The vote on public option amendments by the Senate Finance Committee is projected to come next Tuesday. As Jon Walker noted, there are three in the offing:
- A Rockefeller amendment that most closely resembles the public option in the House bill;
- A Schumer amendment that would add the same public option included in the HELP Committee bill;
- A Schumer amendment that would be his "level playing field" public option (the weakest of the three).
According to those who have been talking with Senate staff on the subject, the only one that stands a chance of passing is the third Schumer amendment, and the wavering Democrats are:
- Max Baucus — has said he supports a public plan, despite the fact that his bill doesn’t contain one.
Bill Nelson — acknowledges that a public option would address lack of competition in the health care industry, but said he was against it, then he was "open" to it, and most recently says it must be subject to triggers.Bill Nelson — says emerging public option is "attractive."- Kent Conrad – Has always said that "there aren’t enough votes for a public option," but wouldn’t say if he was one of them. Told Ezra Klein today he would only be open to one that wasn’t tied to Medicare rates — which Schumer’s "level playing field" isn’t.
- Blanche Lincoln — said in July that a public insurance option should be included in any health care bill, but since then has changed her position like some people change their hair color.
- Tom Carper – thinks the job of the Senate Finance Committee is to honor back room deals with PhRMA. Won’t say how he feels about a public option.
There are 13 Democrats and 10 Republicans on the committee, which means they can only lose two Democratic votes and still pass the amendment. So, in order for a public plan to come out of Finance, three of these are going to have to get off the fence.
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Just.so.frustrated……
So, will any of these guys (hmm, they are all guys) listen to calls etc from non-constituents?
I wonder whether Obama will bring the David Paterson treatment to anyone who doesn’t back the Public [Co?]Option He says he supports.
I doubt they’ll listen to calls from constituents. Responsiveness to the public is not the Senate’s long suit.
oops, very sorry timr, you’re comment got eaten, here it is:
Good point timr. 80% of Congress agrees (4 out of 5 committees) – on a public health insurance option.
If the Senate fails us on this I hope the House kills it.
Than liberals try to convince Reid to include the HELP bill public option when they are combined before going to the floor.
They than try to add a public option to the bill as an amendment on the floor.
They than try to convince the conference committee to keep a public option in the final bill because there was one in the House bill.
Let’s get in the streets ,now that would send a message.
And let us remember names and put them in the streets after their next election.
Reduced White blood cells when Swine Flu is hitting the country if those rumors about the Bush twins and blow are true well nothing gets passed until it affects the rich.
Primary their sorry asses, one and all.
AND THE KILLIN’ GOEZ ON AND ON AND…
Citizen Hamsher and the Firepup Freedom Fighters:
First of all, it would seem that Blanch Lincoln is most vulnerable to pressure since she’s up for re-election and her constituency appears to be solid behind the “public option”. Who else is up for re-election and how can Carper not be vulnerable to pressure.
Secondly, please tell me how the Dems can get a bill into conference, if the bill out of the House has the public option and the bill out of the Senate does not, can’t that item be reconciled back into the bill in conference?
I think we need to look long and hard at gettin’ a reconciled bill passed WITH a strong public option, and get through the 2010 elections with more Democrats in both houses in order to cement it in before 2012.
KEEP THE FAITH AND PASS THE AMMUNITION, THE BASTARDS STILL HAFTA GO THROUGH US!!
This is ridiculous
You might want to actually read your bill before saying anything else, Max.
Citizen ThingsComeUndone:
Yes, and that’s why gettin the House to move before the Senate puts the Senate on the block and assures us of gettin new leadership by 2011.
When does Joe Biden start twisting arms? My guess is not until after the bills are combined and are presented on the floor.
So hope for a close Razorbacks game with the Hogs winning. That will draw more eyeballs in Arkansas (and among alumni scattered around the country).
Conrad seems to be in his own world and a new media favorite. Not good when the occupational hazard is an overblown sense of importance.
In order of likelihood to vote yes on the Rockefeller amendment, in order: Baucus, Lincoln, Nelson, Carper, Conrad
Probability of it passing: less than 50%; probability of 13 votes for: less than 30%; most probable holdout: Conrad
Thomas Ravenel Rudy’s South Carolina Presidential Chairman he of the half kilo of Coke fame must be shaking in his shoes, is Larry Kudlow still using?
Hey three months from today is Xmas. I want a PO for Xmas.
Yep Senate Leader Harry Reid is below Burris the Blago appointment in the polls according to fivethirtyeight.
For an incumbent that takes some doing.
Yesterday I noticed that Blanche Lincoln was a real profile in courage when votes were taken on various amendments. For most votes, she’d pass when her name was called; then when everyone else voted, she’d vote with the majority.
Nelson’s actually open to triggers like Roy Rogers’ Trigger: dead and mounted.
Can we encourage people to start calling the HELP bill “Teddy Kennedy’s Bill?” I think that might help it win out during the big Harry Reid merge-for-the-floor.
Agreed!
Imagine the things that Hapless Harry will ‘accidentally’ drop during his merge.
How bout some “clean coal”* in your stocking instead?
*Obama indicates that we have the technology to develop “clean coal” and burn it before Greenland melts. Bush era mountaintop removal is still going full bore.
I know that we have to go after the Blue Dogs in the House but something has to be done about the Senate. It is truly awful and stopping the best efforts on everything. What a bunch of losers.
We really would be better off without the Senate. It has been so corrupted that it serves no citizens.
But can we make it cheaper than wind or solar and how clean is clean?
Finance staffers previously said the Public Option couldn’t pass the committee, so either things are in flux or they don’t really know. In any case NOW is the time to push for the STRONG PO tied to Medicare. Remember the STRONG PO saves the average family $1800/yr versus the negotiated rates in the House version, and no one knows if Schumer’s “industry’s rules” PO will work or save any money.
It is excruciating watching the long slow death of the public option. This “debate” passed from kabuki into caricature some time ago. The House, the Senate, Obama, Democrats and Republicans all laboring mightily with great seriousness and gravitas to produce a piece of shit bill that does nothing it was supposed to. It doesn’t do a thing for out of control costs nor does it give all Americans access to affordable healthcare. All it does is reinforce the reality that our political system is irrevocably broken, that it responds only to the wealthy and corporations. That even when there is the overwhelming support of the American people for a reasonable plan, that plan will not even get a hearing or will be sliced, diced, and shat upon out of existence. The political leadership of both parties is simply incapable of acting responsibly and sensibly on any issue more complicated than the naming of a post office. The healthcare debate like the Iraq war, housing bubble, and financial crisis debates before it pile evidence on evidence that our very much so-called elites simply are not up to the job they have arrogated to themselves. And in the absence of any effective policy on anything we will continue to lurch and rumble toward any number of cliff edges accompanied by nothing more than their learned opinions about how there are no cliffs or that if they close their eyes to them they will go away or that going over cliffs is actually a good thing and we should thank them for the experience.
It’s called leading from the rear.
If rich people start dying then we will get what we want. Its sad that in politics thats the only way these things get passed.
Wait, I’m confused here. If there are 13 Democrats and 10 Republicans, and two Democrats choose not to vote for the public option, wouldn’t the public option lose 11 to 12? That means we can only have one Democrat not vote for it, not two as you claim.
EPA puts kabash on mountaintop removal
http://www.alternet.org/enviro…..l_permits/
Citizen t0dd:
The key is to get Lincoln and Carper to either “pass” or vote FOR the option…then Baucus is on the spot and the prospects of gettin the HELP bill amended into the finance bill are REALLY good if Baucus doesn’t cave in and vote for the option.
It seems to me that people should take a little comfort from seeing how things have evolved regarding the PO debate. Not long ago it was a foregone conclusion according to the media that this PO was dead and buried. Now it is being taken seriously even if reluctantly.
Its survival thus far should be attributed mainly to grassroots efforts in exerting pressure on elected officials and now is when that pressure should continue in full force. I give just one example, that of my House rep. Chric Van Hollen who has come out openly for the PO on TV yesterday whereas before he was straddling.
House members and Senators alike should be told again and again that they will be booted out of office if they fail to include the PO in legislation. It makes perfect sense to have the PO be the measure they are judged by because it is crucial in any meaningful reform for a number of reasons. Basically it is a direct alternative and threat to private insurers to which people can opt because it affords more expansive health services without being cheated and gouged.
Now is the time to exert all the pressure possible on the above mentioned Senators by the threat of funding TV ads against them showing the extent of how compromised and beholden they are to Pharma and private insurers.
I say we take the co-ops and the triggers and see what happens. There seems little choice at this point.
Co-ops and triggers and bears
Oh my!
Co-ops and triggers and bears
Oh my!
Co-ops and triggers and bears
Oh my!
like that
I think this committee has seen it’s last days as a part of the game. Showing everyone that they are a complete joke isn’t really helping their image. The leaders can’t hide their love, the members can’t hide their contributions offshore fast enough.
Jane “So, in order for a public plan to come out of Finance, three of these are going to have to get off the fence.’
What else can we do besides call, email etc etc? Paint the fence so that the paint marks are on their asses permanently
“There are 13 Democrats and 10 Republicans on the committee, which means they can only lose two Democratic votes and still pass the amendment.”
That would be quite a trick! If they do lose two Democrats, that would be 11 FOR and 12 against, wouldn’t it?
If we took to the streets and showed a little civil disobedience we would get a public option. That’s what they do in France. We sat on our hands during this fight and waited for Obama and the dems to do everything. We forgot they’re part of the problem.
The whores in Congress gots to go with the ones that brung them to the dance. Best whorehouse in the nation. Sadly it’s really not fair to honest whores to lump them with the criminals in Congress. As Woody Guthrie liked to say “Some people will rob you with a six shooter and some with a fountain pen.”
christ all mighty what’s it going to take? Most of us have worked our asses off to get them the majority and now they are wiping their asses with our hard work and no pay
I’m so demoralized with Obama and everything thats gone on. If they include a mandate to buy expensive insurance with penalties for not having it, I’m seriously considering moving to Canada when I graduate. I encourage all progressives to consider this. It’s easy to get citizenship if you have at least a bachelor’s degree. Maybe if we brain drain the country we’ll get their attention. I don’t think I wanna live in a country where my tax dollars go to renegade c.e.o.s and irresponsible bankers but I’m still broke every month and can’t afford health care.
What with all the swine in Congress you’d think we would have heard of a flu case or two. What’s with that?
Yea and I want a house and new car…The public option won’t be there…
Funny, not sure anything the libs do would be considered helping…Plus, what will you do since it doesn’t becomes law till 2014?
There are no fewer than 8 Dem senators cool on the public option who have every right to oppose it since they come from diehard conservative/McCain states. That means that there is no way, even under the fairest of circumstances, that the public option will ever get more than 52 votes in the Senate.
Which means that budget reconciliation MUST be the way.
However, that still leaves ten Dem senators cool to the public option who come from Obama states and who therefore have no right to oppose it, and therefore need to be pressured, primaried, challenged, etc. in order to get them in line and to do the right thing. And, of course, two of these senators actually sit on the Finance Committee, Carper DE and Nelson FL.
Since Arkansas appears to support the public option, I have no particular problem with leaning on Lincoln. However I think Carper and Nelson need to be our prime target going into Tuesday’s votes.
The fact is that the public option will probably lose in the Tuesday committee votes. No fewer than three Dem senators who don’t like the public option and are from McCain states serve on the Finance Committee, Baucus, Conrad and Lincoln. I believe it is unlikely that only one of those will oppose the public option, which means its defeat in Finance is probably a foregone conclusion.
However if both Carper and Nelson flip and support at least one of the three public option amendments being offered by Cantwell, Rockefeller and Schumer on that day, then I believe that will be the signal that the other eight such Dem senators from Obama states who have also been unfriendly to the public option may also be persuadable, meaning the public option can still win in the full Senate using reconciliation even if it loses in Finance.
So to our friends in Delaware and Florida I say please, get busy! Thank you.
As for the other Dem senators from Obama states who haven’t supported the public option, we need six of them to switch, assuming Carper and Nelson join us on Tuesday. Bennet CO and Bayh IN are no-brainer targets in that regard since they are both up in 2010.
Of the remaining, two are confirmed conservaDems who are probably hopeless, Lieberman and Warner.
That leaves 4 critical votes who must switch if the public option is to survive. They are
Colorado: Sen Udall
Minnesota: Sen. Klobuchar
New Mexico: Sen. Bingaman
Wisconsin: Sen. Kohl
Yes, we can.