Appearing with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid at the White House after a meeting with President Obama, Speaker Nancy Pelosi had this to say regarding the inclusion of a public health insurance option in a reform bill, per our White House reporter Mike Memoli: "I believe that the public option will be essential to our passing a bill in the House of Representatives."

The message was certainly different, if not opposite, of the one given this morning by House Democrats' No. 2, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer. He said a reform bill that did not include the public option could still be "very good" and that he would support it, though his preference would be to include the option -- which he called "an alternative that people ought to have."

"If the public option weren't in there, I still could support a bill because I think there is a lot in there that is good," he said.

Hoyer discussed the August break, saying that during his nearly three decades in Congress he hasn't seen a time when "more people have gotten more engaged in an issue than this one."

"Some 82 percent of the American public believes that changes are required," said Hoyer. "There is not a consensus, as you've seen, on exactly what those changes should be. But there is no doubt that there is consensus among the American people that change is needed."

At an off-camera briefing with reporters this afternoon, Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence (R-Ind.) and Ways and Means ranking member Dave Camp (R-Mich.) said employers in this economic climate would dump their employees from their health insurance rolls if a public option were available. "The government competes with the private sector the way an alligator competes with a duck," Pence said.

They said Obama and congressional Democrats should listen to the American people, who "don't want a government-run health care plan."

Obama will speak to a joint session of Congress tomorrow night, and both Republicans said they were open to hearing what the president has to say. But, Pence said, Americans "don't want another health care speech, they want another health care plan."