AKA William

Via WSJ:

Members of the Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday rejected an amendment to a sweeping health-care overhaul bill that would have created a government-run insurance plan option. Authored by Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., the amendment failed by a vote of 15 to 8. Rockefeller said a so-called “public option” would have offered a competitor to private insurance companies. There are other amendments to come that would also create a government option.

The Dems who are responsible for voting it down: Baucus, Conrad, Lincoln, Nelson, Carper.

The NYT has a great breakdown of what this means:

After the vote on Mr. Rockefeller’s proposal, Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, was scheduled to put forward his own public option amendment and it, too, was expected to be defeated.

The efforts by Mr. Rockefeller and Mr. Schumer to add a public plan to the bill were really just a dress rehearsal for a fuller battle that will play out on the Senate floor in the weeks ahead.