Mike Stark caught up with Rep. Dan Lipinski (IL-03) to ask him about his support of the public option. Representative Lipinski actually started running from Mike rather than answer some simple question about where he stands on health care.

WATERS: Well the thing about it is, you can’t make empty threats of course. As I’m talking to you today, and trying to be very honest about the Blue Dogs, who they are how they got there, which is a step beyond what we would normally do, I intend certainly to continue to bring clarity to what is going on. I will be meeting with the progressives and Barbara Lee and the Black Caucus and the Tricaucus to talk about what we do.

Rep. Gary Peters (MI-09) tells Mike Stark that the “public option is very important,” and that it is a “critical component of the health care bill.”

When asked if he would vote against a bill that does not include a strong public option, Rep. Peters tells Mike he plans to wait until he “sees a final bill.”

I’m counting Barney in the “pledge” column — fourteen down, twenty-six to go. Barney is in leadership, and this is a big deal

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.

13 down….27 to go. Whip It! Took the Pledge Only With "Robust" PP Weasel Words "Open to Anything" Emanuel Cleaver II Lloyd Doggett Donna Edwards Keith Ellison Raul Grijalva Phil Hare Rush Holt Carolyn Maloney Jerrold Nadler Chelle Pingree Lynn Woolsey Robert Wexler Maxine Waters Peter DeFazio Jane Harman John Yarmuth Neil Abercrombie Joe Baca [...]

The Finance Committee was supposed to deal with — wait for it — finance. Instead, President Baucus and President Snowe decided that they’d just write the whole damn bill themselves and have included a competing co-op plan that would replace the public plan offered by the HELP committee.

Because three Republican Senators are worth more than 76% of the country to members of the most exclusive club in the world.

The public option isn’t a new idea — it goes back to Harry Truman. Firmly rooted in the problems faced by ordinary people individually and by the nation as a whole, he proposed a broad health care plan. Of the five interconnected pieces, only a public insurance option remains unenacted.

We need 40 (probably more) votes in the House to say “with 76% of the country behind us, we’ll block anything that doesn’t have a strong public plan. No triggers, no co-ops.” Because the weaker the bill is, the more likely it is to pick up Republican votes. 

Keep calling.

Rep. Joe Baca (CA-43) tells Mike Stark why he can’t pledge to vote against bill that doesn’t include a public option.