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Moment of truth for Harry Reid
I will oppose any healthcare bill that does not include a credible public option and urge members of the House and Senate to take the same stand.
The moment of truth is at hand. A major agreement to create a credible public option is within reach. It is time to wage this battle all out.
The healthcare of hundreds of millions of Americans will be affected by this bill. The meetings led by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) are a defining moment in modern political history that would be a true bid for historical greatness by the president and the Congress.
It has been said that Harry Reid would have to be Harry Houdini to pull off this deal. I believe he can. It is now within reach.
First: Insurance co-ops are fine, but as an alternative to the public option to bring real competition they would be impotent. Second: The so-called trigger would simply guarantee continued abuse.
The deal of the decade would create a national public option with a provision that allows states to opt out with their own program.
If the president, the Senate majority leader and the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Max Baucus (D-Mont.), can pull off this deal, they would win a standing ovation in the high court of history,
Vice President Joe Biden is right: Many Americans are living in Depression-like suffering while others are squeezed by merciless forces beyond their control.
Public option opponents would condemn the jobless, poor, hungry, hurting and powerless to pay price-gouging premiums they cannot afford. Then they would condemn taxpayers to pay for huge subsidies to pay these sky-high premiums to high-profit insurers. A public option with an opt-out provision for states would do this: It would win strong political support from voters, be a highly popular program for consumers, lower the net cost of the healthcare bill, and be highly popular in the large majority of states that would adopt it.
In states that opt out, there will be news stories about lower premiums, lower costs and lower pain in public option states. So be it. Give states the right to opt out. Let voters in those states decide.
I have done many deals in my career. There is always a moment to strike, a deal that works, a policy that makes sense and a public will that must be respected. The moment is here. The time is now. The deal is a public option with an opt-out clause.
If Harry Reid delivers this deal, he and those who make it happen will be applauded by voters and written about in history books. On this matter, the people are right and the enemies of change are wrong.
Budowsky was an aide to former Sen. Lloyd Bentsen and Bill Alexander, then chief deputy majority whip of the House. He holds an LL.M. degree in international financial law from the London School of Economics. He can be read on The Hill’s Pundits Blog and reached at
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