Bark But No Bite

The Blue Dogs have decided to go along with a public option after all, as Democrat Mike Ross of Arkansas gets his deal.

Ross said the deal between four Blue Dogs on the House committee, the House Democratic leadership and the White House lowers the cost of the House health care reform plan by $100 billion and also exempts businesses with payrolls below $500,000 from having to provide health coverage for workers.

He also said the bill's government-funded public insurance option -- a key provision for President Obama and Democratic leaders -- would be a choice for consumers instead of coverage forced on people without health insurance.

Republican opponents of the public option and some Democrats, warn such a not-for-profit plan would have a competitive advantage over private insurers and eventually wipe them out.

"The public option will be required to negotiate with health care providers just like private insurance companies do to insure we have a level playing field," Ross said.

TNR's Jon Chait takes it from here:

A couple days ago I argued that, contrary to much of what you were hearing, House Blue Dogs did not pose a threat to the passage of health care reform:

This isn't a fundamental clash over ideology. It's a skirmish over the timing of a vote. The Blue Dogs don't want to have to vote for a more liberal bill than what ultimately becomes law. A lot of the fighting we're seeing a a result is probably kabuki theater. The real bounds of reform will beset by the Senate.

And, indeed, the House now seems to have an agreement, and the primary Blue Dog concession is... the timing of the vote:

Substantively, leadership seems to have given up very little, but, Blue Dogs succeeded at slow walking the bill, which won't get a vote until after the August recess.

Like I said, the bottleneck is the Senate.

It's much less of a bottleneck and more of a huge corporate lobbyist roadblock, frankly. And why did the Blue Dogs insist on wasting so much bloody time? Roll over boys. Good dog.

Still, Baucus is still calling the shots. And right now the Baucus plan meets almost none of the "Is it a good plan?" requirements. (Public option, employee mandate, surtax, subsidies).