Public Option Amendments Fail in Senate Finance Committee

Today two amendments creating a public option in Senator Baucus's health care reform proposal were proposed and defeated. One amendment was by Sen. Jay Rockefeller, which five Democrats voted against, and the other was by Sen. Charles Schumer,which only three Democrats voted against. Committee chair Sen. Max Baucus voted against both amendments because he views his job as passing a bill that would garner 60 votes in the Senate, and he feels no bill with a public option could do that. (He claims to be personally in favor of it.) You can read the New York Times coverage of the vote here and the Christian Science Monitor's here.