Public Option Support Now Over 40 In Senate

Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) became the 41st senator to say that he would back the public insurance option as part of a health care bill moved through reconciliation.

Nelson, asked by HuffPost if he would vote for a public option on the Senate floor, was unequivocal. "Yes," he said firmly. "I've already voted for it in the committee, in the Finance Committee."

The running tally is being kept by one of the organizations pushing for the public option, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee.

Forty-one puts Democrats just nine votes short. The number of senators who have publicly committed to the option is striking because the momentum has come without any organized effort by Senate leadership or from the White House.

On Tuesday afternoon, House and Senate leadership met to chart a way forward and the public option was not mentioned, said a person in the room.

"We are 9 Senators away from victory, while the White House continues to act like these votes don't exist. It's time for both houses of Congress to commit to an up-or-down vote on the public option -- and to invite the White House to help lead or get out of the way," said Charles Chamberlain of Democracy for America, which has been pushing hard for the public option.

Regardless of the support for a particular amendment, Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said Wednesday that leadership will urge all Democrats to vote no, so as not to complicate the reconciliation process.

If that is the case, the House still has the ability to put the public option in its version before it's sent to the Senate, but there is no indication that that is being contemplated, despite its broad support both inside Congress and with the public.

Comments

[whalerpilot]

11:03 AM on 03/12/2010

Thank You Senator Nelson. The residents of Florida appreciate you as well as the majority of American Citizens who favor a Public Option and the competition and cost incentives against the Insurance Industry Cartels. There are many uninsured, under-insured, and un-insurable Americans waiting for affordable Health benefits. Most are not looking for a handout but an affordable and accessible product that is becoming less available to millions of Americans.

[treadway123]

12:28 PM on 03/12/2010

Didn't think I's see the day Ben Nelsen voted for Public Option, we flooded his office with phone calls an E-mails once Pregnant women where taken off medicaid.

[notagainxxxx]

12:38 PM on 03/11/2010

Ask your senator would he vote for this bill if he/she and their family had to use it. Hmmmm. why create a new goverment monster just fix the programs that are currently in plpace.

[whalerpilot]

11:08 AM on 03/12/2010

Medicare is not a new Government monster and a buy in program is not a free entitlement. The monster is the Insurance Industry cartels that control the market without competition or price control.

[maxwells]

11:50 AM on 03/11/2010

REMAINING DEMOCRATIC SENATE HOLDOUTS ARE:

--------------------------------PHONE----------------FAX
Max Baucus MT------ 202-224-2651--------202-224-9412
Evan Bayh IN---------- 202-224-5623--------202-228-1377
Mark Begich AK------202-224-3004--------202-224-2354
Robert Byrd WV------202-224-3954--------202-228-0002
Thomas Carper DE--202-224-2441--------202-228-2190
Kent Conrad ND------202-224-2043--------202-224-7776
Kay Hagan NC--------202-224-6342--------202-228-2563
Tom Harkin IA---------202-224-3254--------202-224-9369
Herb Kohl WI---------- 202-224-5653--------202-224-9787
Mary Landrieu LA----202-224-5824--------202-224-9735
Blanche Lincoln AR--202-224-4843--------202-228-1371
Claire McCaskill MO-202-224-6154--------202-228-6326
Mark Pryor AR---------202-224-2353--------202-228-0908
Jay Rockefeller WV- 202-224-6472--------202-224-7665
Mark Warner VA------202-224-2023--------202-224-6295
Jim Webb VA--------- 202-224-4024--------202-228-6363

They don't read emails; they just count them. So, lengthy is useless.
But phone calls and faxes chew up their staff time and paper.

Even trolls feel the groundswell, knowing the REAL majority REALLY wants this.
Likewise, no politico wants to be left off the train, bucking the gale alone.
If a Ben Nelson can be turned, any of them can.

So, you don't need to be nice, just clear, as in:
_________________________________
Dear Senator:

Vote for a strong Public Option or lose my vote.

Your choice.
_________________________________
That'll get their attention.

[syrdahlia]

12:22 PM on 03/11/2010

Thanks Maxwells - I copied and pasted this info to my facebook page. Others should too!

[maslin]

06:14 PM on 03/11/2010

Here's a look at the remaining Senate scorecard as near as I can make out from my own research with help from BMinDC and Rhiana. All errors are probably mine.

The NOs look pretty firm.

**NO**
Conrad.
Lieberman.
Lincoln.
Landrieu.

Total: 4.

Dug a little more. Hagan and McCaskill both look iffy. Pryor and Warner are both on record in 2009 as "open" to a PO. Carper also reads more "open" to PO. Baucus is on record in support, as is Bayh; some evidence Nelson might be interested.

==MAYBE==
Baucus
Bayh
Nelson
Pryor
Warner
Hagan
McCaskill
Carper
Kohl
Byrd

Everyone below this line has publicly supported PO at some point:

==WILL PROBABLY EVENTUALLY SIGN==
Rockefeller
Begich
Harkin

Totals of Maybe and Probably: 14.

If one of the "Maybe" Senators is from your state, and you like the idea of the Public Option, now is the time to call. Hell, if one of your Senators is on this list and you like the PO, call 'em.

[Jefro]

09:07 AM on 03/11/2010

With 41 senators publicly committed to a Public Option through reconciliation, we're within range of actually making this happen. If you want to see a running total of which senators are/are not on board, go to this site:

http://whipcongress.com/?action_id=3124425&akid=.528619.1k1Ooh&source=bp

If PO is what you want, contact the white house, your state senators, and even remaining undecided out-of-state senators. I live in MD and contacted both my senators to make it clear that this issue is top priority and the one that gets my support/vote or guarantees not to get it. A lot of people taking action is the way to make something happen. If you have $5-$10 to spare, contribute to the campaign of Bill Halter to remove insurance-whore Blanche Lincoln who will NEVER vote against for meaningful health care reform of any kind.

PO is long overdue, and can happen - if it's not be the direction Obama wants to lead, then he needs to be reminded of his campaign promises and how he's always said it's about what the people want.

[floodberg]

01:56 PM on 03/11/2010

Another crabbie, welcome to the club. Posted that my HR, Donna Edwards, decided not to support PO due to "completely different environment" in 1/2010, and emailed her too. She'd been adamant about PO up until then. Am dying to hear whether CDE has anything to do with re-election (she was running for the first time), bait and switch?

Normally I'm a "trust and verify" person, but with liars and cheats, I become a "ask them, pin them down in writing and be specific" lawyer again. Bet she won't answer, but if she does, I'll send you a copy to your profile if you want.

[realpolitic]

08:17 AM on 03/11/2010

When 41 senators spontaneously say we should have a public option, let's have one. The White House should get behind this effort.

[bluguy8]

08:14 AM on 03/11/2010

As far as I'm concerned if you aren't for public option you don't deserve the job and your out

[MrGovtCheese]

08:10 AM on 03/11/2010

Nice to see my Senator, Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) on board.

[Nellybelle]

08:09 AM on 03/11/2010

If Obama signed a Public Option into law , I wonder in what form the retaliation would be from the insurance or drug companies ??? If any .

What hold do they have on Obama ? Is it money ? Withdrawal of political support ? Or something more insidious ?.

He's the President , he should fear no one .

[zanzy]

08:06 AM on 03/11/2010

This is very promising and exciting. Yes, the people want a public option that they can chose to buy over worthless private insurance. This is great news! Let's get the public option done. And take our health and our money back out of the pockets of these greedy corporations.

YEAH!!!!

[Boo-urns]

07:58 AM on 03/11/2010

Pass a simple and powerful public option that all of us can access: allow any American to buy in to Medicare at cost.

[ProIrishDem]

07:45 AM on 03/11/2010

IF YOU ARE AGAINST HEALTH CARE REFORM
(WITH A PUBLIC OPTION OPEN TO ALL THAT HAS BEEN SCORED BY THE CBO TO SAVE MONEY) YOU ARE :

- in desperate need of a heart transplant
- born without a conscience
- have a poster of R.ush L.imbaugh on your wall
- have a poster of C.arl R.ove on your ceiling (above your bed)
- have that 24.99 S.arah P. alarm clock that you wake up each morning to ''YOU BETCHA''
- looking around your PTA meetings and seeing only white people
-oblivious to the hurt and suffering around you
-DO NOT see d.e.a.d people
-living in a comfy cushy little world that is behind closed gates
-rarely getting off your a.zz from watching clusterfaux all day other than to go to the fridge to get more chilled chardonnay
-only look for the letter R in any voting booth any where for any person (qualified of not)
-are convinced that your lot in life is everybody elses' fault ..especially democrats
-are a man that wants to control a woman's body and HER right to chose

-just not giving a D:A.M: for anybody but yourself

HOW is THAT American ? or even Human ?

Reconcilliation is coming for a public option and the decimation of the republican party for a generation in November.

Regards,
An Irish Friend .-

[Pharaoh617]

07:29 AM on 03/11/2010

Don't worry the president will tell you that the votes aren't there even when it gets to 50 senators, and the press will be like as usual okay....Obama screw this process up from the start. Personaly the guy makes me sick for other reason because I can see right through him. The health care plan he has drawn up is a republican plan not a progressive plan period..

[justobserve]

07:04 AM on 03/11/2010

It's a sad thing that we have to push the White House to do this! The Party of No is no help but Obama and some of the Dems themselves are just as bad, especially voters elected them to do this. All our hope for change rested on Obama and the Dems but without the hard work of people like those in the organizations that see the real need for the reform without meddling politics the public option would have been truly dead now. I point the fingers at Obama and the Dems for leading us into this squagmire in the first place. With Obama's stronger leadership at the beginning, we wouldn't have to go through the debate with poisonous lies from the Party of No. One silver lining from this all is if the public option prevails, the Party of No's tactics of working against Americans while boasting to be "true Americans" has been exposed. They are really the Master of Li*rs.

[nuQlerOstrich]

03:53 PM on 03/11/2010

We could have had a President who really would be pushing for a Medicare For All plan. There was one candidate like that running last election.

Remember?

But he doesn't look like Tom Seleck. It was too easy to make fun of him. Oh well, such a shallow nation.

If we had a President like that, we would be getting out of the Perpetual War business too. With the spending for the MIC dropped, we could pay off our debts and get an honest economy going here in the USA. And be able to afford true Universal Health Care.

Unfortunately, there are powerful people who like the Dis-Honest version just fine, thank you. And they're the ones who determine what the majority of Americans see on their TV's.

Freedom of the Press. Only for them that owns the press.

[Project4NuBostonTeaParty]

05:07 AM on 03/11/2010

.
The "high-risk" pools will be so expensive that the people who need them won't be able to afford them. Right now, most people can barely afford regular insurance. And this bill allows insurers to charge triple for 55 and older people as compared to a 20-year-old's premium.

The benefits to the insured don't start until 2014, except for the children's insurance. Anyone here want to wait 1,460 days to get maybe, just maybe, a little relief, like a 25% increase instead of a 35% on a premium that was allowed to double over the four intervening years?

According to the Harvard study, that means 180,000 more people will die first.

This bill is a joke on the average, hardworking American. I'm glad my senator now "says" he would vote for the PO, but the senators who have actually SIGNED the PO letter have a lot more credibility than those who are too a-skeered. But it's all for naught if Durbin is slapping the PO down.

Either way, November is going to be ugly. And they can't say they weren't warned. The lack of a PO will be their demise.

Someone else here said it well: We don't have Democrats or Republicans -- it's one party now, the Campaign Money Party. (Thanks to John Roberts and his merry band of activist judges on the Supreme Court, it's going to get even worse.)

.

[SPQR1775]

05:06 AM on 03/11/2010

I love the Democrats strategy, I see what the finality will be. There will be a PO when it is all said and done!!!!!

[- bill]

07:24 AM on 03/11/2010

There had better be a PO - a robust one worthy of the name - as soon as reconciliation occurs, or I'll be doing my best to make sure that there's no Democratic party around to promise and then screw us again.

If ever the party was positioned to be able to carry through with its promises it's right now, with the Presidency and strong majorities in both houses of Congress. If they won't do so and won't even TRY to do so, the only remaining 'hope' for 'real change' is to destroy them so that something worthy of our support may rise from the ashes (no guarantees, of course, but no real down-side risk, either).

Others' opinions may of course differ, and they're welcome to them. But I know where I stand now, and while it's hardly ideal it does feel kind of good to have finally resolved an issue that's been eating away at me for many years.