Pelosi: Public Option Needs a New Name

Meredith Jessup | October 26, 2009 4:29 PM

Apparently Nancy Pelosi feels that if they rename the public option, more people would be likely to support it. From the AP:

In an appearance at a Florida senior center, the Democratic leader referred to the so-called public option as "the consumer option." Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., appeared by Pelosi's side and used the term "competitive option."

Both suggested new terminology might get them past any lingering doubts among the public—or consumers or competitors.

"You'll hear everyone say, 'There's got to be a better name for this,'" Pelosi said. "When people think of the public option, public is being misrepresented, that this is being paid for with their public dollars."

Well of course--universal health care is FREE! This is so typical--the only way Dems can get people to support their lousy plans is to promise that someone else will be paying for it. And we wonder how our country has gotten to this point...?

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The speaker said the "competitive option" idea emerged during her closed-door roundtable at the Sunrise Senior Center with advocates of seniors and others who work with older populations. Wasserman Schultz suggested the term might be here to stay.

"I think she's going to go up and test-drive it when she goes back to Washington," Wasserman Schultz said. "It might stick."

As for having the votes to pass such a measure, both women said a public option would survive. They wouldn't get into numbers of congressional supporters, but said it was simply a matter of picking which type of public option to pursue.