Whitehouse: Health Care Moderates Get Boost

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, who favors a public option in the push to reform health care, tells D.C. publication The Hill that Senator Max Baucus' relatively moderate health care proposal, which includes no public option, appears ascendant.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and his centrist allies received a major boost Wednesday when the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) delivered an analysis of his legislation, which does not include the public option.

“I feel very good about it,” said Baucus in regard to the CBO reporting that his bill would cost $829 billion, reduce the deficit by $81 billion over 10 years and expand coverage to 94 percent of Americans.

Senate liberals who support the public option acknowledge the wind is behind Baucus.

“It gives the Baucus bill an advantage in certain areas and it gives health reform in general a boost,” said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), who helped craft the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee bill, which includes the public option.

The House, meanwhile, seems resolute in its support for a public option. Should be an interesting showdown. But it's telling that the debate now seems to be over the public option - not whether health care reform, in some form, will pass. Quite a shift from just a few months back, when town hall tussles had the pundits talking about failure.