Emanuel's Public Plan With Triggers Trial Balloon "Blew Up": Dem Lawmaker

A leading progressive in the House of Representatives said on Wednesday that she felt reassured that the White House would not pursue health care reform that tied a public plan to worsening economic triggers.

In an interview with the Huffington Post, Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.) said that Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel might have been floating a "trial balloon" when he told the Wall Street Journal earlier this week that a trigger option could be a compromise approach to health care reform. Judging by his interaction with progressives in the House of Representatives in the subsequent hours, she added, it seems that the administration has taken the proposal off the table.

"The president wasn't talking about a trigger," said Woolsey. And when Emanuel floated the idea, she said, "the balloon blew up. He got to the Democratic caucus and he heard loud and clear that that is not what we wanted. And he definitely heard it from myself and the progressives, very clearly, that we're talking about a robust public option."

The co-chair of the Progressive Caucus, Woolsey said that when Emanuel came to meet House Democrats on Tuesday evening -- hours after his interview with the Journal was published -- he did not receive a warm reception.

"He was on the defensive because he got there and he had to explain that what the president really wants is a robust public plan," said Woolsey.

The California Democrat said that she has whipped the progressive caucus in the House and concluded that more than 60 of its members would vote against a health care reform plan that had a public option tied to economic triggers. It is a line in the sand that she and others expressed to Emanuel when he met with his former House Democrats.

"Fortunately, when [Emanuel] left, we knew that he was not going to be out working for a trigger," said Woolsey. "He didn't make excuses," she added. "We [the progressive caucus] have already compromised. More than 90 percent of the progressive caucus would vote today for a single payer system. And so for us to compromise and get behind a really good strong public plan, I mean that's as far as we're going. And I started with that and he said, 'Lynn I know that.' He knows that we're very serious about this."

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Comments

[repugnicansfearme]

On HuffPost tonight: People who touch their lips with their index fingers (check out this and other posts). Note: the touching of one's index finger to one's lips denotes "deep thoughts" "concentration" and implies "I should just keep my flippin mouth shut and not contradict the President, or say stupid things".

[GoldenAgeMaster]

Contradicting the president is patriotic, not idiotic!

[rich misty]

Republicans don't contradict, they have nothing to contridict with. Republicans attack with hatred, venom, lies, and smear.

[PATina]

The California Democrat said that she has whipped the progressive caucus in the House and concluded that more than 60 of its members would vote against a health care reform plan that had a public option tied to economic triggers. It is a line in the sand that she and others expressed to Emanuel when he met with his former House Democrats.


Thank you progressive dems. Someone has to have the guts to put their foot down.

[Exexecution]

Let's be clear. Emanuel is not the President and he does not 'float trial balloons', that are not *directly* at the behest of his boss.
This was Obama's trial balloon from start to finish.

[diak0n0s]

You are correct.

How did you get this posted without being banned from the blog??

[Antifascist-08]

grow up.

[JRsNana]

This isn't one of your right-wing hate sites diakonos - this is HuffPo. You can actually disagree with people and have really good fights and call each other names and everything on this site. I know, it's a whole lot different from The Hill or some of your other sites where only like-minded folks get to talk about how much they hate Obama. Real world here.

[weatherwaxx]

So?

Too many Americans view democracy as a spectator sport. If they have to be reminded that, left to themselves, Congress is more likely to go after the $ from industry lobbyists than listen to their constituents, then that sort of 'trial balloon' is more like a signal balloon -- speak up or get screwed.

[jukesgrrl]

The two sentences you wrote above should be at the top of the comments section of almost every article on HuffPost. Speak up or get screwed. That should be the new motto of healthcare reform. Thank you!

[LemonMeringue]

One of the problems with employer based health care is that only the employed-by-others can buy it.

That means consultants, self-employed people, people temporarily or not so temporarily unemployed, people taking parenting breaks, and everyone who cannot get health care through an employer are dependent on the rest of us EMPLOYED PEOPLE to pay for their health care. When they get sick, the costs get passed off onto us and our premiums go up.

Best of all would be to ditch insurance altogether. Insurance drives up costs and puts health care out of reach of so many more.

[CaptainVideo]

The Democrats made a major tactical error in taking the single payer plan off the table from the beginning. The single payer plan should have been seriously considered along with other proposed plans. Then the public option would have been the bipartisan compromise between the people who want the single payer plan and the people who are against the government providing any coverage.

[pspidey]

Yep, they and Obama continue to make this mistake. An unwillingness to play hardball. And a tendency to treat your opponents reasonably - failing to recognize that their opponents are not like themselves - they are not reasonable people.

Pretending that they are, and treating them as such won't get us the change we need. And it's particularly irksome when he concedes early on progressive options just so he can look reasonable.

The stimulus plan was another example - we've ended up with a very ineffective plan with very little infrastructure spending as a proportion of the plan; all because we made early concessions to a minority party that can't be reasoned with.

I do like the fact that he has brought back an air of rationality, reasoned discourse (and yes intelligence) to the presidency. However, I continue to be underwhelmed and disappointed with the plans and positions taken.

[wonketteRAWKS]

Wow! So Obama had to "correct" Rahm and Biden in all of what...two days?

[quidam56]

As a former health care giver, I am shocked to see what is called quality health care now in Tennessee and Virginia. http://www.wisecountyissues.com/?p=62 Clearly profit care is more important than patient care.

What happened to the guy we elected ?????????????????

[sosi]

Is Obama and his handlers putting people's interest first?

[GoldenAgeMaster]

Politicians like them rarely do.

[MyNameIsJames]

The biggest problem with the Dems and health-care reform is that the Dems really need to put the health-care industry on trial before the American pubic. This hasn't happened. There is lots of legislative gamesmanship BUT no real education or mobilization of the public.

[toggan]

When, then, candidate Barack Obama spoke at the Google Gathering in Ca., he addressed the issue of the legislative process being threatened by special interest groups(in other words, the lobbyists) and how to overcome it. Pay close attention to how he answers the questioner in the youtube video--begin at 57:11. Also on the barack obama.com post below has some interesting comments of his on Health Reform...very interesting.

http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/www.raphaelholomanfranklinsupportObama08.com/CxxG

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4yVlPqeZwo

[Peabodies]

We, who are p*ssed, dems and repugs, we ALL (who can) register INDEPENDENT, and keep 'em guessing. Since we can't form third parties, it's the only option left. We used to be what we thought was a democracy.

I dare HuffPo to post this.

[JRsNana]

Ooohhh - you should have double-dared them. THAT might have scared them.

[Sweetbay]

In an extensive ABCNEWS/Washington Post poll, Americans by a 2-1 margin, 62-32 percent, prefer a universal health insurance program over the current employer-based system.

[fairtaxnow]

Extensive? Really? I wonder how come the didnt contact me or anyone that I know for their opinion?

[Exexecution]

They heard about you and they skipped your alley

[weatherwaxx]

Do you understand the concept of statistical sampling?

[JRsNana]

They didn't contact you because you didn't have your tinfoil antenna's pointing in the right direction.

[LemonMeringue]

I believe this because every single person I know well enough to know their opinion on this wants single payer health care.

[Exexecution]

No other option should even be considered. The insurance corps should get the hell out of 'health care'.

[Mystic01]

Thank you, Rep. Woolsey.

[nellie]

kaBOOM

As it should be.

[Mike Barden]

now thats the government owns GM, theys gonna be transparent?

[barkrudedog69]

I want an invisible truck.

[fifty8]

Look out in your driveway,it's there right now

[Exexecution]

It's in your driveway, look outside. Oh right, it's invisible.