11/12: Nobody Likes A Triggered Co-Op

Throughout the health care reform debate, the two public option alternatives that were most frequently derided by liberal bloggers were Sen. Olympia Snowe's (R-ME) "trigger" proposal and Sen. Kent Conrad's (D-ND) "co-op" proposal. It's no surprise, then, that the netroots did not respond positively to CongressDaily's report that Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE) is working on a new public option alternative that essentially combines Snowe's "trigger" idea with Conrad's "co-op" idea. Joan McCarter is aghast: "A triggered co-op! A trigger that's never going to trigger to create a co-op that will never work. Seriously, this is their Plan B?" Jon Walker is disgusted: "What Carper did was take the two worst aspects of the two most worthless ideas (a trigger and zero government oversight), and combine them into one super-awful proposal." Now that it's looking increasingly unlikely that 60 Dem senators will vote for cloture on a bill containing an opt-out public option, the netroots are talking about using the budget reconciliation process. Chris Bowers explains:

"Right up until the end of the process, the bill can still be split into two parts: one with the new regulations that requires 60 votes to reach cloture, and one with the public option and subsidies that can be included in the budgetary process and which cannot be filibustered. Since there are at least 51 votes for a public option in the Senate, and since reconciliation is still on the table, if we don't end up with a public option it won't be because we didn't have the votes."

What else is happening in the blogosphere?

• Conservative bloggers (Mirengoff, Carroll, Jacobson, Fly) are accusing Pres. Obama of "dithering" because he "does not plan to accept any of the Afghanistan war options presented by his national security team." Meanwhile, liberal bloggers (Black, Bowers) remain skeptical about the U.S. mission in Afghanistan. Several lefty bloggers (Ackerman, Armstrong) are annoyed that none of the options that Obama is considering involves a reduction in troops.
• Liberal bloggers (Morrill, Sudbay, Lange) are blasting Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) for blocking a veterans care bill. Other lefty bloggers (Yglesias, Drum) are criticizing Sen. George LeMieux (R-FL) for placing a hold on Tom Shannon, Obama's nominee for amb. to Brazil. Meanwhile, RedState editor Erick Erickson is urging his readers to call their senators and tell them to filibuster Judge David Hamilton, Obama's nominee for the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.
• Conservative bloggers (Geraghty, Malkin) are speculating that Doug Hoffman (C) may have actually defeated Rep. Bill Owens (D) in the NY-23 race, since "recanvassing shows the special election has narrowed to a 3,000-vote difference."
• Conservative bloggers (Geraghty, Lane) are speculating that DE AG Beau Biden (D) is leaning against running for Senate.
• Liberal bloggers (Cole, Thers, Sudbay, Benen, Empsall, Drum) are celebrating the news that controversial CNN anchor Lou Dobbs is leaving the network, and many are predicting that he'll soon join Fox News.

CARPER: You Have Got To Be Kidding Me

Liberal bloggers are blasting Carper's public option alternative:

• Daily Kos' mcjoan: "A triggered co-op! A trigger that's never going to trigger to create a co-op that will never work. Seriously, this is their Plan B? Whatever happened to comprehensive healthcare reform? Whatever happened to providing affordable choices to all Americans? [...] I am really hoping that [Senate Maj. Leader Harry] Reid has tasked some more creative thinkers than Carper on a solution to the public option issue. They'd be far better off just scrapping this whole Rube Goldbergian contraption, pass the insurance reforms and pray that they'll work and then spend the $900 billion on expanding Medicaid and Medicare. Or, getting serious about passing real, substantive reform in form of a public option that provides serious competition to the insurance companies through reconciliation. But don't try to pass this weak shit tea off on us as reform."
• Firedoglake's Walker: "What Carper did was take the two worst aspects of the two most worthless ideas (a trigger and zero government oversight), and combine them into one super-awful proposal. The entity created is not national, would not be large enough to negotiate low rates, would not be available on day one, and would not answer to Congress. Carper has created a 'trigger for co-ops' proposal in an attempt to get 60 votes, but, not only would the idea do nothing to help control costs, but it needlessly weakens two worthless ideas Snowe already supports."
• Daily Kos' Hunter: "The 'Plan B' Carper has come up with is not a co-op, and not a trigger, but a co-op trigger. A co-op that wouldn't even happen unless it was triggered. Which it wouldn't be, because 'triggers' are the legislative equivalent of sternly worded letters; they don't happen. That's the brilliant plan being dreamed up because not only is the public option too controversial, not only is an option with opt-out controversial, not only are the ineffective and nonsensical 'co-ops' too controversial, and not only was a trigger itself much too scary, but the only thing Carper and some other Dems think would be milquetoast enough for the Senate to stomach would be a trigger that does nothing attached to a co-op that will do nothing."
• AMERICAblog's Joe Sudbay: "[This is] pretty much the most useless and counter-productive alternative."

Open Left's Bowers: "Yikes! A triggered co-op! If there is any bright side to this, it lets us all know what is at stake in the Senate fight over the next few weeks. Either we round-up the five problem Senators -- [IN Sen.] Evan Bayh, [LA Sen.] Mary Landrieu, [CT Sen.] Joe Lieberman, [AR Sen.] Blanche Lincoln and [NE Sen.] Ben Nelson -- to vote for cloture, or else the Senate will bring a triggered co-op to the conference committee. Those are pretty high stakes."

HEALTH CARE REFORM: It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Reconciliation

Liberal bloggers are starting to view the budget reconciliation process as the only means of passing meaningful health care reform:

• Bowers: "In addition to applying pressure on the five problem Senators, one move we need to make is to push for reconciliation, not a triggered co-op, as the fallback plan. Right up until the end of the process, the bill can still be split into two parts: one with the new regulations that requires 60 votes to reach cloture, and one with the public option and subsidies that can be included in the budgetary process and which cannot be filibustered. Since there are at least 51 votes for a public option in the Senate, and since reconciliation is still on the table, if we don't end up with a public option it won't be because we didn't have the votes."
• TalkLeft's Big Tent Democrat: "It is becoming more and more apparent that reconciliation is the only way to pass 'health care reform,' even of the Rahmbo 'anything that can pass' variety. Ben Nelson says he will filibuster any bill that has a public option OR does not contain the [MI Rep. Bart] Stupak Amendment. So regular order in the Senate is over. If President Obama and Senate Leader Reid want health care reform, even of the Rahmbo variety, reconciliation is the only way."
• mcjoan: "What is really essential in the Senate bill? The insurance reforms. Hell, throw in the repeal of the anti-trust exemption to make that look more serious. But since the regulatory structure for enforcing those reforms is unlikely to be up to the task, the other necessary ingredient is a mechanism for making those reforms stick through market forces -- the public option, designed to provide competition to keep them honest. Pass the first bill through regular process, pass the second through reconciliation. Or kiss an effective bill, one that will make people actually want to vote for you, goodbye."

THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Is Mitt Romney The GOP Version Of John Kerry?

The American Conservative's Daniel Larison:

"What the war was for Democrats in 2004, health care legislation and bailouts will be for the Republicans in 2012. [Mitt] Romney fits the [John] Kerry mold perfectly, and like Kerry he will be forced by the strength of the primary challenge from some [Howard] Dean-like representative of the 'Republican wing of the Republican Party' to run away from his record on health care and bailouts. In fact, Romney has already been trying to make people forget that he favored the bailouts when it mattered, and no doubt he will engage in some of his typical dishonesty when confronted with the question of his record of support for health care mandates. Like Kerry, he will have zero credibility in opposing most of the President's agenda, which means that Romney's already fairly strange focus on foreign policy and national security may have to become the centerpiece of his campaign to distract attention from his record of signing off on universal health care in Massachusetts and endorsing deeply unpopular bailouts of Wall Street. For all of the ridicule he received, Kerry nearly won, but I doubt that Romney would be able to do as well as Kerry did unless economic conditions worsen severely."

LEST WE FORGET: U.S. Deports Lou Dobbs

From The Onion:

"WANTAGE, NJ -- Acting on anonymous tips from within the Hispanic-American community, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials on Wednesday deported Luis Miguel Salvador Aguila Dominguez, who has been living illegally in the United States under the name Lou Dobbs for 48 years.

According to the Department of Homeland Security, federal agents stormed the undocumented immigrant's home in an evening raid just hours after the 64-year-old newscaster suddenly announced that he was resigning from CNN, and immediately placed him on an Aeromexico flight departing from Newark Liberty Airport."