This evening I spoke with Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who was in that infamous Thursday night meeting with President Obama and other Senate leaders--and who has been one of the most persistent advocates of a public option on Capitol Hill. As Schumer explains it, the disagreement between the White House and Senate wasn't substantive so much as it was tactical: The White House had its doubts that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid could really get 60 votes for a public option with an opt out for states."The President listened very carefully," Schumer said in an interview moments ago. "He wanted to make sure that the strategy upon which we were embarking had the ability to carry through."
Schumer has been at the center of the fight over the public option from the earliest days of the health care debate--always there to pull it back from the brink when it at times seemed on the verge of collapse. This situation was no different. After the Thursday meeting, four sources in different Democratic offices told me that the White House had suggested they believed a strategy of pursuing Sen. Olympia Snowe's preferred compromise--a triggered public option--might be an easier path to 60 votes. In the end, though, Schumer and the rest of leadership seem to have prevailed upon President Obama that they've picked the right strategy.
What is so interesting about this is that I feel the leadership for the bill did not come from Obama. This early in his presidency, it feels as if he's being too cautious. It might be, to be honest, the move of someone who is showing that he's a bit young in politics. It was the senate and house (of all places!) that showed the leardership here. Which is scary because I always felt the houses couldn't lead a horse to water.
I am sure there is a lot more to this and I can't wait to read the book about it. I do feel as if we are at the precipice of a really good thing to happen to the United States. We are seeing an institution being formed that our kids will look at as if it is part of their rights. Like medicare, social security, civil rights and the lot.
