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Representative Nita Lowey (D-NY18), appeared this morning on WNYC’s Brian Lehrer show (with guest host Jamie Floyd), and was asked point blank to take the pledge, and, if you are a supporter of a robust public option, er, well, it wasn’t pretty.
Lowey didn’t even try to hide behind weasel words—not really. While affirming her “support” for a public option, she made it clear she would not commit to backing up that support with her vote. Health care reform was too important, Lowey said, to draw any hard line. She made it pretty clear she would vote for anything she could call change.
Shorter Nita: reform is so important, she will vote for any bill including the word “reform.”
Lowey had already gotten into trouble with some constituents when it appeared that she would block any bill that attempted to finance part of the public plan with a tax increase on income over $250,000, but she backed away from that line in the sand when New York’s Working Families Party threatened a primary challenge.
Wonder what Lowey’s support for a public option (as opposed to “reform”) would sound like with a similar challenge.
Lowey, a former head of the DCCC, is an 11-term Representative for an area just north of New York City with a PVI of D+9. She regularly wins reelection by 30-40 point margins in a district that voted 62-38 for Obama. What could possibly reconcile her relatively assertive stand against taxes with her flaccid support for a public plan?
Why not give her a call and ask?
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She represents very wealthy people in Northern Westchester.
She and Eliot Engel need to be primaried.
Attacking Democrats for not supporting the public option is f*****g stupid.
Sincerely,
Rahmbo
Lowey has been around too long, I think. She’s so secure she feels that it’s okay to do anything she wants. Not accountable to anyone except her rich friends. Primary her.
Don’t be “co-opted.”
…and that the government of the insurance companies, by the insurance companies and for the insurance companies, shall not perish from the earth.
Signed,
– Republicans
– Yellow-bellied Democratic Senators
– Faux Noise
– CNN
– birthers, deathers, sreamers and teabaggers.
I just called her DC office and told them she better stop waffling and support the public option.
OT Robert Novak has passed away
sounds like the Working Families Party needs to threaten another primary challenge ;-P. If it worked once, who’s to say it won’t work again?
If the public option is just smoke and mirrors or too weak to do anything effective to the marketplace, what is the good of having it pass?
Ian Welsh writes about the possible “public option” in Cutting Through the Public Option BS, and it’s not pretty.
It’s brief, so go give Ian some linky love. I feel bad about quoting the whole thing and depriving him of traffic, but he nails it.
Not strong enough and any PO will be eaten alive by the Big Insurance Parasites (they feed on rents and weak competitors). That’s what happened to all the Blue Cross close-to co-ops. Are any left unprivatized?
I listened to the Lowey interview–she and the guest host had a lovely conversation, but there was no attempt to pin Lowey down on just about anything. She charmingly filibstered, didn’t really answer, etc. Very good pol….
Have the reps saying they won’t vote for a bill without a “public option” been pinned down as to what it must be to merit their votes?
“she made it clear she would vote for anything she could call change” well thats one word i never care to hear in the political lexicon again. you mean like instead of ripping off 10 people for 100.00 they can rip off 20 peopl for 200.00 ?? wow thats some “change” I can sure believe in.
I guess she would be called a”DINO”,you folks no what that means.Pathetic.
LOL boooo hissssss
CALL HER…ask her if she likes her medicare
call her and ask
IF YOU LIKE MEDICARE
why should your constituents
NOT ENJOY THE BENEFITS OF MEDICARE?
call the rich bitch
I must turn off my hair dryer …calling her now,ill report back
staffer said,she will support Public Option.said she and her husband LOVE MEDICARE….TOLD HER all her constiuents deserve same benefits she gets,that WE PAY for
She is my rep. and I must say I’m not sure I agree with the comments here. I think Nita Lowey is a very low-profile Democratic politician and will pretty much do what leadership tells her to do barring something extreme. While it is true that she is not a progressive, I think what she said is basically true—she will vote for any health reform bill that comes to the floor—provided Democratic leadership is behind it. Yeah, it doesn’t say much for her independence, but I don’t think she is the one we need to worry about.
She is in a Democratic district, wins re-election easily, and should therefore represent Democratic values, which include a public plan. Why should she be a reliable leadership vote instead of a reliable vote for the people? She has nothing to fear by taking Democratic positions and making the leadership move toward them instead of empowering the Blue Dogs. That’s what her position does.
Not sure what you mean by “I don’t think she is the one we need to worry about.” It is she and her ilk we need to worry about A LOT — they will sell us out in the end. She as much as said so this morning.
Has anyone heard about Robert Reich’s call for a march on Washington supporting the “public option” on September 13th, Grandparents Day?
Well, you are right that we should certainly be pressuring her to join with the 60-ish other House members pledging to vote against a bill without a public option, but I think Conrad, Baucus, etc are more of a concern.
I guess what I’m saying is Lowey one way or another isn’t going to tilt reform in one direction or another. She will simply do what the “average Democratic politician” does. Baucus and Conrad, on the other hand, are well on there way to completely destroying the public option.
Edit: I should add I don’t like the fact that she is a reliable vote for leadership rather than the people. All I am pointing out is that she isn’t the biggest problem we face. If every Democrat was a reliable vote for the leadership of Obama, Pelosi, and *cough* Reid, we’d have a bill already with a medicare-like buy-in option.