Senator Ron Wyden’s annoying insistence that Democrats not lie to the American people about health care reform is causing trouble for the party leadership again. His office was not happy with a new talking point sent out by the leadership, falsely claiming that if you don’t like your current health insurance you would be offered a new, affordable choice.
That drew a quick rebuttal, not from Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, but from Wyden’s Communications Director Jen Hoelzer. Here’s what she sent to 490 Democratic Communicators:
I just wanted to flag for colleagues that their bosses should be careful using the talking point that under the Dem bill, Americans who don’t like the coverage they have, will be able to choose something else. As CBO Director Elmendorf indicated last week, under the current legislation, seven years after implementation, more than 90 percent of Americans will remain barred from shopping for insurance in the exchange. This means that not only will MOST Americans be stuck with the coverage they have – whether they like it or not – if reform establishes a public option, more than 90 percent of Americans won’t be able to choose it. As many of you know, this is why Senator Wyden has been fighting so hard to get his Free Choose proposal into the bill, so that we can tell our constituents that if you don’t like the coverage they have, they can choose something better. But right now, that’s not the case. Let me know if you have any questions. Jen
Will Harry Reid bring the hammer down on Wyden for stepping out of line, like he did on Chuck Schumer for publicly saying it would be Reid’s fault if the Senate bill lacked a public option:
They even printed out a copy of the Maddow transcript so that Reid could read it back to Schumer, a person familiar with the situation told POLITICO.
Reid, who has never been shy about jabbing Schumer when the aggressive New York Democrat oversteps, eventually caught up with Schumer on the Senate floor Wednesday and asked him about the quotes.
Later in the week, Reid described the exchange as amenable [sic] — while making clear he was the boss.
“Any conversation I’ve had with Sen. Schumer about health care, including “The Rachel Maddow Show,” has been of a positive nature,” Reid told reporters. “Sen. Schumer is entitled to his own opinion.”
You hear that Wyden? Be prepared for Reid’s wrath. You better get in line or Reid may sternly read notes to you and make snide comments behind your back.
26 Comments
Spotlight
Support this site!
Subscribe to the newsletter
Advertise on Firedoglake
Send
us your tips
Make us your homepage
About FDL Action
Advanced search
Oh, goody for Wyden–says this Oregonian. The senior Senator has only opened his mouth this year if it served one of his personal goals, and this is nonexceptional. He’s only upset here insofar as it feeds his pitch for Free Choice. When he threatened a no vote on the SFC bill, was it about lack of a PO, without which his amendment is useless? No, it was about his pet change–for which he said whether you could choose something public or not, really wasn’t as important as the choice.
Whenever it’s come to fighting for reform this year, for Wyden it’s been choice over coverage, cost over universality, and “bipartisanship” over robustness. And it’s definitely been about What Wyden Wants, every time he speaks.
These Senators are like children demanding attention. They need a [Mod Edit. Please refrain from even rhetorical violence] and then told to mind their manners.
Firepup Freedom Fighters and Friendly Mod:
Is this site under attack? Has anyone else had trouble accessing both the site and the comments in the last couple of days? With all the site construction and expansion goin on lately, is anyone minding the store?
Oooh. Sen. Wyden would be well advised to not incur the wrath of Reid! Why, he would have to face down that quivering, wobbly spine of jello! Oh the frightful though of an enraged Harry Reid! How do you tell if Reid is enraged? Does he even raise his voice?
Reid is not a leader. Wyden or Schumer are not the ones in need of a good dope slap, it’s Reid who needs this treatment. He seems to be determined to prevent meaningful reform at all costs.
I don’t give a fat rat’s ass about procedure, or 60 + votes, or if the words “public option” are included or not. I want to be able to get decent healthcare coverage without spending 20+% of my income. I don’t want to be jerked around with waiting to see what my carrier is “magnanimous” enough to cover. I don’t want to deal with preexisting conditions or have arbitrary limits placed on my coverage. I want to have another option, a public one, that is better. I want to tell my insurance company to bend over, kiss their ass good-bye, and go straight to hell!
That is what I want and any so called “reform” that doesn’t give me that choice isn’t worth passing. We are tired of being “rode hard and put up wet” by the insurance and phara lobbies and their paid whores in D.C. Either do the job right or don’t do it at all.
I’ve had a lot of trouble loading pages for the last hour or so.
behold Harry the Enforcer, standing up for milquetoasts everywhere! all wayward Dems quiver in his presence!
I have been very disappointed in Reid’s continued lack of leadership. I think the Democratic caucus should oust him in favor of Schumer. I hope a progressive candidate can be identified to run against him in NV. I would prefer to keep the seat for Dems but Reid has to go.
it has seemed kind of hinky for days
a po does not provide universality or cost control.
…. regardless of whether or not wyden is sincere, i appreciate the sentiment: “insistence that Democrats not lie to the American people about health care reform.” Let’s see if we can help out by coming up with our own list of things we can’t say if we want to be honest about health care reform. I’ll start with the two i mentioned above:
Things we can’t say if we’re not going to lie about health care reform:
1. a public option of the kind congress is considering does not provide universal healthcare, or even universal health insurance.
2. obamacare will increase total national health expenditures.
3. a public option will not assure the availability of affordable health insurance.
did i get anything wrong? what else should be on the list?
Norske:
Definitely difficult to access.
Have been tossed off numerous times and commenting requires so long between refreshes, especially when the connection fails (which takes agonizing minutes to ascertain) that it is almost impossible to participate in a timely fashion.
Is it everyone or just a few of us?
The site is …
S-L-O-W-I-N-G D-O-W-N …
Wyden’s doing Reid and the rest of the leadership a favor by clarifying what the proposals would actually do — if we think that we’re going to get exchanges, only to find out that’s not the case, there will be political hell to pay.
And if there isn’t serious, fundamental reform there will still be political hell to pay, but Wyden would come out of it (along with Jay Rockefeller) smelling like a rose because of his efforts to be accurate, and to deliver a genuine public option that can break up the
Wall Street profiteershealthCo monopolies.Yes, it’s been slow for days, but for a while today, every page I tried to load timed out. That hadn’t been happening…
I have had a vague feeling recently that something isn’t right. I no longer see some of the people who posted regular comments, and I miss them. I don’t know if there is any reason for this, but I sure would like to know
Wyden is the LEAST of Reid’s troubles. If he attacks Wyden, he’ll just be weakening the foundations that has held him up.
Site is SLOW
We have been have some trouble with are servers as of late and are working on trying to fix the problem.
Wyden, you keep coloring outside the lines!
Jon;
It would seem that there is some improvement, in the last 15 minutes or so.
Much appreciation for what all of you do behind the scenes.
DW
Problem has been off and on for a few days so hopefully it is “fixed” now
When I called all 3 of my reps today, I made sure to mention to both Sen Boxer’s voicemail and Sen Feinstein’s staffer that not only do I support health care reform in the form of the public option, but I also am supportive of Sen Wyden’s Free Choice option that’s not in the Senate bill, but OUGHT to be.
(for a moment, now) I wish I lived in Nevada, so I could do the same thing for Sen Reid.
Nothing to prevent you from calling Senators from other States. They might not pay as much attention to what you say, but you’re still keeping call volume on a specific issue up there, keeping it on their radar.
Here’s an interesting option that, along with Wyden’s amendment, is worthy of consideration. Someone posted this link on TPM
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0795/is_n2_v16/ai_16863015/
“The govt negotiates prices for all private and public insurance, thereby lowering adminsitrative costs and creating an equal playing field. It’s a single payer system, but a different name, and allowing for more private ownership”
Intriguing. Can’t see how it wouldn’t help with costs.
Somehow I never could understand the Majority Leaders job on the progressive side. Senator Reid has always seemed like a wimp and backs down to Mitch anytime he is confronted.
Before him was Senator Daschle who was so soft spoken I did not know if he didn’t want to wake all those who might be asleep which was the whole GOP & most of the progressives.
Wyden’s “free choice” isn’t anything. It is another insurance give away. You don’t get it Senator, the people of Oregon do, and you have to go. Resign because you are an embarrassment. You make statements about something that is an insurance company give away so you can get your insurance company give away in place of it? Does that get you a nice bonus from the insurers? It sure seems like it because you can’t understand the simplest phrase we know of, “The Public Option”. We don’t want to pay for health care any longer. But you simply are too busy taking their money to even listen to the people of Oregon.
This is sickening. Please, resign. You don’t represent me at all now. You are my enemy because you are trying to kill me. Do you understand?
Huh?
Wyden has expressed concern publicly about how limited his ‘exchange’ plan is at present, as well as the fact that he wants it widely expanded.
IMHO, the momentum for a genuine public option is building.
Just yesterday, two people I know mentioned (with disgust) that it was news to them the healthCos are ‘monopolies’; we all agreed that this was recent news to all of us and important in shaping our views of the roots of the health care mess, and what needs to be done about it.
All of us have been (and are) in ‘the private sector’, and have to deal with competition. I doubt we’re the only ones who feel a lot of resentment about this situation.
Wyden needs more time to communicate, but people are catching on by the week.
no good po on the table (let alone in any of the bills now being considered). see my comment above.
Wyden is just a useful foil to make the White House plan sound moderate. It is not a progressive plan because it leaves consumers unprotected on the front line to bear the brunt of spiraling health costs. That said, Obamacare is even worse, because it is like a long drawn-out torture.
A PO significanly increases coverage and is easily the best way to control costs, but what I said is that Wyden stresses choice over universality, not that the current PO plans cover everyone. My point is that Wyden is making sure we buy mayo at the store, but appears wholly unconcerned whether bread gets purchased as well. And I’d damn well rather sit at my house with just bread, rather than a jar of mayo. The PO is our daily bread.