The big story out of today’s Sunday morning shows is the willingness of administration officials and key Senate Democrats to back off a public plan.
But how many liberal House Democrats will balk at passing a plan with no government option?
In July, at least 50 House Democrats pledged only to vote for a bill that includes a public plan. If they all were to defect, at least a dozen Republicans would have to cross the aisle and support the plan in order for it to pass.
Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Tex.) summed up the progressive demand for a public plan today on State of the Union.
“It would be very, very difficult,” for liberals to support a plan with no public plan, she said, “because without the public option, we’ll have the same number of people uninsured.”
Johnson continued:
If the insurance companies wanted to insure these people now, they’d be insured. The only way that we can be sure that very low-income people and persons who work for companies that don’t offer insurance can have access to it is through an option that would give the private insurance companies a little competition. The private insurance companies have been in charge so long that I think they feel that nobody else ought to be able to do it.