"What we have to move forward thinking about is, as the president has said, people keeping what they have if they like it, having more choices, reforming the private market," Landrieu said. "And if we can achieve that through private-sector reform, that's wonderful. And if not, then there should be a mechanism that basically, I guess, guarantees it, which would be a well-crafted trigger."Given Snowe's and Landrieu's extreme opposition to the idea of a real public option, we know a “well-crafted trigger” must mean one that is designed to never be pulled. Snowe's original trigger amendment was crafted in a way to insure that it was never pulled. This should not be surprising. Snowe has repeatedly stated that she is so strongly against a real public option that she would filibuster the bill she helped write if it included one. She claims her inspiration for the public option trigger is the public plan trigger in Medicare Part D, which, guess what, has never been pulled.
The trigger is not a compromise. It is not the threat of a public option. It is not the possibility of a public option. It is not an eventual public option. It is nothing more than a ruse to pretend that they did not completely kill the public option.
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