A lot of people have claimed the public option would not survive the reconciliation process because the Byrd Rule would be used by opponents to pick it apart and essentially kill it. But a friend sent me this articlewhich argues that the public option could be excluded from the Byrd Bath because it would fall under a budgetary issue as long as it reduced the deficit. That would be something the CBO would determine, but they have already said the Senate Bill would reduce the deficit by $40B over 10 years and much more over 20 years. I'm not sure where the public option fits into that equation, but this is an interesting read.