Pelosi and Reid Say They Have the Votes

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told the President they have the votes to pass a health care bill.

What will be in the bill remains an open question, though after the meeting, Reid told reporters that “we're going to do our very best to have a public option or something like a public option before we finish this work.”

The question is will the bill actually have the public option. If not then will the bill become a corporate giveaway for health insurers. Howard Dean made an eloquent point on the uselessness of a bill without the public option.

"The problem is it won't work. It doesn't add anything. If you're going to do that, just do the insurance reform," said Dean. "There's no point in spending $600 billion and giving it to the insurance industry. We know what they'll do with it. I'm hopeful he'll stick to his guns and we'll have the reform we were promised in the campaign."