Pelosi is going to be a good Catholic and do the Catholic Bishops’ bidding on this.

Thank you for this post, Jane. So long as there is any chance of a public option being included in the final legislation, we should not give up.

Pelosi has an opportunity to incluce a public option. She has no excuse not to do it.

Pelosi is talking like Obama is delaying his Asia trip so that he can be here when this bill does pass in the House, and she has no excuse for it not to include a public option.

Please repeat this call for progressives to push for a public option on Monday. The offices of as many members of the House as possible should be flooded with calls Monday morning.

I plan to call as soon as I get home.

What are we doing about Weiner and Grayson the FDL “Firedogs”. If they vote for the bill with no PO do we really intend to keep them as firedogs? Shouldn’t lieing to be grounds for immediate removal of them from this status?

We should let these two know that if they vote for a bill with no PO they lose this, and lose all of our money along with it.

Absolutely. We will do that.

Pelosi’s sold us out on the public option and she will twist arms to get others to do the same. Dems screwing their base – again.

Setting aside all day Monday for this.

Thanks Jane.

As much as I want to see some form of PO in the final bill, I want a full roll call vote on it in both houses, even more. Every Senator and Representative needs to be nailed down on where they stand. No cop outs, no con jobs, no more posturing. The voters deserve to know.

This is, of course, exactly what they are afraid of.

The white house never wanted the public option, it was just a talking point for Obama to run on. Now they are just ping ponging it off on each other, so the public can argue who to blame without being able to single any one person out.

I mean come on Harkin and Rockafellar going turn coat, what else do the progressives need to see?

Where is the douche bag from daily kos calling for a primary against these two liars after he called for kucinich’s head on a platter?

Yeah, no kidding, but who is going to call them on it? Not the Republicans, that is for sure. They are not going to say these Democrats wouldn’t give you access to public insurance. They really have us in a hard place. The public insurance solution(in any form, Medicare for All, public option, expanded Medicare, whatever) will just disappear because there is no counter Party to call the Dems out on it.

Democrats never wanted the public option because the public option can’t hire them as lobbyists after their “service”. Pah!

Ed must have gotten some blow back. He’s back on the PO.

We’ve forgotten what we knew in August, I’m afraid I forgot it too. From the NYT -
“Several hospital lobbyists involved in the White House deals said it was understood as a condition of their support that the final legislation would not include a government-run health plan paying-Medicare rates…or controlled by the secretary of health and human services. ‘We have an agreement with the White House that I’m very confident will be seen all the way through conference’, one of the industry lobbyists, Chip Kahn, director of the Federation of American Hospitals, told a Capitol Hill newsletter…Industry lobbyists say they are not worried [about a public option.] ‘We trust the White House,’ Mr. Kahn said.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/13/health/policy/13health.html?pagewanted=all

Bottomline is Obama does NOT want a public option and has convinced other Dems that if they don’t pass it withOUT a public option, not only will campaign funds dry up but his will be marked as a failed Presidency and the Party simply can’t have that.

Well, 7 months have gone by so it’s not hard for people to forget things that happen that long ago.

The message has to be: It’s there for the taking. If we don’t get it, you WILL suffer.

good to hear

That goes for Obama, Reid, Durbin, Pelosi — all of them.

Grayson introduced a Medicare buy in public option

http://grayson.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=175363#main

Or how about actually listening to the American people and not passing the bill at all.

It amazes me how quick people are to ration health care for the elderly, destroy health care innovation and the quality of our health care, and pay for things like abortion instead of things like cancer, all so they simply do not have to take self responsibility for themselves.

Ii do think there should be health care reform, but this sure is not the bill.

Did the House pass a bill with the Public option included or didn’t they? Pelosi says they did so why is it being put back on them? I tend to agree with her, on the other hand this whole thing is so convoluted I can’t say I understand any of it with much certainty.

Not Pelosi’s fault, the senate has been pandering through this entire public option so called resurrection, who really trusts those pigs in the senate? I learned my lesson. And theres also the matter of there being 200 + bills the house already passed just sitting there waiting for the Senate to water down to nothing, if they even get to them all within the decade. Obviously the Senate is the problem and always has been.

Again you hear that? complete silence from the White House on the public option.

The one thing the Barrack “HOOVER” Obama adminstration is doing is pulling the curtain back on all the evil Corporate Dems that have invaded the Dem Party.

It is sad and funny to see how Dems run away from the Public Option Hot Potatoe. This weekend Nancy and the House Dems are going to have to lie about how they can’t pass the poor little Public Option, because IT IS THE MOST POPULAR PART OF HEALTH CARE?

The question we all need to ask Nancy and House Dems you have the votes to pass a BILL that 54% of the nation hates? If you all are this dumb you deserve the fate that awaits you the un-employment line. Obama will be joining you soon.

I agree with Jane, something is going to come out of left feild and kill this whole “POS” Health Care Bill. Why? who in the world is going to cheer the day after this BILL is pass? Who?

Agree. If she puts the PO in, and it fails, the WH will gladly vilify her.

News Flash! Obama Presidency Failed a long time ago, he just has not gotten the memo

The Hope a Dope plan Obama tried to play with progressives has been a complete disaster.

Obama thought no one would notice if he talk like a Progressive and govern like a Republican, guess what Happen? People did not buy his insane plan.

Obama for some strange reason did not realize how much the left hated BUSH.

Thanks for clearing this all up for us….

Nancy and all the Smart Dems have better abandon this WHite House ASAP.

Who cares if OBAMA and his White House get mad, Hello people with out the Net Roots, Progressives, Bloggers, People Knocking on Doors, People Making Phone calls, basically the Dem Party, OBAMA is DONE!

If Obama was running against Palin today he may win, but it would be very close. He would lose to Mitt Romney

It will not take a rocket sceintist to realize Obama is a one term president after november, so Dems have better find a new Presidential Candidate ASAP.

Obama is Done! It is OVER, Case Close, Period, he has no chance of winning in 2012 without a very powerful grassroots campaign.

A good piece by Glen Greenwald on the complete sham the public option has been from the start. http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/03/12/democrats/index.html

Obama is just a symptom of Democrat ineffectiveness. Get him out of there and put someone else in there, would it make a difference? I really don’t think so.

Well, I didn’t vote for him as I saw thru his oratory;didn’t vote for McCrazy either; voted for who best represented my views(which happened to be the Green party).

Anyway, see here for more of how they -for the overwhelming part- are not even honoring their oath of office’s.

This hot potato is moving quickly. DeGette’s office told me yesterday the PO was in.

Does your crystal ball tell you which republican can beat him? Romney? Please chile.

Thanks for the link.

I called Pelosi’s office. Operator answered. I got as far as “I just called to say” when I was switched to voice mail where I got a cheery (and obviously phony) message to the effect that the Speaker always looks forward to hearing from voters” and please leave a message.

I did, but frankly I doubt whether it and all the others will ever get replayed and listened to by anyone.

Gleen Greenwald piece is great.

Ed got another nut on his show? John Alter this nuts says that the problem with the Public Option is we need to build public support for it? What?

John Alter should resign from NEWS WEEK! What he is basically saying is that the Public supports the Max Baucus and Obama Health Care plan. John Alter you may not know this buy only 54% of the USA likes Obama Health Care Plan.

By the way over 80% of Dems support the Public Option and a majority of the USA supports the Public Option.

Dems who vote for the Barrack HOOVER Obama health care plan, need to start applying for un-employment. It is going to be real ugly

Alter could barely contain his glee – he’s been against the public option/single payer since day one. But to state that the public option needs more support from the public puts him right up there with Boehner. And Ed should have called him on it but probably his job would disappear if he did.

Staggerlee? Obama needs a lot of energy to win in 2012

Talking like a progressive and governing like a republican will not work.

2012 will be a base election, how many republicans have voted for anything Obama? so Obama more than any other Dem in history has to cater to his base period. If he does not he will lose in a primary.

“nightheat” is right, Obama is just part of the problem, the democrats like the GOP are about to go throw a power shift.

the Tea Party terrifies the GOP elite in DC, the Tea Party is a collection of all the people the GOP lied to for years and now they want BLOOD and they are going to get it.

The DEM PARTY is about to get a major make over!

Blanche Lincoln is just a test case. Blue Dogs seats are o-kay, but the seats progressives want control of are HARD CORE PROGRESSVE DISTRICTS, any phony dem that votes for Obama Health Care plan and he or she is from a strong Progressive seat will be a huge target for Progressives.

It is easy to defend a PROGRESSIVE DISTRICT, when you put a real PROGRESSIVE in that district. this is the END GAME.

slap unions and small businesses with an excise tax on their health care plans.

Mandate purchase of private for profit health care insurance,

That’s all they wanted in the first place, and to waste time away from the financial problems.

I left off somethings, fill in later.

The Dems. were soooo ready to pass this piece of crap they even had the punch bowl all ready and then somebody dropped the PO in the punch bowl and they’re all backing away its like its a turd that was dropped in.

This economy will melt down before any of this shit takes effect should this obamination pass, as I sincerely hope it does not.

Should it pass, however, I’m afraid that Obama will start a War to distract the public from the oncoming economic train wreck which has been neatly kept off the radar by this dog and pony HCR Insurance Industry bailout.

It was decided in the interest of _________?? to simply table the concept of “single payer” no surprise.
But a useful devise could be made of the outline of the idea of it, call it “a public option.” This would be less than even the proverbial “political football, or prop for he purpose of seeming to suggest movement, action, IE: the prop is bounced around like in games, it symbolises something, and make the game entertaining, but is never really believed to be important in itself.
This prop wasn’t ever real, just a device to stir up excitement. A political “Whiffle ball, not even anything substantial, it could be a huge waste of time even if they pass it. The idea is to have corporations move in and take over even the social safety net territory, ss next. Neocons rule!

When all is said and done, no matter what happens, I want to know who stood for the PO and who did not. The ones that sold out deserve to loose their seats. It does not good to have Democrats in office if they are no better than Republicans. The PO is the issue that defines the character of those in office. Obama has already failed us. Who else is a traitor?

The rot begins from the top.

2-3 years when the commercial real estate bubble bursts and banks begin failing across the nation and the government will not have a dime to do anything about it. Unemployment will far surpass that of the Great Depression. There will be blood.

Call progressive members of Congress

Hahahahaha…who might that be? All what, three of them?

I’d like to know as well.
All of the bills that came out of the house had some kind of PO, now she wants to throw it under the bus.
She could at least bring it up for a vote.
I suspect Stupak’s cartel is in the mix somewhere.
Plus, Pelosi prolly doesn’t want us to know who punked us.

Wiener’s on Countdown

Agree completely with insisting that all House members who favor a public plan to reduce the power of these monopolized insurers should vote for its inclusion in the bill sent to the Senate. If it looks as if the PO will not be included then they should vote to defeat the bill. They should in any case disregard Pelosi’s attempt to predetermine their vote in the full knowledge that the majority of the country is on their side. Pelosi is certainly doing them no favor in the fall lection by sabotaging the PO.

Pelosi can be dumped in with the rest of these hacks that are of no use to the public. Her stupendously idiotic claim that she doesn’t want to be blamed for including a public plan the Senate might not vote for, inspite of assurances from the Senate that they will, is not only cowardly but absurd. Who gives a shit if she is blamed. Is a public plan that favors people some sort of plague.

The principle here is not who receives the blame for including the PO in the legislation, instead the principle is to defy the further enshrinement of the mandated transfering of the public’s money to profiteers. That principle is lost on these asholes among whom Pelosi now is firmly and prominently included.

We should lay our hopes on people like Kucinich who fully recognize that the problem lies with the profiteering of health insurers and who does not shirk or is afraid of taking the blame for attacking the culprits.

Start? I believe we are already in WWIII, they’re just calling it something different.

Thank you, Jane. I know how important this is to you.

Grayson introduced a bill for Medicare being a public option on March 9.

Weiner is on with Adam Green of the PCCC.

As Adam said, it’s not about winning the blame game. It’s about our leaders doing the right thing for the American people.

There’s a real chance to get a public option if Pelosi and House Democrats will step up and include it in their reconciliation package.

Weiner also said that, each time it looked like the public option was dead, the American people spoke up and revived it.

Now is the time for the American people to act if we don’t want to resign ourselves to a few more decades of living at the mercy of private insurers.

Explain to me how Pelosi’s announcement today that she and the House will NOT have the PO as part of their reconciliation efforts is NOT her being responsible for killing the PO?

I really wanna hear THIS doozy from ya . . . Pelosi killed the PO in House reconciliation today. Pelosi. Not anyone else. The myth of the votes FOR the PO in The House NOT being there is just that, it’s a myth.

Pelosi is responsible, she’s the leader of The House, it’s HER House and she’s the majority party in The House.

She’s presently to blame, thoroughly, for the PO going dead again.

In response to Larue @ 52

Because Pelosi is Speaker of the House, she doesn’t only represent her district. She represents all Americans, and all Americans have a right to contact her.

Click here to contact Speaker Pelosi and tell her how important it is for her to include a public option in the reconciliation package that the House will send to the Senate.

My point is that we should be too quick to just get angry at her. She made that announcement this morning. Maybe she hadn’t heard yet what Durbin’s spokesman said when she said this morning that a public option isn’t in.

In either case, Pelosi will have the whole weekend to think about it. Let’s send her emails to help her arrive at the conclusion that she already knows to be the right one!

http://www.speaker.gov/contact/

Yep, the WH, The Senate, The House, all bought and paid for by corporate special interests and serving those interests fully. It’s called facism.

What would DeGette say today after Pelosi says it’s NOT in????????????????

Yeah, thanks from me too, Jodo . . . I’d missed that one.

Thanks Jane for continuing to fight for the public option. I’m glad to see someone still standing by their commitments. I belive if this bill passes the senate will do nothing in reconciliation, they voted on the bill they wanted.

As soon as it came out there would be a tax on “CCadallac PPlans… ” !) I said oh boy.
I have a modest HC plan, to me it must be only a chevy or maybe a pontiac, but I don’t like the sound of it.

Since when do you put a tax on a thing that is being encouraged? It might be that it just feels good to punish, but better yet, ad on a promise of… a “carve out” exemption to… those plans arrived at in collective bargaining, and I don’t know where that left small co./orgs, who benevolently or whatever put employees, and selves on plans.

Single payer will be “Off the table.” remember, “Impeachment is off the table.”

Mandated that all shall purchase health insurance, (whether you own a car, or not.) That’s a far leap to something way different, what would the Founders of the Constitution say about that now?
And if you don’t pay the companies for insurance policy, you will get a call by the feds. You will comply.

When I read her statement this afternoon I called her office and left a voice mail ASAP.

You miss my point.

Pelosi is responsible. At this point, NO ONE ELSE is responsible for killing the PO.

Yep Greenwald sums it all up as has Jane before. Eyes wide open. It’s the only way forward beyond the sham that is the Democratic party. Of course it starts from the top-and the loyalty to this man-Obama who acts like a moderate Republican at all times-is vomit worthy. I feel for the congress critters. They are always stuck. I will work to insure Obama is one term. Who knew that the one we had to fight the hardest to get real reform wasn’t the Republicans, it’s Mr. Change Hope Fraud himself.

The corporations are aggressively pursuing ownership of all government related spending, including social safety nets.

Health Care Not Reform is the beginning, with Social Security, police, firefighters, and all civil servants at risk.

And what the general public should REALLY be frightened of, is when corporations get control over public education (they already own the colleges and universities).

Imagine it, corporations in control of public education, and charging for it, with a government mandate you HAVE to be educated and have to PAY for it.

Coming soon.

Healthcare is the wedge issue, which is why they spend a million dollars a day to fight real reform or any vestige of government involvement which might provide competition.

As long as you keep on responding to all of this as if it’s a political issue between two parties, a political issue of the President failing, you will fail to work for the change that has to happen.

ALL politicians are bought and paid for, by the corporations. And the pols continue to enact legislation that’s fully in favor of the corporations, as they march on to eliminate all government existence in all government subsidized affairs on behalf of we the people.

As I said, first healthcare, then eliminate Medicare, then SS, then any and all fed, state, county and city services.

Including public education.

It’s not a political issue, or a political war, it’s a class war and we the people are losing badly.

When government owns and operates our political system, it’s facism and it’s class war on we the people.

If you buy into that, it changes your perspective and explains all the ‘confusion’ as to ‘how could they DO that to us’ in regards to our elected officials.

Called my congresscritter and was told that she “supports” the public option. I replied that she should then tell Pelosi to put it in the reconciliation package.

I would be awfully surprised at this point if you actually got the public option.

“Healthcare is the wedge issue, which is why they spend a million dollars a day to fight real reform or any vestige of government involvement which might provide competition.”

Yeah agreed, HCR is a wedge, after which there won’t be any place to run. Except I think social security,still will be a huge obstical, for them Neocon privateers. The many olders, will fight more than they think, to keep the monthly check, with out it there’s no tea and crumpets… That’s what the game is,
I read and agreed with Naomi K on what the underlying dimensions and all, ie: the Chicago school, Hayek, etc. Ayn Rand and protoge A Greenspan. These worked hard to spread the disease.

Privatize, cannablize. These guys look at anything in the common good, water works, clean air, much less parks, roads, (prison systems,) and see easy money. They are doing it.

Why should we kill real (not great) reform just because it is not perfect. It still helps many people, and if you know anyone that doesn’t have health care it really helps. Ted Kennedy would have voted for it, he always said that something was better than nothing. This bill will lead to single payer. If we let this bill fail we will not have ANY HCR for at least 10 years. Come on guys lets get this done!

Who here is surprised that in the end sister Nancy abandons the public option bcz it wont pass in the senate? I am not surprised, Pelosi sells us out everytime and caves on everything. Whatever she says she is for at the beginning of an issue will be the complete opposite of what she does when push comes to shove. Jane I am sorry I cant call any progressives bcz other thn DK I dont know who they are. I mean Durbin is a progressive isnt he?

Blah blah blah. Mandating the purchase of junk insurance with insufficient penalties for the insurers and a low, payable mandate for the taxpayers will screw the Democratic Party in the next two elections, but it will make planet Earth like a Disneyland of course.

The bright side of this will be watching his sorry ass give a grand and eloquent concession speech in 2012. And then watching the rethugs attempt to prosecute him as a war criminal bcz they dont look forward they look back.

The plan is for it to get so bad over here that Americans will willingly give up their freedoms for security and prosperity. I am already seeing articles in the WashPo suggesting how much better we wld be if we had a government like China’s.

I completely agree. Her statement was actually accepting the hot potato as I read it.

My bad. I misunderstood. I totally agree. She is now responsible. I hope everyone calls her office and emails her to tell her that a public option must be included. It’s going to be done by the end of the day on Monday, so I hope everyone follows your example of call her office asap!

I think fax. They are a little more difficult to ignore with all that paper/toner/beeping noises…

I immediately called Pelosi’s office (415-556-4862) and it went like this:

Harried receptionist: Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi’s office.
Me (emphatically): Is it true that Pelosi is NOT going to include a . .
Receptionist (interrupting WAY to prematurely): There is no comment on that at this time.
— and I was immediately transferred to a canned message w/ the opportunity to leave a brief message in which I unloaded that I would never vote for a Democratic candidate again after listening to Pelosi tell us for a year that she supported the PO and that there WOULD be a PO in the bill. I said I would send my campaign money to Dennis Kucinich and WHOEVER ran against Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi.

So it’s HER turn to be the Rotating Villain. But of course she blames the Senate which now has 41 senators on recent record saying they WILL support the PO. And Sanders says there are probably 53 Senators for it. Keeerist. The evil shows itself clearer everyday!

just called Judy Chu in CA-32. I told her not to budge! She must not defy her constituents!

Yep. She’s holding the hot potato now and it’s burning those fingers.

I called both Obama and Pete Stark (CA-13) with the question “is it true no PO?”

Pete’s staffer was very discouraged and apologized, but said he didn’t know for sure.

“if you know anyone who doesn’t have health care it will really help”

-Health insurance is not healthcare
-Half the uninsured will be forced to buy unsubsidized insurance or will owe the fine and have no insurance
-There are only 1-2 million sick uninsured who stand to benefit significantly from this plan; in return everyone is indentured to the private insurance companies

“it will lead to single payer”

-in your dreams; there are numerous roadblocks in the bill to prevent expansion of government programs including state-based exchanges and regulation, and reaffirmation of ERISA
-what it may lead to is ending the tax exemption for employer benefits completely. This has long been a Republican holy grail and with the Cadillac tax we are on our way.

Cap and trade.

Let me ask you something. What happens if we kill the bill? We will NOT pass anything at all. Do you really want to wait another ten possibly twenty years until we get HCR. Yes it’s small steps but to my parents who both have pre-existing conditions and can barely afford there insurance it will be a great help. Have you ever watched the Ed show? Even Ed say’s that this is just a stepping stone, something that will be improved upon later on. Face it this is as progressive as the bill can get. I really want single payer and this bill is a small step toward it. Yeah single payer could be 20-30 years but it will be much longer if we do nothing at all. I know it sucks making a compromise, but all great bills were compromises of what we wanted, but we added onto them and made them better as time went on. Killing the bill is the absolute worst thing we could possibly do.

Oh and I know that health insurance is not healthcare. I just mis-typed that’s all. I never edit my posts. Who has the lime :) Sorry!

If you bought into that letter campaign from pandering/lying Senators… then I guess you would pass the blame to Pelosi when she smacks you back into reality. I never bought into the resurrection of the public option in the first place. There’s enough blame to go around, but the fact is, it’s not going to be in the final legislation. We’ve been dealing with that reality since Joe Lieberman got his claws into this thing. Sure there might be a fraction of a percent chance that this can move forward, no one trusts the senate though, and a grab ass letter campaign isn’t going to change any minds.

Who at this point trusts the senate? Someone explain this to me? I trust FDL and I trust Jane, but I think its pretty clear in Jane’s post that she only wants this to go forward so we can see the Senate squirm and take the full blame when they do, without a doubt, kill the public option a 2nd time.

Grayson introduced a bill 3 days ago opening Medicare to everyone. 3 days ago is clearly not 20-30 years from now.

Obamabot thanks you for your service.

I respect the believers. I just think they do not know when they have been run over. And some of them (but surely not all) ARE believers.

After the front row view we’ve been treated to of how truly craven and corrupt elected dems actually are? After all Obama’s lies? At most I could maybe muster a little sympathy, but respect is not going to happen.

Yes! Kill the bill! Maybe it will shut people like you UP when you blather crap about there being no hope for reform after the bill fails — end the world already so that we don’t have to read your millenarian garbage on the boards!

Also – one final point, whats stopping the senate from putting this in the legislation? If they’re the champions of the public option and its Pelosi that’s killing it, why can’t the Senate fight for it?

This is one giant clusterfck of missed opportunities miscalculations and lameduck leadership from President BoBama. And the final blame lays with him. The health care debacle is over, its dead, they’re passing this insurance giveaway very soon. Lets focus our efforts on making it better in the future. Harping on the public option and playing right into the Senate Pigs hands isnt the way forward imo. I think Pelosi has been a champion in comparison to everyone else. Pelosi has my full support.

Be honest do you think that will pass? I wish it would but be realistic. Also I happen to be a member of the Green Party, and didn’t vote Obama so I’m not an Obamabot. Thanks!

Explain how we pass HCR if the bill fails. They wouldn’t dare bring up the issue for the rest of the 111th Congress. The 112th Congress will be controlled by teabaggers and condems so don’t expect it then. Obama won’t be able to pass anything major in his second term (if he gets one). So enlighten me on when how we will pass a bill if this one fails. Thanks

Actually, a failure now would probably presage a retry, since that singular failure would be a big cross to bear for an incumbent President to carry into the general.

And they would have little choice but to do it a lot better.

It’s not ‘a bill’ it’s the senate bill, and all it is is a mandate for everyone to buy insurance from insurance companies, with no restriction on how much they can charge, and with the ‘fraud’ loophole which still allows them to deny people care at their discretion. This bill has nothing to do with anyone’s health, it’s a sale of people to the insurance companies by the dems in congress and the WH. The senate bill is worse than what we have now.

Wake up.

Wishful thinking. Obama can try as hard as he wants. If this fails the dems will be too scared about there own elections to vote for anything. Again I would like to ask if you think a chamber full of condems and teabaggers will pass anything better. Sorry but no one has guts in Washington, and if it fails then yeah Obama will just have to live with the political consequences of it. No way we pass anything better within the next eight years.

I love Alan Grayson but do you really think we could get Medicare for all?

What’s wishful thinking is that this will be ‘fixed’ if passed.

So we respectfully disagree.

Put it to a vote. If the house dems pass the senate/Obama bill they’re sunk in November. They’re going to run on a mandate with no public option?

Lmao.

Explain how we pass HCR if the bill fails.

Now don’t everyone raise your hands at once.

They wouldn’t dare bring up the issue for the rest of the 111th Congress.

Yes, they would. Our politicians are caught in a constant tension between the need to pretend to offer something to those who elected them, and the need to placate the lobbyists who pay them. Failing to do anything about the current situation with the insurance companies, which is far worse and which is attracting far more in the way of public protest than it was in 1994, will rip the mask off of our sold-out Congress. Passing a bill will continue the charade.

So enlighten me

Too daunting a task — I’m going against long odds, already, in hoping that you’ll actually read what I write here. The odds that you’ll take it seriously look even worse. You quite obviously haven’t read any of Jon Walker’s diaries here on FDL, otherwise you’d have a response already prepared.

People like you are just preparing yourselves to do nothing on this issue for the next twenty years because you’ve already told yourselves that “Congress won’t consider it,” and so you’ve chosen a stupidly reactionary position (“pass the damn bill”) without regard to the numerous, valid reasons for not taking such a position.

If this fails the dems will be too scared about there own elections to vote for anything.

Wrong. The Democrats will be too scared of being tarred as failures to pass nothing.

Yes, let’s get some voting now.

This week it’s Durbin’s turn to play “Good Cop” to Nancy’s “Bad Cop”. He’s “willing to whip” a House bill with a public option but the House Speaker has already discerned (devined?) that Durbin’s effort would be futile. But she’s “sad”.

These are the jokes, folks. The actors get to switch roles and costumes, as long as every performance ends the same way: No public option.

A Public Option of any type will NEVER EVER happen if the Senate Bill Passes.

Proof:

Why is the media not reporting this below?

According to the NY Times, Obama made a deal with the for-profit hospital industry to not sign a law with the public option.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/miles-mogulescu/the-real-reason-obamas-pl_b_473924.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/13/health/policy/13health.html?pagewanted=all

“Hospital industry lobbyists, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of alienating the White House, say they negotiated their $155 billion in concessions with Mr. Baucus and the administration in tandem. House staff members were present, including for at least one White House meeting, but their role was peripheral, the lobbyists said.

Several hospital lobbyists involved in the White House deals said it was understood as a condition of their support that the final legislation would not include a government-run health plan paying Medicare rates – generally 80 percent of private sector rates – or controlled by the secretary of health and human services.

“We have an agreement with the White House that I’m very confident will be seen all the way through conference,” one of the industry lobbyists, Chip Kahn, director of the Federation of American Hospitals, told a Capitol Hill newsletter.”

Obama makes this deal to kill the public option at our expense with Devils Who Murder For Profit – Google the published 2002 study “A systematic review and meta-analysis of studies comparing mortality rates of private for-profit and private not-for-profit hospitals”: They found that for-profit hospitals have a 2% higher death rate than non-profit hospitals because of the need to generate profit to satisfy investors, the significantly higher administrative costs, and the large executive bonuses.

Voting for Obama and then screwed like this is like this: I finally think I get a lawyer to represent me in a legal conflict and I’m all excited that I finally will stop getting screwed. Then I find out that my lawyer just wants to do nothing but make deals with the other side, and I get nothing of what I really wanted and hired for. I end up screwed anyway. I am a client scorned.

With this deal with the Corporate Devils to kill any public option, this is how President Obama has treated those of us who put our trust in him with our vote. We are a base scorned. His rah-rah speeches ring true no more – they now ring as lies. I will join many in withholding my money, my labor, and my vote from any and all such corporatist Democrats for now on, including Obama. Hey. Obama. Hell hath no fury than a client or base scorned……[see "than" as a preposition]

It is 4 years until this bill even goes into effect.

What a bunch of PINO’s (Progressives in name only). You guys are worse than Joe LIEberman. Real progressives are willing to make compromises for the greater good. You ARE NOT the majority of progressives!

Perhaps if it fails they would try again, but sorry it’s not going to have a public option. If they don’t give up they will just craft a new watered down bill that is even worse. If you expect anything better in this Congress or the next you are wrong. HCR is my passion that I have fought for over twenty-five years (since I was sixteen) so to say I don’t want to do anything about for the next twenty years is actually offensive to me.

You can’t face the more rational arguments presented by Jon Walker, Jane Hamsher, and others here who have pointed out:

1) the unpopularity of the mandate
2) the popularity of the public option
3) the unenforceability of the restrictions upon insurers
4) the unaffordability of insurance which will actually cover any sort of major illness you might have
5) Obama’s deals with the insurers and the pharmaceutical companies

You haven’t been reading FDL here, you don’t know the arguments, you don’t know anything about the history of health insurance or about “health care reform” of the sort they’re promoting with the Senate bill. So here you are making character attacks. Yeah, that’s going to make you really popular here. What cowardice. Please just go away. And please get out of the Green Party — you’re probably there just to block consensus anyway.

Perhaps if it fails they would try again, but sorry it’s not going to have a public option.

So you can see the future now?

Yep, just as I thought. There to block consensus.

http://www.gp.org/press/pr-national.php?ID=241

That huffpo article is huge news! The heat is on.

Obama is gonna take some major heat from this. Everyone should read that article. Pass it on to everyone you know.

Thanks, angryangel.

Also see: http://www.greenparty.org/Platform.php:

Universal Health Care: A single-payer National Health Program to provide free medical and dental care for all, with freedom of choice for consumers among both conventional and alternative health care providers, federally financed and controlled by democratically elected local boards.

Explain how I’m wrong. Do you really think that they will be able to pass anything more progressive in this Congress? No! If this bill fails Obama and house dems will just suck up to blue dawgs and give them whatever they want. It’s all about the votes.

Do you really think that they will be able to pass anything more progressive in this Congress?

We’ll try to elect a better Congress in November. You, otoh, should just go away.

Given that all three branches of government look on corporations as deserving of greater consideration than the public’s then I think we should look at other measures we can take to assure our needs. We really need to stop wasting our time expecting the government to act on our behalf.

The most realistic path I see is to enact state measures for publicly financed health insurance such as those in VT and one being proposed in PA. The state must further impose stringent regulations on private insurers.

One further measure is to challenge the legality of the federal governemnt’s requiring the public to purchase of a product from a private company. It is not enough to rile against it, one must either fail to comply or challenge that requirement in court.

Similar state measures can be enacted to reign in bank and other financial abusive practices. Public financing of all state and federal elected offices must also be enacted through state initiatives.

The point is to realize that corporations and the federal government have become essentially a single enterprise working in concert against the public in order to extract profit. We need no further proof of that. We really cannot just mope and bemoan our fate as we become increasingly pauperized and need to act now.

So rather than submit we should both work to change the make up of the federal government, challenge its dictates in court and look to state initiatives for our helath insurance and other needs.

As I said the other day when I laid out FDL’s position on whipping the public option, I’m still not convinced they can pass this bill–period. And I don’t particularly want to get everyone riled up to whip on something that may never happen.

First, people are already riled up.
Second, I think its very risky to wait.

Oh please it’s not just blue dawgs facing tough elections in 2010. Dems will probably not have the Congress and if you think condems and teabaggers will get anything better you are wrong. Optimistic thinking doesn’t get bills passed.

Nobody wins an election speculating about how they’re going to lose.

Give me a break do you really think there will be a more progressive Congress next year? That is absolutely ridiculous.

In response, Nancy Pelosi says she won’t include a public option in the House bill.

I am very angry that Pelosi is not including the public option in the reconciliation bill. I am wondering if it is already too late to change her mind. She has sent the tentative reconciliation bill to the Congressional Budget Office for a cost estimate. Once that comes back there will be a huge push to get it passed in the House before the President goes overseas.

I don’t know if anything can turn the tide at this point. Having the Senate add an amendment for the public option would mean that the bill would have to go back to the House to be voted on again. With all the finger pointing, I just don’t see that happening. The public option does not have a champion in Congress, like Ted Kennedy would have been. We also do not have the President’s help. So to me, it is do or die time. If we can’t get the House to include the public option in the reconciliation bill before it goes to the Senate, it’s dead for years.

To me, the best scenario would be for the House to create a reconciliation bill that contains a public option. Get the figures from the Congressional Budget Office to show how much money it would save. It should save a lot more than the main bill. Then have the reconciliation bill voted on in the House. Any House member who votes against it will have to defend at the polls why they didn’t pass the reconciliation bill that saved money and provided the public option.

Then send the bill to the Senate. Senators would be highly pressured to pass the reconciliation bill. Even Republicans might be in a tough spot. The original HCR would already be law. Any Senator who doesn’t go along with a bill that lowers costs for HCR will have to answer for that in the next election. If the reconciliation bill fails in the Senate, everyone will know who voted against it. No more hiding.

Jane,

You hit the nail on the head. But as I have done, not only would I tell readers to contact their representative, but to fax Pelosi TODAY. The fax number to her office is, (202)-225-4188.

Next, I am utterly perplexed that the House will go without getting the abortion issue resolved, but won’t insert the public option, which the House passed already. Pelosi blames the Senate, and the Senate, per its whip, said it will muster up the needed votes to pass whatever the House sends over to it. All the while, Obama sits back and twittles his thumbs.

Also, Alan Grayson introduced within the last couple of days a bill to enact a public option. Why not have the House vote on it, the senate bill and its reconciliation bill all at once.

In the end, if we get a reform bill without needed competition that only a public option can bring to the table, look for independents like me to stay home in November or vote for the opposition.

I have to say here that when I keep hearing about all the new insurance reforms, like the no pre-existing condition stuff, let me ask, WHO THE HELL IS GOING TO PAY FOR IT????? Yup, you guessed right— you and me, not the damn insurance industry that will be reaping $billions more from a mandate. So I wish those who keep saying we are getting new reforms, dummies, listen up: you are going to be paying for them, including those who can’t pay for insurance premiums now. Boy, are Americans incredibly stupid, or naive, or both.

“The PCCC has done a great job getting members of Congress on the record as to where they stand, and I agree wholeheartedly with Adam Green:”

Yes they have. And thanks for all of your continued work Jane and team