A day after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D.-Nv.) claimed he would place a public option into the health care bill that he sends to the floor, it was evident that he had not yet found consensus on the legislative's most divisive issue.

The Boston Globe reports that, "by proposing to establish a national public insurance plan and give states the option to withdraw from it. Reid may have revivced momentum for liberals' top health care agenda item. But yesterday he was still working on getting the 60 votes he needs to pass it over an expected Republican filibuster."

Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticutt, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats, announced he would vote with Republicans to block final passage of a bill containing the public insurance option, even with the opt-out option, since it would "create a whole new federal government entitlement program for which taxpapyers will eventually be on the line, and at a time when taxpayers are deep enough on the line and our national government is in the biggest debt it's ever been in."

Some moderate Democrats are declining to take a position. Sen. Bill Nelson of Nebraska, said, "I'm not going to make up my mind until I see the bill."

Acording to the Globe, "strategically, by proposing to include a public option in the bill, Reid transferred a heavy political burden from his own shoulders to those of conservative-leaning Democrats. If Reid's public option fails, progressive activists will have them to blame."

The Nevada Democrat ingratiated himself with liberals at the same time, whose assistance he will need in a tumultuous re-election campaign next year. He may arrive in a stronger position with the House, considering how he tested how far the Senate will go that is nearly certain to pass a stronger version of the public option, on a possible final bill to send to President Barack Obama.

Rep. James Clyburne of South Carolina, the third-ranking Democrat in the House, said, "what Senator Reid did yesterday helps to create an environment in which the American people now know we can no longer debate whther we will have a public option, but (rather) what form it will take."

To read the entire article from the Boston Globe, link here:

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