Chuck Schumer: We Should Still Look Seriously At 50-Vote Bill

The American Prospect :

Senator Chuck Schumer is the third-ranked Democrat in the Senate, one of the most prominent advocates for a public plan, and among the earliest Democrats to recognize that the ongoing negotiations with Senate Republicans had become a waste of time. I talked to him last night about the politics of health-care reform; an edited transcript follows. Earlier today, I spoke with Rep. Tom Perriello about some of the same issues. ...

Q: I'm curious, the leadership was trying to use reconciliation as way to force Republicans to the bargaining table. Do you think that failed and do you think reconciliation is still part of the plan?

A: I think we still have to look seriously at reconciliation because even with 60 Democrats, you know, if we're able to get somebody here from Massachusetts, it's not easy to do.

Read the whole story: The American Prospect

Comments

[bronceye]

A note to Blue Dogs; Obama ran on "Change". You rode his coattails to victories in tenuous districts that favor repubes, for the most part. If you vote as a repube would vote, that is"no change". People voted for change, you're against change. Why would anyone vote for you, again? If a repube were in your seat, the vote tally would be the same. Repubes are much more entertaining. In the sense of Saruh Palin compared to Margaret Thacher kind of sad funny. We don't need a numerical advantage if we have the same horse and buggy ideas of the neo/conmen represented by dem/conmen.

[meko]

Progressives must work to support primary challengers for all of the obstructionist senators and congressional representatives. Only then will there be a chance of real reform. Republicans aren't the problem. The problem is the "centrists"

[meko]

Schumer is right about the public option. It must be available to all, i.e. national, available on day one, and to have the strength to go up against the insurance companies and the suppliers.

This could still prove to be a boon for insurance companies. Individual mandates with no competitive pressure will provide them a captive market with no way for the public to defend their interests. Voters cannot back down in supporting the minimal centrist option. Single-payer would be cheaper, but without the support of the President, it won't go anywhere. But allowing the public option to be portrayed as anything but a compromise will only hurt us.

The obstacles to reform are not Republicans, but conservative Democrats whose primary donors are pharmaceutical and insurance companies. They are the ones whose votes stand in the way of passing. They are the ones undermining the Democratic majority. We have to keep the heat on and call and write them every day. If they derail the public option, through fine-print filled triggers that will never take effect, we must campaign to get them out of office. Only then will real reform take place.

[mcmutter]

talk about a trigger is just nonsense, another stall tactic

[ReedYoung]

Every time it's suggested, the Progressive Caucus should demand an exact number of people dying the previous year because they couldn't afford treatment or were refused coverage when they needed it by their health "insurance" corporation, at which Republicans would support a trigger of single payer, or some other public option that would cover EVERYBODY denied by private medical "insurance" corporations. The script I propose:

"Okay, (name of Republican), since 18,000 people killed by the corporatist medical 'insurance' payment system that we have now isn't enough for you, how many corpses would it take for you to support a robust enough public option to ensure that _every_ American citizen has basic medical care? Just tell me what number is too many dead people to sacrifice to your sacred 'free market' so we know how much you value human life, if at all."
http://exiledonline.com/billionaire-cannibals-murder-22000-americans-every-year/

I'm glad Democrats don't lie like Republicans, but they do need to start telling the truth more bluntly in order to accomplish what we elected them to do. Don't start lying, but do stop being bullied by Republican liars like House Representative Joe Wilson and Senator Charles Grassley. There never was any reliable source of the "death panel" lie that Sarah Palin parroted from Betsy McCaughey and Glenn Beck http://hnn.us/roundup/entries/31911.htmll], which Chuck Grassley eventually admitted he just parroted from Sarah Palin without fact checking.

[pennsykid2000]

Repubs are surprised that Obama would be tough on them? (Tsk, tsk, after all the positive and constructive comments they made about the reform effort this summer, not to mention mobilizing of armed right-wing crazies at town hall meetings.) They offer absolutely no cooperation at all, despite their small minority in Congress, and they get miffed when Obama warns he will move on without them. Repubs are incredibly clueless (and amnesiac--they forget how Bush ignored Dems on most policy debates despite having a much smaller majority in Congress).

How long is Obama supposed to extend his hand? Jim DeMint of SC revealed the true Repub strategy when he boasted that defeating Obama on health care would be his "Waterloo". That showed how incredibly unpatriotic Repubs are: they would rather do what is necessary to help their party in the short-run than what is necessary to help their country in the long-run.

[oldguydude]

Shumer is a disgusting individual.

One would think that if the bill was that good, he wouldn't need the reconcilation measure.

[StuManChu]

Well, if the opposition just places a camera outside the chamber doors, old Schum will never make it inside.

[qwerty911]

If the dems decide on the "50-vote" bill, you will be looking at a total meltdown of that party. FACT.

Go ahead Chucky, perform Hari Kari. It will be fun to watch...

[CTtransplant]

NO trigger!!! NO co-ops!!! And NO waiting five years !!!

Never ever ever give up!!! Folks, do not forget the marches on September 13th!!! http://marchforhealthcare.com/events/

If not now, when? If not us, who?

Kennedy was one of our greatest champions of health care reform. He carried the torch for a long time...and now it is up to us to continue to carry it!

Our elected officials in Congress receive health care mostly paid for by us tax payers, yet many are trying to make it impossible for us to purchase an affordable plan of our own :

While many of us are struggling to afford medical insurance/medical bills.
While Congress people try to stop healthcare reform.
While Congress people accept large contributions from lobbyists to prevent health care reform.

Please sign these petitions - and by all means, spread the word! Thank you!

http://www.petitiononline.com/PubOp676/petition.html
http://www.democrats.com/honor-ted-kennedy?cid=ZGVtczQ0MTA5OGRlbXM=
http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/5649/t/4922/content.jsp?content_KEY=2763&tag=hk1_typ-e1

[LemonMeringue]

Do it!

The time for talk has ended. Just do it.

[greysells2]

I would hope you were serious all along.

[Chernynkaya]

Watch Robert Reich explains the PO in 70 seconds - pass it on to friends.

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_type=videos&search_query=robert+reich+public+option&search_sort=video_recently_uploaded

[honoursplendor]

Well said (if longer than 70 seconds)! Somehow the news media can't get this explained simply in months but here it is. But posting here is speaking to the choir. Everyone -- send this to your friends.

[realsocialist]

Can someone please help poor chuck get his head out of his a*s.

[jordan327]

All this posturing without telling anybody the cost per family per month. Makes you wonder why they don't have an amount.

[Tulka2]

Mexico has had a public option to go alongside of private insurance since the mid 1990s. According to WHO (World Health Organization) the public option in Mexico delivers really good care. It costs the average Mexican 250.00 dollars per year. (Eighty thousand Americans applied for and got Mexican citizenship last year.)

Google "health care Mexican".

[jordan327]

I don't care what mexico's price is, what's the price for this plan?

[petef59]

Add more people to the insurance pool and costs go down. Makes you wonder what The Party Of NO actually knows.
Medical insurance industry profits up about 400% since the year 2000.

[marxmarv]

The bill has to be passed before the actuaries can be hired to calculate that.

[nick1936]

If we are going to do it with 50 screw Public option go for SINGLE PAYER

[Tulka2]

The Burma hump, but, hell yes, go for it. It's what will cure our malaise.

[LemonMeringue]

It's what most people want.

Almost all the opposition is based on l!es and fear mongering.

[postman66]

No way single payer ever had a chance.

[marxmarv]

HR676 needs a CBO score. Chances are very good it will come in cheaper than private insurance even while offering the same services. If the MSM will allow that story to be told, single payer wins.

[UncleJimbo]

Shhhhhhhhh! Next Term!

[Bloggerrogr]

Please substantiate your theory with relevant facts, sources. Provide reputable links,
(NOT WorldNetDaily).

Over the long haul, single payer is the cheapest, thus the easiest to implement.

FWIW

[treat2day]

The Moderate

who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action”; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another person; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the them to wait for a “more convenient season.” Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.

– Learning from Martin Luther King

[Tulka2]

I am not a Christian like the good Dr. King, but i do know the quote, "Be thee either hot or cold. If ye be lukewarm, i will spit thee out of my mouth." Doesn't it go like that?

[treat2day]

that is how I interpret it too....