Quote of the Day: Nancy Pelosi on the "trigger"

By Michael J.W. Stickings

The Speaker is right, "a trigger is an excuse for not doing anything."

I suppose there could still be a meaningful health-care reform package without a public option but with a so-called "trigger" that would put a public option in place only if certain thresholds weren't met (that is, if reform failed to achieve certain desired outcomes, such as greater accessibility), but, to me, it's still a bit too early to concede on the public option just to appease a single Republican, Olympia Snowe.

The Democrats would do well to continue to push for a public option, a robust one, and to try to pull the party together to pass reform on their own, given ongoing Republican opposition and obstructionism. With majorities on both sides of Congress, there really is no excuse for doing nothing.