Public Support For The Public Option

San Fran Nan says the public option will be in the House bill, which is all fine and good, but we kind of knew that already. Here's the kicker:

"We don’t intend to go to the floor without a public option in that bill,” Nancy Pelosi said at her weekly press conference. “I have said that the House bill will have a public option.”

The comments come after a key US Senate committee on Tuesday defeated a proposal to include a “public option” plan in legislation to remake the way Americans get and pay for health care.

President Barack Obama, who has made overhauling US health care his top domestic priority, has said he supports the “public option,” and many core Democrats say they will oppose a final plan without one.

OK, so what does that mean for the inevitable House/Senate reconciliation for the bill?

“What happens in the conference is another step,” Pelosi said. “I’m confident though that if we go in with a public option, the public support will be overwhelming,” she said.

The public option is supported by most senators from the Democratic majority.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid vowed: “We’re going to do our very best to have a public option.”

Another senior Democratic senator, Charles Schumer, said that he has talked to conservative Democratic senators “and they are open to some kind of public option.”

Our very best. Coming from Harry Reid.

Oooh, I'm just filled with confidence. That's the best you can do? You need more, guys. How about a little more full-threatedness in the defense there, ace?

[UPDATE 11:20 PM] Iowa Democrat Sen. Tom Harkin: Screw the GOP on the conference process and yes, it will have a public option.

Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin said today Republicans will not be at the table when the Senate merges the health-care bills from two committees before sending one to the floor.

Harkin, a Democrat and chairman of one of the committees, also said any bill that passes Congress will include a government-run insurance option for Americans to buy.

“We will have a bill on the president’s desk before Christmas, a health-reform bill. It will have a lot of good stuff in it. It will have a lot of prevention and wellness programs in there that I’ve been fighting for,” Harkin told reporters in a morning conference call. “And it will have a public option.”

“The question of if it doesn’t isn’t even an option,” he added.

Now that's what I'm talking about.