Black Caucus Members: It's Public Option Or Nothing

The Hill:

Leading members of the Black Caucus are threatening to bring down healthcare reform if it does not include a strong public option.

Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) said that President Obama will not be able to muscle through a bill that sidesteps a government-run plan.

Read the whole story: The Hill

Comments

[postman66]

Just an aside. I have never, ever seen a picture of that many A.A Congressmen, where my Congressman, Jesse Jackson Jr. wasn't able to squeeze himself into the frame.

[nana4g]

Maybe, in addition to the march to DC on Sept 13, we should all go on "strike":
refuse mandate for coverage
refuse employment if mandates withdrawn from paychecks
refuse all political contributions ever again and

just live off government: lie and get Medicaid, Food Stamps, Unemployment, etc. In other words, live like members of Congress.

[nana4g]

I am with the Black Caucus. No Public Option? No Healthcare Reform. We will just wait until it all crashes in about 5 years, then, go straight to National Health Care. In the meantime, those of you uninsured, go to the ER when you are sick and taxes, county and federal, will pay for the care that hospitals are REQUIRED to provide you and it will be excellent care. Those of you with chronic problems already that could become really bad without management or meds, apply for Medicaid, lie if you must on your application, just get it.

[Tuckerndfw]

What does "strong public option" mean?

Be specific, if you claim to know.

[StillweRise]

No b.s. co-op positioned as a public option.

An option that is low cost, that insures not 10, 20, or 30 million uninsured, but ALL of the un insured.

an option that does well enough in competition that people actually consider LEAVING their CURRENT insurance if they don't straighten up and COMPETE FAIRLY.

That's just off the top of my head.

[ReedYoung]

It really offers basic medical care to EVERYBODY who cannot afford it, and some who could, but just barely. Let health insurance remain a commodity for those who have enough money to treat it as such, but also as a human right for everybody.

[blindhog]

You know, the Black Caucus seems to be the only ones left fighting for the little guy, the guy that has been left behind because of the lower taxes for the rich, the financial deregulation, the scam loans, the destruction of unions, the hiring of illegal aliens, NAFTA, the outsourcing of our jobs, and on and on!!!!!!!!!!!!

I say, GO GET THEM BLACK CAUCUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But, you know, the sad thing is that there have been far too many poor white people who have been brainwashed into thinking because their skin is a different color, it somehow makes them........... Personally, I think that has been done to give those po' whites something to worry about other than the real problems in their lives.

[urnumbersix]

The entire history of white supremacy in America has been all about the plutocrats convincing poor whites to join them on this fantasy of "our skin color makes our interests the same - you, one day may be just like me, not like 'them'." It's the skin color that matters. And too many poor whites have, and still, believe it. The separate drinking fountains during Jim Crow (It's free running water, dammit) add a period to my point.

In the recent past, illogically, it has divided rural versus inner-city interests - when those interests are in fact, the same: jobs, infrastructure, education, social services, health care. If these "teams" had "teamed up" decades ago - we would have a better America. The Powers That Be ensure that it never happens! Poor whites will, with enthusiasm, cut the nose off their own face to be in the "in crowd" of the upper classes - who laugh, use, and discard the white poor AND their social interests (i.e. abortion, the Bible), every time. It's the American way!

WHEN will this story change? The young people do not seem to buy it, but exactly what are they buying?

[postman66]

Excellent history lesson.

[raechel]

Well said. Now, how to convince people that it's a class system, not race, that is victimizing them?

[StillweRise]

You have managed to put into words things that I have observed and thought for decades.

fanned.

[StillweRise]

yet, they will be the first ones lining up for care when it passes.

(seen it all before)...

[silencer2012]

when will the blacks realize these guys are their enemy

[BlackLight]

when will you realize, you don't know what you're talking about.

[silencer2012]

look at any state under liberal rule.....bankrupt nanny

[JISantiago]

I salute the Black Caucus. At least they stand by their commitment and not give in to pressure brought about by insurance companies through their surrogate, the rotten Republicans.

[str8fwd]

In a nutshell (literally) and devoid of "spin", THE FOLLOWING is the translation of ALL Congressional members who oppose Health Care and Insurance Reform with a STRONG Public Option...

"As a member of Congress, I have Health Care with a strong Public Option and it's GREAT... but the American people that I represent and are supposed to be working for in THEIR best interests DO NOT deserve the option "I" have and I will stop any effort to affect that... for a 'price'... because that'll allow me and my Health Insurance contributors to get richer from the pain of the 'little' people who really don't matter to me... until the next election cycle when I BS them again of course".

Simple as that. The End.

[Awake-and-Sing]

What's great about this politically is that I bet Rahm Emanuel was counting on the Afirican-American members of the Progressive Caucus to abandon the threat to vote down a bill with an insurance mandate but no public option in order to save the President's "agenda".

Without that, there are not votes to inflict a mandate on people to buy unreliable private insurance at extortion level rates under a tax penalty of thousands of dollars if they don't.

Stay strong, Congressional Black Caucus!

NO MANDATE WITHOUT ROBUST PUBLIC OPTION!

[str8fwd]

That was deep and thought-provoking for those of us who DO "think". Fanned.

[nana4g]

I cannot believe Rham Emanuel would encourage no Public Option or accept The Snowe Job of a trigger. It is like the stupid Medicare D plan which Baucus' aide wrote, has all the same footprints, to benefit private insurance and not the insured.

[Safire]

Thank you Black Caucus for taking a stand.

[larry278]

Pres Obama, thank the black members of the 111th Congress for writing what you must do in extremely large, clear letters that even the visually impaired can see. If you don't get Universal Health Care with the Public Option, change your nick name from No Drama Obama to One Term Obama (OTO).

[raechel]

A public option is the only option (other than single payer) that has any hope of taming spiraling costs and heading off an imminent financial disaster.

[truegreen]

A disproportion of Asian, Blacks, young people and Latinos are effected by a lack of Health care. The public option MUST be apart of HCR.

[jennylynn]

Have they thought of getting a job?

[BlackLight]

Hey FKTRD, many people with jobs don't have adequate health care. Some work and have none. You did know that, didn't you? Many wh ite people are in the same boat.

[DarkWitch]

It's the people WITH jobs that don't offer healthcare who can't afford insurance. If you have no job, you qualify for the gov. programs already in place.

[raechel]

Let's just for grins pretend you're right, and the under- and un-insured are in that situation because they're lazy.

What's going to happen to YOUR job when manufacturing collapses in our country (take the auto industry, for example) when it can no longer compete because $1500 is added to the cost of every car to pay for employer-provided health insurance. OK, I get that you aren't in manufacturing. Either you are feeding at the public trough, or you're in retail or financial services, and you'll be hurting too.

Let's consider the cost of providing health care through the most expensive channel possible - the emergency room.

Maybe you should consider that 30% of the cost of providing health care in this country is for the administrative paperwork associated with claims processing, because there are 1300 providers of payment (i.e., insurers), most for-profit and therefore naturally incented NOT to pay.

Let's look at the cost in terms of poor job satisfaction for those providing health care, and the consequent shortage of doctors, nurses, and other health professionals, because so much of their time and resources are spent haggling over payment.

Let's look at the reality that most people who declare bankruptcy, do so because of medical expenses, and they are generally insured.

Some people are so afraid this might be a handout to people of color, they'll "cut off their noses to spite their faces."

[StillweRise]

you mean the ones that have been shipped to India under Bush???

[postman66]

Extraordinary ra cist. Lots of people have jobs with no employer based HC insurance that don't pay enough to afford private insurance.

[Jamal5]

Why will the Government officials be exempt from the public option. Look at social security they are exempt and it is failing rapidly

[sviolette]

Government officials have single payer. Why would they want to get a worse health care plan than they have now?

[jennylynn]

They are too smart to have it for themselves. "let them eat cake" has always been the dems attitude.

[pghnappyrhino]

that's funny - considering who it was that gave tax breaks to people making over a quarter million dollars.

just because you can say something on the internet, that doesn't make it true.

[urnumbersix]

Cripes! That was like 24 years ago.
Congress and all federal employees are "in" the Social Security program. QUIT lying.

Congresscritters would be free to CHOOSE to join the Public Option, just like any other American is free to Choose to do so. And Smart politicians who vote for it would choose to do so, for the publicity for their constituents. (They ARE politicians, after all.)

What's the problem? Don't like "choice" in and of itself?
If you don''t like the final plan, don't choose it! If there are a lot of you, the public option Fails!
Freedom! Democracy! Vote the bastards out who passed it.
What's the problem?
It may work?
Aha!

[raechel]

Let's look at the bigger picture here. Are you aware that as a country we spend more than any other country in the world on health care, and that we have a quality of care that is below that of other industrialized countries? (Sorry rah-rah folks, but it's just not true that we have the best system.) Have you looked at the predicted future economic impact of our wasteful over-spending on health care? I thought conservatives were against all of that spending ... of course, it does benefit a few large industries ... money from our pockets into corporate coffers is always a good thing, right?

I realize we like doing things our own way, regardless of how nonsensical they are. We don't like the metric system, because it's, well, different. And we have to drive on the right when most of the world drives on the left. Probably driving on the left is some sort of commie plot. The rest of the industrialilzed world has figured out how to spend less for better health care. But it's another commie plot, and we'd rather throw money down the drain than admit someone else is doing something better.

[DestinationsUnknown]

Louisiana has fallen below Mississippi to 50th in the United Health Foundation’s state health rankings.

The man who comes from the state ranked last in the USA is following President Obama!

It could not get any better than this!

Australians warned us not to allow Rupert Murdoch to infiltrate our free press standards

England warned us not to allow Rupert Murdoch to infiltrate our free press standards

Sir Richard Branson said something like "if we let him, Murdoch will destroy democracy".

We ignored Australia and England- look at the dumb down we got!

WSJ- Dumb it Down President!

[nana4g]

Louisiana elects David Vitter or whatever his name is, and that silly Mary Landrieu who has done NOTHING for La since Katrina and does not support healthcare reform unless it is in the interest of private insurance. La deserves what it gets and so does the rest of America because of stupidity and laziness and lack of common sense.

[str8fwd]

Is it just me... or are we proponents of Public Optionalized HCR allowing ourselves to be played like "lotto" by double-dealing Repugnant-cans and Blue MUTT Democrats who are trying to fix the game to take away ANY chance of either of us AND the rest of America regardless of individual political affiliation EVER hitting the jackpot?!

Well, I'm not "playing" their game... instead I'm "working" and "saving" EVERY penny for their self-serving thoughts and interests in order to have the SAME health care program and options that THEY have that they obviously doesn't think is good enough for li'l ol' "common" ME.

I swear... if "I" was addressing Congress tonight, I'd give the anti-Reformists in Congress an "option" to give up THEIR "Government-Ran Public Health Care" since they're so against it... and I'd DARE them to tell a National audience why a Public Health Care Option is good for them, but the rest of America is NOT "good enough" for it if they keep THEIR "public health care otpiton" but are still against it for "regular" American citizens.

So they're lucky that I and MANY of us are not the POTUS "tonight"... yes, VERY lucky indeed.

[sviolette]

They have single payer not a public option.