Boxer talks up ‘public interest option’ in rhetorical pivot

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said that a “public interest option” would emerge from the Senate’s efforts to reform healthcare — a potential shift from Boxer’s support for the public option.

“I do think we’ll have a public interest option at the end of the day, because we have to contain the cost,” she said during an interview on MSNBC.

The Senate Finance Committee has reportedly taken a public option, which Republicans call a “government-run plan,” off the table in their quest to craft a bill which will gain bipartisan support.

One Democratic member of that committee, Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), said today that only a compromise bill creating healthcare cooperatives could gain enough votes to withstand a filibuster in the Senate.

Boxer’s rhetorical flourish comes in the wake of those developments. In the interview, she repeated the turn of phrase twice, referring the second time to the need for a plan to bring costs for consumers.

“So what is the best way to keep down the cost?” she asked. “I think it’s competition. And I think a public interest plan will do just that.”

Watch the video of the interview here: