Dealmaker

Public Option Chaos: Dropped or Not?

Major news source conflict on whether it’s out.

Tuesday evening, The New York Times reported that Senate leaders had "reached a broad agreement" to drop a government-run insurance plan from the pending health-care reform legislation and that the Congressional Budget Office would score the impact that cutting the measure would have on the budget. The Times then updated that Reid said the public option was not off the table, and then further updated that the plan was to "alter" it. The Associated Press also reported that the public option was dropped. Then Talking Points Memo reported that people on the Hill were "for whatever reasons, shying away from the word 'deal.'" TPM's Brian Beutler reported that the senators refused to comment on the compromise. And Reuters said Reid had denied reports that the public option was gone. After all these months of wrangling, the measure appears doomed to be killed and revived in an endless cycle, forever.