You may have heard that Nancy Pelosi used her press conference today to hedge quite a bit on the insistence of including a public option in any health care bill. In deference to the Senate, Pelosi basically said she could live without a public option, and by extension her House Democrats could, as long as the reform bill met certain basic goals.

“Well, what I said — it is a two‑part statement that quotes what the President has said. We believe, we in the House believe, that the public option is the best way to hold insurance companies honest — to keep them honest and also to increase competition. If there is a better way, put it on the table. As soon as we see something in writing from the Senate, we will be able to make a judgment about that. But our standards are that we have affordability for the middle class, security for our seniors, closing the donut hole and sustaining the solvency of Medicare. Responsibility to our children, so not one dime is added to the deficit. And accountability of insurance companies. We will take a measure of that bill in those regards,” Pelosi said.

A reporter pointed out that some House liberals had spoken positively of the Senate compromise that drops the House version of the public option. “What I have said, as I have always said to our members: Give the Senate room. I said that about the President. Give the President room, give the Senate room. But we honestly have had no paper on this. And probably we will know a great deal more when the paper comes back from the Congressional Budget Office. But between their bill and our bill, I know one thing for sure, we will have a great bill when we put them together,” she said.

In the hallway outside the press briefing, Pelosi was asked about a Senate plan that would have the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) oversee national private plans instead of a public plan. “Let’s see what it is. It might come as a surprise,” she said. “We haven’t seen the paper from the Senate. There is certainly a great deal of appeal about putting people 55 and older on Medicare. That’s something people in the House have advocated for for years.”

Pelosi is acting like the good soldier, deferring to what she believes can pass in the Senate. However, I think it’s extremely premature for her to speak for the entire caucus. House progressives are pretty adamant and there’s not much of a margin for error, given that around 30 House Dems are going to vote against this bill regardless.

I know that everyone thinks that once the Senate lays down its marker, everyone will roll over, but there are so many flashpoints – not just the public option but abortion, immigration, the excise tax, the implementation date, the subsidies, and more – I still really don’t see the calculus to get the same bill passed in both houses. Maybe I’m missing the math on this one, but it doesn’t look probable or even likely at this point. However, House progressives lost a lot of their credibility by folding on Medicare + 5% rates before, so they may fall in line behind the Speaker again. And if that’s so, then the public option really did die today.

UPDATE: Wow, I missed this one:

Q: Do you think the Senate health care bill will be ping ponged?

Speaker Pelosi. Not much. Let me say this. We haven’t seen their bill, A. We don’t know what the amendment process will be. But we would like to see a full conference.

We would like to see a full conference? There are plenty more differences between the two bills than just the public option. Is Pelosi signaling a willingness to give up on all that, too?