Directly following the debate over Rockefeller’s robust public option amendment, the Senate Finance Committee next addressed Senator Chuck Schumer’s “level playing field” public option. The debate was much shorter and mainly repeated the same argues for or against Rockefeller’s amendment. Schumer’s public option amendment also failed, but by a smaller margin, 10-13
Again, all ten Republicans on the committee voted against the public option. Only three Democrats (Kent Conrad, Max Baucus, Blanche Lincoln) joined them in opposing Schumer’s public option. Democrats (Jay Rockefeller, Jeff Bingaman, John Kerry, Ron Wyden, Charles Schumer, Debbie Stabenow, Maria Cantwell, Robert Menendez, Bill Nelson, Thomas Carper) cast votes in support of the amendment.
Most notable was that Senators Bill Nelson and Thomas Carper voted against the Rockefeller public option, but voted for the Schumer “level playing field” plan. Carper was not at the meeting to explain why he didn’t support Rockefeller’s public option but did support Schumer’s.
Bingaman and Baucus both stated that Schumer’s public option would be their preferred way to design a public option. Bingaman did vote for both public option amendments and Baucus voted against both. Baucus claimed that he supports the idea of a public option, and thinks that it would serve an important function in keeping health insurance companies honest. Baucus refused to vote for either amendment, however, because he claimed it would prevent his health care bill from garnering 60 votes in the full Senate.
Kent Conrad voted against Schumer’s amendments, but he did have some positive things to say about it in his remarks. The fact that Schumer’s public option would not be tied to Medicare payment rates addresses one of Conrad’s major concerns with a public option. He said Schumer’s public option was getting much closer to what he would like to see.
Once again senators Blanche Lincoln and Olympia Snowe did not speak about the issue of the public option. On arguably the most heated and important issue in health care reform, these two Senators didn’t feel any obligation to publicly explain their opposition.
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The Illness Lobby got its money’s worth today.
So, now is the time for at least four of the Dems on the committee to vote no on the whole bill.
It’s all kabuki, minus the costumes and make-up.
I found the discussion to be the most remarkable contorted debate on how we should coddle the lame brained Corporations who cannot compete. A total disregard that the Rockefeller option would save 50 billion and provide cheaper rates for American families. So much for the fiscal conservative agenda.
Actually, I found the Republican male hairstyles to offer a costume element. Where do they get their hair done?
Got that right
not just republican, look at max’s hair..i wonder if he isnt a Maxine on the inside
at this point, we’re well pass shadow play, into high stakes hard bargaining. IMO, our priorities should be, in order: (1) ensure that the bill fails in committee by lobbying Schumer, Rockefeller and the other sensible ones to vote no on whatever is the final outcome – we need between 1 and 3 votes to do this, and probably 2, (2) leave the president with only one choice in the senate – the HELP bill, which has a PO, (3) keep the pressure on for a PO in finance, forcing Baucus closer into bed with Snowe an’ ilk, theerby weakening him politically for the final stretch (thereby strengthening the Dems in the HELP committee and elsewhere).
Well… BoldProgressives.org just sent me this e-mail.
This bill needs to be killed – Obama’s lackies Baucus et al had done as the Prez wishes. We need to lay this at the door of Obama – that’s who has sold us out to the insurance and drug companies.
Didn’t Jay and Cantwell say they wouldn’t vote for any bill without it? I seem to recall them doing so.
we need to remind them of that fact ;-).. the pressure from the WH and others will be intense, to pursuade them to sellout.
You go to the polls and vote,for what?I can imagine it will be a lot of new voters who voted in the last election,completely turned off with whats going on with theses politicians.
And you can’t blame them.
Everything is going exactly as planned.
Please resume your normal activities.
Nothing to see here – move along, people.
can’t say I follow the logic at Open Left:
bolded added. On what planet does that pass cloture?
I guess it’s pretty clear now why FDL’s Senate strategy is…. the House.
These losers don’t even feel the need to explain their committee votes.
Wonder how likely it is Snowe will now support the weak teabagged final finance version? We may need enough D no’s to counter her ploy.
Presumes no Democrat will vote against cloture on a bill favored by the majority and the President. Big assumption, but that’s the logic.
CALL Lincoln’s office and leave a voice message:
(202) 224-4843
Tell her she’s going to have a very tough re-election next year.
So, are you peasants going to keep begging for crumbs or are you going to start demanding Medicare for All/HR 676?
If someone forced me to put money on it, I’d say her historical voting record suggests that she’ll return to the rethug fold in the end. Either she’ll vote No or she won’t bother to show up at all.
I think we should pinion Baucus with her politically.. make sure they spend the next six weeks embracing tryin’ to get the votes after we convince two Dems to commit to vote no. Then when she still votes No in the end, he’s political toast.
I really like OL. Read it regularly and support them whenever I can, but he is just grasping for straws over and over these days. Bless his heart.
The Senate needs to be neutered like the House of Lords in GB. Why should Wyoming or Montana have the same number of Senators as California with 35 million. It’s laughable.
If so…Need to pinion her to Rahm Obama as well. Of course that have done this well enough all along.
Dixie and the Dead Zone. Secessionists, plus Mad Max in a rapidly depopulating, desertifying, dust bowl of a wasteland. Should be a song.
The crucial vote was on Rockefeller. Votes for Schumer by Carper and Nelson were just a feeble, cowardly attempt to inoculate themselves from the shit-storm I hope descends on them. For this election cycle, only Lincoln is up for reelection. We know what to do!
Why wouldn’t Bernie Sanders vote against cloture? What’s he got to lose? He would be a hero to millions.
i hope obama is enjoying his danish pastries in copenhagen.
baucus won’t vote for it because “there will not be 60 votes anyway”.
schumer seemed to be saying:
“If we perform this kabuki and get the costs under control, then eventually we’d get everybody covered.”
listen, jerkwads, one of my friends died recently (she was 30), another is dying, and they can’t wait for you whores to stop shilling for your corporate masters.
i wish there was a hell for these people to rot in, but i don’t believe in hell, unless you’re referring to being middle class or poor in america.
obama: mission accomplished
we must not allow this to get that far. This bill has to be stopped in committee.. IMO that should be the focus of our efforts. If we allow this bill to become a viable alternative to the HELP committee bill, then we will have an uphill fight getting the PO back in, all the way to the end.
President Howard Dean is starting to sound really good!
Im glad some people are dicovering the classics
it’s what all the boys want these days: their very own multi-billion dollar Olympics propaganda extravaganza. Worked for the Chinese.. why should we Americans be left out? Every empire has to have circus and bread. An’ the rethugs won’t let us give out bread, so there’s always circus.
I NEVER expected Conrad, Baucus or Lincoln to vote with us. They come from McCain states and, as far as I’m concerned, they get a pass.
The Dem senators who DON’T get a pass are those who come from Obama states and still won’t support PO, 10, according to People for the American Way.
Three serve on the Finance Committee, and ALL THREE OF THEM FLIPPED, Bingaman, Carper and Bill Nelson.
This is the best that we could reasonably have hoped for.
The current total in the full Senate therefore for the PO is 45.
We need 5 more votes from the remaining 7 PO prevaricators from Obama states, Bayh IN, Bennet and Udall CO, Klobuchar MN, Kohl WI, Lieberman CT and Warner VA.
Of that list, I believe Bayh is hopeless since Indiana remains a Leaning Republican state (Obama’s victory there was an anomaly because of Obama’s remarkable political gifts). I also believe that Warner is unlikely because he has been a firm conservative all his life. We need to remember, for example, that the moment he was eliminated from the presidential contest he immediately endorsed Hillary; he is no friend of Obama, as far as I know.
Everyone in the netroots community now needs to bring all the pressure they can muster to bear on the remaining 5 senators. I believe we can still make this happen.
In Bennet’s case we already may have a leg up. He is being primaried, and is probably scared to death.
In addition, I strongly agree with those who are suggesting now is the time that NOTHING comes out of Finance. Excellent idea.
For what it’s worth, we need to pull off only two Democrats to do so. Cantwell, Kerry, Menendez, Rockefeller, Schumer, Stabenow and Wyden are the most likely group from which to draw those two votes.
This is /snark, right? One has to go back to the constitiutional convention of 1787 to find the origins of this: protection of the small states against the “tyranny” of the large ones. Its an old saw that the Senate moves glacially and doesn’t represent the will of the people-but I think that was the point seeing as how senators weren’t popularly elected until 1911.
Help is likely not on the way (in any manner you are hoping for)
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09…..th.html?hp
agreed. problem is it would probably take not just one but many constituional amendments
President Howard Dean has sounded good for about 5 years now. That’s never changed—at least not for me.
“”Bayh IN, Bennet and Udall CO, Klobuchar MN, Kohl WI, Lieberman CT and Warner VA.”
Klobuchar’s probable, so are Kohl and the CO duo. Warner I don’t know but it looks like we have to have him. Agree on Bayh, and nobody wants to be beholden to the Joker of Stamford.
I know, I was happy Bingaman ended up supporting Rockefeller’s amendment.
9 Repubs are a no, then add in Lincoln, Conrad, & probably Carper – and it doesn’t even get voted out of committee.
and then, per Kagro and his wonks:
all of which is wide open to fillibuster
of those the likely ones remain Hello Jay! and Maria Can well.
Who will be introducing the amendment on the floor requiring the Senators to have exactly the same healthcare options as they are writing for the rest of us?
You’re right about Bayh being hopeless, but I fixed the reason for you.
yep. But I think we should work to ensure this outcome by lobbying the friendlies on that committee (especially Rockefeller and Schumer) to make sure they know that they need to stay strong and vote no. Two Dem no votes make a failure for Baucus very likely, IMO. Three Dem no’s guarantees it, mathematically. There’s always the (tiny) chance that Snowe plays ball in the end. And I really want to see Baucus go neck deep in compromising positions with rethugs to try to get an additional vote beyond Snowe if he sees that we’re serious in killing this in his committee. He’ll come out of this with zero credibility left with anybody, especially if Snowe defects (as she might very well) – even with his fellow Dogs.
Cough, coughf, Kabuki!!
Let me hear that beat.
So let’s review how to kill sham healthcare reform.
Option 1: No bill comes out of the Baucus committee; another version is offered which is voted down by Republicans and conservative Democrats
Option 2: A bill does come out of the Baucus committee but without a PO; Bernie Sanders and/or another Democrat vote to uphold a Republican filibuster in the whole Senate
Option 3: A PO gets re-inserted in the House-Senate conference and gets voted down in the Senate
Option 4: A PO does not get re-inserted in the House-Senate conference and gets voted down by Republicans and progressives in the House
There is no way to stop this bill in the Finance Committee. Schumer wants to be Majority leader next year after Reid loses his job–so he won’t kill it. So even assuming Jello Jay would vote to kill it, who would the other vote be?
Kerry has no reason to vote to pass this out of committee. His office says they are still working on another amendment that will put the PO back in. Somehow I am skeptical…
I don’t disagree but I think Schumer is very susceptible to intense lobbying from constituents. If he gets enough calls, he might just not bother to show up to cast a vote that day. Other than that, Stabenow and Wyden are two other possibilites (just keep on hammering away at home on competition and cost).. the latter because he’s just a little pugilistic.
’sides, if Snowe does NOT do the right thing, and either Lincoln or Nelson folds (and they’ve both threatened it), one vote will do it. This is NOT a done deal in Finance, not by a long shot.
I prefer President Bernie Sanders.
Do you get the feeling America has been “punked?”
What’s the fancy maneuver in the Senate they can do where they only need something like 51 votes to pass a bill? Myabe I’m being naive or idealistic, but can’t the Dems just do that and pass the best bill with the PO in it? Am I missing a step here? Someone please enlighten me.
Most appreciated!
Yes, without a doubt.
reconciliation.
nothing unexpected, unfortunately. I still think we can the reform passed with a PO, but it’s going to involve some complex politics.
Thank you Punaise!
What are the chances you think the Dems will have the backbone to do that?
Thanks for showing us this and providing the link:
I was going to send them some money anyway, but I have now DONE it because you provided the link. Thanks
Contribute to Democracy for America and PCCC via ActBlue!
http://www.actblue.com/page/ba….._baucus-e2
I think BobPine is right. The leadership and Obama have disenfranchised former supporters and the body of 2008 “hopeful” voters. Couple today’s events with what Obama has (not) done in the arena of Constitutional law, and the most ardent supporters will turn sour.
I totally agree if we are going to go down, let it be in flames…
We’ll expose the liars and cheats and vote them out of office (maybe)
Just please lobby the both houses to keep Dennis Kucinich amendment alive. As T.R Reid said we’ll just have to go about it like Canada did and do it state by state. Mass’ first wack at it is a falure but for having 98% covered it didn’t control cost, they’ll need to revisit that soon.
California passed it twice, a change in Governor will get that past by 2011, screw waiting for 2013 for the Federal weakness to kick in.
That’s what I kind of don’t understand from all the liberal blogs, Public Option is a joke unless its the Hacker plan or an improvement on that and funded correctly, why spend money on that? Medicare for all would have solved this and we would have WON the media wars with a singular cause.
This is massive failure on all fronts, they also didn’t vilify the insurance companies to the point of public revolt.
Shortly I’m going to take all focus off this BS and put it where it belongs IN MY BACKYARD where tiny change we’ll get what WE want and the rest of the country we’ll just have to suffer with since they are mostly Red states anyway with only the urban areas being Democratic.
Forget the PO, unless its Hacker’s Public Option or an improvement you’re getting a watered down bill and even then it won’t go into law until 2013!
http://www.californiaonecare.org/ SB810, been passed again, will get voted on in 2010 and should PASS again, The Governator should sign it this time, if not Brown or Newsome WILL sign it because Carly and Meg will never see the inside of Sacramento….
As I’ve said before, let the republicans show America that they’d rather read a phonebook than represent the will of the American people. And let their blue lapdogs join them. They can all go fuck themselves, to paraphrase Dick Cheney.
Then I suggest we need to reach out to our grassroots friends in WV and WA and get moving!!
Thank you so much!
It looks as if Cantwell could be that second vote.
Let me politely but firmly suggest that this is a total waste of time.
The one is a Republican; the other is a McCain state Democrat. Neither has any choice; they HAVE to stab us in the back; that’s the politics of this thing; sorry.
The ones who need to feel the heat, as I’ve said all along, are the tools from Obama states who refuse to support the public option. You get five of them aboard and we can win this thing. I’ve given the list before and I’ll give it again: Bayh IN, Bennet and Udall CO, Klobuchar MN, Kohl WI, Lieberman CT and Warner VA.
Most of us seem agreed that Bayh is a waste of time. There is a difference of opinion over whether Lieberman or Warner is more difficult, so we probably need to target both. The other four should be target one in our sites now.
Bennet in particular, who is facing a primary challenge, is ripe for shaking.
Montana voters wanted Public option too!
If Schumer gave up the 1.3 million he has received from Wall Street so far this yr I’m sure that could cover a few thousand this yr…
If you were hoping to find Progressives who disagree with this, you would be looking in the wrong place.
Nelson will flip his vote again. He is not for any public option, and he knows what happened to the Co-Ops in Florida. He is the most cynical of all the Dems.
Finally, someone willing to admit most if not all the people in congress don’t work for the people but more for themselves…
Criminally corrupt politicians are the reason the U.S. is ranked near the bottom of every catagory when ranked next to other modern, industrialized nations. Time for publically funded elections.
The Congress is back in session and doing the dirty work for the Medical Industrial Complex.
mcconnell $3.3M, hatch $2.9M, baucus $2.8M, grassley $2.7M,
lieberman $2.6M, burr $2.4M, ensign $2.4M, cornyn $2.2M, kyl $2.1M,
conrad $2.1M, cantor $1.8M, boehner $1.7M, coburn $1.2M, j wilson 800K
were paid by the Medical Industrial Complex to kill Health Care Reform.
(Source: OpenSecrets.org)
Co-Author Dr. Steffie Woolhandler of a Recent Harvard Study on Annual Deaths of America’s Uninsured, says the lack of coverage can be tied to about 45,000 deaths a year in the United States. The only way to affordably cover all Americans is through a Medicare-for-All, Single-Payer System. A Single-Payer System would generate $300-$400 billion in administrative savings annually, enough to cover all of the uninsured, and to plug the gaps in coverage for Americans with only partial coverage. Obviously, Medicare-for-all is anathema to the insurance industry. What politicians are doing is saving insurance industry profits, by sacrificing American lives.
12 Million Americans were denied health care coverage by the Medical Industrial Complex because they had a pre-existing medical condition. 12K Americans are denied insurance coverage everyday by a for-profit Insurance bureaucrat. (Source: WaPo Article 05′ by Harvard Prof. E. Warren)
Medical malpractice lawsuits are a hot topic but, are they? Tort Reform is such a “Red Herring” and is easily disproved. A 2004 report by the Congressional Budget Office said medical malpractice makes up only 2 percent of U.S. health spending. Even “significant reductions” would do little to curb health-care expenses, it concluded.
bush(43) economic speech writer david frum, at least, is willing to admit the idea about selling insurance across state lines is a crock:
New Jersey health policies cost more in large part because New Jersey hospitals and doctors charge more. If I buy a cheaper Kentucky policy that reimburses my providers at Kentucky rates, leaving me to pay the balance, how much good does that do me? And if the Kentucky policy is made to pay New Jersey rates, there vanishes my low Kentucky price.
These are some of the easily refuted arguments bought and paid for by the Medical Industrial Complex to derail any chance of their criminally massive profits being reduced.
Follow the Money: Link
Call Congress and demand, Single-Payer Health Care for All!
(Toll Free # House and Senate)
1-866-338-1015 _____ 1-866-220-0044
1-800-473-6711 _____ 1-866-311-3405
Sign Single-Payer Petition: Link
Don’t let the Medical Industrial Complex steal your Health Care from you and your family by donating huge sums of money to Crooked Politicians in order to maintain the Status Quo. Keep up the good fight.
SEMPER FI!