Rahm Emanuel on Public Option: "It's Not the Defining Piece of Health Care"

Posted by Melissa McEwan, Shakesville at 8:01 AM on October 19, 2009.

WaPo -- White House aides reaffirm public option is not mandatory:

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, in two television appearances [this weekend], noted that the public option could provide much-needed competition, but that "it's not the defining piece of health care."

Liberal lawmakers such as Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.), who is involved in the negotiations, said they will push for the government option to be included in the bill that goes to the Senate floor. "I haven't given up on this," Dodd said on NBC.

...Obama aides conceded that they may not have the votes in the Senate for the provision.

"There are people in the Senate -- Republicans and Democrats -- who have objections to that," senior White House adviser David Axelrod said on ABC's "This Week."

And in case anyone's forgotten why the Obama administration never should have cared what Republicans think in the first place ...

Roll Call -- GOP Launches Strategy to Trip Up Health Bill: "Senate Republicans, acknowledging they lack the votes to block a health care reform bill outright, have implemented a comprehensive political strategy to delay, define and derail."

Of course they have.