They have overstepped their bounds. A real Majority Leader would not have let this happen. Neither would Ted Kennedy. TIme to put Finance in a box.

I wonder what bill Harry Reid will bring to the floor, and which will require 60 votes to be the amendment? Three guesses.

I have several questions and just maybe a few comments:

(1) Why would the other Democrats on the Finance Committee vote this bill out of Committee? I guess they would do it with an understanding from Reid and others that they will use the ‘Finance Committee Portion’ where they have control and insert it into the HELP committee bill. I just can’t see how Schumer, Rockefeller, etc. can support the Finance Committee bill all the way through the process.

(2) From all indications the Co-Op’s are only state-based and are not anywhere what Conrad stated he agreed with Schumer on about any viable Co-Op – so again how does this even come out of committee? There must be some deal that they are going to throw most of this bill out.

(3) If the Democrats pass a bill that forces American People to buy insurance from only for-profit, private, and corrupt insurance companies that year after year increase rates without a viable non-profit public option – they will have committed Political Suicide on a level that defies our history. This would lead to an American Citizen Revolt against the Corporate Forces the likes we have never seen.

(4) We need to push the Baucus sleeping around with one of his staff members and then get her a sweetheart deal at one of his big donors – story big time. We also need to push the Conrad sweetheart mortgage deal BIG TIME.

Gibbs, in the WH Press Briefing today, says that the president has no preference between the public option and co-ops. The subject comes up several times in the briefing with various follow up questions. All are here in the transcript:
White House Press Briefing 7/27/09

Here are two examples:

Gibbs: Again, maybe I want to be clear for Laura and for you. I don’t believe that the President has come down one versus the other in terms of denoting co-ops equal to or above public option. I can talk to the health team about that.

[…]

Q I want to go back to the public option. When it was initially conceived, it was thought of as a massive entity whereby over a hundred million people could conceivably get coverage, structured like Medicaid. Today we’re talking about it being a co-op or a public option with triggers. Do you think the debate has switched a little bit too far away from a robust public option, and is the President sad in that we’ve moved so far to the left that we have to compromise it down so much?

MR. GIBBS: I’m sorry, run that whole series of caveats by me one more time.

Q The public option was initially conceived, intellectually, as something that would handle 100 million uninsured people, or people who want to get insurance.

MR. GIBBS: Well, remember, just — let me — I’ll interrupt as we go along. And I think we’ve discussed in here, there would — there’s conceptualized a firewall that would not allow somebody to simply shrug off the insurance that they’re offered as part of their employer-based system in order to simply go into some sort of public option. So I’m not entirely sure that’s where this whole [thing] started out, but finish the last part.

Q Well, I guess I’ll switch topics then. Chuck Grassley says — (laughter.)

MR. GIBBS: What?

Q Well, this is related. Chuck Grassley says he had a private conversation with President Obama in which the President said, I’m interested in alternatives to the public option. Can you confirm that that’s accurate?

MR. GIBBS: I’ll certainly ask somebody. I don’t — I’m not involved in their private conversations, so I don’t know the answer to that.

Thanks, Joan. That’s discouraging.

Obama promised and campaigned on the public option.
He is who ought to hear from us.

let’s face it folks, when this is done it’s going to be a shitty bill that comes out of the senate. How long until we all start working against Max Baucus like we did with Lieberman Jane?

1) I think we need to write to the hometown newspapers of these Senators, don’t you? (Yes, I’ll go look them up.)

2) Gibbs and no doubt Obama are thinking that they MUST pass SOMETHING (even if it’s worthless) or they’re staring 1994 in the face again. (You know, where Clinton’s presidency was kneecapped before it could get going and where the Dems lost Congress?) That’s why we have to get Baucus’ and Snowe’s own constituents pissed at them as well as at the White House.

Stupid question, but why is the 50-50 when the D/R balance is 60/40? How was this commmittee formed? Is everyone in Congress math-challenged?

And Baucus. Obama wants to pass a bill because he thinks that if he doesn’t do SOMETHING, ANYTHING, he’ll be crippled just as Clinton was crippled by losing his health-care battle in 1994.

That’s why the Senators are the biggies. They figure that they have Obama over a barrel because he wants to pass SOMETHING. Let’s switch it around so that the barrel’s under them:

Helena Independent Record: http://www.helenair.com/ltoe/

Billings Gazette: http://www.billingsgazette.com/app/letters/ (or speakup@billingsgazette.com)

Missoula Independent: http://posting.bigskypress.com…..etter/Page

What drives me crazy is that it’s nothing like 1994. People had jobs, they had somewhat reasonable insurance rates, and so they had the luxury to debate ideology rather than dollars and cents. I think Obama is getting terrible advice, but then again, I think he’s done a lousy job of picking political and economic advisors.

Where did the idea get started that Senator Corn Pone was a reasonable person? Certainly, not from anyone that has followed his career closely.

Some think he simply poses as a rube who just came to town on a rutabaga truck. No, Grassley really is a rube that smells of rudabagas.

The dynamic is slightly different this time around. The 1994 battle featured the lightning-rod figure of Hillary to scapegoat for the fiasco. This cycle no such polarizing figure exists.

Better off with nothing now. Obama has more to lose if he settles for garbage.

We cant accept reform without a public option, end of story.

Predictable. Not Surprised. But still disappointed. After calling, writing, and e-mailing, we finally got our ConservaDem (Blanche Lincoln) to move on a public option. If the President throws support to the false reform of co-ops, I’ll have to assume that he is just as corporatist as Baucus.

How did Baucus and Conrad, two senators from two of the least populous states in the country become the front men for this senate bill? This just seems like a stupidly assigned legislative screw up to me.

As for Kent Conrad, the fact that he’s in trouble over his mortgage may well give us a tool we can use for leverage:

DC Office:
530 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-3403
Phone:202-224-2043
Fax:202-224-7776
Web Email
Website

District Office- Bismarck:
United States Federal Building, Room 228
220 East Rosser Avenue
Bismarck, ND 58501
Phone: 701-258-4648
TollFree: 800-223-4457
TTYD Number: 701-232-2139
Fax: 701-258-1254

District Office- Fargo:
United States Federal Building, Room 306
657 Second Avenue North
Fargo, ND 58102
Phone: 701-232-8030
TollFree: 800-223-4457
TTYD Number: 701-232-2139
Fax: 701-232-6449

District Office- Grand Forks:
United States Federal Building, Room 104
102 North Fourth Street
Grand Forks, ND 58203
Phone: 701-775-9601
TollFree: 800-223-4457
TTYD Number: 701-232-2139
Fax: 701-746-1990

District Office- Minot:
United States Federal Building, Room 105
100 First Street Southwest
Minot, ND 58701
Phone: 701-852-0703
TollFree: 800-223-4457
TTYD Number: 701-232-2139
Fax: 701-838-8196

The formation of the committee was part of the fix.

from the look of it, it won’t be worthless, it’ll be a net gain for the private insurers.

Conrad probably got it because his seat is — or was until the Countrywide scandal — safe as houses. In August of 2006 he had the highest approval ratings of any Senator of any party.

Jane/ All they are discussing the blue dog Dems right now on the Diane Rehm show.

Send in your questions call in
drshow@wamu.org 800- 433-8850

http://wamu.org/programs/dr/

10:00Blue Dog Democrats

Fiscally conservative Democrats known as Blue Dogs may hold the key to health care reform. Their demand for greater cost controls are dividing Democratic ranks and could delay House leaders’ timetable for an overhaul. Blue Dog democrats and the future of health care reform.
Guests

Jennifer Skalka, editor of Hotline On Call. She covered the 2006 U.S. Maryland Senate race for The Baltimore Sun. Before that she worked for the Chicago Tribune.

Naftali Bendavid, national correspondent, Wall Street Journal author of “The Thumpin’: How Rahm Emanuel and the Democrats Learned to be Ruthless and Ended the Republican Revolution.”

Congressman Jim Cooper, Congressman Representing Tennessee’s Fifth Congressional District. He serves on the Armed Services, Budget, and Oversight and Government Reform Committees. In 2007 he was named chairman of the Armed Services Committee’s Roles and Missions Panel. Cooper continues to teach as an adjunct professor at the Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University, where he has taught a course on health care policy for ten years.

Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey, is in her ninth term as the representative from California’s 6th District, just north of San Francisco. Her district includes all of Marin, and most of Sonoma County. She serves on the Education and Labor, Foreign Affairs and Science and Technology Committees. She is the co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

JANE I BET YOU COULD GET THROUGH AS JANE HAMSHER FROM FIREDOGLAKE RATHER QUICKLY.
punch in the number keep pushing redial. dorie the screener is awesome. get three phones going

It is puzzling why the Senate Democrats have opted to not have a real Majority Leader. If there were 75 Democratic seats, Reid would still be taking directions from the 25 Republics.

One day, pictures such as Baucus & Grassley on Huffo will be reminders like dinosaurs….no insult to dinos. But of that world of white ol’ guys’ kingly power of getting away with anything. That particular deck is almost out of play. The La Civil Code used the language (now unconstitutional) “head and master” to describe male power over community property. That seemed to imply head and master of the realm, dontcha’ know. Let them get over themselves.

2010 elections will be telling. If the people get the shaft, as they usually do, AND there are challengers to the incumbents we’ll see a very different congress.

There’s so many slackers, dolts and creeps on the hill is hard to believe. How do these jerks sell themselves to the voters? Aside from lies, can their records /performance be ignored? Or are the voters as dumb as the cop in cambridge?

Senators Durbin, Leahy, and Schumer have mounted an online petition to demand real health care reform, including a public option:

http://citizensforapublicoption.com/

In many cases, all it takes to get votes is to pretend to pray correctly. That formula worked well for George W. Bush.

somewhat disheartening that even the Diane Rehm show would let these spendthrift ho’s get away with “fiscally conservative”

Thank you for the link. The American people want a public option.

Jeff Bingaman says he “strongly supports a public option” — but not enough to sway Big Bucks Baucus, apparently: http://www.bingaman.senate.gov…..619-01.cfm

Write his hometown paper about the public option: http://www.abqjournal.com/letters/new

Or call his office: 202-224-5521.

Leen: Call yourself and use this from Jacob Hacker as your talking points ammo: http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/6722

I agree with you Teddy. I don’t understand the mechanics of legislating, but I just get this sense that Harry Reid “stacked” the passage of heath care reform in such a way that Blue Dogs and a few Republicans could water it down to being very weak. Doesn’t the majority leader have the power to “assign” legislation? Why did he allow the Finance Committee to produce this crap bill?

are you a NM firedog ??

Montana isn’t Connecticut. Taking out Joementum was a real task in the primary taking lots of time, money and effort in a state that is relatively liberal. Not sure Montana is ripe for the picking but sure worth a try.

This is a feature not a bug. Ried is doing all he needs to to keep the corporate masters happy. Doesn’t matter which party, they are all owned by big $$. THe dems are happy to now be raking in the big bucks to fatten their coffers. If they ever really did the people’s work, their gravy train would dry up. Am I getting cynical? Yah you betcha.

Don’t forget what he did to us with FISA and retroactive immunity. He intentionally chose the intel bill over the judiciary bill to please the corporate masters.

Hapless Harry strikes again.

I get the feeling max Baucus and his plan aren’t too popular today. I called Senator Bob Casey’s office about it: Casey supports a public plan, so i wanted to get the reaction.

Me: “So, senator casey must be pretty upset with Max Baucus! I mean, he worked so hard on the HELP committee to wirte a decent bill. not perfect, but it had a public plan. and here comes Max Baucus, and he throws all that out the window because he thinks 3 republicans are more important than the 76% of americans that want a public option.”

Casey’s office: “well, i wouldn’t say it’s three republicans. It’s more like the health insurance lobby that he thinks is more important that the rest of the country.”

Me: “hahaha, he certainly is an asshole, could you transfer me to his office.”

Casey’s office: “hahahaha, our pleasure!”

The jig is up. There is healthINSURANCE reform and then there is healthCARE reform. This is the insurance reform-regulating-somewhat-the insurance companies. We obviously need this but it will not do a single thing toward getting everyone covered at reasonable rates. healthCARE reform seems to be off the table. The average American not following this debate doesn’t get this big difference.

The worst thing is Obama seems to be fine with this. I mean WTF is up with him? I think now we were all taken by the big speeches, the big charisma, the big promises when actually it was mostly a big fat lie to get elected. I think pressure needs to be on the White House. Baucus and his ilk aren’t going to be swayed by us. Only until Obama’s approval rating drop down into the 30’s will he do anything for we the people who elected him.

But maybe not. personally I think passing a healthINSURANCE reform bill and no healthCARE reform bill would be political suicide for the dumbocrats. They think if they pass something they can ride those coattails throught the 2010 and 2012 elections. They’ll get millions from the health insurance lobby to get re elected.

That’s wonderful….then transfer to Cornyn…All white male dinos….going over the cliff

and we will stay home and not vote. And then what?

We are so screwed.

Bless you!

Meanwhile, even though Baucus is (or was, prior to the Countrywide scandal) very popular, it might be worth our while to consider a recall petition: http://www.dailykos.com/story/…..tor-Baucus

I think we should try getting Baucus’ butt recalled:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/…..tor-Baucus

Do read this from Matt Yglesias: http://yglesias.thinkprogress……nt-1637914

I like it.

What’s next? How do we proceed?

Arrrgh — I got Conrad and Baucus confused in the last comment. Conrad’s the ND Senator with the Countrywide scandal problem.

I don’t pretend to have any solutions. These guys aren’t listening to us. I mean 72% of us want a public option and see what they did- exactly the OPPOSITE of what we want and desperately need.

WE ARE SO SCREWED.

There’s a question over whether the US Constitution allows Senators to be recalled, but the attempt would draw attention to Baucus’ stances. The one big problem I see is that it would likely be hijacked by well-financed Republicans.

problem with that is if you try to drag Conrad down, Dodd goes with him. Not a saint, he, but I’d rather keep him in the Senate than have him replaced by a gooper.

Did you call? Did you write their hometown papers?

If they don’t listen when you call their offices, they’ll freak when they see your letters in their hometown papers. Letters to the editor are read by people who vote.

Indeed.

If the rethugs want to jump on that bandwagon, let them. What good is Baucus doing us as a dem? By now everyone knows what a fallacy the 60 vote thing is.

And there is the message it would send to others (in at least 17 other states)

That’s what’s so clear in the article at 41…Any sign that change will be acomin’?

it has to do with a bought and paid for media.

Letter to the helena IR:

I don’t ordinarily write to newspapers in states where I don’t live, but if Senator Baucus keeps up his efforts to eviscerate a public option for health care reform, he’s going to have an enemy in Pennsylvania.

My senator, Bob Casey, recognizes what Senator Baucus does not: not only do 76% of Americans want a public option, it is not fair for our Senators who HAVE publicly-funded health care to deny it to the rest of us. Casey said as much in the Senate HELP Committee health care debate.

I’ll bet Montanans would like to now that their taxes pay for up to 75% of Senator Baucus’s premiums in the federal Employees health benefits plan, a real Cadillac plan with no medical exam, no pre-existing conditions, and which the Senator carries for life. And yet Baucus would deny his own constituents a plan that isn’t even halfway as generous as the one he enjoys on their dime.

Maybe that’s because 25% of his campaign funding is from the health insurance industry.

you guys have beautiful mountains in Montana, but really rotten representation. My condolences.

excellent!

Well of course I’ve done all of that. I have Periello, Warner and Webb. not exactly the bain of upright democrats. And then we have Mr. Wonderful Eric Cantor here with his big mouth. The issue is I KNOW these guys- have met with Warner, Kaine and talked to Periello a number of times when I was a union organizer. I’ve called the WH, written Obama etc. etc. etc.

Our paper here is rethug owned and they edit letters to the editor. They actually endorsed Virgil Goode in the last election cycle. And our area is heavily blue.

So I believe I have done my part and so have many around here. problem is no response from any of the above. No one EVER gets a response from Webb and Warner. They really DON’T GIVE A SHIT unless it’s campaign time.

Here’s another thing we can do, especially if you wouldn’t mind confronting Baucus on his home turf:

Lets go talk to Baucus on his vacation… (6+ / 0-)

I just got a fundraising email from John Tester’s campaign. Senators Baucus and Testor inviting me to a $50/head barbecue near Helena on August 8. Now Tester does some things that make me crazy, but overall, I love the guy and will give him money (again!) How many people can we organize to show up and pay $50 to publicly and pointedly tell Max – at a fundraiser he is hosting, and we pay to get into, – that the overwhelming majority of Americans that want a public option do not believe that public policy that preserves the insurance industries monopoly is in the interests of the country?

I have heard some discussion of mass number rallies for health care, but this seems to me to be one of those situations where modest numbers would, in the news coverage of the day, be huge! If 1000 progressives showed up, and others donated in a recognizable way, it would be a spectacular way to send Jon love while simultaneously smacking Max upside the head…

Anyone up for this?

by engine17 on Mon Jul 27, 2009 at 01:33:13 PM PDT

Beautiful!

Here’s what I’m gonna do if they pass this piece of crap. I’ll drop my health care policy and do the Bush Plan of just waiting until I have to go to the E.R. I’d rather boycott those bastards than give them another damn dime of my or my company’s money towards premiums for profits.

(Maybe I overreacted, but not by much.)

Thanks for the “chump” CHANGE Mr. President. Let me practice our new motto:

NO WE CAN’T
NO WE CAN’T
NO WE CAN’T

(off to regroup)

I wish every American who is suffering from the current system would send a copy of an overdue medical bill to Sen. Faucus, I mean Baucus and ask “You’re so rich, you pay for this!”

Can’t go but would love to sponsor someone who can.

PW, thanks for the links. I sent this to all three:

Editor:

Senator Baucus receives more contributions and campaign funding from pharmaceutical companies and the “health” insurance racket than any other Senator. He uses his power as Chair of the Senate Finance Committee to eliminate or block any “public option” from legislation that will affect everyone in our country. He appears eager to scrap needed health care reforms across our great nation in deference to his corporate sponsors.

I am a chronically healthy woman, not a smoker or drinker. I have an active lifestyle and no history of illness. Because I am self-employed and not part of a large pool of insured, I was dumped from my insurance for “seasonal allergies” and “mild osteopenia.” This is no joke. People with serious preexisting conditions or chronic health problems have nowhere to turn.

Sen. Baucus’ allegiance to insurance companies and “big pharma” is detrimental to millions of people throughout the U.S., not just Montana. His out-sized power makes him a Senator to all of us held hostage by insurance denials and the high cost of health care.

Sen. Baucus is a danger to public health. Stand up Montanans! We need your help. Tell Sen. Baucus we must have some kind of meaningful public option.

Well, that’s one way to get something done. Coming up with different options for health care is not a bad idea. But, it should be remember that the reason public health care has been proposed is because it would be available to all. Is a non-profit network as good substitute?

Furthermore, writing a bill is one step, but getting the bill passed is the real challenge. Especially if it is a bill written by three republicans faced by a democrat majority.

-Politics.com intern

Does anyone happen to know how each member on the Senate Finance Committee voted on this? My senator is on that committee, and I’d love to know.

I think he has, too. Summers, Geithner, and Emmanuel are not serving him well at all. They’re all Clinton era leftover “centrists” who are more inclined to kiss GOP ass than to kick it.

It’s not 1994 anymore. It’s time Obama realised that. He needs to clean house. A shakeup now would do some good.

Looks like it’s going to take more than internet conversations to get representative government in the USA.

Oh, they haven’t voted on it yet.

baucus $2.8 Mil, demint $1.3 Mil, reid $1.5 Mil, conrad $2.1 Mil fr MEDICAL INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX

Follow the Money: Link

Call Congress and demand, Single-Payer Health Care for All Now!

Sign the Single-Payer Petition: Link

“Veni Vidi Vici”