MR. WALLACE: Senator Conrad, as a practical matter, especially given what Secretary Sebelius says, is the public option dead?

SEN. CONRAD: Well, there are not the votes in the United States Senate for the public option, and that’s why I was asked to come up with an alternative.

And I want to just make a tweak to what you’ve referred to as the cooperative plan. You could call it a public cooperative plan.

It’s not a public plan at all in the sense that government runs it. Government has nothing to do with it. Once it’s established, it is run by the members. That’s why it is appealing to some on the Republican side.

(Cross talk.)

MR. WALLACE: It would put up some seed money, wouldn’t it? Senator, it would put up some of the seed money.

SEN. CONRAD: Yes. Yes, because there is a requirement to have reserves for any new health insurer. So the idea is the government would front-end some of the money.

And we have yet to discuss whether all of that or some of that gets paid back, but there would be that amount of involvement. But then it would be membership-run, membership-controlled. The government wouldn’t have any ongoing obligation or any control.

MR. WALLACE: And real quickly, Senator Conrad, because I want to move on to the next fact check, would the president be better off just taking the public option off the table right now?

SEN. CONRAD: Look, the fact of the matter is there are not the votes in the United States Senate for the public option. There never have been. So to continue to chase that rabbit I think is just a wasted effort.