Let's take Sen. Michael Bennet (D) and some Colorado progressive groups at their word when they say the only reason they have previously opposed offering a public-option amendment to the Senate reconciliation bill is because if it passes, the bill would then have to be sent back to the House. They say that having to send it back to the House would "complicate" matters (which doesn't make much sense to me, considering the House is controlled by Democrats, and the House has already passed the public option... but I digress).
So fine -- let's just for a moment take Bennet at his word that he's not trying to defend the insurance industry and take some Colorado progressive groups at their word that they aren't simply bowing down to their Democratic bosses and their big donors.
OK -- so what about now?
Senate Republicans succeeded early Thursday morning in finding two flaws in the House-passed health care reconciliation package... the upshot is that Republicans will succeed in at least slightly altering the legislation, which means that the House is once again required to vote on it.
The ruling might give Democrats another option -- the public one.Democratic leadership no longer has to worry that additional amendments would send it back to the House, since it must return to the lower chamber regardless. The Senate is now free to put to the test that much-debated question of whether 50 votes exist for a public option. Democrats could also elect to expand Medicare or Medicaid, now that they only need 50 votes in the Senate and the approval of the House.
The question then becomes whether House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) could pass the reconciliation changes with a public option. She has long maintained that the House has the votes to do so. Indeed, it did so in late 2009...
The Huffington Post interviewed House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) on Wednesday evening and asked if he thought he could have gotten the public option back through a second time, when the House voted on Sunday, even without those members who had left. "Yes, sir," he said emphatically. Clyburn added that the problem for the public option has never been in the House. The problem has been in the Senate. And now the upper chamber has a chance to vote on it. (emphasis added)
So the bill is going back to the House anyway, the Senate still has time to amend the bill with a public option, and the top House Democratic leaders are on the record saying they could pass the public option. Additionally, the New York Times notes that "the parliamentary process playing out on the Senate floor gives (Democrats) a rare chance to enact (the public option) with a simple majority, a chance unlikely to come around again soon." (this latter point is a key one for the "let's wait for a standalone bill later" crowd -- I'll repeat what the Times reports: the specific chance we have right now is "a chance unlikely to come around again soon.")
So I ask what we asked yesterday at our rally at Sen. Bennet's office: Will our senator now fulfill his promise to push a public option using reconciliation?
Or are we going to get yet another ridiculous excuse?
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Tom Pappalardo: Obama Perfectly Posed to Push Public Option
If President Obama's advisers had any killer instinct, they would push him to zero in on an absolutely golden opportunity to include a public option in the historic health care reform bill.
Who can we trust to run it? The same government that sells its votes to the highest bidder? How corrupt will the administrators of the public option be after a few years of operation?
Just asking...................
Since it was going to be sent back **anyway** that jeopardy was already present. Changing it in a manner that the house has already supported wouldn't have been adding any more jeopardy.
The vast "left wing conspiracy" was foiled the moment the republicans forced it back on a technicality. Unless said conspiracy is a conspiracy to deny us the public option ... in which case that is humming along fine.
=(
See: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lanny-davis/the-historic-health-care_b_513291.html
"I am proud that our nation finally has national healthcare -- first proposed by Republican President Theodore Roosevelt two centuries ago and Democratic President Harry Truman more than a century ago. President Obama and Democrats in Congress have exhibited the classic John Kennedy "profile in courage" -- standing on principle at great political risk but as a matter of conscience."
-- LANNY DAVIS
Profiles in Courage?!?!? This was the biggest sellout to corporate interests they could do! They had to whip Progressive votes to ignore the grassroots because they were brow-beaten by the Lobbyists for Big Phrma and Big Insurance!!! They hide behind the claim that they "didn't have enough votes..." which we all know is patently false! And to do so is a "profile in courage" ????
Today they could have added the public option to a reconciliation bill that could have passed with a simple majority, without endangering the Act.
Are we to believe that a President, Senate Majority Leader, and Speaker of the House with historic majorities couldn’t get a public option–which roughly 65% of the country supported–if they really wanted one. If they all really wanted to include a public option, they could have done it using reconciliation.
Insurers got 30 million mandated customers, minimal enforcement of regulations, and no government competition. All those billions in forced premiums ensurer that their lobbyists will continue to trump any voter majority on reforms from here on out.
In the end, the reconciliation bill still had to go to the House. So they could have voted on a public option amendment and gotten it with 50 votes. Now we get more 60 vote nonsense later. No vote to let us know who stood with us.
Now we know the truth. None of them do.
This is a great post that outlines how many excuses were used, how many rotating villains, and ultimately, how the very excuses for killing the public option were ultimately proven to be myths...
Reality is sometimes too bitter a pill for people too swallow. They see what is really going on, for a brief moment, and then they scream "NO! Put me BACK into my stupor! I want to pretend reality is the lie that I was raised to believe!"
Reminds me of a scene from the Matrix. He wanted to taste a fake steak again, and pretend the Matrix was real. I think people who ignore your posts (which are quite good), are the ones who can't face the reality that WE just got played, and that WE have been played since 2007. I voted for Obama, and now I don't know why. I guess because I believed him. Silly me.
The main reason Americans pay TWICE as much for healthcare as anyone else is we pay for research and development of most of the worlds drugs AND medical equipment.
Americans pay 3 to 5 times as much for drugs as people in other countries.
We pay ALL the R&D cost for the whole stinking world. That's why people here want to get drugs from Canada. They’re the same drugs made by American drug companies sold to Canada (and everywhere else but in America) at 60 to 80 percent off!
This is one of the biggest reasons that health care costs so much more in America!
Simple pass a law that says American drug companies can not sell drugs in other countries for less than in America. It could be one page long! If we have to, hide in some other bill, like they do for everything else.
Every other countries cost would go up a little and our costs would go down a lot if the R&D costs were spread evenly.
Even the GOP would HAVE to support this. Their base would kill them if they did not, because they always say AMERICA FIRST.
What do you think of Sen. Harkin's suggestion that the public option could be added in a SEPARATE reconciliation bill pursuant to the next budget resolution?
Lets all remember these days. Lets see what happens in the next 5 years. When 5 years go by and you see NO MORE MOVEMENT on the health insurance (or health CARE) fronts, just remind yourselves that some of us said this would happen.
The HISTORIC LANDMARK DAY already happened. They will restore Glass-Steagall before they pass a Public Option...
Obama is speaking in Iowa City right now. He just said, "Republican leaders in the House called this bill 'Armageddon'. ARMAGEDDON! So after I signed the bill I looked around. No asteroids fallin'. No cracks suddenly appearing in the Earth."
God, I love that guy.
Let's remember to keep Reid's accountable to bring the public option for a vote in the next few months.
Any chance not including it now is a strategic decision to capitalize on its passage closer to the November elections? Since it will take years to get the P.O. going anyway...
But I was referring to the original plan to have the P.O. up and running by 2014.
It would be great to see the president either have to sign it or veto it. I honestly don't know what he would do, but I'm pretty sure we won't get a chance to find out.