Marjorie W. reports:
The aide who answered the phone said Rep. Moran is in favor of the public option, but knows that the votes for it are not there, and wants to get something through rather than have the whole reform package voted down.
We’re trying to confirm with Moran’s office right now. But this is why "support for a public option" is just weasel words if they won’t vote against a bill that doesn’t have one — in the end, they’ll all vote for some shitty insurance industry bail out just to "pass something."
Moran’s offices: DC 202-225-4376, VA 703-971-4700
Update: Moran’s office called back, and says Moran is opposed to a public plan until someone can tell him how we’re going to pay for it. Moran voted for TARP I, TARP II, the $108 billion bailout of European banks and supplemental war funding and never asked how we were going to pay for it. Sounds like a guy who sucked down $187 grand from lobbyists & lawyers last election cycle is looking for an excuse to book.
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Would it help if callers mentioned “Al Wynn”?
“We don’t have the votes.” That was why we not only couldn’t impeach Bush (even as emptywheel is right now showing us that it took armed FBI agents to save any semblance of the rule of law in this country), but why we couldn’t even talk about it, lest we not get the chance to pass real health care reform.
And now, “we don’t have the votes” for real health care reform.
OT
Sen. Feingold’s over at teh Lake for a live chat on health care.
Here’s the link to the post:
Keep up the Pressure for a Strong Public Option
“getting something through” will be a disaster if it’s an insurance company bailout, and Democrats will pay for that at the polls for a generation. How can people whose business is politics be so incredibly thick-skulled about the political thing to do?
Pass a robust public plan that works, without the GOP, and reap the dividends for a generation: how simple.
He is just making shit up. I am almost 100% certain that we have more than the 218 needed in the House. However, we MUST build the Progressive Bloc(k) to ensure we don’t get a weak-sauce bill that doesn’t do shit.
Losing out to the insurance companies may just be the tripwire that pushes the masses to take to the streets. You might want to contemplate how that would all proceed.
That’s because they’re hacks, not politicians.
I’m one of Jim Moran’s constituents, and I got an email from him today questioning me about health care. There were several selections to choose from, but I selected “pubic option” and then wrote a note that he needs to vote against any legislation that does NOT include a public option. I hope more people in his district respond the way I did, rather than checking all the options. I chose to emphasize the requirement for a public option
I’m not a constituent, but I called Moran anyway. I told the staffer who answered that Moran had already caved on the war supplemental. I asked what’s the point of being a Democrat if our legislators are going to cave into the Republican minority?
Lame bills are the enemy of the good enough. (The legislative form of Gresham’s Law.)
What a vague meme – “I like it, but the votes aren’t there.” Should be stricken from the political lexicon by a party with control of the White House and BOTH houses of Congress.
A credible public option is the only potential route to initiate necessary change, to push it further along, and to monitor the success or failure of its component parts.
The corporate powers that hate it precisely for that reason. They may have $500 million in lobbying fees and hush money, but they only have a handful of votes. A little and then a lot of noise from the citizenry can go a long way to dulling the blunt instrument of their fat wallets.
“We don’t have the votes” is just a chicken shit way of not voting, so that we can’t kick the shit out of those who vote against it.
Put it up to a vote. They won’t vote it down twice!
Those voting against a strong public office will find well funded opponents next election.
He wants to vote against it, (”Freedom!” “Fiscal restraint!”) and take credit for it when it passes. (You owe it all to me!).
It’s every politician’s wet dream.
If there’s no public option, just what exactly is going to be reformative about this ridiculous legislative action?
Healthcare Reform Act of 2009: Full Text
There will be reform. Moran can read polls. Moran will vote for it.
I wonder what the whip count is in the Senate.
The question is not how are we going to pay for the public option, but how are we going to pay for our rising health care costs if we don’t have a public option to bargain for lower costs and to put pressure on the insurance companies?
Why, yes, yes, it would.
The threat of a primary is what’s bringing Blanche Lincoln into the fold.
Is it? I don’t remember anyone threatening to primary Blanche Lincoln.
Is it just me, or is this the same guy who voted against the Iraq War?
Amazing how some Democrats who can strong allies on one issue turn into our enemies on another.
I live in the 8th — and it’s high time progressives in Arlington, Alexandria, and Falls Church find a primary opponent for Moran. He’s a backbencher even after 20 years in the House, this while representing the most educated CD in the US.
Not only did he vote for the TARPs, but he voted for the repeal of Glass-Steagall (the Gramm-Leach-Bliley bill at the end of Clinton’s tenure) to enable these banks to make these colossal bad bets.
He has a phone call town hall on Monday eve, I’ll call in to see if he has any idea what he’s talking about on this — or if he’s just bought and paid for, as per usual.
No bill is better than a bad bill because a bad bill will license the paid-off to drop the subject. No bill will add urgency to the problem and allow single payer to get back on the table.