Quick Hits was buzzing last night with rumors that President Obama had supported the trigger in a meeting with Senate Democratic leaders. CNN:
In recent days, two administration officials have told CNN that the prevailing White House opinion is for the Senate health care bill to include a so-called "trigger" mechanism proposed by Snowe that would bring a public option in the future if thresholds for expanding coverage and lowering costs go unmet in coming years.
The source familiar with Thursday evening's meeting said Obama "pushed for a so-called trigger, because it's the more bipartisan way to go," due to Snowe's support for the concept. A critical White House goal in passing a health care bill is the ability to call it bipartisan, so Obama officials are wary of doing anything to alienate Snowe.
Then again, CNN's anonymous "administration officials" are countered by the anonymous "Democratic aide" in the New York Times:
Mr. Reid met with President Obama at the White House Thursday to inform him of his inclination to add the public option to the bill, but did not specifically ask the president to endorse that approach, a Democratic aide said. Mr. Obama asked questions, but did not express a preference at the meeting, a White House official said.
So, did President Obama push for the trigger, or did he not state a preference? It probably depends on what you are inclined to believe even before you heard these anonymous sources. If you thought the White House was pushing the trigger beforehand, you will probably read this as confirmation. If you thought it was largely staying neutral and leaving it up to Congress, you will probably read this as confirmation of that.
Personally, I am inclined to believe that the right-leaning source in the Obama administration and on Capitol Hill use these anonymous leaks try and make their positions look more popular with President Obama and the Democratic leadership than they really are. In this case, a trigger-happy administration official wants to make it look like Obama is on his side.
Anonymous Democratic sources are far more frequently used as bludgeons against progressives than not. For that reason, and because there is a conflicting source in this case, I am inclined not to believe that Obama was pushing triggers in the meeting.
But wait--the rumors didn't end there! Next up, Politico claimed this morning that Speaker Pelosi had concluded she did not have the votes for Medicare +5%, based entirely on anonymous source. And you know the source is doing this to spread the truth, rather than to attack progressives, given that the article only has one actual quote:
"Votes aren't there," a top official said. "The progressives are always more optimistic than reality."
Yep--not looking to attack progressives at all with this anonymous quote. The story was immediately contradicted by eponymous sources from Pelosi's office (more in the extended entry):
Politico's Mike Allen has a splashy story up this morning claiming, among other things, that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has concluded that she can't pass the robust public option. But is it accurate? Not according to Pelosi's spokesman Nadeam Elshami:
"Speculation that a final decision has been made about the public option are not accurate," Elshami tells TPMDC. "We continue to work with all the members of the caucus to build consensus."
And, for what it is worth based on my anonymous top Democratic sources, that is what I am hearing is well. No decision has been made. There is a caucus meeting taking place this morning. There is, certainly, a struggle to find the votes for the Medicare +5% public option, but the fight is not over.
"It makes no sense that she'd count votes, come up a few short, and just call it a day," said one Democratic health care strategist. "The debate in the House is over either a national public option, available everywhere, that pays Medicare +5 rates or a national public option available everywhere that has to negotiate rates. And that's only if the horse-trading doesn't come up with votes. [Pelosi] probably only needs at most a dozen - and the horse trading could involve other issues besides health care or the public option... the idea that the compromise will be a trigger is nuts."
Secondly, the Senate itself doesn't seem inclined to go for the trigger approach either. According to several sources, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) stands just a few votes short (one or two, really) of the 60 needed to pass a public plan with an opt-out clause. The work right now is to get those remaining votes not, necessarily, to scrap the work already done in favor of pushing a trigger proposal (which, it should be noted, is the preference of the lone Republican on board -- Sen. Olympia Snowe).
