It is not the first time we are hearing of the White House fall-back plan. We were told a few times last year

The White House measure appears designed to entice moderate Democrats and perhaps even Republicans into supporting a health care overhaul if legislative efforts in Congress fail or if they move too far to the left.

Now, bent on his reelection campaign, Obama finally pulled it out, ready to “dare” GOP with it.

Of course, we now hear from Freudian slip Biden that the bipartisan healthcare summit was supposed to be kabuki theater anyway

Biden told the News Journal that the six-hour meeting “could be pure theater.”

“This could end up not being good,” Biden said in the interview. “But I know of no other way than to just keep pushing, saying, ‘Guys, OK, this is our idea. What’s your idea?’”

So that would explain surrendering ahead of time:  Before the fall-back even getting on the table, a fall back to the fall-back has been discovered

Obama Readies a Fallback Health-Care Proposal

According to WSJ

would provide health insurance to perhaps 15 million Americans, about half what the comprehensive bill would cover, according to two people familiar with the planning.

t would do that by requiring insurance companies to allow people up to 26 years old to stay on their parents’ health plans, and by modestly expanding two federal-state health programs, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, one person said. The cost to the federal government would be about one-fourth the price tag for the broader effort, which the White House has said would cost about $950 billion over 10 years.

The article doesn’t mention the mandates, so I will assume they are still in (or else, I would be happy with this fallback)

B0bots are understandably unhappy So much so, one actually wrote

6. Obama has turned out to be a big fat worthless fucking zero in a suit. He makes

Bill Clinton look like César Chávez.

Which if you consider the obsessive, virulent CDS there, is something!

From the White House mouthpiece comes the denial in the propaganda outlet

White House Denies Report Obama Is Considering Scaled-Back Reform Plan

Administration officials with knowledge of current health care negotiations pushed back Wednesday evening against a report that the White House is readying a paired-down (sic) version of reform should the current proposal fail to win sufficient congressional support

Of course, they can’t say WSJ made up the story, so they contradict themselves by admitting

“This proposal was developed because the president wanted to know what the impact would be if he had to go small post-Massachusetts [Senate race]. It’s not where we are,” the official said.

“As you can tell from covering the news this week,” the official added, “this is not the proposal we’re pursuing.”

In other words: “As you can tell from our propaganda news we are putting plan “A” publicly, so stop saying that.

Even B0bots smell the BS on that one

I call bullshit on the article..who besides freepers

spell “pared down” as “paired down”???
I smell a rat.

and

8. Unfortunately, this Huff Post article makes no sense.

First, they “pushed back Wednesday evening against a report that the White House is readying a paired-down version of reform”, but then two paragraphs down they admit that “a fallback option had been developed”??

As numerous people have already posted, if you’ve developed a worst-case scenario fall back option, you have no choice but to keep it secret. Now the whole country knows that Obama has a plan-B, even if he’s supposedly still pushing for the original proposal.

I like Obama, but he’s repeatedly shown that he’s too naive and weak-willed to be a good president. I’m hoping he’ll eventually wise up and grow a spine.

Others of course are still trying to believe.

This small plan also rings a bell. Something I read in Milbank’s piece on Rahm Emanuel

Obama’s greatest mistake was failing to listen to Emanuel on health care. Early on, Emanuel argued for a smaller bill with popular items, such as expanding health coverage for children and young adults, that could win some Republican support. He opposed the public option as a needless distraction.

And here it is again! Seems like Rahm wasn’t leaving, just kicking some more a* as I expected…

Me, I recall those days when everyone was calling Obama a brilliant politician event though he barely made it past the finish line with all the money, media and RNC pushing him.

A brilliant politician would have started with single payer – even if he didn’t wanted it. And negotiated it down to what he wanted.

Obama still goes with the “send me anything to sign called healthcare and I’ll declare victory”

After all, it’s only for campaign rhetoric anyway.

let’s give a B0bot the last word:

31. Our worthless empty-suit president milquetoast strikes again!

He’s turned out to be a real piece of work. I’ve come to the conclusion that all of obama’s vaunted ‘intelligence’ is nothing more than wishful thinking. He’s not really a very smart man at all.

But what does it say of those who were taken in?

Update

Single payer advocates were excluded from the bipartisan theater

Although the physicians’ group requested an invitation to Thursday’s summit at Blair House, no reply from the White House has been forthcoming, Young said. The group also noted: “Similarly, requests from Reps. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, Anthony Weiner of New York and Peter Welch of Vermont that single-payer advocates be included in the meeting have apparently gone unanswered.”

As for the real reason Public Option has been ditched (h/t kpete in B0botland)  is not because they don’t have the voters but-  Obama sold that to hospital lobbyists back in August

Several hospital lobbyists involved in the White House deals said it was understood as a condition of their support that the final legislation would not include a government-run health plan paying Medicare rates — generally 80 percent of private sector rates — or controlled by the secretary of health and human services.

“We have an agreement with the White House that I’m very confident will be seen all the way through conference,”

So, there

Update

So much for the White House denial earlier

Hoyer: Obama open to scaled-down bill

President Barack Obama is open to passing a scaled-back healthcare bill if the current, more comprehensive plan fails, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Thursday…

….

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