Jed Lewison has a transcript of Lawrence O’Donnell on Olbermann, in which O’Donnell says that the White House "misread" how much uproar abandoning a public option would cause on the left:
[W]hat you have to remember about 1994 is, there were no blogs in 1994, and for the 15 — for the 15-year-olds out there, I hate to tell you, but MSNBC did not exist in 1994. And so, when we were legislating this in 1994, we did not worry about risking the wrath of the left if we start — if we were trying to move the bill towards the middle, because we knew the left would have to be with us in a vote when we actually get to the Senate floor and the House floor.
That’s the normal formula that the Democrats don’t worry about the left. And that is the formula that they’re using this time.
He also says that while nobody fought harder for the public option than Nancy Pelosi, now she is "telling her troops they’re going to have to go forward without it. That moment is going to come."
Jed says that it’s not over, and I agree with him. The President is publicly aligning himself with the a public option vociferously — expressly because of pressure from the left. Which is exactly what we were hoping to provoke:
The theory behind the 40 vote strategy is that if you can construct a progressive obstacle to passing health care, then the White House has to beat up Blue Dogs to make it happen. You’re gambling at that point that the political price of losing will be too high. You’re leveraging the people you do have influence over — people who have been coasting in safe seats in progressive districts for years — against those you don’t.
We don’t have much influence over the Blue Dogs. The White House does. If you make failure the price of giving up on a public plan, Rahm works for you.
Obviously, publicly espousing something and privately working for it are two different things. There is no indication yet that the arms of Max Baucus or the Blue Dogs or centrist Senators are being twisted. But having Obama out there ginning up enthusiasm himself for a public option only gives more fuel to the efforts of the Progressive Caucus, who can rightly say they’re only fighting for what the President wants.
Tomorrow the Progressive Caucus will begin whipping its members to see if they will stand firm in their commitment to vote against any bill that does not have a public option. Maxine Waters:
"What I’m experiencing is a stronger commitment to it than I even saw in terms of when I was really working hard on [ending the war in Iraq]. People would say, ‘Well, yeah, I’m with you,’ but you didn’t get the feeling they were really with you and that if they got lobbied by the leadership they would change. I don’t get that with this. I get very strong feelings about it."
Remember, they need 40 votes. We held 32 on the supplemental, and were expressly told at that time that there was no internal caucus whip effort.
On the face of it, passing the public option should be about the easiest no-brainer in politics.
But it’s not. And that fact poses a real test for progressives — and a real opportunity. Progressives can finally change the power dynamics in Congress by proving that they will hold their ground. Getting the public option would be one kind of victory, but proving that progressives area potent political force would be another.
And the potential for that victory is one of the most important reasons that the public option matters so much. We can’t give up the fight.
No, we can’t. It’s going to be a big week — for the public plan, for progressives, for people who want to take the government back from the lobbyists.
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Time to turn up the heat on progressives to stand their ground. If they cave to Blue Dogs, we need to let them know they will have primary challenges.
We’ve got to stay steady emotionally and not get worn out by the constant back and forth. Keep up the fight. Slow and steady wins the race.
I somehow suspect O’Donnell’s sources are trying to pull a “resistance is futile” bluff. Jane’s right, we hit ‘em again, harder.
These are not the droids you’re looking for, Lawrence.
I am watching a CNBC townhall with Geithner. CNBC’s with him are Goldman Sachs alum Erin Burnett and Randian Charlie Gasparino. God forbid they should have David Faber who might just put his feet to the fire somewhat. It pisses me off that Geithner et all pissed away over a trillion dollars for their buddies in Big Finance but aren’t willing to push for a public option that would help the average American.
Isn’t it also important to keep chopping away at the Baucus Bill. The corporate authorship, the fact that lobbyists got it before the senate committee or whitehouse. isn’t it also critical to put a stake through that, as much as is possible given the limited voice the left has in the forum?
One other question, for anybody–why/how did Baucus become the whore for the healthcare industry? Montana isn’t HQ for any of this industry, as far as I know. How did Baucus get chosen/selected to be their worm?
Yes. Personally I am getting tired of O’Donnell’s “PO is a dead puppy” routine. I’m surprised that Olbermann doesn’t use a countervailing voice, like Jane’s, to offer a different take on the situation. Also, why doesn’t the Progressive Caucus use its position to REVEL IN THE POWER? If they hang together, they OWN the situation. AND become a force that Capitol Hill must take seriously. If they cave, they’re just a bunch of weenies. Somebody needs to teach these Progs how to USE POWER.
Isn’t it because the likes of Baucus, Bingaman, Nelson, Conrad etc. are from purple states with small populations? If they’re in a situation where they’re likely to face tight re-election fights, and every cent counts, they’re more easily purchasable.
It’s often pointed out how these Senators and the Dogs in the House are actually the ones who are politically vulnerable, far more than progressives, and that progs should be alot more aggressive about using that political advantage.
It’s Obama and the so-called “moderates” who would seem to need a bill, any bill, to pass, not progressives. So when they say “a public option is not essential, lots of things can work, why are you obsessing on it?”, the obvious response is “in that case why are you obsessing against it? By your own logic it shouldn’t make a difference to you, but it does make a difference to us, and you need the bill more than we do, so go along with what we think is necessary.”
Unfortunately progressives, as a microcosm of Dems in general, have historically refused to use this power and instead caved in under Emanuel-type pressure, just as the Dems as a whole tend to cave in to Reps.
The only thing that can break this pattern is breaking this pattern.
Yet we’re already seeing wobblers saying “let’s not break it this time, we’ll do it next time with Afghanistan.” But of course then there’ll be another excuse.
Small-population, cheap-media market states are an easy place to buy a Democratic Senator: make yourself his/her largest donor, for any industry. It’s just that healthcare & insurance have been shopping for a while, needing to get their slots filled with the right whores for when the leadership chairs and rank-and-file Senators’ votes were needed.
Think about how much cash it must take to elect a California Senator. The amounts given to Baucus & Conrad, Enzi & Grassley wouldn’t make a dent in Feinstein’s or Boxer’s treasuries. Oh, sure, it would be welcome cash, but it wouldn’t be a strong majority of the cash, as it is for these smaller-population state Senators. The distaff California Senators would give you a meeting and the ability to shape part of the bill for that kind of change, but your company wouldn’t get to staff a Health Care Chief of Staff, as Wellpoint did for Baucus.
These vast interests represent a great deal of the campaign treasury for these low-population Senators, who are from small states without a major industry or donor base they can count on. Or if the officeholder is independently wealthy, other family members (wife, kids, sibs) may not be as enthused at seeing the family trust invested in the Senators’ dream of re-election. So another (out-of-state) source, which doesn’t involve dabbling in interests within my state (I can say I avoid taking money from companies that make money back home — and sound honest!) works out well financially and politically for me. It’s also a very sound investment for my benefactor, evaluated as a return-on-investment.
TP, but there’s a flip-side to that, evidenced by Dodd not long ago re: defense spending. When Dodd defends a fighter-jet program, everyone knows why–because United Technologies is located in his home state–he’s fighting for employment in his state as well as a corporate sponsor. The same thing happened during the GM/Chrysler bailout with Mich. delegation.
To me, taking money from home corporations is more defensible than taking it from a mega-corp that has no significant presence within-state. The latter just makes your whoredom that much more obvious.
corruption is not defensible in either case. These guys take money whereever they can get it.
It’s because Baucus is chair of the Finance committee. Add in the fact that Montana is a small state(population wise), and you have an easily purchased Senator(if the Senator is open to it of course). The other thing you have to remember is this. I read a story not too long ago, that basically said that Baucus wanted to get into politics, but was basically asking a buddy which party would help him attain his goals faster(ie. which party was weaker in Montana so he could climb the ladder higher, faster). So he’s never been a committed Democrat.
See my reply to you at #13
The Progressive Caucus needs to stand strong. Email them at progressive@mail.house.gov and let them know we stand with them. You can contact Pelosi here: http://speaker.house.gov/contact/
amazing that they thought we would go home after working our butts of to get them into office.
The day AFTER Obama gave the speech in which he supported the PO most strongly, Pelosi backs off? I found that extremely odd.
Bingaman will have no challengers in ‘10, unless it’s that horrible pig-dog Steve Pierce…or maybe he’ll go after Udall again. I sure hear alot about “the PO is dead” when everywhere Obama goes the support for it is overwhelming. we’ve GOT to get it now, even if it’s little. People will like it so much it will be a foot in the door for single payer…once we get out of this economic abyss we’re in.
No, we can’t! No, we can’t! No, we can’t!
On MSNBC, that lying sack of corporate crap, Matt Kibbe was catapulting the Michelle Malkin propaganda. According to this corporate lobbyist, here were “hundreds of thousands” of teabaggers, expressing their freedom of speech. They also were denying freedom of speech to anyone who disagreed with their racist hatred.
The morning after Obama’s health care speech Lawrence O’Donnell really beat up on Obama’s words on Morning Joe.
Howard Dean responded to a question asked at NNO9 “where did single payer go, that was what many of us wanted” “Why are we negotiating about the public option,that is the compromise”
Howard Dean’s answer “the Democrats are hung over from the last eight years”
When will the Dems make a stand? They are definitely going to lose seats next fall if they do not take a stand on this.
O’Donnell “if we were trying to move the bill towards the middle, because we knew the left would have to be with us in a vote when we actually get to the Senate floor and the House floor.
That’s the normal formula that the Democrats don’t worry about the left. And that is the formula that they’re using this time.”
THE PUBLIC OPTION IS MOVING TO THE MIDDLE
I haven’t seen this posted here, but Lakoff has some good advice for talking about health care reform: http://www.truthout.org/082009B
…and Dylan Ratigan had no problem agreeing with everything single point Kibbe said, and even expanded on some. I thought i was watching FoxNooze. teabagged by a teabagger.
Thanks for pointing this out. I hadn’t thought about it that way. I kind of like that low-population senator turn of phrase. Perspective, baby.
Okay, my husband just told me that this has been discussed in some op ed pieces of late…but, I still thank Teddy for bringing up here and now.
THAT is a great link. LOVE the private taxation point. Makes me wonder if there might be a class action lawsuit that could be filed under that concept?
Nancy is bought and paid for. Just this past weekend, she was the guest of honor at a fundraiser by United Health lobbyist Steve Elmendorf. Cost to attend: $5,000 PAC, $2,400 Individual/
Quid pro quo, or at least the strong appearance of it.
Yeah, he brings up some interesting ways of thinking about communication. It seems that our obsession with facts and logic aren’t really the best approach in appealing to the people to whom we need to appeal.
It is depressingly obvious that the democratic leadership and aside from the lip service , the administration itself ,is more interested in crafting a bill that will please the health insurers than giving the people what they want ! Not alot of change there I’m afraid .
Now is a make it or break it moment for democracy in America . The progressive caucus can actually flex some muscle and rather than being seen as obstructionist can merely quote the very words Obama used in his run for the presidency as proof of a principled stand in regard to health insurance debate .
Progressives have to seize the moment and stand firm for what is right despite the parties bogus leadership !
KO use countervailing language and with a nice sour tone. He pointed out what we will have as an end product. He was pretty clear on how stupid and harmful to our nation such an outcome would be. KO made it clear that a public option is the only policy concern that makes sense in terms of the market and creating competition.
I really have to wonder if these teabaggers (not the lobbyists organizing them) are going to like the government mandating they buy private insurance. Or if they just don’t care if they have to pay higher taxes, just as long as those taxes go to some insurance company executive and not the government.
I bet, if you ran some of those talking points by teabaggers, they would not realize “what” they were agreeing with in terms of the health care debate. Only to find that, in fact, the public option makes sense. The private taxation issue would be quite the attention grabber.
Those talking points should be made over and over.
Jane,
The Nation Chamber of Commerce is running VERY false and frequent advertisements here in central Ohio against the PO. Have you seen the ads?
What strikes me about this entire debate is the fog which pervades.
The people was access to affordable health care which won’t bankrupt them. They don’t trust private for profit insurers or health care providers to give this to them. They see health care more as a right and as a right it is something our GOVERNMENT protects. So they think single payer or public option – each of these meaning that the government is insuring their right to health care.
The industry is in this for a buck and if they are not going to be making tons of money they don’t want anything which leads to that outcome. The competition is the lamest means to make a monoplolistic market segment to work for consumers. It can, but it rarely does. We have price setting from the providers not price setting from the government.
Health care is a battle between for profit wealth creating private sector and the people who are expecting their OWN government to look out for their interests. But we know how the government is now bought and owned by special interests and corporations.
Until we take back our government we will never see it act in OUR interest.
There was no real attempt made for single payer and now the Dems think they can jettison the public option without blowback; not if they plan on being re-elected. They may count on the left not voting for the right, which may be true but if the left/liberal vote stays away in disgust the right will win nonetheless. It will be a great time for a third party; neither of these two corporate shills give a crap about the people anymore.
YES, I’ve been seeing a LOT of ads by the National Chamber of Commerce lately. At least in Indiana they aren’t resorting to lies about death panels, but they are misleading to say the least.
AND THE KILLIN’ GOES ON AND ON AND…
Citizen Hamsher and the Firepup Freedom Fighters:
First of all, Sister Jane, for the first time in 44 years this country has a real chance to change direction economically and politically and we have efforts like yours to thank…however “it’s not over”. The President has been forced to take ownership of whatever comes out as a final plan and has publically stated his support for a public option and Rahm Tiny Dancer Emmanuel is positioned to take credit for getting it done like he took credit for the congressional election gains of 2006 …BUT unless the House moves first and gets the debate and the political matrix established with a public option at the center, then Obama will be forced to rely on Blue Dogs and Baucus for a “final solution”. This means that unless he puts the heat on the Blues Dogs and Pelosi this week, Emmaunel and the insurance industry will succeed in ending his Presidency.
So keep the heat on…we DFH’s out here in the country and township Democratic Party organizations are runnin’ outta ammo.
KEEP THE FAITH AND PASS THE AMMUNITION, THIS ONE IS OURS TO LOSE!!
Time for progressivism either to lead the democratic party left or leave altogether !
Leave Rahm to fill the coffers of the centrists with corporate money, as the saying goes …. you can’t take it with you when your dead !
These are great points too! Repeat and rinse every day on these points. Actually, those points at that link would make a great base for a letter writing campaign.
Yeah there’s a lot of that going around. “Eeyore in the church of the savy.”
Where are the ads pushing for a strong public option, if not single payer, countering the Chamber? The opposition has all the money. Progressives all the ideas. Aside from the internet they have no way of reaching the “public.”
That, I think, will be key.
In Obama’s speech last week, he described the PO as something for some of us, but not all of us. Is a half of a half of a half of a loaf worth it?
The internet is our best chance for change and levels the playing field immensely . Faster than a pricey commercial , able to leap tall bullshit in a single bound….. uh….you get the point .
It is if the powerful get it stuck in their throat at their banquet . I was recently censored through subterfuge at think progress because of my shaking the tree of Podesta , the democratis leadership and BO .
Hard to dispute the arguments when you are made to eat your own words or defend the very things you used to attack the Bush administration less than a year ago .
All my posts were made unreadable unless ypu were logged on , not fit for public consuption .
Citizen Bluetoe2:
“Aside from the internet they have no way of reaching ‘the public’”.
The public is already “reached”…the support for a public option is solid and that is the problem for the fascists who rely on fear and division to force political inaction. The teabaggery of this last weekend is a case in point, no one gives ‘em any credibility and the fear mongers, lunatics and thugs are isolated and have no impact.
No, we don’t need the corporate media, the “public” has found its position…now it’s up to the politicians to get it done. And if it doesn’t get done it lands right on top of Obama.
He is on the key committee; his guy Jim Messina is on the White House staff. And money talks. Plus he had Kent Conrad in nextdoor North Dakota as his sidekick; Conrad is Mr. Blue Cross/Blue Shield of North Dakota.
The Finance Committee is what blocked Clinton’s reforms. The industry and the Republicans are replaying the 1993-1994 playbook. But not quite successfully as last time; you tell that in the desperation tactics.
That’s why persistence on our part just might turn the tide. And if we can stand firm on this one, delaying the climate change bill, financial system reform, and the other major overhaul might not be the slamdunks those industries think.
Yep. If there’s the glimmer of being able to order a half a loaf next time around or even a whole loaf. The strategy on our part is to set up a situation in which people can vote with their premium payments as to whether they want private or public insurance. Passing a strong public option opens that door. Passing no bill, bill with a shitty public option, or a bill without a public option slams that door shut for another generation because Republicans will re-establish power based on having stopped a bill or forcing the repeal of a bad bill.
You’re so right Jane! I read Jed Lewison’s article on the dailykos yesterday and thought it was spot on. The Progressives have more to lose than anyone on this if they cave. I like the sentiment that Progressives should simply say that they’re not only fighting for what the President wants but, most importantly, they’re fighting for what the country wants. That little 60-70,000 get together of wingnuts on Saturday does not reflect the wishes of the 68 million who voted for Obama. If the Progressives stand with us they can assume the power that they have in their safe districts who’s voters actually out number the Blue Dogs!
I suspect that’s also true of a lot of the Blue Dogs… that they chose the Democratic Party because they could see the graffiti on the wall for the GOP. Opportunists, every one of them.
Aboslutely! I hope that Rachel and Keith start beating that drum for the next few days!
I’ve been harassing my Representative about joining the Progressive Caucus and standing firm on the public option, but it looks like they’ll punt on the PO. There’s too many red rural areas in their district.
Bugger
Polls are merely a snapshot. If the Chamber and other reactionary or forces of the status quo continue a media blitz that goes unchallenged don’t be surprised to see polls begin to swing in the other direction. Americans have demonstrated an uncanny ability to move in directions that are against their own best interests.
What do folks think about the Bilionaires for Wealth care strategy? Of course along with e-mailing, calling, lobbying, knocking on doors, marching for Health care?
http://www.billionairesforwealthcare.com/
The Massachusetts Plan calls for mandatory insurance payment. This is asking people to subsidize insurance companies, without definitive cost controls in place. Proposing this is as wrong as it can be-it is not reform, it is abuse. These companies have ever increasing profits and serving up a bailout for them because they paid Congress a lot of lobby money is as obvious as sin.
Pass this abuse and it will put our economy in even a worse position-people will stop buying anything, as they can’t afford it. It is government making decisions on what you can pay for, pure and simple.
Call them!
I thought the same thing with O’Donnell. I use to love seeing him on a show or a panel but, his dreaded doom and gloom routine on the public options is wearing thin. He’s starting to sound like that idiot Joe Scarborough, constantly reminding us of how it went when he worked in Washington. Then he turns around in the next sentence and tells us that the internet, that wasn’t around back then is what is ampilfying our push back. Do us a favor Lawrence and maybe sit this one out.
Actually, those claiming to be in purple states overlook one important fact. Their state are not purple anymore. If they were, they would have voted Republican and this is one of the arguments that the Whitehouse and Progressives should be usning with these liars. That, and the poll numbers for the public option in their own states. Their states are now BLUE!
Nancy pelosi may be “ready to cave” on the PO , but we wouldn’t know it from that tape, that countdown interview is almost 3 weeks old. Pelosi strengthened her position 3 or 4 times after that interview, to wherever it is now.
The internet is a tool we can use, but it’s not the solution. The problem with the internet is you generally only reach a self-selected audience. You can preach to the choir, but not change any minds. The internet makes it easy to ignore any information you don’t want to hear.
Preaching to the choir has its uses, but it’s limited in what it can accomplish. We still need to develop a robust progressive voice in the MSM – Rachel and Keith are great, but they can’t do it by themselves.
Lawrence “the Democrats do not worry about the left”
That 76% of the public in favor of the public option indicates that people are also thinking of their families, friends, co-workers, and maybe even some strangers.
If they’re thinking of themselves, too, it’s probably about how expensive a cobra premium is and how most people have to abandon those within a matter of months.
Even a minor tax increase would be miniscule compared to cobra premiums.
I mention the cobra premiums because there is some talk about whether this recession is V-shaped, U-shaped, or W-shaped (i.e., will it have two dips?).
I doubt that very many in the middle class are feeling very relaxed about the economy yet, unless they’re suffering that GOP-brand of denial.
THE MOST IMPORTANT THING WE CAN DO NOW IS, EACH TIME WE SPEAK WITH A REPRESENTATIVE, TELL THEM THAT WE’RE NOT DONATING ANYMORE MONEY TO THE DEMS UNTIL THE BILL IS PASSED WITH A PUBLIC OPTION. THEN REMIND THEM OF THE GRASSROOTS FUNDRAISING WE JUST DID FOR ROB MILLER. I’D LOVE TO SEE THE LOOK ON THEIR FACES! MY SISTER AND I DID THIS LAST WEEK AND TRUST ME, THE PEOPLE ON THE OTHER END OF THE PHONE DIDN’T SOUND TOO HAPPY. WE TOLD THEM IT’S A MOVEMENT THAT IS BUZZING ALL OVER LIBERAL BLOGS!
I’m sure the baggers already have private insurance or Medicare. They just don’t like the idea that government will mandate that they help pay for something that benefits “those people”.
No.
Right. But right now there’s no bill with “a strong public option” on the table. Is there?
no money, time on their 2010 campaigns and will discourage others to volunteer or give money. Rahm are you listening?
Many of us volunteered for Zack Space… Zack are you listening. We know former jailbird…Bob Ney and friends are
these thugs want the 18th district of Ohio back
Bob Ney radio…working the voters over
http://www.talkradio1370.com/ney/
I listened to the President’s rally in Minneapolis on Saturday, and when he mentioned the public option the audience basically erupted in applause. It was probably the loudest, most enthusiastic moment of applause during the whole presentation and I said to myself that Obama better notice and also thinking that there was really no way to not notice what had just happened. It will be very tough for him to jettison the PO.
Jane: “…take the government back from the lobbyists”. Which is even bigger than health care. I think you mean the “industry lobbyists”, though. We’re sorta becoming lobbyists ourselves for a change, aren’t we? I know, it’s become a disgusting word, but it’s kinda fun, much more fun than being totally ignored.
I think you’re quite unfair to Lawrence. What’s he saying in this clip?
Basically that the conventional wisdom about progressives may be wrong this time because of the influence of the Internet. So, I didn’t view him as saying that the PO is dead, but rather that the powers that be may think its dead because they’re operating from a playbook that may very well be outdated.
Most of us here also think that is may be outdated and we have hope that we can change the outcome by stiffening the resolve of the progressives and blocking a giveaway bill.
If God had wanted “those people” to have health care he would have made them rich.
Just can not help myself. this is all so absurd
Exactly! We’ve already said that if they drop a the public option that we won’t vote in 2010 and we can get an early start on Obama’s replacement! No money, no votes!
That is what we should be doing. No more money for you until you do X. In my case, it’s going to be “pass HR 676,” enhanced Medicare for All.
Actually Lawrence has been on every show on MSNBC saying this. I’m not saying that he’s wrong. I just don’t want to hear what’s going to happen now based on what happend in the past. It might be better to hedge and say that while this is how things went down last time, we’ll have to wait and see how it turns out this time. He just sounds so absolute. What will he say if a strong public option with no triggers does pass?
If we want Medicare 4 All, as George McGovern called for in the Washington Post last Friday, we must be willing to trade something in return.
in other words because of Jane’s and others efforts the left can finally slap back and be effective.
Tragically funny link there.
Yes, Liberals and Progressives finally have some skin in the game. Let’s call it leverage. You scratch our backs and we’ll scratch yours!
Larry O’Donnell has been very busy promoting himself as the ultimate authority on all things parliamentarian and historical regarding Senate process to protect his Morning Joe and substitute-host perches on other MSNBC shows.
It’s clear that he would sink HCR to advance himself.
This is no longer the genteel world he used to work in, and he needs to get over the idea he is still writing the script.
The only idea he has put forward is to push a reset button to 1994 and start talking up “Medicare for All” which the Country would presumably be ready for in 25 years or so.
So, which centrists’ and Blue Dogs’ minds (and votes) is this whole thing going to change?
HR 3200 has enough to keep a public plan on the table for future legislation; it is in shape for some tinkering after the 2010 elections. Of course, that helpful language is in play because the three committee markups have not been reconciled. So having the progressive caucus stand firm determines what gets sent to the floor.
Your assumption is wrong. It is not all centrists and Blue Dogs who are opposed to a strong public option; in fact, as many as half of the Blue Dogs support a public option. It is those House members, regardless of caucus, who have been compromised by insurance company donations and lobbyists to the point of voting against the sentiment in their districts. That’s why the opponents are now airing ads in the districts of Blue Dogs to try to swing public opinion behind their guys and gals. Right now, if it came to a vote, probably 15-20 members of the Blue Dog caucus would vote for a strong public option.
Both in the Senate and the House, the strategy is to kill the public option without it ever coming to a rollcall vote on the floor. Or to change public opinion (which is strong for a public option) to cover for killing it on the floor.
Send the Congressional Progressive Caucus more progressive talking points.
Point 1. ActBlue online clearinghouse has raised over one hundred million dollars, $102,513,673.00 in small donations to elect more and better Democrats.
Point 2. Add your own. Good luck everybody this week.
P.S. Dogs don’t have minds – they have appetites.
Something about the way he said it made me think he was giving his conclusion. I’d like to see him asked a few more questions about what he was told and as much as possible about who told him. Was it somebody who has been working against the public option? Was the first letter of his first name R? :)
If Obama is at heart a Blue Dog himself, he would espouse a public option as a gambit in order to make a grand concession by giving in on it in order to close on “a great piece of reform legislation”. If that’s not his game, he should be twisting Blue Dog and “centrist” arms to get it. I don’t see how he can do both.
Obama knows, whether or not he admits it, that he won’t get a single GOP vote on legislation that, if done well and properly funded by a Democratically controlled Congress, will be the foundation stone for Democratic electoral success for a generation.
Obama also knows that his health care reform legislation – there’s no other name for it – will do the same for the GOP if it is done badly, if it is not funded or properly overseen by Congress, or if it is merely window dressing for a bankster-like diversion of tax dollars to unreformed private insurers. Or if quality reforms are delayed five to ten years to give privates that much more time to put their hands up our financial backsides while “accommodating” themselves to competition and new rules of the game.
To paraphrase the young John Kerry’s anti-Vietnam war address to Congress, does Obama want to be the one to tell the many thousands of the dead, the maimed and the bankrupt that their fates were necessary in order to accommodate the needs of a few hundred American CEO’s?
I have let my Democratic representative and senator know that if they throw the public option under the bus, I will be voting Green until the Democratic Party starts representing the people instead of corporations and the power elite. Letting war crimes pass, escalating in Afghanistan, an selling out to Wall Street, the health insurers, and coal companies is not change I can believe in. Progressives are getting rolled.
So did O’Donnell, for that matter. O’Donnell is the one who pointed out that none of the bills so far stupulate universal coverage.
One other thing about O’Donnell–he is misquoted by Jane in her piece. She states: “He [O’Donnell] also says that while nobody fought harder for the public option than Nancy Pelosi, now she is “telling her troops they’re going to have to go forward without it. That moment is going to come.”
O’Donnell didn’t state that Pelosi had fought harder than anyone for the PO. He said that Pelosi will tell her caucus that she did. Those are two different things.
Everyone is concerned with the Public Option, and rightly so, but doesn’t it bother anyone that all the reforms touted by Obama in healthcare will be subsidized by all Americans with mandated premiums? Does anyone know what preventative care for all of America will cost you, let alone caps on OOP and no maximum on payment? I have a vague idea and it is keeping me awake at night.
As an example, the end of life consultation was going to be so expensive (per the CBO)they took it out of the bill. This doesn’t occur as frequently as preventative care.
We wanted insurance reform to make insurance more affordable, we were told that costs were unsustainable, now $8000 per person, going up $1800 over next 10 years. But what would you have thought if Obama said we will reform insurance, but you have to pay for it, for everyone else?
“Revolutions are fought by those whose ribs are easily counted.”
Now,what are those obesity stats for the US, again?
Please. We need better trolls in here.
How did we ever allow ourselvs to let a Baltimore political dynasty to get it’s hands around our Congress?
Baltimore is the only city in that can make the claim they make Chicago politics look clean in comparison. A reminder…
“…Pelosi was born in Baltimore, Maryland. The youngest of six children, she was involved with politics from an early age. Her father, Thomas D’Alesandro, Jr., was a U.S. Congressman from Maryland and a Mayor of Baltimore. Her brother, Thomas D’Alesandro III, also a Democrat, was mayor of Baltimore from 1967 to 1971, when he declined to run for a second term.
Pelosi graduated from Institute of Notre Dame, a Catholic all-girls high school in Baltimore, and from Trinity College (now Trinity Washington University) in Washington, D.C. in 1962. Pelosi interned for Senator Daniel Brewster (D-Maryland) alongside future House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer….”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Pelosi
In response to Leen
That is such a politically astute posting. Congressman Space does not need angry liberals like you to win in that district, he knows it. So, idle promises to not support him may make you feel good, but does nothing. I bet Rahm is terrified when he reads your posting. Next month is Halloween, dress up as an intelligent voter and you may scare him.
Thanks for the confidence that this former jailbird is controlling the district. Now, let’s see, I had huge union support, are you calling them thugs, hmmm, I had people from both parties, are they thugs. You are out of the mainstream of the 18th district-shocker!
My show is balanced and the agenda of the show is to provide information on the issues. If you would tune in you would find that criticism has been of both sides when needed. So there is no 18th District agenda-tune in, you may learn something.
Thanks for plugging my radio show, you forgot, 1-3 pm monday through friday
You can tune in as we “take control” You are entertaining. If you really want to help Congressman Space, endorse his opponent -that will be sure to help him.
Bob Ney