Is the Public Option Dead?

Is the public option for health insurance dead? Well, according to this article, it just might be. It seems that NObama, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), and, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs have all dropped hints that maybe, just maybe, there will be NO PUBLIC OPTION in the final version of the bill . The extremist leftards are bullshit over this newest development! This isn't the only part of the bill the right hates, but it is a darned good start. How about some torte reform next??

President Barack Obama and his top aides are signaling that they’re prepared to drop a government insurance option from a final health-reform deal if that’s what’s needed to strike a compromise on Obama’s top legislative priority.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Sunday that the public option was “not the essential element” of the overhaul. A day earlier, Obama downplayed the public option during a Colorado town hall meeting, saying it was “just one sliver” of the debate.
He even chided Democratic supporters and Republican critics for becoming “so fixated on this that they forget everything else” — a dig at some liberals in his own party who have made the public option the main rallying cry of the health reform debate.
At the same time, Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), one of six senators involved in bipartisan Finance Committee negotiations, all but declared the public option dead in the Senate.
“Look, the fact of the matter is there are not the votes in the United States Senate for the public option,” said Conrad, who has pushed an alternative proposal to create a network of consumer cooperatives, on Fox News Sunday. “There never have been. So to continue to chase that rabbit, I think, is just a wasted effort.”

Linda Douglass, communications director for the White House Office of Health Reform, must have missed the meeting as she sent out an e-mail Sunday afternoon saying that the president is NOT backing away from the public plan. Hope you like shade Linda. You may find yourself "under the bus" for that little indiscretion.

"Nothing has changed,” said Linda Douglass, communications director for the White House Office of Health Reform. “The president has always said that what is essential is that health insurance reform must lower costs, ensure that there are affordable options for all Americans and it must increase choice and competition in the health insurance market. He believes the public option is the best way to achieve those goals."

But taken together, the remarks from Obama, Sebelius and Conrad suggest the White House is preparing supporters for a health care compromise that may well exclude the government option — which could help Obama win enough votes for a sweeping overhaul but touch off a nasty battle inside his own party between liberals and more moderate members who have resisted a bigger government role in health care.