaten, it only takes 51 votes to pass the bill."

"Democratic critics of the public option would get a chance to go on-the-record with their opposition by voting for an amendment to strip it from the health care bill.  Under Senate rules, such an amendment would need 60 votes to pass.  And while there may not be 60 votes in favor of a public option, there are also not 60 votes against it.  So, it would remain in the bill."

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Taegan D. Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country, including the Washington Post, USA Today, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer and Christian Science Monitor.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

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