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I believe that it is right to demand an up or down vote on health reform. I strongly believe that in order to get health reform passed, the House should pass the Senate bill, and the Senate should pass by majority vote by the use of the budget reconciliation process, targeted changes to fix certain areas that are specific budgetary policies (amount of subsidies, putting all states on a level footing on Medicaid funding, and closing the Medicare Part D prescription coverage loophole).
However, there has been what I believe to be a misunderstanding among many who claim that a public option - a health insurance option run by the federal government to compete with the private insurers on the exchanges that the current health care proposal sets up - can also be passed with a simple majority vote via the budget reconciliation process. After all, SCHIP and COBRA were major changes to our health insurance system, and those were pushed through by reconciliation, right?
There are daily excited posts on the Daily Kos telling us about the new additions to a letter asking Senate Democrats to agree to vote for a public health insurance option through a reconciliation vote (where they only need 50).
Today's big news Maria Cantwell signed on. I'm all for positivity but this is growing to be absurd. Here is the only list that matters. With 41 Republicans you must not lose 10 Democrats.
Mark Begich Mark Pryor
Blanche Lincoln Joe Lieberman Tom Carper Bill Nelson
Evan Bayh Mary Landrieu Claire Mccaskill Jon Tester Max Baucus Ben Nelson Kay Hagan Byron Dorgan Kent Conrad
Mark Warner
Jim Webb
You gotta have 7 from this list and hold all the rest. Does anyone think that's likely or even possible? We know 6 of them are for sure nos. That leaves the 7 Public Option heroes as Begich, Baucus, McCaskill, Tester, Hagan, Dorgan and Webb?
The other conversation that none of these cheery diaries are having.
What public option would we be getting?
We have 30 votes for the public option, but we knew that already. None of them were in question. Now comes the hardest part. The final twenty votes. There's a full list of 29 below the fold, and we must have twenty from it to pass this thing. That is the goal here, to pass a public option. Which public option? No one is really saying, so you have to assume it's the one with an opt-out or opt-in clause that will limit the public option's negotiating power. For sure it's the public option that is not available to anyone who's employer (or state?) offers insurance (no matter how expensive or insufficient that insurance is). It will also be a public option not tied to medicare rates, or you lose Klobuchar and Al Franken's vote. Correct me if I'm wrong but what we're left with is going to be an expensive gov't insurance option mostly for the well off and/or unemployed not in Hawaii, Massachusetts, most of the red states, or Pennsylvania (if they get state singlepayer). Is that still worth fighting for? Probably, as a foot in the door. Is it a huge deal? No.
What can we get done, and what should we push for in 2010? I've got a limited list off the top of my head.
Nationally
1. Campaign Finance + Lobbying Reform
2. Wall Street Reform: When the storm is over, we fix the ship
3. Antitrust Action: Improve the DOJ so we can actually go after monopolists. Maybe go after a few? (hint the top 7 richest Americans xWarren Buffett)
4. Want a Public Option? Get five more D Senators in 2010, or get three and by doing so scare two more. (Hurt the corporate media by disproving their meme that Dems are toast in '10?)
5. Jobs bill
UPDATE: Like President Obama I was against the mandate before I was for it. That's because I didn't understand it. Nearly every healthcare economist says you have to have a mandate to make the system work and not be prohibitively expensive. A lot of Kill the Bill Democrats have moved on to saying that the Senate bill will be too expensive for people to afford. Kill the mandate and it will be even more expensive.
An individual mandate is clearly a political loser. Would anyone answer yes to the question, "would you like the government to require you to buy insurance?" But it's an absolute necessity in one form or another. Ezra explains.
Right now, the insurer sets the rules. It collects background information on applicants and then varies the price and availability of insurance to discriminate against those who are likely to use it. Health-care reform is going to render those practices illegal. An insurer will have to offer insurance at the same price to a diabetic and a triathlete.
But if you remove the individual mandate, you're caught in the reverse of our current problem: The triathlete doesn't buy insurance. Fine, you might say. Let the insurer get gamed. They deserve it.
The insurers, however, are not the ones who will be gamed. The sick are. Imagine the triathlete's expected medical cost for a year is $200 and the diabetic's cost is $20,000. And imagine we have three more people who are normal risks, and their expected cost in $6,000. If they all purchase coverage, the cost of insurance is $7,640. Let the triathlete walk away and the cost is $9,500. Now, one of the younger folks at normal cost just can't afford that. He drops out. Now the average cost is $10,600. This prices out the diabetic, so now she's uninsured. Or maybe it prices out the next normal-cost person, so costs jump to $13,000.
Senator Tom Harkin also defended this bill today saying it wasn't a mansion but it's a starter home. It's got a good roof and a good foundation and we can add on to it in the future. I'm with these guys I think this is the best we can get, and it's a net positive. At this point in time I don't see a movement that's going to bring in 60 votes for a real alternative in '10 or '12 or to bring down the vote threshold to 50+1.
The ONE Senator that I can safely say is NOT bought off, the one Senator that we can be certain is NOT owned by the banks is Bernie Sanders (I-VT). It looks like good ole Bernie is putting his left foot down on the public option and threatening a filibuster of his own if there isn't a ROBUST public option that is available to everyone in the Senate version of the health care bill.
I think this is GREAT news, and I'll explain why below the fold, where you can find a full transcript of this video as well.
(Interesting perspective on the Swine Flu - Welcome to the Progressive Electorate - promoted by admin)
This flu season has certain seen its fair share of surprises and antics. There has been a more significant and unavoidable sense of tension and anxiety this flu season, mostly due to the media's depiction of a doomsday scenario regarding the Swine Flu. Amidst the air of speculation and skepticism are parents, families and senior citizens doing their best to obtain tangible science regarding inoculation.
Clammy C wrote the best Lieberman diary of any I've read over at Daily Kos.
His key point to take away -
So what is the answer here? Well, unless he gets stripped of his committee leadership (won't happen), letters and protests and calls to his office won't do much. He doesn't care about any of that - and has shown that repeatedly over the years. He isn't up for re-election for another 2 years, so there is little that can be done in terms of bringing down his approval ratings any more now because we are too far away from the primaries, let alone the general election.
My thought? Make the story (for now) about him being a puppet of the insurance and healthcare industries. Now, it is a "Lieberman goes against the Democrats" storyline. It should be "Lieberman sells out Americans for millions in health care political contributions" or "Lieberman sells his vote and sells out Americans to insurance industry".
Or, even better, some better dirt could be dug up - he has been around for decades and has screwed over too many people for him to NOT have major skeletons in his closet.
He is in it for himself and himself only. Make him so toxic that anyone who stands by him or allows him to continue his shameless behavior will be tainted by him.
What are your thoughts? I think this is as dead spot on as we will get on the Lieberman issue. We have no control over him - calls and letters will not work.
Today on ABC's Top Line, co-host David Chalian asked Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) if he would "opt-out" of the public option for his state if the measure passed. Pawlenty dodged: "Well, I don't know if we would opt out but I personally would like to opt out because I don't like government run health care." But Chalian persisted, and ultimately, Pawlenty said that he would oppose the public option for Minnesota:
CHALIAN: But you would lead a charge in your state to opt out if that was an option available?
PAWLENTY: I think so because I don't like government run health care.
Great ad! Interesting choice at the end to show the public option competing with the insurers. I guess that's supposed to reassure anyone who thinks the public option will just take over.
Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) said on Tuesday that the Obama administration is "half-pregnant" with health insurers and pharmaceutical companies, which may jeopardize the success of reform.
The congressman -- who is a leading liberal voice in the healthcare reform debate -- said that rumored deals the White House has struck with big pharmaceutical companies and insurers may guide them to abandon key elements of reform, such as a public health insurance option.
"The Obama administration is trying to be, I don't know how to put it, half-pregnant with the insurance industry and the pharmaceutical companies," he told WNYC Radio today. "They're to some degree the source of our problem."
I for one APPLUAD Rep. Anthony Weiner's knee jerk Truth Telling. Face it, President Obama has NOT done ANYTHING to fight for a Public Option, without which this is the subsidize and mandate private insurance bill, NOT the Health care Reform that would give Americans Universal coverage that we NEED.
Without a Public Option you can pretty much throw cost containment out the window, and until I hear the Obama Administration say something, ANYTHING about it, they are very much a part of the problem.
The goal here should NOT be to hold a historicish signing ceremony so the President can enjoy a 5 point bump in the polls for three months, the point was, I thought, to change the system, but maybe I was misled somehow.
And if I seem pissed off, it is because I am. I am this close to being homeless and can not find a job for the life of me, so yeah, if I get sick I am as good as screwed. I am a broken leg away from being destitute, and if these Corporatists and so called Democrats won't fight FOR me, they will have to fight AGAINST me.
Now show me some fight, President Obama. I am rooting FOR you as long as you are working FOR me. I can tell that Rep Weiner and Alan Grayson aqre fighting for me. I can tell that Senators Schumer, Brown and Sanders are fighting FOR me. But what about Obama?
I WANT Obama to WIN, but I want America's people to win too. If Health Care Reform DOES NOT have strong competition for the private insurers that ensures cost containment, the people who did not speak up for a Publiic Option will be just as responsible as the who fought against it.
So where does Obama stand? According to Representative Weiner, Obama's Admin is Part Of The Problem. When they become Part of a solution that includes a public option, then I will cheer. Until then, I will fight, and to hell with anyone who gets in my way.
For what it is worth, I stand with Representative Weiner. We did NOT get Single Payer, we didn't even get the chance. This IS The compromise. No more, and no more excuses.
You can donate to Anthony Weiner, Alan Grayson and other Democrats with GUTS here with Act Blue
And, in the spirit of FULL DISCLOSURE: What is wrong with me is I am UNINSURED, my job disappeared in Feb and if I get sick I am FUCKED, if there is no Public Option I am FUCKED, and I REFUSE to be fed to the private insurers that FUCKED ME AND MY WHOLE COUNTRY OVER FOR THE LAST 80 FUCKING YEARS.
I know the Public option won't kick in for years, but I know that the private insurers will jack up prices ASAP. Without competition coming down the road, we are in deep shit, and the party that passes a FUBAR bill without a Public Option will have 55-65% of America ROYALLY PISSED AT THEM.
The fact is, if we can't get a Public Option with the Presidency, 60 Senators and a HUGE House Majority AND 55-65% approval in the public, our democracy is seriously FUCKED UP.
I want Obama to do the right thing. I hope he does, but I WILL hold his feet to the fire for it. I urge others to do so too, and I will appluad those who will do so like Rep Anthony Weiner.
51 Dems with GUTS are worth more than 60 excuse making sell outs any day of the week in my book.
It is time for President Obama to STAND THE F UP and YEll Louder. If not now, then when?
Let's get this straight: The White House has allowed first lady Michelle Obama to tool around Moscow, the Czech Republic and even Ghana in the past year, but officials are a little worried about her coming to South Carolina...
A loudmouthed minority of Neanderthals and sore losers have so poisoned the national discourse with their racist rantings, crude jokes and veiled threats that they have sullied South Carolina's reputation more than any governor, congressman or senator could ever imagine.
This is a much needed call for civility and a return to the custom of southern hospitality.
#2 For Profit insurance denies a toddler coverage for being underweight. This is just another of thousands of examples of why the free market can not be left to its own devices with our health insurance. It has failed for decades. We need a public insurance choice.
#3 Fox News is being debated right now in the mainstream. Do they have any redeeming news values, or is there an agenda for the entire network? Greta is defending herself as unbiased, the good people at the Huffington Post have compiled The Ten Most Egregious Fox News Distortions More discussion at Huffington Post
#6 North Carolina Senator Burr touts funds from the Stimulus that he voted against. This is quite a common occurrence these days, I wonder if we could craft a second stimulus of just things like what Republicans have touted in their own districts.
#7 Bernard Kerik, Rudy Guiliani's Chief of Police and Bush's pick to lead the Department of Homeland Security is in jail.
Fox is going after Obama's picks for his cabinet yet I doubt they will mention one from their side who is now charged with conspiracy, wire fraud and mail fraud.
Anthony Weiner was on Countdown with Keith Olbermann last night to discuss his website Countdown To Healthcare Dot Com. The site has a petition to stand up for the Public Option, and it's counting down the days until Thanksgiving. Which I assume is the next Congressional holiday break?
In this interview with Keith, Mr. Weiner reiterates his belief that we do not have the votes in the house to pass a bill without a public insurance option.
If you missed the last two nights of Countdown with Keith Olbermann you missed a lot of new details in the Health care Reform debate, and I don't want to sound bleak, but things do not look good. The main points are these.
Wendel Potter: "If there's not a public option, the plan that is passed, if it's passed and signed by the President, will not be sustainable. And it ultimately will be a disaster for the middle class and ultimately be a disaster for the Democratic party . . .
~snip~
"We'll be paying a lot more out of our own pockets. We'll have the appearance of being able to afford premiums but we won't be able to afford health care. That can not be sustained."
And then there is the news that Rahm Emanuel will be representing the White House in the presumably upcoming Houuse-Senate Conference committee. Thus the title "If you wanna kill the (Public Option) you gotta do it yourself.
More below the fold, and it ain't pretty, with a call for action that puts it all on the line.
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