VIDEO: Public Option Would Not Pass Senate

By GottaLaff

If President Obama is backing away from a public option in his health care reform proposal, it's because he prefers to move the bill through the Senate's normal channels and not through the budget reconciliation process which would require only 51 votes.

In an interview on CNBC, Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND) said a Finance Committee proposal containing a health care cooperative insurance plan -- and not a government sponsored plan -- is the only proposal likely to get 60 votes in the Senate to prevent a filibuster.

Said Conrad: "There's been no final resolution, but I think there's a good chance the cooperative plan will be adopted, at least at the committee level. The notion of a cooperative plan is that it's membership-controlled, membership-run -- not government-run, government-controlled."

Speaking of health, I feel sick.

UPDATE just now from a Tweet by CNN's Ed Henry:

on single payer, potus says, it would have been "politically difficult" to get done. interesting two or three pushed him on it at town hall