death to the public?

Amidst the rejection of not one but two public option proposals by the Senate Finance Committee, the viability of any public option plan appears increasingly dim. Adding insult to injury, these two proposals failed to pass despite the fact that Democrats outnumber Republicans on the Committee 13 to 10. if the Republicans are the Party of No then the Democrats appear increasingly the Party of Maybe, Maybe Not. Although Chuck Schumer, the author of one of the flouted proposals, vowed to fight on, it's hard to believe that any plan that includes a public option will pass as long as Democrats remain unable to keep their party in line. Barack Obama, who was never as devout a proponent of the public option as his bygone rivals for the democratic nomination, John Edwards and Hillary Clinton, has failed to insist on a public plan. Even if the president changed course now, it's unclear whether it would make much of a difference. now that much of his political capital appears to be squandered (at least for the moment), aligning with a progressive president might not be an appealing option for those wavering blue dog Democrats concerned with their prospects of reelection in largely conservative states.

It's hard to find a silver lining in the current health care debacle. At least the Democrats of the Senate Finance Committee stuck (closer) to their guns on the subject of abortion, rejecting a proposal by Republican Orren G. Hatch of Utah that would have forbidden the use of federal funds to cover “any part of the costs of any health plan that includes coverage of abortion.” Yes, that's right, Hatch doesn't want to merely prevent federal money given in subsidies from going towards abortions themselves, but from going towards any health care plan that deigns to include coverage for those procedures. Although this is a significant victory for women, it's hard to take much solace in it as it concerns the rest of the health care debate. After all, a party's ability to reject proposals has rarely translated into any ability to pass one.