Although the White House has tried to characterize “triggers” as a “compromise” that could bring everyone on board, the fact is that Rahm Emanuel has been pushing them since January. It’s isn’t a compromise — it’s what the White House has wanted all along.
Can’t get enough votes in the Senate? The answer is triggers. Blue Dogs won’t come around in the House? The answer is triggers. Committee is in stalemate? How about a trigger. Republicans won’t support it? Triggers. Need a better CBO score? Triggers.
The trigger keeps raising its ugly head. It dies down. Inevitably, Rahm brings it back again and again. And even if Reid does not insert triggers in the final Senate bill, they’ll resurface again. In an amendment. In conference. In some demand Melissa Bean makes on the floor of the House. Whenever there is an obstacle, triggers will be there to save the day.
The only reason the public option stayed alive after every DC pundit said it was dead was because 68 members of the House said “no public option, no bill.” It gave the Senate the nerve to go as far as they have.
But knowing how near and dear the trigger is to Rahm’s (and the President’s) heart, those same House members have been reluctant to define “robust public option” as “no triggers.” In fact, only 16 of them have said they’d vote against a bill that had a public option with triggers.
Regardless of what anyone says today or tomorrow, triggers will resurface. It’s incredibly important to let progressive members of Congress know that “triggers” are not acceptable.
Tomorrow we’ll start calling to determine whether Democrats in Congress will vote “no” on a bill that has triggers. Remember, we only need 39 members to commit to keep a bill with “triggers” from passing.
In the mean time, sign the petition — tell members of Congress that their leadership efforts have gotten us this far. We need them to say “no” to triggers.
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I got the Zed?
Done
will call again…thanks for pushing
Got through C-Spans Washington Journal on Sunday with Ari Melber, The Nation & Philip Klein, American Spectator in regard to health care reform.
unable to link to the program. Focused on my meeting with the Voinovich’s aide, Snowe
Signed and signed.
Trigger is remarkably cat-like for a dead horse.
See this is what I’m talking about.
Jane, I respect the site and all
BUT
This is like the 8, maybe 9th petition you want me to sign. I’m sorry but these don’t really seem to be doing anything, can we perhaps try something else now?
I don’t think you’ve really been paying attention. The “No PO, no bill” campaign which Jane refers to — and is the odds on reason that a strong PO has not yet been whacked in some smoke-filled back room — was hatched right here or thereabouts and supported with calls and petitions such as this.
Obama could be a really awesome president, he said so when he was campaigning, but Rahm somehow tricked Obama into appointing him chief of staff. And now Rahm is causing all this trouble behind Obama’s back.
– PodPup
Oh no, I phrased this wrong allow me to restate it.
At first yes this had a point. But we’re like 9 petitions in now, and we’re still where we were. Talking about triggers and opt in/out.
The first petition made sense. But I don’t see all the subsequent ones really doing anything much. Reagrdless I have signed them all. But it really feels like we need to escalate now.
I’m beginning to wonder if Obama’s on the verge of losing the eleventy-seven dimensional chess many claim he’s playing. His obstruction to the public option is becoming so nakedly exposed that if it does actually become part of the reform there won’t be any reason to give Obama credit for reform.
Instead the headlines will read along the lines of, “Despite White House Obstruction, Health Care Reform Becomes Law”.
Come to think of it, that zombie feller looks an awful lot like Rahm…
DONE
Sorry this is OT, but this quote from the British Ambassador to Uzbekistan I found rather chilling:
Of course his career was killed as a result of resisting torture as Standard Operating Procedure during the Bush years.
- Tom
reid PRESSER
Reid is claiming
no opt outs until 2014
once everyone sees CBO scoring, he will have 60 votes
Trigger, what a horse, even embalmed. Not so predicates that must be in place before health care reform takes place. A trigger delays the start-up of a public insurance vendor beyond the ludicrous four years already on the table.
If reform were a credible goal, then the insurance industry’s established practices would have triggered implementation already. They include anticipatory double-digit hikes in insurance premiums, growing list (>1400) of reasons to exclude conditions and deny coverage, and expanding the practice of rescinding contracts or canceling whole lines of coverage in order to avoid payments to customers who have detrimentally relied on (and paid for) that coverage being available.
If that’s not enough, then what would be evidence enough for this administration? Odds are, nothing would be. We knew going in that the GOP wanted to destroy any chance the Obama administration had of succeeding, lest its success in meeting the needs of average Americans ensure it and the Democrats a long rule, and themselves an equally long spell in the wilderness. Who knew Rahma and Bahma had the same goal?
Those industry contributions to their and other top Democratic pocketbooks must be astounding. They’ve sold the health and welfare of tens of millions of Americans to get them.
2014 is interesting in that we’ve been told all along Opt Outs wouldn’t occur for min of 2-3 years – yet 2014 puts it within a 1 year window based on 2013 effective date
A co-op is inclluded
signed and to hell with 2013 or 2014; NOW is when this is needed and Medicare for all would take care of it.
right on bro!
what in bloody hell ? he claimed not to have bothered to send triggers to CBO for scoring, but throws in co-ops which were all but incinerated by CBO scoring ??
curiouser and curiouser
Not sure, but I think Harry said they have until 2014 to opt out. So states could opt out just as soon as the ink is dry. Of course, we’ll have to wait and see how this actually manifests itself.
Reid is not having the trigger scored by CBO.
Co-ops are still in, along with public option.
My reading of this. Exchange lets you slot in plans by different organizations. In the exchange will be private plans, co-op plans, and the public plan (public option). So people can choose a private plan or they can choose a co-op plan or they can choose a public plan. A both/and solution. Then we can see if co-ops can compete or not.
Opt-out by states can only occur after folks have had a chance to try the public plan is how I read the one-year window. Wonder how people who sign up for the public plan will respond if their state begins considering opting out?
.
As always a great post Jane, but I don’t remember President Emmanuel winning the election in November.
I think Obama deserves to be the object of the scorn, not his Chief of Staff. He serves at the pleasure of the President, not the other way around.
Just sayin’.
Signed the petition and agree with it, even though the Public Option is a pathetic shadow of a real national health care plan, like the often mentioned Medicare for All. It might be an important step to convincing Americans to abandon their ‘government is the problem’ notions, however, if it isn’t smothered in its crib.
On another note, I wish that Jane wouldn’t have conflated Zombies with the Health Care Industry. Zombies have their problems, especially in our prejudiced society, but many have come out in force in support of health care reform.
I do some part time work myself for The Zombie Rights Campaign, and we combat this notion that Zombies are brain-munching automatons all the time. Progressives and Zombies are natural allies, especially on health care. After all, if Zombiism isn’t a ‘pre-existing condition’, what is?
OOPS,
MORE LIBERAL LIES. YOU’D THINK TWO LIBERAL RAGS LIKE YOU AND MSNBC WOULD BE ABLE TO GET TOGETHER ON THE TRUTH IF IT MATTERED.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33470129/ns/politics-health_care_reform/
1) Two liberal hosts at nighttime do not a “liberal” media site make.
2) A “report on profits” in an industry is worth maybe as much as the paper it is printed on. Just think of how much more profits some of these insurance companies would have if they hadn’t paid their upper level execs multi-millions of dollars in salary and bonuses. There are just way too many ways to cook the books.
But thank you for playing and please come back soon.
If Dems agree with a Opt-Out, then they need to only vote for it, if its goes online Jan 2nd 2010 (Fuck Snowe). The Red States can Opt-Out in 2013 but largely that won’t happen save for a couple of isolated cases where there is no saving those people from themselves they’ll have to go down with the ship.
The devil is in the details and we need to keep making sure its Affordable for the LEAST among us.
This is 3/4 reform. The rest will have to go the State Level.
I’m convinced Single Payer will happen in Progressive States, especially if there is a delay (2013) in the activation of the Public Option.
From the latest Woody Harrelson movie, I forget the title but the zombies have learned how to run. It was not ‘Natural Born Zombie Killers;’ the story was sort of similar to ealier movie also starring Woody. Maybe there is hope for that; I see it only takes 15K to make a movie now. The zombies could learn further and be riding Trigger and singing Happy Trails to You.