The Five Democrats Who Voted Against The Public Option

The Senate Finance Committee voted down an amendment by Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W. VA) today that would have included a public option in health care reform. The final vote of 15-8 came as five Democrats did not support the bill. A second amendment introduced by Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) was also defeated by a vote of 13-10, though it was considered more moderate than the Rockefeller bill.

Though the possibility of a public option "trigger" still remains, it seems like hope is gone for a bill that supports a public option being passed this year.

So, which Democrats on the committee voted down the amendments and why? We answer that question below. Feel like praising or scolding any of these five? E-mail or call them and let them know how you feel.




Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT):
Voted NO on both amendments.
Argued the bills would not garner the 60 Senate votes necessary to avoid a filibuster.
511 Hart Senate Office Building,
District of Columbia 20510-2602
Phone: [phone]
E-mail Senator Baucus

Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL)
Voted NO on the Rockefeller amendment, YES on the Schumer amendment
Believes Republican support can best be achieved by dropping a public plan.
716 Senate Hart Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: [phone]
E-mail Senator Nelson

Senator Tom Carper (D-DE)
Voted NO on the Rockefeller amendment, YES on the Schumer amendment
Is open to multiple policy options
513 Hart Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: [phone]
E-mail Senator Carper

Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND)
Voted NO on both amendments
Believes North Dakota residents get short-changed with a Medicare-like public option
530 Hart Senate Office Building
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510-3403
Phone: [phone]
E-mail Senator Conrad

Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-AR)
Voted NO on both amendments
Argues that successful reform can be achieved without a public option
355 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
[phone]
E-mail Senator Lincoln

It's up to you, now. Do you agree or disagree with the way Senate Democrats voted? Leave us a comment below or e-mail [e-mail] with your thoughts on the future of the public option.

Comments

[ZWTARocks]

Conservative Democrats need to be voted out of office. None of them are in my state but I will certainly be sending money to their states to fund those willing to oppose them in their primaries.

[jozie]

My Senator is on the list, he lost my vote from here on out.

[Visvesvaran Subramanian]

Damn it, Democratic senators, get your act together! You control both houses of Congress and the White House. Stop screwing around and just pass the bill!

[davidinct]

I emailed the following to each of the five recalcitrant Democrats...

Dear Senator ...

I emigrated here in 1972, was PROUD to become a citizen in 1981 and have been PROUD of my Democratic voting record since then.

Until now.

Until I witnessed a fellow Democrat - you - fail to support a Public Option, something an overwhelming majority of the US population seems to support, and something sorely needed to help rein in our out of control health insurance companies.

It seems to me you cast a vote favoring those who help finance your political campaigns, rather than those voters whose interests you theoretically represent.

I can only hope that somewhere in your soul you feel the same amount of shame over your vote that I am feeling right now.

Sincerely

[EthosPathosLogos]

I cannot believe this has happened...These old tools have no Idea how many hopes and lives they have just washed away. Our System if f**ked our Government is F***ed and our America is F****d. I struggle to find why we still live in such a selfish nation. Not to mention the opposition to our reform was based on BS and naming...Terrible.

[mjtaylor22]

KEEP THE PRESSURE ON THESE PEOPLE. TO REPRESENT THE MAJORITY WHO VOTED THEM INTO POWER AND WHO AT A CLEIP OF 65% WANT A PUBLIC OPTION AND KNOW IT IS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY TO ACHIEVE REAL REFORM

[cindylou75]

I FAX all the committee members every day, as well as the representatives from my district. We've got to keep the PRESSURE UP.

[biteme43]

I have never seen a more self=serving, arrogant, heartless, I've got mine_the _heck _with _U, bunch of elected _to serve_"we the people" .
There are millons of WE THE PEOPLE and only hundreds of Those who hold our lives in their hands

[coveark]

bunch of hopefully very sick SOB's...................horrible

[coveark]

Tr@1ters............

[coveark]

Self $erv1n-g $0_B's

[Donns]

The Insurance companies paid a lot of money for these Senators, now they get their ROI.

[littlechuckie]

anybody for term limits?

[bzb]

Yes and lobbyist reforms

[BamBam2012]

They have forgotten that We, The People, have our own public option--one that we will use come election day.

[Chazmania]

Why cant we fire them? WHy? i want to know why we cant all get up off our lazy rumps and say like trump YOUR FIRED now get out of our house!

[goto1000]

You could at a push. But it would need 5-10 million of you (at least) utterly determined, and united, to go to Washington and stay there until they left the building, for good.

It is amazing how blatantly your politicians now feel able to shaft the people who voted for them to support the interest of the world's most evil plutocracy. Your lot make the Russian oligarchs look like amateurs. Even if the Russian's yachts are mostly bigger, Larry Ellison apart of course.

Firing them won't help though. Time to accept that the two party political system has to end and start afresh. New party which adheres to what its people want. No place in it for ANY sitting congressperson. And a promise to prosecute lobbying dollars they received for the corruption it is. Jail them all.

[MelvinZHoppe]

I feel like you all do. angry. sitting in front of a computer is not cutting it folks. we need boots on the ground/ to overthrow this corrupt Congress. I'm old. we need the youth. the rebel kids the everday youth to organize and get us off Huff post and to DC.

[cristianty]

Ok people if it is not blatantly obvious now that these people are bought and paid for and we have 1 party working under 2 names... then we are as dumb as Todd Palin! These people have to go! WE CAN NO LONGER SIT ON THE BENCH AND LET THEM DO AS THEY PLEASE!! They do this because they think that we wont and cant do anything about it.... and they think that because we haven't done anything about it , but sit on the sidelines and complain. HUFFINGTON POST.... MSNBC... ANYBODY!! PLease organize a march on the white house and I am there!

[Paul Shryer]

So these Senators have declared themselves in opposition to real health care reform. Who are their Democratic Primary challengers? I want to support real Democrats and not these DINOs.

[goto1000]

Pointless. The party itself has to go. It is unreformable. You need a third party which above all will prosecute the grotesque members of the current Congress, their lobbyist parasites, the corporate fraudsters of Wall St. and the thieving robber-baron CEO's of the US. The time for truth and reconciliation is gone. Prison time now and a real shuffling of the decks. Your social mobility is the lowest in the developed world. That isn't going to change without some pretty radical action.

[Visvesvaran Subramanian]

...And that's not happening. Good luck with that, though.