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It appears Harry Reid (D-NV) has promised Senate liberals a vote on a public option in the next few months. It sounds like this vague promise of “fixing it later” was more than enough to get Bernie Sanders (I-VT) to completely flip-flop on offering a public option amendment during reconciliation. From Huffington Post:
In the end, of course, the public plan still faces the same institutional hurdles it had in the previous go-rounds — mainly that there aren’t 60 supportive senators to break a filibuster. But aides on the Hill are already looking to future reconciliation vehicles to which they can attach the policy, which would in turn allow for it to pass via an up-or-down vote.
“I very much appreciate Majority Leader Reid’s continuing support for a public option and I am grateful for his commitment to bring legislation before the full Senate within the next several months,” Sen. Sanders said in response. “It’s imperative that we have a vote on this issue and I’m glad that is going to happen… It is my judgment that a majority of members in the House and Senate would support a public option when it comes up for a vote.”
This is probably the single worst trade since the beginning of this process. If Sanders offered a public option amendment to the reconciliation, he would be guaranteed an up-or-down, simple majority vote on an amendment to a bill that can’t be filibustered. Given that the big health care bill would have already been passed if the reconciliation bill is in the Senate, there is no need to worry the public option would derail the original Senatet bill. So, it sounds like Sanders and the other public option supporters in the Senate traded away a rock solid guarantee for a vote on a public option in exchange for a vague promise that they might possibly get a vote later. Way to negotiate!
It is good that they are at least talking about possibly putting in reconciliation instructions into the next budget that could be used to pass a public option with only a simple majority in the Senate. Promising a vote in a few months on the public option under regular order, which could be filibustered, would be so pathetic, it would make everyone involved look like fools.
I guess we will know in a month or two if they added potential public option reconciliation instructions to the budget, and whether or not Harry Reid is possibly true to his word. Personally, given his behavior over the last year, I’m not holding my breath.
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Come in from the cold, Jane.
PS: Kosmas is now a Yes.
http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_politics/2010/03/exclusive-kosmas-to-back-healthcare-reform.html
Shorter Bernie Sanders: I’ll have a shit sandwich with a side order of prions.
The collective is insane. And creepy! “Come in from the cold,” etc. It takes great courage to stand outside and see the way things really are.
Things are going to get VERY weird not far down the road if this bill passes. The health care crisis in this country won’t be solved at all, the horror stories will keep coming, premiums will rise, plans will be cut back, etc..–but there won’t be anywhere to turn, because “we fixed it.” :-)
Except we haven’t.
The crisis will still be with us and getting worse. The real pain will grow more slowly, as people see their employers’ plans cut services and increase copays, and the Democrats will reap the whirlwind. Couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch, IMO. And then we’re REALLY in the soup.
I am a bit mystified how anyone can take this seriously. By the time any vote takes place, the Dems are likely to be the minority arm of the one corporate party that governs you. The evangeliban will be well-represented. The only things you’ll be able to pass through that congress are laws to criminalise poverty, cut taxes to zero for multi-millionaires, and reintroduce some form of serfdom on an “official” basis. Harry Reid won’t be scheduling any votes. He won’t even be in the senate any more.
Now, the Rethuglicans claim they are going to run on repealing the Health Insurance Bailout. This is not credible. The insurers got 90% of what they wanted. Are the Rethugs really going to stop all that and go back to square one? Not on your nellie! They’ll rub salt (and acid) into the open wounds. What abomination to the power of 10 will they actually produce when ‘repealing’ the bailout? No one is talking about this. But it is a theme that should be explored. If they would just ‘repeal’, and go back to everything as before, it would in truth be better than the coming status quo (depending on the vote we hear so much about, which looks like it will go their (Corporate Stooge in Chief and Rahm’s) way and all this is currently just theatre). And without doubt, most contributors and readers here agree that doing nothing is far preferable to the abomination that they (Corporate Stooge in Chief and Rahm) have brought from festering in the bowels of hell to inflict upon the US.
This is an interesting situation. If the Rethugs actually meant what they say, they’d be doing everyone a favour. But of course they don’t, because the insurers would be more than angry. So what would (will, seeing as they are heading for the majority in short order) actually happen? Would Jon Walker like to speculate? His stuff has been excellent throughout but this is one to address.
When will someone, anyone, ask Harry Reid why he’s not demanding every American receives access to the same Healthcare his wife & daughter recently received?
Resistance is Useless. You will be assimilated. Hail the Borg Queen!
This is probably the single worst trade since the beginning of
this processtime.Fixed it.
I think you can divide Washington Democrats into two categories, those that always seem to lose because they’re faking it and those that lose because that’s what they’re good at. Bernie has a kind soul, so I have no doubt he’s just simply a loser.
I realize it’s waaay too early to look forward past the blinding glare of The Singularity Point when this some-sort-of-HCR bill becomes law, but two separate floater balloons surfaced today of promises to progressives about revisiting the Public Option in the coming year. (Presumably that’s how Dennis Kucinich and Anthony Weiner and Al Franken were brought around, too, cause I simply don’t believe the petulant rants that they’re sellouts.)
I think we should all take a break from demonizing people like this who we know are on our side, and realize we’ll all have the perfect opportunity then to see who among us is REALLY a True Progressive and and who is secretly in the pocket of Evil Corporate DINOs. The Truth Will Out, as they say. (I know, I know… the blinding light!)
you have to know they are saving this vote for right before the election, so that Harry can retain his seat and the democrats can say “look how great we are, vote for us” And as far as Sander goes, it is pretty sad how he sold us out. He was so happy to get health care for the poorest among us, so we can beg and if we stay poor enough we can be taken care of.
Al Franken, in the primaries, was quoted as saying, he does not believe in single payer and that we should insure all the children and after 5 years if that works, then we should cover adults. Where anyone got the idea that he was a progressive is way beyond any of the 335,000 people from Mn that voted for Obama (not knowing that he lied) and not for Al. Many of those 335,000 were principled progressives who did not like that he was not for single-payer and was and is an avid supporter of the wars. He is a self proclaimed DLC democrat, although after he decided to run, he never told anyone that. I sure wouldn’t count on him for anything progressive.
Al Franken, in the primaries, was quoted as saying, he does not believe in single payer…not for single-payer and was and is an avid supporter of the wars.
See, this is exactly the type of crack-addled pathetic idiocy I was referring to. You are just spewing Glenn Beck level, no, Orly Taitz level screaming batshit poop here.
You didn’t even bother to google Al Franken single payer, did you, before barfing out that PUMA tripe?
Al:
And really, I’d help you out with your next laughable PUMA talking point that Franken is “pro-war” (!!! Seriously, have you just woken up from a coma?) but I’m gasping too hard at your brain-damaged hilarity right at the minute.
You suck the credibility from one of my long favorite sites with every one of these fresh turds. Just go back to your hole, fake progressive.
Well, surely the progressives will take this deal. Their strategy all along has been to obfuscate their real policy goals by being progressive only when it doesn’t matter.
Introduce a hopeless bill that will never pass? Sure, they’ll do that. Vote for an amendment that’s doomed to failure? Yep. Play hardball to get a vote on something? No way! That might actually achieve real policy progress.
I’m sure *if* a vote was held on this in the Senate it would conveniently fail 58-42 or some such number (which apparently constitutes failure in the Senate…. but only for progressive legislation).
Oh please…Do you know we have had roughly the same number of Congress people supporting the Medicare for All bill since it was first proposed? Do you know, save Weiner, every single one of those people agreed not to even discuss single payer for vague promises of some sort of a “public option” in this bill when the debate first began? We know one thing for sure, we do not have the votes to expand public insurance outside of a much less than originally proposed Medicaid expansion.
So if Sanders and Merkey promise not to offer a PO amendment, is that binding on other senators?
Melior, You’re agenda is showing, again. “I think we should all take a break from demonizing people like this who we know are on our side”. We’re the “demonizers”, huh?
And, this is a nice assertion: “We know one thing for sure, we do not have the votes to expand public insurance outside of a much less than originally proposed Medicaid expansion.” How exactly do we know this?
Hey Melior, IF you are a Progressive as you claim, it’s time for you to take a step back and think long & hard about what Marcia Pappas, President of New York Now has to say (reported by Jane) about Pelosi’s latest give-away. I think we’d all like to hear your latest thoughts on whether Jane, team & supporters “should all take a break from demonizing people … who we know are on our side”.
Have you heard one legislator introduce an Amendment that the Gov’t. should NOT subsidize Viagra?
IF you were a Progressive you’d have done this soul searching by now. Every “political” battle presents a line that must not be crossed. If you draw no line you have no passion, no conviction, nothing that’s really important to you.
Until Dem. legislators believe Progressives’ must be taken seriously, they will continue to treat us as a trading card. It’s the times we live in.