Michael Bennet was all about the public option when it didn’t matter. Now that the health care bill has passed and the President has signed it, there’s no way that introducing an amendment can stop it from going through — so why is Bennet nowhere to be found?
Thirty four thousand people have signed the petition asking Bennet to do what his primary challenger Andrew Romanoff would — introduce a public option amendment in the Senate fix. And tomorrow, David Sirota is asking people to help him deliver the signatures to Bennet’s Denver office:
I am asking as many of you as possible to join me tomorrow (WEDNESDAY, 3/24) at Senator Bennet’s office at 2300 15th Street at 10:45am to deliver a petition signed by 35,000 Americans in just 4 days. With the Senate tomorrow set to consider a bill improving the health care reform that was just signed into law by President Obama, the petition that asks Senator Bennet to follow through on his promise and introduce an amendment creating a public insurance option to compete with private insurance companies.
I realize the timing of this is short notice and that the weather may be a bit rough tomorrow – but this is our last, best chance to enact a public option, as it can be passed right now with just 51 Senate votes. Because Senator Bennet has publicly promised to offer this amendment, all we are asking him to do is follow through on that promise – a promise that, according to the latest poll, 60 percent of Colorado voters support. The more people who show up with me, the better.
As you know, I have repeatedly praised Senator Bennet for taking the lead on the public option. But he is considering not following through on his promise – and he needs to hear from as many of us as possible tomorrow to make sure he follows through. All it takes is one Senator to offer the amendment.
Regardless of whichever candidate you may support in the Democratic U.S. Senate primary (and I am neutral), I hope that if you support the public option you will join me tomorrow – and please, pass on this note to as many people as you can.
Rock the boat,
David
FDLer Kelly Canfield will be there too, so if you’re in Denver, please join them.
The reconciliation sidecar bill is being debated in the Senate this week. It basically gives the unions their carve-out fix for the excise tax, which is paid for by a Medicare tax on unearned income and $22 billion which would have otherwise gone to student aid. It doesn’t affect the care that anyone will receive, so there’s nothing standing between Bennet and his commitment to fulfilling an up-or-down vote on the public option.
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Thanks Jane, David, and Kelly!
Nice!
Don’t let up yet!
You all are wonderful.
Just add the element re “and if you’re not going to follow through, please forward all the money we donated to you to Mr. Romanoff.”
Nothing is stopping him from offering a PO but the fear of obamarahma. bennet is simply following in the footsteps of those that don’t want to be called f_*&^%g r$%^&&ds. If he happens to win the primary, he wants the full support of the WH, which he may not get if “mr. bipartisan” is not happy with him.
Great idea. You do know, of course, that Bennett has no intention of following through, and that his staff may even refuse to accept the petitions and have you ousted or arrested for trespassing, right?
Really!
Thanks guys and let’s hope he WILL introduce a public option amendment in the Senate fix!!! please oh please…
I hope you’ll bring a video camera for posterity. What a great opportunity (and history making moment) for Mr. Bennet to demonstrate the importance of keeping one’s word – on camera for all his voters to witness. Mr. Bennet goes to Washington!
Or will Mr. Bennet try a tapdance, or the old soft shoe or shuck and jive?
Go David, Go Kelly !
Go Colorado Progressives !
Well, that pretty much leaves him naked and standing before the public as an unprincipled hack in an upcoming primary, doesn’t it.
Heartbreaking.
I may have to start digging through his campaign contributions to see what’s there.
Just signed the petition and donated.
I wish, wish, wish it could be more [$$$], and I have no illusions about actually influencing him, but I’d rather contribute to FDL and its efforts than to another sell-out politician.
Then they get to ponder how that will look on tape.
With you all in spirit, have a wonderful time in the Mile High City!
*tsk* *tsk* *tsk* … this Hamsher gal ‘spects Pols to follow through on their promises … what a novel approach. /s
Romanoff’s done a pretty good job documenting Bennet’s PAC contributions and money from corporate entities. He’s been on the Rahmobama gravy train ever since his appointment.
It’ll look real good for a Romanoff ad:
Here’s my opponent ordering the arrest of peaceful citizens because they brought him a petition to honor a promise he made. Bennet wouldn’t deliver on the Public Option he promised. Instead, he had his constituents arrested.
I’m Romanoff. Vote for me. I promise not to throw you out or call the cops on you.
uh huh
from an am Jane Hamsher Post
Unfortunately, won’t Bennett be in D.C. and not in his Colorado office? So all we get is a staffer escorting Sirota and Canfield, et al, out?
Great blog. Bad idea. I’ve been organizing for health care in Colorado for 15 months. Every health care expert and every attorney I talk to that is familiar with the federal political process says this is a bad idea. We need to get this bill passed before the Senate leaves for recess on Monday. Introducing any ammendments will take time and we … See Morewill not get it passed. Senators have been instructed to say “No” to all legislation, both progressive and conservative, to get this through now. If we don’t we risk losing the whole bill. Lives depend on getting the recon package passed.
This little ploy is an attempt by Bennet’s opponent’s campaign to discredit our great Senator. It is a cheap shot, and Romanoff should be ashamed of himself for risking human lives to get ahead politically.
Go Kelly, CO, FDL and all.
Bless you all.
But I gotta catch up to comments, for once.
GO!!!!
Ok read more, bless Mz. Hamsher, FDL and KELLY FOR SURE, for keeping on this one.
Bennett is dead meat.
His Romanoff adversary sounds MUCH more prog to date . . . I hope he will prove to be prog if he’s elected.
YEAH, I got hope, silly, hun . . .
GO Kelly, FDL. That’s hope for me.
Great blog. Bad idea. I’ve been organizing for health care in Colorado for 15 months. Every health care expert and every attorney I talk to that is familiar with the federal political process says this is a bad idea. We need to get this bill passed before the Senate leaves for recess on Monday. Introducing any ammendments will take time and we will not get it passed. Senators have been instructed to say “No” to all legislation, both progressive and conservative, to get this through now. If we don’t we risk losing the whole bill. Lives depend on getting the recon package passed.
This little ploy is an attempt by Bennet’s opponent’s campaign to discredit our great Senator. It is a cheap shot, and Romanoff should be ashamed of himself for risking human lives to get ahead politically.
I’m charging the video cam. Um hmmm.
Wait. “As you know I have repeatedly praised Senator Bennet for his work on the public option” signed by David? What a joke. Sirota trashes Bennet every chance he gets, and Sirota is on record saying he hopes this health reform bill fails. Unbelievable!
Did you see this, Jane? Another one is coming out tomorrow just like it from a coalition of health reform groups.
For Immediate Release
Statement by AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka
On Health Care ‘Poison Pill’ Amendments
March 23, 2010
“A ‘NO’ on amendments is a ‘YES’ on health care.”
As senators prepare to take up fixes to the historic legislation passed by the House late Sunday night, they cannot allow process, technicalities, or cynical ploys to derail the legislation. Republicans are going to use a “kitchen sink” amendment strategy, throwing everything they can at the bill to try to sink reform. This will include amendments on issues that we would otherwise strongly support.
Any amendment offered during this process is nothing more than a poison pill. A ‘NO’ on amendments is a ‘YES’ on health care.
Working families won’t be fooled by dirty tricks from the opponents of health reform out to do the bidding of the insurance companies. And US Senators should not be fooled either. Just as we did in the House, unions will employ all our resources to support Senators in passing the reconciliation package and taking the last step on the path to health care reform for all Americans. We will make sure that constituents of Senators who do the right thing and vote “no” on all amendments know the score about what really goes on in the Senate.
###
Lives have depended on this for sixty some years, and it’s only just now that the insurance model of health care financing has a chance to lock itself in for a generation is there suddenly such an urgency. Suspicious!
Okay stop saying this. Please.
The bill passed. That’s what that business about the President signing it today was all about. The way the government works is that when the President signs something into law, adding an amendment to a bill in the Senate a few days later does not “risk losing the whole bill.”
I believe that passing an opportunity to do the right thing and stand for principle is the same as NOT doing the right thing, and NOT standing for principle.
If healthcare is about politics, please continue to move the pawns around the board and let the royalty capture them.
If healthcare is about people, then people standing up on principle cannot be denigrated nor denied.
You come here and throw out a complete whopper like “Romanoff should be ashamed of himself for risking human lives to get ahead politically” about a fucking TAX FIX and then accuse Sirota of lying?
Really?
How many lives will be lost if the union carve-out kicks in in 2018 instead of 2014? How many will die if they steal the money from college students instead of cadillac insurance plans?
Do provide the numbers. Maybe your friend Michael Bennet can supply them.
Should we judge Bennet as a candidate by the intellectual honesty of his supporters?
Wow, nice, erm, nice, uh, nice jive from the facts you omit, and don’t present, other than platitudes.
I think I’ll go with the facts Romanoff and his supporters from CO and elsewhere have posted on this site.
Lemme know when your faux name matches up with the reality on the ground in CO.
Guess you’d best tell Bennett and the GOP you need new talking points.
Cuz your’s are shat down badly, to date.
Heh, not for pasta making vids, I guess . . .
Make it hum, make it DYNAMO Hum, hoss!!!!!!
Thanks for your comments regarding CO and Romanoff and all.
*G*
So the unions want their fix and they’re willing to take $23 billion straight (and I do mean straight) out of the pockets of community colleges and minority students to do it.
Not that the unions should ever have had to make that compromise, it was a terrible idea and the fact that the Senate tried to saddle them with it sucks. But the ruthlessness with which they are pursuing this “fix” at the expense of — well, anyone else is not a sign of progressive bona fides.
Perhaps the most irritating thing about this whole debate has been the number of people retreating into the intellectually feeble “so-and-so says so, and therefore it must be good.”
We used to laugh at that kind of stupid during the Bush years. It was a sign that people didn’t know what they were talking about, and had to lean on the power of brands and personalities in order to justify their opinions. And then we’d take out the long knives.
But now? “I’m with stupid” is all the rage.
In other words Trumka is saying “We sold out your asses fair and square on the public option so don’t get in the way of our payoff!”
… and that’s what the reconciliation bill is for Trumka et al: a payoff, albeit its given in relief from taxes on the middle class that were caused by… bailing on the public option.
And your hysterical accusation that people will die if the medicare buy-in or even a public option is brought up by the Senate actually sounds like something from a teabagger…
House Dems and Especially Senate Dems like Glenn Greenwald said earlier are going to play a game with the public option for the next 6 or 7 months.
House Dems and Senate Dems think the Dem Base is as stupid as the GOP base, so for the next couple of months they are going to use the Public Option like a Magic Trick, they are going to show it to the base and make it disappear. Now you see it, Now you don’t
It is up to the progressive base to play a game with the Dems, the Dems have got to sell this Health Care Scam to the masses,
it looks like the Dems in congress are going to follow Obama and lie about how great this Bill is, what real progressives have got to do is plant people at Dem town halls and ask Dems about the New York Times article that states Obama killed the Public Option in July of 2009.
Progressives need to make sure the masses Know that OBAMA killed the Public Option with his deal with for profit Hospitals, so it is no need for House Dems and Senate Dems to lie to the masses, because Obama sold everybody out.
No House Dem or Senate Dem wants to discuss Obama back room deals at a town hall, but if they are going to play games with the public option we need to play games with them
Kelly, I wish I could be there tomorrow in Denver.
Senator Bennet, If you don’t act when you can make a difference, gestures like your letter supporting a public option are empty and make you look like a fraud.
I’ve already made one contribution to Mr. Romanoff. Now I’m thinking about making a contribution of a dollar or more a day to his campaign between the day that you can introduce an amendment to create a public option (but don’t) and the day of the primary in August.
Please have the courage of the convictions, which you told the country you have.
Jane, sorry to go off topic on you, but have you seen this? Have people gone batshit crazy or what? Do we now have to line up and give Obama BJ’s too?
WTF is going on in this world????
That is an excellent point.
Damn… took too long… my reply was somewhat anticlimatic after everyone else had already tackled the falsehoods :)
My local thing is that Bennet is a DC connected competent corporate administrator. He is. And that’s not what I want. Particularly after his association with Phil Anschutz and merging theaters. Anschutz is poison.
Compare and contrast to Romanoff.
edit: And Bennet has NEVER been elected here in CO. Ever. Romanoff? Several times over.
Even partisan Dems are shaking their heads saying WTF?
Impeachment: off the table;
War crimes investigations: off the table;
Single payer: off the table;
Public option: off the table;
Destroying ACORN: No problem; done in a week.
And you want to send her a fucking birthday card?
I am so excited you are going to be there, Kelly! Yeah!
Can’t wait to see the video.
Glad you gave me the opportunity.
I won’t get home till after 5:00 Mountain, so it will be a bit before the vid get’s up.
We need to take them to task publicly for their lies about the public option and let no one forget about the various and sundry backstabs that got us into this position… but more than a PO is needed.
And after the shafting it has already taken along the way even if a further-weakened version is tacked onto the senate bill it won’t be enough to do much of anything.
At best it would break the legal precedent of the corporate serfdom that Trumka, among many others, has delivered us into.
You really have to be kidding. I would suggest you go to PDAmerica.org and read what the doctors for health care think of your ideas of this bill saving lives. Shut the corporate media off and go read.
My message to Bennet on the petition:
Romanoff is posturing. Bennet was posturing
Anyone who believes otherwise is living in a fantasy world.
Trumka has no idea that he is surrounded by people who hate UNIONS.
The last thing a UNION LEADER in the year 2010 needs to be doing is making deals that cut funds for Community Colleges, you would think of all people TRUMKA would know Clinton sent all the High School Jobs to CHina via NAFTA.
TRUMKA should realize most of his new members are going to be Community College Grads.
Trumka makes me scratch my head all the time, Trumka thinks the UNIONS need the Dem party, he never thinks the Democratic Party needs the UNIONS.
Trumka if he knew how to play his cards could have control the entire health care debate, and got everything the UNIONS wanted, plus took the mantle of Progressive Heroes.
Trumka does not understand that he is the guy with all the nuclear missiles, OBAMA and Rahm have a water gun.
(Obama and Rahm are using a lot smoke and mirrors, Al Franken blew a fuse apparently because he knows this NEO-Liberal crap is not going to work this time, thus his big arguement with David Axelrod.)
zapkitty, I totally agree with you.
It is funny how the MSM, the PHONY DEMS in congress, and OBAMA made the idea of SINGLE PAYER extreme and we let them.
Obama is using a lot of madison ave tricks to control the roll out of his programs.
The roll out of Health Care looked like a MOVIE.
You got people marching thru angry crowds
You got the MSM calling this a FDR moment
You got OBAMA readling letters about sick people that his HEALTH CARE scam cannot help
You got the GOP acting like they hate their Health CAre BILL.
But once you roll back the covers what you have is a Bill that forces people to buy Health Insurance.
Obama used a BUSH TRICK, he knew he could not call this BILL the INSURANCE BAIL OUT PLAN, so his madison ave. staff told him to name it HEALTH CARE REFORM. (Bush named a Program NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND and it LEFT every CHILD in the USA BEHIND, the same will be true with this Health Care Scam)
and yes 51% of america hates the Bill
Another example of an upside down world.
Al Franken is really good. Almost as good as Obama. He is DLC. A Rahm man all the way. Eventually, people will see him for who he is also.
Well Jane, I love it. Everybody else has caved and you are still fighting until the bitter end. If only all the other so-called progressive groups would have fought until the end, that bill would not have passed without at least a public option and I have to say, things are not looking good for Bennett. Since he is a Rahm man, is it possible Rahm had him write that letter to Harry Reid demanding the public option. Wouldn’t it be a hoot if it was and it helped take him out?
Hey, another fund-raising possibility for FDL: print up some t-shirts with “I’m with stupid” and an arrow pointing to a picture of Obama.
Of course for us it would have to be “I’m NOT with stupid”.
Just saw a video of Joe Scarborough (rarely watch any MSM or cable, but had a feeling it might be good)…and did he ever call Pelosi on her lie. (And yes, he used the word “lie.”) When she touted how “corrupt” the insurance companies were, and how the Dems were “taking them down,” etc. in an interview with Diane Sawyer, he was incredulous (as are many of us). Close to outrage. And basically said: Look, Nancy, you’re lying. You gave the insurance companies what they wanted. You gave pharma what it wanted. Stop lying. Very direct, to the point.
P.S. Glad to see Jane addressing the student loan issue. That one really bothers me. REALLY bothers me. How they could take money from college kids who need it big time…and simply move it into insurance companies. I hope college age kids get ahold of this one and start the protests. What a way to stomp all over a part of your base that was full of idealism, optimism, and that put Mr. O over the top.
Horrible.
I would buy it
If we can take out Bennett, I think we should send out the same email only with the party for Jane. Skip the flowers though, i think we progressives have way to many other important issues to fund.
Funny how my brain seems to be one-tracking on “how to raise money for FDL.”
Picture of Democratic caucus, Steney+Nancy+Reid or whoever would work as well in the “stupid” frame.
But I swear, watching these cheer leaders get called out, shat upon and generally pointed out to be the dishonest weasels that they are has made me feel better than I’ve felt in many a month.
I hope karma has very sharp teeth when it bites them in the ass.
You and twelve thousand pissed of community college presidents
I don’t think 2012 is going to be the joyous year with the college set the Obama campaign might be anticipating
Actually, the press release from the Physicians for health care reform is on this site. You might want to read it. I am sure you really don’t want to continue to appear stupid when talking about this insurance bill
BTW, where is a link to the story about screwing college students re the loan intermediaries?
I seem to have missed it.
Or are you talking about screwing them by taking money from funding community colleges?
Alternative suggestion for “peacemonger:” someone is posting a bunch of stupid ass comments on FDL and signing your name to them.
I can’t describe how kickass this entire post was.
The only thing saying the same thing as Jane has written here is this from the underrated and forgotten Demosthenes and his title of, sigh, “LieberCare is Law, But It’s Still A Dark Time For Progressives.”
It is truly worth the read, just as this post was.
Oops.
Gap in health care law’s protection for children: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jYnajhWrPEXihcCrpRNfUKN7rN-AD9EKO82G2
How many here remember when the war in Iraq started, anyone protesting it was called “unpatriotic” by the Bush administration and the media.
Now we have the Tea Party which has received massive media attention for over a year. The people involved with the Tea Party have been called crazy, racist, disgusting and every other ugly name and some have rightly deserved it.
Those progressives who dared to question the specific issues of the so-called health care bill were marginalized during discussions.
The point I want to make is that just as the Bush administration used “unpatriotic” as a way to marginalize protesters, the Obama administration is using the same method by marginalizing and ridiculing tea party activists and then equating progressives who dare to protest as being “just as bad as the tea party”.
I think that post reflects the angst of many people.
NOW President Terry O’Neill posted the following:
Fact: The bill contains a sweeping anti-abortion provision. Contrary to the talking points circulated by congressional leaders, the bill passed today ultimately achieves the same outcome as the infamous Stupak-Pitts Amendment, namely the likely elimination of all private as well as public insurance coverage for abortion. It imposes a bizarre requirement on insurance plan enrollees who buy coverage through the health insurance exchanges to write two monthly checks (one for an abortion care rider and one for all other health care). Even employers will have to write two separate checks for each of their employees requesting the abortion rider.
This burdensome, elaborate system must be eliminated. It is there because the Catholic bishops and extremist abortion rights opponents know that it will result in greatly restricting access to abortion care, currently one of the most common medical procedures for women.
Fact: President Obama made an eleventh-hour agreement to issue an executive order lending the weight of his office to the anti-abortion measures included in the bill. This move was designed to appease a handful of anti-choice Democrats who have held up health care reform in an effort to restrict women’s access to abortion. This executive order helps to cement the misconception that the Hyde Amendment is settled law rather than what it really is — an illegitimate tack-on to an annual must-pass appropriations bill. It also sends the outrageous message that it is acceptable to negotiate health care reform on the backs of women.
Fact: The bill permits age-rating, the practice of imposing higher premiums on older people. This practice has a disproportionate impact on women, whose incomes and savings are lower due to a lifetime of systematic wage discrimination.
Fact: The bill also permits gender-rating, the practice of charging women higher premiums simply because they are women. Some are under the mistaken impression that gender-rating has been prohibited, but that is only true in the individual and small-group markets. Larger group plans (more than 100 employees) sold through the exchanges will be permitted to discriminate against women — having an especially harmful impact in workplaces where women predominate.
We know why those gender- and age-rating provisions are in the bill: because insurers insisted on them, as they will generate billions of dollars in profits for the companies. Such discriminatory rating must be completely eliminated.
Is anyone in the MSM talking about this. And we should send Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi flowers for this???
The thing is thought, with how continuous FAR FAR FAR right the right is going, that side may just scare the mess out of everyone to not even think about voting for them. I sure wouldn’t, because of just how disastrous it would be.
A few months back I use to think that the further the right went, the better it was for this nation to see how insane or harmful conservative ideas were to the nation, making liberal principles easy to establish and all.
Instead, the crazier the right shows themselves to be in the eyes of the American public, the easier it is for Democrats to pass watered down legislation like this.
The Overton Window may have changed throughout the nation to liberal ways and means in some areas, especially in the last painful decades. But the Overton Window of party politics has seemingly stayed the same.
And it kind of hurts a little to see people slam you on Twitter bit by bit, or at Ballon Juice (well, John Cole) and other places around.
Please see my comment at #61. These slams on Jane Hamsher are intentional and meant to get her out of the public eye. Remember what happened in the media to Cindy Sheehan? We all need to stand up for our beliefs (support the Jane Hamsher’s in the country) and not fold as many did during the Bush administration.
I agree and the only way to play this game is to take out those senators both DEM and REP for lying and being bought off by the insurance industry and replace them with true blue progressives. At the same time you do the same in the HOUSE given the 34 who voted against the bill in the first place and there was a public option. Given the RECON in the senate why not try for the public option,but at the same time there must be day of reckoning for both DEMS and REP for not supporting the public option period. I have said this to many time to the leader of this blog it time for a new plan where we must replace those who have betrayed us including our President.
Ditto. Passed it on to a bunch of folks in Colorado. Thanks for all of your work FDL Team
Remember when Trumka said “we won’t support the bill if it doesn’t have the public option in it”
http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/afl-cios-richard-trumka-public-option-make
All the cheerleaders have forgotten, apparently
They’re showering her with roses, literally. Yes, Speaker Pelosi not only passed the greatest bill since Medicare and Social Security combined, she’s been named Miss Democratic Party 2010. I don’t know about you but I can’t wait to buy my set of Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act commemorative plates, featuring the heart-warming images of that great day, with one special addition hand-stamped coin, featuring Markos Moulitsas shedding a single sparkling tear.