A very clear signal on what to expect Wednesday? It looks like it. I will add more to this short Diary as info trickles in.
http://hosted.ap.org/...
The president "believes it should be in the plan, and he expects to be in the plan, and that's our position" Axelrod told The Associated Press.
Asked if that means a public plan has to be in the bill for Obama to sign it, Axelrod responded: "I'm not going to deal in hypotheticals. ... He believes it's important."
Here is the most important part:
and he expects it to be in the plan, and that's our position.
And this quote is the reason I made this diary. In my most optimistic case I was imaging the President saying something like that. He expects the PO(Public Option) in a bill that crosses his desk. It is a strong statement that comes very close(if not reaches) a line in the sand.
In the end however this might be yet another trial balloon(ugh) but that is unlikely(IMO) since Gibbs also confirmed it somewhat.
Here is the headline from ABC:
President Will Make Case For Public Option Wednesday Night
GIBBS: "I doubt we're going to get into heavy veto threats on Wednesday. We're going to talk about what we can do, because we're so close to getting it done. He will talk about the public option, and why he believes, and continues to believe, that it is a valuable component of providing choice and competition, that helps individuals and small business, at the same time provides a check on insurance companies, so they don't dominate the market."
Their Sunday show:
STEPHANOPOULOS: "[Obama] wants a public option, but... "
GIBBS: "And he still does."
STEPHANOPOULOS: "But -- he wants it, but will he sign a bill that doesn't include it? Because it can't get through the Senate."
GIBBS: "Well, we're not going to prejudge what the process will be when we sign a bill, which the president expects to do this year. The president strongly believes that we have to have an option like this to provide choice and competition, to provide a check on insurance companies, because without it, again, we're going to have markets as big as a whole state of Alabama, almost 90 percent of which is dominated by one insurance company.
This is pretty strong rhetoric folks, but while it is not what we want(a veto threat) if he says all these things that his top advisers are hinting at (yet to happen) it is far better from our(and my)fears that he would not mention the Public option or not defend it or be very tepid about it. If he goes on and say those things the house WILL stand its grounds and pass a bill with a good public option in it. And that is what we need at the moment. Then if Obama is sincere about what he says on Wednesday (might be stretch to a lot of folks at this point) he will fight for PO in the conference with the senate bill (That might have a trigger or Co-op) which will easily tip the scale to our side. Crossing my (intact) fingers. We must give credit where credit is due if things pans out the way I hope they do on Wednesday: The Congressional progressive caucus and the grass roots organizers with some credit going to the admin for finally waking up and living up to their campaign promises (fighting for change legislation).
UpdateX1:
My best case scenario for a conference bill at this point (passed through regular order, not reconciliation) is a senate bill with a national or regional Co-ops and a house bill with a good Public Option. The final merged bill than can have BOTH of these as competitors in there :). How is that for an FU to insurance companies? I still prefer reconciliation though and we should push for that since it will net the strongest possible Public Option compared to any other way.
UpdateX2:
Looks like Maxy(with honorable mentions in my siggi) plans to roll out his bill publicly this Tuesday.
http://www.rollcall.com/...
Baucus Ready to Move on Health Care Reform Bill
Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) has decided that Tuesday is the make-or-break day for bipartisan health care reform talks that have slowed the debate in the Senate to a crawl for most of the summer.
One Republican source said Baucus has told the gang that he may present his proposed bill to them as early as today. Any public roll out of a measure would likely not happen until after the Tuesday meeting.
The article says he will have Co-op in there (ugh) but we will see. If the change of tune from WH is serious we "MIGHT" see a PO in his bill. It is unlikely but If the president gave him a call the last few days and said "Max we want to go to the senate floor with the strongest negotiating position possible, so put a public option in there for now" or something like that Maxy might put it in. It would make sense too if the president plans to support the public option strongly the next day. Keep and eye out for Tuesday as well as Wednesday.
UpdateX3:
Looks like Bucuas care is out. with co-ops.
http://www.nytimes.com/...
its late so I summarize its content by this tweet:
marcambinderBaucus-care: http://bit.ly/... - Mcare to 133% pov lvl, sbsdy to 300%, cap @ 13% b/w 3-400k, tax on insurers, co-ops, no pub opt, no trgr.