Nancy Pelosi Public Option Ad Hits Her In DC and San Francisco

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Friday that the final health care bill will not include a public option, claiming that the blame belongs to the upper chamber because "they don't have the votes."

It doesn't appear that simple. A HuffPost analysis of Senate commitments indicates that there would be at least 50 votes for a reconciliation package in the Senate that includes a public option. The administration, however, has shown very little interest in a public option, and as pro-life, pro-public option Democrats abandon the bill in the House, Pelosi struggles to find the needed votes in her own chamber.

A new ad being broadcast in San Francisco -- Pelosi's district -- and Washington, D.C., calls on the House Speaker to make one final push, putting responsibility for the public option squarely in her hands. The organizations behind the ad, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee,, Democracy for America and Credo Action, plan a $75,000 ad buy, co-founder Adam Green said.

Watch the ad:

Comments

[bthechangeyouseek]

07:30 PM on 03/16/2010

That's exactly correct, you are paying for a business to be up and operating and all the components that go with it. Some procedures cost more than others, and contribute more to the margin.

[ouroborous]

11:49 AM on 03/16/2010

Glenn Greenwald spelled this out in exquisite detail the other day: the "we don't have the votes" line has ALWAYS just been a shell game to keep the public option from serious consideration. We do have the votes. We probably always DID have the votes.

It's just that a public option would finally torpedo the sweet deals Rahm made with PhRMA and AHIP, and so it is not to be allowed. Thus, the perpetual rotating villains game ("it's Dean! No wait, it's Kucinich!") and Nancy's cry of "we don't have the votes" are growing more and more transparent.

Have no fear, "pragmatists" -- the public option will not be in the final bill, simply because Obama and Rahm will not allow it. You'll get what you want -- an up or down vote on a bill that contains almost no real "reform," and also includes a whopping, massive 30 million new customers mandated to tithe to the great insurance gods.

Huzzah! It's a win for "pragmatism!"

[kevinw]

09:32 AM on 03/16/2010

We need to wake up and see where the real opposition to Public Option is coming from. Pelosi is an experienced legislative leader. She has been able to get 290 bills passed through the house while waiting for action from the Senate. Yes we have a large number of Senators that are now signing a non-binding letter that they will vote for the Public Option if it hsows up on their doorstep. How many of them are like Jay Rockefeller that was the champion of the Public Option until it looked like there was a way to pass it. Pelosi is sitting in on joint leadership meetings and hearing from the Senate about not passing the Public Option. It is not Pelosi that is stopping the Public Option, but the Obama administration. The option goes against early deals made with the healthcare industry. They are looking for the one member of the leadership, that has actually accomplished something during the first year of this administration, to take the weight for the cowardice of the administration and the Senate. Why not confront Obama for not pushing for the Public option now that the bill is going through reconcilliation. I would suggest pushing Reid, but we all know what pushing on a wet and flaccid noodle does.

[Linda Glisson]

02:08 PM on 03/16/2010

Nancy Pelosi is one of the most hated legislators in America. Outside of her district she is toast. Reid, Pelosi and Obama have to go. Can't wait for November!!!

[Project4NuBostonTeaParty]

01:06 AM on 03/17/2010

.
Pelosi has done a great job in the House. All that she has accomplished is now languishing in the Senate. If Reid somehow pulls off a miracle and retains his seat, I hope the Senate votes in a new Majority Leader. Hopefully someone from a state with more than one million residents.

.

[GrumpyGrandpa]

08:57 AM on 03/16/2010

The ad is GREAT!. I just hope that Ms. Pelosi is listening. You always have to wonder about what goes on in Washington. I was stunned by her about face on the public option after her strong support for it. You always wonder in cases like that, who got to her, how, with what and why? I am sick about it. The pressure gets turned up on the Senate and they finally fall into line and now the Speaker turns. I am just sick, literally.

[OKF]

03:27 AM on 03/16/2010

It's Amazing that any of you OBots can still defend this spineless leader Obama. Look, I'm supporting the bill because I'm in the "get one foot in the door AT LEAST" camp, but I also recognize THE ONLY REASON THIS HORRIBLE BILL is so horrible, is because of Horrible leadership intentionally weakening it and that starts with Obama. He's been giving the PO this little "Ideally, I'd like to see a Public Option, BUT...." wink months after making his DEAL with the INSURANCE COMPANIES that there wouldn't be a Public Option.

Obama, Pelosi, Reid = FAILURES OF LEADERSHIP

Throw the bums out. Elect TRUE PROGRESSIVES. Primary all incumbants to make them better. Just look at the magic it's worked on Arlen Spector

[Okieborn]

11:57 PM on 03/15/2010

No watered down cr$$ that will not help anyone without a good solid PUBLIC OPTION !!

[KIVPossum]

06:01 AM on 03/16/2010

Wish I could fan you again.

Without a public option this who mess is smoke and mirrors to make people think they've done something constructive.

[andiannj]

11:18 PM on 03/15/2010

I’ve had enough of the US corporate profiteering healthcare system. They should be fighting for laws to prevent the insurance industry from not paying, refusing people care and forcing them into bankruptcy. Instead they want to make it mandatory that we sign up with them.

[RogHol]

10:15 AM on 03/16/2010

You are not so well informed.
In fact: Current bill takes care of it all.

[research]

10:32 PM on 03/15/2010

contribute to Kucinich!

Public option or single payer, or no bill.

[Okieborn]

11:58 PM on 03/15/2010

Your Right !!

[PAposter]

05:33 AM on 03/16/2010

Fraud!

[Darwinia Amazonia]

10:23 PM on 03/15/2010

PELOSI'S DESPERATION TO SAVE HER NOTORIOUS REPUTATION
Serving California lobbies, she played a leading roll in bankrupting Califoria; and now she is desperately serving a leading roll in the unpopular effort to pass the un-constitutional and economically ruinous national health care legislation.

[JailNeoconVicts]

11:54 PM on 03/15/2010

Oh, please. I wish some of these trol ls would travel outside their beloved 'Murica and see that in fact, EVERY OTHER CIVILIZED COUNTRY IN THE WORLD has government-provided healthcare, and almost ALL OF THEM RANK AHEAD OF THE US IN QUALITY OF CARE. We rank 35th or worse.

Jeez...American's are so stuck on themselves they can't even do what's obviously in their own best interests.

[andiannj]

02:28 AM on 03/16/2010

I want health CARE not health (good luck getting your claim covered) insurance!

[milesz]

09:55 PM on 03/15/2010

Yes, we need the PUBLIC OPTION. To repeat, WE NEED THE PUBLIC OPTION. So, Pelosi is just dishing out the bullshit by claiming there are no votes in the Senate for it, when a whip count says there are 50+. What Pelosi is not saying is that she is having trouble with her Members in the House, but does not want to improve the chances of House passage by inserting a PO---even though every poll indicates Americans are in favor of it. Get with the program Madam Speaker - - - get the damn public option in the bill before it is too late!

[Star2000dancer]

10:39 PM on 03/15/2010

Nancy has a 12% approval rating. She turns people's stomach when she goes on air. If congress wants anything done, they have to get rid of the bad apple.

Look what's she's done to California. She'd be voted out by now if people could afford to own a home or a tv anymore in Calf

California used to have the best fishing and was the bread basket of the world. Their farmers produced 40% of the world's food.

Now there are no fish and the bread basket is a desert. Why? SOMEBODY, sold the water to southern California.

Who could and or would do such a thing?

Now California is famous for their luxurious tent cities, med slides and fires. That is a shame! Californians you need to get some real people in office there.

California was & should be the leader in industry. Do you realize how hard it was to destroy California? It was nearly impossible, but the elected officials managed to do it.

Fix it ! You can do it.

[sej100]

09:03 PM on 03/15/2010

Obama killed the public option with a deal with the for profit hospitals.
That is not change I can believe in, especially as Mr Obama fails to acknowledge his cave in to each lobby group with the exception of the base that put him in office.

Shame on him for dealing away the one thing that might have helped to keep rates affordable.

[Okieborn]

11:58 PM on 03/15/2010

You are RIGHT !!

[andiannj]

02:32 AM on 03/16/2010

Aren't these the same insurance companies Obama has been calling "evil"? They will now have a 30 million strong captive customers that will have to buy their crap product or get risked sicced on by the IRS. Large group plans will begin to disappear because of the individual mandate. Large companies will no longer be forced to provide coverage, so to strengthen their own bottom lines, they will drop health coverage altogether. Hundreds of millions more will then be forced to buy on the "exchange" these useless individual plans that wouldn't cover squat.

[Dr Jimmy and Mr Jim]

08:52 PM on 03/15/2010

Way back in 2006 when Dems got their majority, the very first thing din_g-bat Pelosi says is "Impeachment [of G.W. Bush] is OFF the table.

We should have known then that she has been bought and paid for ahead of time.

Dems have a majority now. Dems have reconciliation at their disposal and all the polls show that the American people want competition for the insurance companies - a PUBLIC OPTION.

The only reason they would "go for it" is because they are PAID NOT TO "GO FOR IT". How sad. So much corruption. NO CHANGE.

We have been sold out, America. BY DEMOCRATS. I expect it out of the Republicans but Democrats? I would have never bet on it. Take a walk, Pelosi. I'm almost an Independent.

[greg556]

10:32 PM on 03/15/2010

Yes, but it's most of the democrats, not just Pelosi (in fact, maybe not Pelosi at all). Weiner had an interesting conversation with Lawrence O'Donnell the other day where he explained that what the dems say behind closed doors is completely different from what they say for the cameras. This is the game they play--it's their version of the GOP hypocrisy. They say "Gosh I sure would love to vote for it! Too bad we can't!"

[- bill]

01:03 AM on 03/16/2010

So what was Weiner's excuse for not simply calling their bluff and sending a reconciliation package that included the public option to the Senate? He and the rest of the Congressional Progressive Caucus are in a fine position to do that, since a bill can't pass the House without their support.

And, in fact that's what they PUBLICLY PLEDGED to do last summer when they said they would not vote for any bill that failed to include a strong public option (though given the current circumstances one could excuse their voting to pass the Senate bill if they had a concrete promise from the Senate to pass the public option via the reconciliation package). If they fail to honor that pledge, screw 'em along with the rest of the turncoat Dems.

[Star2000dancer]

10:43 PM on 03/15/2010

Fanned. I was just about to get to that. It made us furious when she did that. But it showed her hand. Yey at 12% approval, she's still in office. Why? How? Californians need to elect the poorest, most honorable people they can find.

People that care about them and will bring back the water to the farmers and the fishermen.

[Project4NuBostonTeaParty]

08:01 PM on 03/15/2010

.
Ed Schultz just TONIGHT mentioned the special hospital industry deal Obama made regarding dropping the public option back in summer 2009, as reported by the New York Times on Aug. 13 (and published repeatedly on HuffPo by writer Miles Mogulescu beginning last October) . Ed Schultz even had the original NYT reporter on for a short segment.

The Ed Show repeats at 3 a.m. EDT on MSNBC, so anyone should catch his show who is interested in seeing the first broadcast media acknowledgment of a second special deal Obama made early on -- the other being with Big Pharma.

Now we'll see who picks it up next: Rachel or Keith?

This, folks, is why there is no public option. Pelosi is trying to get 216 votes any way she can; ditching the PO might open up some ex-Stupak votes.

But Adam Green, CREDO et al are right to push Pelosi and the Senate to fight for it.

.

[- bill]

01:13 AM on 03/16/2010

I wouldn't count on Rachel picking it up: she's firmly in bed with the party establishment on this issue. Tonight she practically creamed over Obama's stirring rhetoric in Ohio while barely mentioning Kucinich's principled stand against passing the package without a public option (making him look more like a stubborn hold-out with the aid of guest Sherrod Brown - now I remember why I was disappointed that he won his primary against a stauncher progressive whom the party leadership just didn't seem as comfortable with - can't imagine why...).

Which is consistent with her consistent fawning over Obama apologist Ezra Klein recently. Just once (after support for the public option started gathering steam in the Senate) did she make the comment that Democrats should ignore it at their peril, then returned to doing her best to ensure that any such peril was minimized.

I'll try to stay up to catch Ed in a couple of hours.

[NotaNewdemocrat]

07:57 PM on 03/15/2010

Who killed the public option?
The whitehouse.

March 15: Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, discusses why public option wasn't included in the health care bill.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/35882870#35882870

[pointyheadprodigy]

06:25 PM on 03/15/2010

YYYYYYAAAAAAAAYYYYY!!!!!!! Very Nice Ad! I contacted Nancy Pelosi today and said the same thing - though not as well - and I hope everyone here did also.

KEEP PUSHING ON!!!!! Don't let them think this will pass by with out great consequence!!!!! Let them know this matters!!!!!!!!!