Sanders: Obama 'Is Wrong,' Making A Mistake On The Public Option

While a bipartisan group of lawmakers begin a six-hour-long health care summit on Thursday, it's worth noting that Republicans aren't the only ones dissatisfied with the president's agenda.

During an appearance on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" Thursday morning, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) offered fairly sharp criticisms of Obama for failing to show the requisite leadership needed to add a government-run insurance option to the final legislative package. Asked about the administration's argument that the provision lacked the votes needed for passage, even through reconciliation, Sanders replied:

I think the president is wrong. I think it is a public mistake. I think the people, for all the right reasons, distrust private insurance companies. I think they want to look to a Medicare-type public option. I think they should have that choice. And second of all, at a time when health care costs are soaring, vis-à-vis that 39% increase in California and all over the country, what a public option can do is keep private insurance companies honest, give people an option, hold them accountable. So I think the president is wrong and I think we should go forward and I think we could get the 50 votes that we need under reconciliation.

Sanders, in the end, will vote for a health care bill, even if it lacks a public plan. His Republicans colleagues, by contrast, won't meet him halfway. And herein lies much of the senator's frustration. Thursday's summit is, ostensibly, about promoting bipartisan unity around health care legislation. But on the structural issues in the bill, sacrifices have already been made by Democrats to the benefit of Republicans. Only, that was never reciprocated with GOP votes.

A new state-by-state survey shows that the Senate health care bill is unpopular, the public option is extremely popular and voters would rather support a senator who fights for a partisan bill with a public option rather than one who goes along with a bipartisan bill that doesn't include a public option.

See the results of the poll, paid for by the Progressive Change Congressional Committee, here.

With reporting by Ryan Grim

Comments

[textynn]

10:01 PM on 02/26/2010

The POTUS and the others think they can just blow us off and go blow the MHI. I've got news for them, people are dying out here. Watching someone you love suffer without benefit of health care or going through it yourself is as real as it gets. BS is not going to make people see this differently and they are NOT going to forget come election time. I won't vote for a single one that's not trying to get the PO or Single payer. The Dems have proven they work for the same masters as the Repugs, they just play their hand differently. It won't make any difference to me if the next election is a blood bath. In fact I look forward to it. They think they can make people "think" they're being helped. Meanwhile things are getting worse and worse. More people will be unemployed and the numbers of uninsured will be off the charts.

[ChelseaC]

09:52 PM on 02/26/2010

Obama is ignoring the big purple elephant in the room--the improvement and EXPANSION of MEDICARE for EVERY American who wants to enroll--from newborns to the elderly.
Open up Medicare--it would not be craming anything down anyone's throat--it would be a choice individuals make and free employers from the burden of providing health insurance to employees.
Allow the People to make up their own minds--insurance cartel or Medicare.
Allow "nature" to take it's course.

[RoveRoveRoveYourBoat]

12:37 PM on 02/26/2010

...the s hit $nake rahm
made the deal with with
$windle industry filth a whole year ago.
They said "no public option".
The $nake hissed, "we agree".

[Lt]

02:44 PM on 02/26/2010

liar

[RoveRoveRoveYourBoat]

03:44 PM on 02/26/2010

...wow, I've read your other comments and since your heart seems in the right place I've fanned ya, but you had better learn that the corporate democrats are our enemies, more so than the more obvious disengenuous rethugs. In fact the corporatist DLC snake rahm made deals with big pharma, and the private hospital orginazation, early last year, that this admin. would not allow single payer or a public option to pass. Two weeks ago Oh Bummer defined himself in a speech as: "I am a New Democrat". That is the motto of the corporate DLC. With the less than supreme Court desision last month, all of DC now tows the yoke of corporate influence and tyrany, especially Oh Bummer. Notice how the phrase: "Health Care Reform" disappeared from White House releases? They now use the Corporate Friendly phrase: "Health Insurance Reform". Watch closely while we're swindled.

[freelyb]

12:19 PM on 02/26/2010

The poll is really comforting...but it won't matter. It leaves the well-being of corporations out of the loop, so Obama won't consider it.

[zoemonster]

10:05 AM on 02/26/2010

Please note that both Sanders and Dean are Vermonters, albeit transplants from New York.

Vermont is a state with about 620,000 ppl (less than most major cities), and therefore is small enough for people to have a sense of what's real. They grow real food, have annual town meetings where anyone can speak his mind, have local banks, and for the most part don't get tangled in the morass that seems to suck up the majority of Americans who have lost their way. America can learn a lot from Vermont.

[chopel]

09:44 AM on 02/26/2010

Bernie is right. Pres Obama is wrong.
The majority of 'We the People' want a PO.
The pres/Dems will lose support if they pass a bill without a PO. A PO is the ONLY thing that will contain the cost of healthare for Americans.

Now is the time for BOLD Mr President. Can you provide such leadership or not?

Cheers to Sen Sanders!

[RoveRoveRoveYourBoat]

04:11 PM on 02/26/2010

The moderate Obama is now the corporate DLC Oh Bummer.
Two weeks ago he declared publicly that he is a "New Democrat".
The term was coined by the corporate friendly hillBilly clinton who founded the DLC to rake in corporate contributions. The result was an 8-year clinton term governing well to the right of the republicans Eisenhower, nixon and Ford.
Oh Bummer has forsaken the people's adgenda for the safe cover of doing the corporate bidding.
The "citizens" united case already has all of Washington under the watchful eye of corporate tyrants.

[baseline]

08:18 AM on 02/26/2010

The pools indicates Americans want some form of public option. Our Democratic senators just need to catch up.

[Pquilson]

08:25 AM on 02/26/2010

what pools?

[tomjack]

08:32 AM on 02/26/2010

"..what pools?.."

The cess pools, of course.

[slocomgp]

09:59 AM on 02/26/2010

Maybe polls.

[Loretta Callahan]

02:48 AM on 02/26/2010

No Public Option; No re-election; No kidding!!

[freelyb]

12:20 PM on 02/26/2010

agreed

[textynn]

10:08 PM on 02/26/2010

Amen Brother

[MrOctober]

02:16 AM on 02/26/2010

I would disagree. Obama is right on No Public Option. Obama doesn't want to hurt profits to big Insurance companies - those are his constituents. Where's Obama's reeling in the Big Wall Street Banks? Nowhere, Those savvy banksters are his constituents. Obama on clean energy on the campaign treal:

http://www.barackobama.com/issues/newenergy/index.php

No mention of Nuclear. Yet somehow Exelon has bought off Obama and Axelrod. Obama is doing what he believes is right for corporations. Obama cares about you and me about as much as Dick Cheney does.

[DietrichMoody]

01:40 AM on 02/26/2010

There is a difference between I THINK we could get the 50 votes that we need under reconciliation, and I KNOW we could get the 50 votes that we need under reconciliation.

It gives dreamers a nice warm tingley fuzzy feeling when people swing for the fences and have the sky's the limit mentality but sometimes you have to come back down to earth. This whole process and problems are not nothing new, it just that health care debate and process hasn't gotten this far.

A question will those that really want strong health care change work to make a Senate like health care bill even more unpopular, and continue to gamble with peoples lives. We know that those that do NOT want any Health Care at all, None, Nothing, Nada, will work to make anything unpopular including the Senate Bill. Do you want to help these people, and continue to gamble with people's lives? It won't be pretty.

Here's the thing Sanders, in the end, will vote for a health care bill. Understand that.

[DavePalen]

12:25 AM on 02/26/2010

Colonel Sanders is a blubbering fool.

[Libra28]

12:35 AM on 02/26/2010

That is only YOUR opinion.
Your choice of words has demonstrated that you are a sarcastic, mean-spirited person.

[tomjack]

08:36 AM on 02/26/2010

"..Colonel Sanders is a blubbering fool..."

Actually not. Bernie is an educated, hard core socialist who believes that people are way too stupid to make their own decisions. Unfortunately, a significant number of Americans make every effort to prove him right on a daily basis.

[slocomgp]

10:01 AM on 02/26/2010

Comment makes you look foolish.

[DDKAHALAS]

11:38 PM on 02/25/2010

Good Guy List: Kucinith,sanders,gov dean and other Liberals and Progressives...Everyone else is at the Corporate Trough....

If the Democrats Pass the Senate version of the Health bill without Govt option single payer or Medicare buy in... Bye Bye Democrats..

[citizen of the universe]

01:52 AM on 02/26/2010

Not true. At the end of the day people want healthcare in any form. Would the public option be nice, yes, but the question is can Dems get it? If regulation and an exchange is on the table right now and everyone wants to do it, fine, but after 50 years of debate something is better than nothing. Believe me, I was right were you are, but at the end of the day healthcare reform is being seriously debated and has a good chance of coming to fruition, it may be a small shaky step, but its a step and that's a good thing.

[RoloTomassi]

11:25 AM on 02/26/2010

If premiums continue to rise [and they surely will], and we are mandated to buy insurance from these dispicable profiteers, then we will see how much anyone really wants this so-called reform.

The public option was a half measure; nothing short of a single-payer plan will have any significant cost reducing effect, never mind actually improving the system overall, or the care actually provided.

And removing pre-existing condition exclusions really doesn't amount to much when the rest of the system is allowed to stand as-is, and a mandate is added.

[textynn]

10:12 PM on 02/26/2010

Yep they won't get my vote again. These DEMs work for the same masters as the Repubs. We have nothing to lose by no longer backing them. The facade has been removed, the Dems and Repubs are two heads of the same snake. At least REpubs will get rid of any mandates, and that's all this mandate thing is anyway . The mandate is just a pass to Repubs because the health care debate has clarified why we are all at the mercy of corporations. The Repugs need to get back into power so the Dems have some cover for a while. IT's as obvious as the day is long.

[JackNasty]

11:24 PM on 02/25/2010

Obama started negotiation by giving away single payer. Now he's giving away a public option. We need a real Democrat from the Democratic wing of the party in the White House.

[TennMando]

11:57 PM on 02/25/2010

How did he 'give away' single payer when he never planned on doing it in the first place?

[textynn]

10:13 PM on 02/26/2010

The people planned on it and they voted for Obama because he implied he wanted it or something close to it. I wish someone would pull out his election infomercial talking about his mom and the old people.

[rougebaisers]

10:23 PM on 02/25/2010

That ain't all he is wrong on. Today was a sickening display if all members of congress speaking for their lobbyists.

[Dr Jimmy and Mr Jim]

10:08 PM on 02/25/2010

Bernie is right. Bernie is always right. Someone should put Bernie in charge.

[Sam1969]

10:42 PM on 02/25/2010

Obama has no leadership, so if anyone is waiting for that, they will be waiting for a long time.

[slocomgp]

10:03 AM on 02/26/2010

Sam has spoken