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Blanche Lincoln says she prefers Kent Conrad’s "co-op" (read: bailout for the private insurance industry) to a public plan.
It’s a good day to be an insurance company CEO. An mandate from the government forcing people to buy your product and no serious competition from anybody but your monopolistic buddies in the industry, all of whom look after each other very, very well.
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You can donate to Blue America’s Campaign For Health Care Choice, here. It’s getting harder every day, but it’s not over. Blanche Lincoln is on the health sub-committee of the Senate Finance Committee and she’s running for re-election in 2010. Let’s see if her constituents think she should be handing out government goodies to these health industry fat cats and getting nothing in return while they struggle with health care premiums and growing unemployment.
US Representatives are much more susceptible to public pressure than Senators because they have to face re-election every two years. But in the fourth year of their terms, every Senator becomes a Representative for two years. Blanche Lincoln is running for re-election in 2010. If she’s ever going to be persuadable, now is the time.
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She sucks? Seems so.
Such courage should be duly rewarded.
She’s not a Blue Dog Democrat — she’s a Blue Cross Democrat
What do all of you care whose president? Blanche? Obama? If they don’t drink your flavor of kool-aid they are the enemy.
“President Obama’s job approval dipped to 58 percent for the first time in Gallup’s tracking poll on Friday”.
Congrats “progressives”, you can take lots of the credit for Obama’s slide in the polls. Nothing falls faster than a house when it’s split down the middle. Man does this gall me.
You have a choice, pups…
Scroll, or waste another thread.
ugh
With single payer universal healthcare off the table, all we have are a bunch of sham plans competing with each other. It is all an enormous waste of time. We already know that the real beneficiaries of whatever plan is adopted won’t be ordinary Americans but the insurance, medical, and drug industries. The only useful result I see from this is to supply us with more evidence of how in the bag all politicians are from both parties.
I vote scroll.
My constructive opposition and constant reminders will make Barack Obama the President he promised me he’d be. Blind loyalty gets him nothing but allegiance to our lobbyist-owned Senate.
Scrolling…
She’s a Third Way – plantation Democrat. Third Way on Source Watch .
There is nothing Blanche wont do for the rich.
Typical case of shooting the messenger. It is not our fault that Obama has sold out our country’s future to a bunch of f*ckups. Even if we never said a word, the rules of simple arithmetic would not suddenly change and cause his policies to work. It is not my fault that 2 + 2 = 4. Obama’s policies will fail not because of bad PR but bad math.
Looking now for the commentary about the Seattle co-op and its ineffectiveness.
Ah, very informative diary on co-op health care from who else – Scarecrow.
Includes some commentary from participants…
I’m waiting for Pryor to, you know, jump in.
make that a blue double cross democrat
Oh he’s Third Way too.
There is absolutely no reason to play nice (pretend they might do the correct thing) with either of our AR “Dem” Senators.
He is letting Blanche step up on this one so far, from what I have seen.
I wonder if they draw straws or something.
Use reconciliation and bypass the blue dogs. They are only doing what they are doing because it causes industry lobbyists to shower them with campaign contributions. Their idea is that they can partner up with Collins and Snowe and decide every issue, and thereby be the most powerful people around, and all the lobbyists will curry favor with them.
Obama and the mainstream Democrats should just go around them. Use reconciliation for everything. If the Republicans object to the use of reconciliation, they can raise a point of order. Biden can dismiss it, and it can be appealed to the Senate. It takes a majority vote to overturn Biden, so the Dems just have to make sure that they will win that vote.
His election was last year. Blanche, if she were going to try anything decent at all, she would have helped produce a better result in the Senate Finance committee. But she didn’t and has said she won’t.
Is there any useful polling from AR wrt health care issues?
Setting aside Gallup and Zogby, of course, anything to hang a hat on?
Or is it just plain “Do you want a Socialist™ system, or are you for Freedumb™ instead?“
None that I am aware of. it’s almost pointless, imo. It doesn’t matter what the people think. Especially.. as long as the people are uninformed.
Mark and Blanche will always do their paymasters bidding. Always.
“Blanche? You’re soaking in it.”
This is tough.
I am convinced that Obama wants a public plan, and he may even have single-payer in the way-back of his mind. We may never really know, because he is so devoted to the “art of the possible” and not pissing off the “other party” that he is transformed into supporting anything that looks like something, regardless of how thin.
When we see him inject some real shoulder into an issue, I fear it will be a trivial matter, like preserving some traitor Senator’s committee chair.
Just how hard is he willing to fight for anyone or anything, besides Joe fucking Lieberman of course?
Obama has sold out no one. He is a progressive liberal democrat doing the best he can in a conservative leaning country after being handed the biggest mess in history. He does not have “left wing” majorities in Congress to ram things through. You remind me of the Ralph Nader voters that cost democrats a presidential election. Shame on you.
I don’t know… the glass is empty with a hole in the O’bottom of it as far as i am concerned. If we have to ask or hope by now, we are screwed.
I just don’t want to ever be forced by law to purchase private health insurance. And I think that’s the fight/line on health insurance legislation now.
From Pryor’s site wrt health care:
Tax credits…
This guy redefines DINO.
Yep. We need something like LBJ-type resolve. I do not see it anywhere, on any issue.
Republicans are willing to crack heads in both the House and Senate, do it daily – heck, hourly – and they have absolutely no point.
Majority leader
ReidMcConnell is so in charge of the Senate. He is to be congratulated.Yup, it’s been there quite a while.. even after many folks howled.. he didn’t change a thing.
I hope Pryor paid McCain for the right to plagiarize his plan.
That bit about supporting drug importation from Canada – it’s almost too easy to be for something that is destined to crash on the rocks.
How bravely the good Senator fought for cheap swag…
I am impressed. I’ll bet Canadians would be just crazy-go-nuts for Eli Lilly if their prices suddenly spiked.
I want Blanche’s plan. No, not the one she is promoting. The one she has and benefit from–the Congressional health plan. If it is good enough for the pols it is good enough for the proles or people or me. That is the discussion we should be having. Let’s talk about the current congressional health care package. We should be able to opt in to that, yes?
Agreed, but first we have to get folks like Blanche to endorse the public plan idea.. She’s dropped even lying about supporting it now.
But that is about where the “trigger” should fall, if there were a trigger at all, imo.
Single Senators (Lindsey graham) and single Congressman, (barney Frank) both make 170k with full public care.
Our first family of four makes 400k with full public care.
John Edwards was right.
President John Edwards would have had the Congressional plan end in ten days without Congressional action on health care.
I’d like their plan too.
Obama’s enormous email contact list is looking a bit paltry. Perhaps Governor Dean would be so kind…
Hey, Blanche, get rid of your public health insurance first, then you’ll have some credibility on why a public option is evil for the rest of us, but fine for you.
Blanche Lincoln(R-Walmart) is the one with the twins right? Wonder how much her out of pocket costs were for her labor and delivery. Probably $25. Out of pocket would have been $20K or something and my insurance co. probably would have said it was a preexisting condition and not covered it.
Blue Cross Democrat! Brilliant!!!!
I don’t know if she had twins, but you’re right, a private insurance company would have charged her up the wazoo for it.
People really need to start calling these Senators on the fact that they have a public option, but no one else does.
I like your “(R-Walmart)” caption.
Huzzah!
Still hoping for the perfect and not getting that or the good? Pity.
Tax credits have been used for a lot of things, but it’s a dangerous tool in this case because smaller companies won’t necessarily have a lot of taxes on which to provide credits.
It’s also dangerous to entangle health care with the tax system when we might want to reform the tax system in the not so distant future.
Besides, what’s the difference between a tax credit (holding off on taking money a company would have paid to the government) and taking money from the general revenue fund (the same money except taken from the gov’t instead of from the company)?
Isn’t it the same money whether it comes from the company or from the gen. revenue fund?
In either case you’re using the same actual money, but in one you’ve entangled the tax system needlessly. And, in both cases you take money from the overall business sector (which is already struggling) instead of the health care/insurance sector (which is the one overburdened with all of our money).
Taxing small businesses and individuals just now would be seriously dangerous for the economy. What good is healthcare insurance if you lose your business or job?
Either take monies from the general revenue fund which have been drawn from the broadest base (thereby making it the least prejudicial and punitive to any one group) or take it from the health care/insurance sector which has been overcharging us already.
The default position in this debate should be that people should have choice wrt who provides their insurance or care. To that end people who like their private insurance, whether employer- or individual-based should be able to keep it; people who like their Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIP or Federal Employee plan should be able to keep that AND all individuals should be able to switch to another private plan or (at least) 1 public option plan via the Exchange.
Let any rep or senator (try to) explain away their opposition to a public option (of some kind) while keeping their Federal Employee plan. I dare them!
pregnancy a pre-existing condition? Good one.
See, the trouble with tribbles is…
dead solid perfect !
a more fitting portrait via Cousin Howie
You should be congratulating Obama. It’s his policy of betraying his supporters to curry favor with the right wing that has led to his falling approval rating.