Last night on the Ed Show, Senator Bernie Sanders made a startling CONFESSION. Ed Shultz asked him an innocent question about why don't you just do a non-binding straw poll and see if the votes to pass single payer, or a public option, are there. Here is the exact response from Senator Sanders, from the 7:10 mark of this clip.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/35882830#35882830
"We are wracking our brains out here, about how we, if it's possible at this stage to bring in a public option. In the House, I know Nancy Pelosi believes in a public option, she is hanging on there by a thread. Ask me at this point, if there was a public option in the house reconciliation bill coming to the Senate, would we have 50 votes, the answer is yes. So we are trying to figure out how we can do this."
1) There are votes in the Senate to pass a public option. The votes are there in the Senate now. If the House sends over a bill with a public option in it the Senate WILL pass it.
2) Behind the scenes, there is SERIOUS discussion about what kind of public option could be made to happen in the reconciliation bill. This puts a lie to the dismissive talk that a public option is off the table and will not be put on the table. If they discussing it with that level of brain wracking, by DEFINITION it is squarely ON and in the middle of the table right now.
3) And most importantly, that despite their public statements that we need to forget about all this, and just give up all our principles like we can just pick them up the next day like they would still be just as good, there are still multiple people ("we" Sanders says) actively fighting to make this happen.
They did not want to give the people even a glimmer of hope, because if that were to happen, there would be even more pressure on them to just do it. But now we have the words that Bernie Sanders let slip, which can be interpretted in no other way except that the public option is on the table RIGHT NOW!!
What kind of public option you ask? It can be none other than the new proposal by Alan Grayson to allow anyone of any age to buy into Medicare, that so quickly got 64 co-sponsors in the House, the proposal that Dennis Kucinich is calling for in reconciliation, the Medicare Public Option you have been hearing so much about.
Take heart, friends. Victory is near, if only we stand strong.
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