Mike Stark caught up with Jane Harman on the Hill and asked he about her position on health care.
She thought it was more appropriate for him to be asking questions in a committee hearing, but since lobbyists pay $3500 apiece for those seats that’s not really within the means of the average citizen.
She tried to shake Mike and the Brave New Films cameraman, but Mike stayed in there. He asked her if she would commit to vote against any bill that did not have a strong public option:
I did make that commitment. In writing, in a press release — to vote against a bill that did not have a strong public option in it.
I think this is the press release she means — although it doesn’t appear to say that, we take Congresswoman Harman’s on video pledge as a commitment to do what she says, "vote against any bill that did not have a strong public option."
I’m going to add another category on our whip count. There are people who have taken the pledge, and those who have committed to vote against a bill without a "robust" public option — who have not defined exactly what that means. I think Harman belongs in that category, as do Chelle Pingree and John Yarmuth. These category may merge as things develop and the details of the bill start to take shape, and people are more willing to get specific.
Harman told Mike to check back with her in a couple of days. Hope she meant it, because Mike certainly will.
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Blue Dog Harman – I guess coming from California is different. We will take the ‘vote’ if we can get it.
Great job Mike! Very tough work, but you’re getting results!
I’m glad Mike has a camera backing him up.
Yes he is — he’s doing amazing work.
Thank to everyone for their support and their calls. When Mike walks up to members of Congress, they know he’s speaking for a lot of people who care very much.
Is that why they try to blow him off?
Hi Jane, I continue to be amazed at the tremendous work done by you and colleagues in DC right now. awesome.
I wanted to leave a comment here to bring attention to Jason Rosenbaum’s video of grassley posted earlier. Grassley doesn’t even know what his OWN health care plan is.
Here’s a separate tack for any enterprising activist who’d like a new assignment. :] Ask congresspeople what their own health care plan is. Ask them what the typical health care plan is of a non federal employee is. Just to see if they have a grasp of the easier details. Do they even know that??? Jeez!
During the August recess we’ll all have a chance to pull a Mike Stark with our Senators and Reps, maybe not with pro camera people but if we’re lucky we’ll have the chance to get up close and personal. My Rep, Bill Young (R-FL-10), doesn’t make many public appearances although he doesn’t have any problem flitting around with the monied class behind closed doors. Crowds of people in local congressional offices wouldn’t hurt either.
Mornin’ Jane and Firedogs,
you can go here, click on ‘become a fan’, and politely but firmly ask the good congresswoman to define “robust public option”
Jane – anecdotally, normally patient staffers are being quite testy this am, can’t help but think this has something to do with a certain mass media event this evening
The Senate rejected the insane amendment to carry concealed weapons across state lines 58-39. I guess we can count on the Rethugs to vote as a bloc from here on out. Blockheads.
http://www.progressive.org/mpwool072209.html
the magazine calls itself The Progressive, maybe you progressives should visit the link and reacquaint yourself with the vast gulf between Obamacare and real single-payer reform . . .
and then ponder why you are pressuring Congress for a bill that will make purchasing flawed, incomplete coverage from the insurance oligopoly mandatory!
will those who refuse be thrown in jail? thanks Democrats!
Congratulations to Mike and camera crew! Thank you, Jane &c.
We’re calling the list every day and telling our friends to do it, too. This bi-polar pressure is going “to squeeze out adequate savings” by the time a vote comes up.
Thank you. Thank you.
PS–I was afraid for a while that I might be a distant relative of Bill Young because my mother’s family (surname “Young”) has a large branch in his district.
But he’s too sleazy, even for my family! So I don’t worry about it anymore.
Your right, spork. Single payer is the only solution. But it can’t happen overnight in the US now, can it? This year? No, it can’t. The public option is a step on the road to single payer. Other socialized systems that work well for everybody have evolved over time. This one will, too, especially with the Kucinich amendment.
Absolutely. That would be great.
What’s your plan? I want to know. You never say.
Kill this now so things will get so people will die and there will be rioting in the streets? You’re spending all your energy here in our comments section, so I’m assuming that this must be the focus of your efforts.
Specifically, right now, what do you hope to achieve?
what if it is a pit trap on the road to Single Payer?
and what about the mandatory part – can a routine interaction with the police lead to arrest if you are not carrying a card from one of the insurance plans?
will they dock your pay automatically for some high-deductible crap plan, or take it out of the tax refund?
even if this is the road to single payer, it looks like people are going to be scraped up on the way.
The leftist extremist Marxist anarchistic liberal progressive folks here are organizing for just that purpose.
Lessee, did I miss any favourite troll label?
It’s morally repugnant to profit off the misery or ill health of Americans. It’s criminal that medical bills to the private for-profit MEDICAL/INSURANCE INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX make up 62% of all bankruptcies filed in the U.S. each year. Americans spend 2.5 Trillion Dollars a year on Health care. The overhead at the private for-profit MEDICAL/INSURANCE INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX is upwards of 35% of the health care dollar spent each year in the U.S. That is approximately $900 Billion a year the MEDICAL/INSURANCE INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX uses for BRIBING CONGRESS and their lavish lifestyles, huge salaries plus perks and bonuses. All the while milking the hard-working men/women of this great nation of their hard earned money.
On the other hand Medicare has an overhead of 2%, Canada’s system is 1.5%, Europe’s 2.5% on average. The money that could be saved by eliminating the private for-profit MEDICAL/INSURANCE INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX is estimated at $900 Billion a year. Enough money to help pay for putting all Americans on MEDICARE/SINGLE-PAYER TYPE HEALTH CARE SYSTEM.
We have to fight back and call, write e-mails, letters-to-editors, Congress and to the White House to let them know how Americans feel about the private for-profit MEDICAL/INSURANCE INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX that currently provides the health care in this country.
Here are some Senators and blue dog(dems) who are on the wrong side of Health Care reform. Give them a call and demand,
“MEDICARE/SINGLE-PAYER TYPE HEALTH CARE FOR ALL NOW!”
Thanks to Dateline_Molly for this chart that shows how much money was paid to Senators by the MEDICAL/INSURANCE INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX to OBSTRUCT health care refrom. Link Now, when I call each member I can quote to them how much money they were PAID/BRIBED by the MEDICAL/INSURANCE INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX to throw their constituents under the bus and deny them SINGLE-PAYER HEALTH CARE.
(blue dogs)
Ross D-AR, Boucher D-VA, Kind D-WI, Pomeroy D-ND, Tanner D-TN
Polis (CO), Titus (NV) and Altmire (PA)
These are the problem Democrats on the Energy and Commerce Committee: John Barrow (GA-12), Bruce Braley (IA-01), Bart Gordon (TN-04), Baron Hill (IN-09), Jay Inslee (WA-01), Jim Matheson (UT-02), Charlie Melancon LA-03, Zack Space (OH-18) and Bart Stupak (MI-01).
Joe Lieberman I-CT, Chuck Grassley R-IA, Lindsey Graham R-SC,
Susan Collins R-ME, Olympia Snowe R-ME, David Vitter R-LA,
Saxby Chambliss R-GA, Tom Coburn R-OK, Jon Kyl R-AZ,
John Thune R-SD, Richard Lugar R-IN, Jim DeMint R-SC
Jeff Sessions R-AL, Richard Shelby R-AL, Mel Martinez R-FL,
John McCain R-AZ, Mitch McConnell R-KY, Jim Inhofe R-OK,
Lamar Alexander R-TN, Dick Burr R-NC, John Cornyn R-TX
Mark Pryor D-AR, Thomas Carper D-DE, Mary Landrieu D-LA,
Max Baucus D-MT, Kent Conrad D-ND, Ben Nelson D-NE,
Maria Cantwell D-WA, Kay Hagan D-NC, Blanche Lincoln D-AR,
Ron Wyden D-OR, Evan Bayh D-IN, Diane Feinstein D-CA,
Arlen Specter D-PA
Here are the toll-free numbers for the Capitol Hill Switchboard:
(House and Senate)
1-800-828-0498
1-866-338-1015
1-866-220-0044
1-800-473-6711
Also give the President a call or write an e-mail:
White House Comments Line:
1-202-456-1111 M-F 9:00-5:00 est. (NOT A TOLL-FREE #)
President Obama’s e-mail: http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
Nothing rattles the Congress and White House more than informed CITIZEN/VOTERS ringing the phones off the hook for real health care reform. Call the House, Senate and the White House and demand,
“MEDICARE/SINGLE-PAYER TYPE HEALTH CARE FOR ALL NOW!”
SEMPER FI!
“… ask the good congresswoman to define “robust public option.”
While your at it, have them define “vote,” “against,” “a,” “bill,” “that,” “did,” “not,” “have,” “a,” “strong,” “public,” “option,” “in,” and “it.” Politicians being what they are and all.
The way to a single payer system may be to push for a trigger in this legislation. If our private insurers cannot eliminate their waste and greed and make themselves competitive with a public plan within some period of time, then we go to a single payer.
its a tough question – but I’d like to expand the range of what is considered possible . . . especially since we only ever get a fraction of what we ask, the negotiation logic is to ask for what we really want, not compromise first, and then settle for a fraction of that.
this applies of course to other issues besides health care.
and of course, I advocate that there should be consequences for sellout Dems, that progressive netroots support should not be so utterly taken for granted.
this would give you leverage, but it’s off the table, apparently.
Can we say we “dodged a bullet”?
that was one close vote on a very stupid bill.
No, it’s a very simple question. You’re not expanding the range of what is considered possible, your engaging in a fantasy.
Single payer is not going to happen now just because you yell in our comments section. The votes do not exist.
What are you doing to get those votes? Your strategy appears to be hassling us. How is that going to get you the votes you need?
This is why their vacations are so precious to them…it’s the opportunity to fill the campaign coffers with cash. It’s why it’s a huge point of contention to say, hey, you’re going to have to work through the recess.
It’s not family time. It’s money time.
Copy this off of RedState, did ya?
Dude, this is the second time you’ve posted a post within a post.
You have good points to make. And the Lake has an opportunity for folks like you to post them. Click on The Seminal and then click on Write a Diary. People do go read them. Thanks.
…fascist, socialist, commie,
FrancophileFrench fry loving, socialist, bleeding heart, pie in the sky, unrealistic, socialist…Part of our strategy is to note that Young is not “in” to his constituents while he’s in town but is more than available to the big contributors. We’ve got a good Dem who is now in the FL Senate, Charlie Justice, who is going to challenge Young in 2010. We’re going to give him all the help we can.
Yeah, I did leave out socialist. How retarded of me.
Gosh, I sure hope our congresspeople do nothing but go home and have a nice fundraiser or two, and decide it’s OK for me to pay more for even less! That would be great. /s
How can he lose with a name like Charlie Justice?!
I wish my name was Charlie Justice. Wow.
That’s OK. We all know that the education system in socialist countries totally suck.
given the track record of the Democratic Party in working against real reform – keeping Single Payer off the table to start with – one could say that you are also engaging in a fantasy.
but that would be invective, who can have such certainty?
the votes for Single Payer do not exist because the President you strove so hard to elect, who has great oratorical skills and great influence over the legislators of his party does not want Single Payer to be an option for Americans.
so, rather than simply accept what the Leader has decreed, I would like to expand what is considered possible, as with the good folks at:
http://www.singlepayeraction.org/index.php
whose points still remain unaddressed in this little discussion of sporkovats futility.
He’s more moderate than I like but then I’m pretty far left.
Blue Texan’s regularly scheduled post is up on the front page: “Blue Dog Mike Ross Made Millions Selling Prescription Drugs, Threatening to Kill Health Care Reform”
Good, tell me how it’s possible. What’s your plan?
How does hanging out in our comments section and trying to piss on our efforts get you one more vote?
Are you trying to get me to do your work for you? Do you want me to vote count and start pressuring legislators on your behalf?
I’m not your mommy. Until you’re willing to do the work yourself, you deserve no respect — you’re just a troll whose legislative strategy is linking to other people’s ideas in some comment section.
geez settle down – maybe some folks here think of you like a mommy but not me.
don’t you realize that demanding a fully realized counterplan from your critics is the very same tactic supporters of Bush’s wars used so frequently?
and so the inability to suddenly produce a fully realized counterplan on complete withdrawal from Iraq that would give everyone a pony was taken as an endorsement of the status quo?
but those paying attention could realize that just because Scott Ritter does not have a plan to give everyone in the M.E. a pony does not mean he is wrong.
indeed this form of argumentation is often adopted when one’s position cannot be clearly defended, therefore, since this is the internet, call the other guy a troll! Q.E.D.
Copy off of Redstate? The only “triggers” I’ve ever seen mentioned by the right are designed to prevent a public plan of any sort. I’m actually optimistic, perhaps without reason, about getting a public plan included in this legislation (or seeing it scuttled), and suggested a trigger for developing a single-payer universal coverage system.
You. Have. No. Plan.
Your plan is to sit here and complain in our comment section. Unless we are a great deal more powerful than I ever expected, you are committed to failure, and you want to drag everyone else down with you.
Have a safe trip.
This video seems to be proof that a little Marcy Winograd goes a long way to see Jane run, but more importanly, to see Jane start talking like she’s about to do right by her district.
We’ll see…