President Obama's health care speech will lack demand for public option
WASHINGTON - If you're a liberal New Yorker, prepare to be disappointed by President Obama's prime-time speech Wednesday night on health care reform.

Whether or not he's successful in prodding Congress into action, Obama will not demand the key Democratic goal of offering a public health insurance option.

"He will continue to equivocate like he and his staff have been doing recently," an informed congressional source said.

He and his staff recently have shifted from calling government-run insurance a must-have to a "very valuable tool."

Senators are negotiating the idea of a "trigger" for a public option if private insurers don't do a better job, and the Senate Finance Committee floated a plan Tuesday that has only insurance cooperatives - a poor cousin to a public plan.

That plan could fine American families up to $3,800 for failing to buy coverage.

For most of New York's Democrats, a final proposal must have a public insurance option to help those who can't afford it.

"At some point, there has to be a line in the sand," said Brooklyn Rep. Yvette Clarke, who won't back a bill with no government plan. "With all due respect to our President, and I respect him highly, that's not an option for me."

Rep. Eliot Engel (D-Bronx) also demands a public option, but believes the effort is so maligned the President may have to start over. "Democrats are in a weaker position than we were," Engel said. "You get out of that weakened position by building the broadest [possible] coalition."