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Now that Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) has sent out his spokesman to lie for him to obscure that Durbin plans to whip against the public option, the hot potato has been passed to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). Pelosi is saying she will not include the public option because it does not have the votes in the Senate. From The Hill:
Pelosi’s comments throw a wrench into liberal efforts to reintroduce it to the bill. She shut the door on a possible pathway opened by Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), who said earlier on Friday that he would “aggressively” push senators to vote for the plan if the House included in the fixes.
“We had it, we wanted it…it’s not in the reconciliation,” Pelosi said at her weekly press briefing. “It isn’t in there because [the Senate doesn't] have the votes to have it in there.”
If only there were some magical tool of Democracy to find out if some provision had majority support in both chambers! Oh, wait, there is, and it is called a floor amendment!
Offer a public option floor amendment to the reconciliation bill in the House and the Senate. If it gets a majority in both chambers, we will know if it has the votes to pass or not. If it does, Americans will get the public option they strongly want. If it fails, at least Americans will get to learn which members of the House and Senate decided to vote to protect the profits of the private health insurance companies. (House and Senate progressives could agree to switch their votes at the very end of the roll call if the amendment only got a majority because Republicans voted for it in an attempt to cause mischief.)
It is amazing what hoops Democrats will jump through to stop accountability. If we are denied the ability to find out how our representatives would actually vote, are we even a “Democracy” anymore? Americans have the right to know. No more lies, no more hiding behind mythical votes that may or may not exist.
Frankly, until Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid offer floor amendments to prove that the public option does not have the votes, I will not believe them. After all, if the public option did not have the votes in the Senate, why would Durbin and Reid need to whip against it?
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Senator Bernie Sanders has the amendment. Someone please tell me that Bernie won’t be coopted and thereby “fail” to offer his amendment.
It looks like they are just playing with the voters.
Demanding public option until it’s within reach then they are suddenly against it because – no real reason given.
They are all the same. Lifelong Democrat no more.
This isn’t the “yo-yo” this is the merry-go-round.
Do you ever get the felling that the all the members of Democratic Party are grifters and we Democratic voters are the marks?
(WH) I’m your friend. It’s the Senate that’s screwing you.
(S) I’m your friend. It’s the WH who wont lead.
(H) I’m your friend. It’s the S and WH that’s blocking progress.
Who’s on first today?
I find this post and Jon’s previous post unhelpful and misleading. The House Democrats don’t trust the Senate (for good reason!) and are rightly unwilling to pass the Senate version of the bill without assurances as to exactly what the reconciliation will say. So, Durbin is right to say that they must hash out the reconcilation bill IN ADVANCE and allow no amendments. So, if we want a public option (and we do!), the overwhelmingly best way to get it is to put it into the reconciliation bill, NOT to stick it in on the fly as a floor amendment.
Therefore, ALL the action that matters is the writing of the reconciliation bill. PLEASE FOCUS ON THAT! Durbin is making it sound like someone in the House is writing the bill, and Pelosi is making it sound like someone in the Senate is telling them what to put in. This can’t be that hard to find out! There is not much cover here to hide behind!
Stop focusing on floor amendments; that’s a losing strategy. (Yes, Sanders or someone will introduce one, but we all know that it will lose big because half or more of the Democratic caucus will provide cover — as Durbin is asking them to do — for the two or three or six turncoats who are balking.) Stop railing against Durbin doing what he has to do. Find out WHO HAS THE ACTUAL POWER TO DECIDE if the public option is in or out, and make that person explain why the Senate supposedly doesn’t have the votes.
This isn’t that hard, but these posts are frustratingly off target. The action is in the bill writing, and you’re dithering about floor amendments. We as a community need FDL’s help to know where to apply pressure. PLEASE.
FDL’s focus should be on pressuring Pelosi to include a public option in the House’s reconciliation package and on whipping votes in the House to pass it there so it can go to the Senate.
Once there, Reid, Durbin and the White House will have to get it passed by a simple majority.
I strongly suggest we stop confusing this by trying to figure out where to cast blame for the cowardice/stupidity/spinelessness and start working to get it passed in the House.
Thank you! I agree.
My post on Durbin was only to point out that there was a flaw in his logic making it a lie.
If Durbin said “I will whip against the PO because their are 16 members in the Senate secretly against it and I don’t want people to find out who that would be honest”
The PCCC (boldprogressives.org) has just sent out an email calling on progressives to focus efforts on the House and on getting Steve Israel to sign the Polis-Pingree public option letter.
Here’s one quote from the email:
And here’s their link to call Steve Israel’s office:
Can you call Representative Steve Israel and ask him to sign the Polis-Pingree public option letter? Click here for the number and a script.
The public option must be included in the House’s reconciliation package and passed in the House so that it can go to the Senate for an up-or-down vote.
Jccayford, You couldn’t be more wrong about Jon, he’s not focusing on any one tactic – he’s relaying information. I could care less what Pelosi does, or Hoyer, or Durbin, or Reid. They will pass an HCR Bill that will support the ideals of the party or they won’t. If they do less I don’t believe there’s enough cover anywhere to protect those up for reelection in Nov. (including Pelosi).
I don’t know what you expect Jane & team to do at this point, it’s end game time. We get no vote (until Nov.) and Jane explained her reasoning only yesterday. So, what’s up? Do you really think this is Jane’s to win or lose right now or are you also trying to provide cover.
Jane wrote yesterday that she will return to whipping for votes on a public option if an opportunity came up to do so. An opportunity has come up. This isn’t called FDL Action for nothing.
Why are you looking to take offense and start a fight?
I made the same request of Jane yesterday in comments. Help us with the battle in front of us NOW, which is what the reconciliation bill will contain. It is defeatist to surrender that battle and focus on the one after next, which will be a floor amendment IF AND ONLY IF we lose this first one. And it is equally defeatist to say we get no vote until November. Look at Knoxville’s 9 above, about BoldProgressives.org urging us to call Pelosi etc. We are in battle TODAY.
I’m not saying Jane has to win this single-handed. But I come to this site to learn useful things, and I am not finding useful information about the most important question: what determines the content of the reconciliation bill, and how can we affect that?
I totally agree that the focus right now should be on what is contained in the reconciliation bill. It’s highly unlikely that the Senate would pass a public option amendment if the bill from the House does not already have it.
However, I think the battle may already be lost. According to news reports yesterday, the House is waiting for the cost estimates from the Congressional Budget Office, so they can proceed with the reconciliation bill. I think that means that the House is ready to move forward without a public option. If Pelosi thinks she can get the reconciliation bill passed without to public option, that’s probably what will happen.
As to who has the power to actually decide whether the public option is in or out, I think it is Pelosi. Since the House is voting first and taking the most risk, it is her responsibility to craft a reconciliation bill that has the best chance of passing both the House and the Senate. So the pressure for including the public option in the reconciliation package at the moment should be targeted at Pelosi.
It might also be helpful to have a whip count of the House regarding a reconciliation bill that contains a public option. Maybe there really aren’t the votes in the House to pass it, and Pelosi is just conveniently blaming the Senate.