ObamaCare Watch: Reid Presser at 3:15 EST

Allegedly, he will announce that the Senate's healthcare bill will include a public option with an opt-out.

More from Bloomberg:

Maine Senator Olympia Snowe, the only Republican who has shown a willingness to work with Democrats to craft legislation, said last week she would vote against allowing Democrats to bring legislation with a public option to the floor. Snowe favors triggering the plan only if the private insurance market fails to lower premiums after a certain period of time.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has championed the public option in legislation being drafted in her chamber, told reporters Oct. 23 that she “didn’t think there’s much problem” with allowing states to opt out of the government-run insurance plan.

Reid needs 60 votes to overcome the ability of Republicans to block consideration of legislation. Virtually all Republicans oppose the measures passed by two Senate committees.

Reminder: Reid and the Democrats (and, eventually, the President when he gets done with his golf game) will pose as if adding the opt-out is a compromise. They will protest that they were "reasonable" and now the Republicans are just being intransigent. This is a lie.

The opt-out is worth almost nothing. It does not give states the power to opt out of the insurance mandate. It does not give states the power to opt residents out of paying for the public option and the rest of ObamaCare via taxes. The opt-out does nothing to address the problems with the so-called "competitive public option", which does nothing to provide bonafide competition to private insurers.

In short, the Democrats are giving away nothing and they will expect to be congratulated for it. No thanks:

posted by Gabriel Malor at 01:56 PM

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