Grijalva: More public plan compromises 'totally unacceptable'

The new version of the public option being crafted in the Senate is a "totally unacceptable," the leader of the Congressional Progressive Caucus said Wednesday.

The new version of the government-run plan, being crafted by Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), fell flat with Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), the co-chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, who's led members of Congress who'd previously spoken out against similar concessions to win over centrist Democrats and some Republicans.

"I think that compromise is totally unacceptable," Grijalva told The Hill. "It basically emasculates the public option."

In recognition that the Senate's current iteration of the public option may not have enough votes to secure passage, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) asked Carper to craft a compromise public option, details of which may be released next week. While it's unclear what Carper's new plan will resemble, it will all but certainly fall short of a public option that will be universally available to Americans from the outset of its plan.

"If it has a trigger, it is non-public," the liberal leader said, reiterating demands he made in a late October letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) before the House voted on its healthcare bill (which includes no opt-outs or triggers).

Grijalva had also demanded at the time that the public option not include an "opt-out" provision, as the Senate bill currently does, though he said liberals may be able to choke down that more easily than a more weakened public plan.

The Arizona Democrat expressed concern that a Senate bill including the compromise on which Carper is working would drag the bill to be crafted during conference with the House bill beyond what is palatable for House liberals, who'd previously threatened to vote against a bill on final passage if it did not contain a sufficiently strong public option.

Grijalva said that he had had no conversations with House leaders, however, about the prospects for such a bill.

"We've made our position clear," Grijalva added.

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