The President did a great job last night making the case to the nation of the need for health care reform. He made the moral case, and every metric indicates that people were overwhelmingly moved to support his plan. That's the good news for the White House.
The not so good news: the White House has been trying to get out from under the burden of supporting the public option for weeks. The trouble is, every time they try to do it, the President's poll numbers take a huge hit. And so last night he came out and indicated that a public plan would be a part of his reform package. Today on the White House website, under "The Obama Plan," it says:
If You Don't Have Insurance
Offers a public health insurance option to provide the uninsured and those who can't find affordable coverage with a real choice.
The website is not so quick to commemorate the qualifiers regarding this public plan from last night's speech:
The administration's inability to close the gap between expectations and reality is a boon for progressives members of Congress trying to maintain the 40 vote firewall necessary to keep any health care bill from passing that does not have a public public option. So far they are holding steady at 66 votes with no support from the party, the White House, Congressional leadership or the liberal "veal pen" institutions.
Earlier this week, the co-chairs of the Progressive Caucus -- Raul Grijalva and Lynn Woolsey -- wrote a letter urging the President to mention the public option in his speech. I spoke with Rep. Grijalva yesterday, and he reiterated how important it was to their efforts that the President do so. As long as the President keeps expressing his support for a public option, they -- and we -- can quite rightly say that we're only insisting on something Obama himself endorses, something he campaigned on.
Interview with Rep. Grijalva -- Pt. II
Of course, the actions of the White House betray quite a different intent. The deals they have negotiated with health care industry stakeholders do not include a public plan, and they don't believe they can back out of them without triggering a rush of lobbyist money to GOP coffers.
At some point there will be a day of reckoning when the public understands that the public option is gone. But getting there will be tricky, and in the mean time White House wants to stop their opponents -- and let's face it, progressives who are insisting on the inclusion of a public plan are at this point their opponents -- from being able to exploit that gap. Because with every day that goes by, the base gets more and more wedded to the promise of a public plan, encouraged by the positive rhetoric of the President himself. It becomes that much harder for the White House to extract itself from the enthusiasm they assist in fostering without paying a huge political price.
One day the 11 dimensional chess set is going to have to come to terms with the fact that Rahm Emanuel worked with Max Baucus to cut deals that they force into the House through the Blue Dogs, and that the goals of the White House are not at odds with those of the Blue Dogs. Which is why Emanuel protects them so fiercely. And why we keep hearing things like this:
Remember back on Friday, President Obama discussed the public option on a conference call with House liberals?... Well that meeting never happened. [I]t doesn't seem to suggest that House liberals are being roped in to the health care negotiations between the House and the Senate.
Meanwhile, the President meets with the Blue Dogs this morning.
NBC's First Read indicates that the President's speech "will be a failure if progressives...are still obsessing over the public option a week from now." But recent Rasmussen polling found that 44% of Democrats "strongly support" health care reform if it includes a public option. "Without the public option, just 12% of Democrats Strongly support it," they note.
It's going to take more than just one speech to move those numbers significantly.
It's hard to believe the administration thought they could ditch the public plan without completely demoralizing the base and potentially suppressing 2010 turnout to 1994 levels, just as the passage of NAFTA did in 1993. Let's not forget, that was also Rahm Emanuel's handiwork and it resulted in a 54 seat swing that gave the GOP control of the House. Those Democrats who feel the need to "pass anything" and sacrifice the heart of health care reform just to build Republican support should also consider the potential nationwide downticket disaster that dropping a public plan could portend.
In the mean time, as long as the White House is consumed with the task of gaming out how they're going to break the bad news to the public and hoping they can somehow pass off the blame to the GOP, House progressives will exploit the double the administration has created to consolidate their block.
Jane Hamsher blogs at firedoglake
Follow Jane Hamsher on Twitter: www.twitter.com/janehamsher
John F. Wasik: Future of Health Care Is Nasty, Brutish and Short
Right now, weak state regulators not only turn a blind eye to the worst practices of the health care industry, they greenlight most rate increases. I know because I've been a victim of these abuses.
Comes now a medical industry that can only increase profit by more patients or poorer health, and to reform such a system is a quest for the impossible.
Whereas public charity healthcare, like Medicare, shows a profit by decreasing patients and improving health.
While health care reform in itself won't be Obama's Waterloo, reform without a public option certainly will be, at least as far as the mid-terms are concerned.
I can't believe that they don't see that. It makes one wonder just how much of their soul they sold in their secret dealings with the Health Care Industrial Complex.
The public option, if given to the general public, had the potential to become a defacto Single Payer if a large majority enrolled. By killing this plan, they simply gave preferential treatment to industry and perpetuate the macroeconomics of a nation that allows farming of the populations incomes.
The economy is split in two, one half based in financials which the affluent run, and the other half is floundering. They have completely disenfranchised the middle class and continue to exploit their own people as a consumer base as they suffer.
We don't need to take up arms to have a new American Revolution. It's time for progressive Americans to take to the streets and demand that firedoglake Progressive Democrats give up on the Democratic Party and break away, form their own third party. Organize progressives at all levels of gov't for a strong, viable third party able to get their message out.
MSM has marginalized every attempt made by Progressive candidates on the national stage. Kucinich, Dean, Edwards - the establishment has worked hard to discredit and trivialize these great men. Why? Because the establishment cannot afford to let Americans hear the views of politicians that actually care about providing ALL Americans with an equal opportunity for success.
Sadly, the Constitution and American democracy have taken a back seat to corporate profits. The Bush Administration locked corporate-held puppet strings securely into government at all levels, from SCOTUS down to the lowliest agency office. Congress no longer bothers to hide their corporate masters because they know the people can do nothing about it.
It's the American People vs Corporations and the wealthy few. We need political leadership if we are to win. Without it, corporations will win by default. We thought Obama would bring change and he's proving to be just another puppet. Let him stay aligned with the Blue Dogs. I look to Jane Hamsher and Progressive Democrats - Step forward! Be the leaders we so desperately want and need!
Target the Senate Democrats listed as ""Don't know" on the Public Option :
Source : http://standwithdrdean.com/where_congress_stands?chamber=Senate&party=D&state=&hc_status=0&commit=Filter
Sen. Max..Baucus..............MT....202-224-2651
Sen. Evan..Bayh.................IN.....202-224-5623
Sen. Mark.. Begich.............AK....202-224-3004
Sen. Robert...Byrd..............WV...202-224-3954
Sen. Thomas..Carper.......DE...202-224-2441
Sen. Kent ..Conrad............ND...202-224-2043
Sen. Mary..Landrieu..........LA....202-224-5824
Sen. Blanche..Lincoln.......AR...202-224-4843
Sen. Bill..Nelson.................FL...202-224-5274
Sen. Benjamin.Nelson.....NE...202-224-6551
Sen. Mark..Pryor.................AR...202-224-2353
Sen. Jon..Tester................MT....202-224-2644
Sen. Mark..Warner..............VA...202-224-2023
Sen. Ron..Wyden...............OR...202-224-5244
Want to help then SNIP at the Corporate LACKEYS holding up the progress and letting bankers rob the country !!!!!
I wondered (for a short while) if this could be naivety. Now, I believe the President has experienced more than enough resistance from the true 'center' of his party to take seriously the promises he made in the election. At this point, I have to think it is hubris that allows him to discount his supporters so completely. I believe he is acting out of the conviction that his judgment is far superior to that of his supporters. This president is, I believe, 'unknowable'. Conviction seems to be a fluid thing that needs only to find a 'center'. The 'center' of anything. It remains to be revealed whether this 'center' is the conviction or whether his re-election is the goal. It's truly frightening to think he may still believe that anyone right of center is going to develop a great love for him and his 'bi-partisanship' efforts.
Honestly, I don't envy anyone trying to sell this public option. The savings are so small for both the government and the consumer compared to single payer, it's like selling an old car you managed to get 3 wheels for but it's always going to be missing the 4th.
He spells out what POTUS is trying to do, and the consequences of doing so as in what they have created in MA where I live.
We must defeat the bills in Congress and demand SINGLE PAYER as the way forward.
Forget the rhetoric, it is time for action.
And I would say to the President with all due respect, the time for propping up the insurance industry courtesy of the US taxpayer is over.
It is time for this nation to take care of its own, and if taxpayer dollars are going to be used for anything, it must be for health care of its citizens, not forever wars win foreign countries that we cannot win, nor can we afford.
WE ALREADY SPEND THE MONEY!!! The CBO can say reform or a single payer plan will cost this much or that much but it is NOT new spending. It is redirecting the money we currently spend, much of it going to private for-profit insurance companies.
If the only legislation Congress passed was a requirement that all medical billing coding be based on Medicare coding, regardless of who is being billed, millions of dollars would be saved every year. The problem with our current system is that private insurance would keep the savings as increased profit rather than reduce premiums, so it wouldn't provide any of the relief we are looking to reform to provide. That's why we need nothing less than single payer.
HR676!!!!
http://www.reuters.com/article/hotStocksNews/idUSTRE58941P20090910?rpc=60
Democrats? They now get more money from healthcos than do Republicans, so they praise the speech. Joe Wilson provided just the kind of distraction they need to avoid discussing real reform, single-payer Medicare For All, which the House will actually vote on soon .
The public option is already eviscerated, but it serves the healthcos by diverting attention away from Medicare For All. So they are happy to participate in the sham "debate" about it by offering opposition to it, even though they have already stifled it in its crib.