Pelosi Stands Strong On Public Option

Note to Kenneth Quinnell: this is what it means to support the public option. The Huffington Post reports Speaker Nancy Pelosi guarantees the public option will be in the House bill.

"I fully support the public option. The public option will be in the bill that passes the House," Pelosi (D-Calif.) said purposefully.

Ryan Grim notes Pelosi isn't happy about the deal the White House made with big PHARMA.

"We have different things in our bill. We have the right to negotiate rates in the Energy and Commerce [Committee] bill," Pelosi told the Huffington Post after the briefing. "The Senate bill does not close the doughnut hole. We do," she added, referring to the period of time when Medicare does not cover prescription medicine for seniors. "And so we have some differences on those issues that relate to prescription drugs."

Pelosi is promising the public option in the House version of the bill. It is hard for Pelosi to walk back from such a bold promise. Pelosi did no guarantee that Medicare would be able to negotiate for cheaper prescription drugs. The "Energy and Commerce bill" remark comes off as a diss to the White House.

The Obama administration refused to back Pelosi when she accused the CIA of lying in their briefings to her. CIA Director Leon Panetta later admitted the agency did lie to Congress about waterboarding. Obama praises Charles Grassley after the Senator accuses the President of supporting death panels. Obama will not back the Speaker of his own party. What an atrocious way to do business.