
lot of words to say almost nothing
You asked a question and got an answer. I don't care about your lengthy attempts to spin. Moderate (really, actually centrist) Democrats were the ones threatening to filibuster *any* bill that included a public option. They're the ones who joined with Republicans to kill Rockefeller's public option amendment. They did the same for Schumer's amendment as well. Progressives at the time bent over backwards trying to get some kind of public option passed.
Rockefeller's public option defeated 8-15 in Senate Finance Committee vote
"The Senate Finance Committee rejected Sen.
Jay Rockefeller’s (D-W.Va.) amendment to tack a public option onto the committee’s healthcare bill.
After nearly four hours of debate, the amendment fell on an 8-15 vote, with Republicans united against it and Democrats vociferously defending the notion of providing people with a not-for-profit insurance company backed by the government.
But Democrats on the committee did not mirror the GOP’s unity. As expected, Baucus and Democratic Sens.
Tom Carper (Del.), Kent Conrad (N.D.), Blanche Lincoln (Ark.) and
Bill Nelson (Fla.) joined all 10 of the panel’s Republicans to vote down Rockefeller’s amendment. Notably, Baucus and Conrad, along with Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), spent months trying to strike a deal with three committee Republicans."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2013/03/22/whatever-happened-to-the-public-option/
"This weekend marks the third anniversary of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, better known as "Obamacare." And for those of us who covered that rollicking debate, most of it seemed to be about one central question: Would there be a public option?
Remember the public option? It was, for many Democrats, their absolute top priority during the health-care reform debate. But they didn't get it. A handful of conservative Democrats, led by Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, made clear that if there was a public option, they would filibuster the final bill. And so it died."