The intensity is ratcheting ever higher as we move toward the final stages of the health care fight. It's been a good week for reformers overall. Pelosi and Reid are both whipping for strong bills, including a very strong public option (in the House) or a respectable public option (in the Senate). Progress is being made on other key components of the package including the affordability issue. Even traditional media sources like the Washington Post and the New York Times are waking up to the fact that even though they have been declaring health care reform on life support and the public option dead for six months, something decent might actually pass.
The only down moment of the week has been the confusion caused by the White House on the Senate strategy. This whole muddled are-they-or-aren't-they backing Harry Reid or backing Snowe's trigger-designed-not-to-trigger mess was just a poorly handled distraction. I mean, look, anyone who has been in DC longer than a week knows that if you have a meeting at the White House with more than five people in it, that certain folks with their own agenda will start leaking stuff to the media, so whatever the intent of all that was, it was bound to undermine Reid and our overall momentum. The White House is now on the record denying that was their intent, and folks there have sworn to me they are backing Reid to the hilt, so I believe them and that's all good, but it was still a mess.
I think we're still moving forward, though. The next few days will tell us what kind of deals can be cut, but no matter what, I think the strategy for progressives remains the same as it has been from the beginning of this fight:
1. House progressives have to stay strong and united in pushing for a strong public option and more affordability for the middle class. Health care reform will not pass without the votes of the members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, and they need to continue to say a big "Hell no" to triggers that are written to never trigger and co-ops that are designed to never compete with the insurers. If House progressives absolutely refuse to fold, the final bill will have a solid public option and decent affordability for the middle class.
2. The 30 core progressives on health care in the Senate need to stay strong and stay together as well. They need to keep pushing Reid and the White House to reject the Snowe trigger that will never trigger, and they need to twist the arms of their last couple of colleagues who are holding out. The idea that one or two Senators are going to stop the entire rest of the Democratic party from delivering on the biggest issue in front of Congress in 50 years is an outrage, and those Senators should be told in no uncertain terms that nothing they want will ever again see the light of day if they support the Republican filibuster on this issue.
3. Everyone in the broader progressive community needs to be 100% clear that the Snowe trigger written to never trigger is deader than a doorknob. To call this a compromise is actually pretty funny. Fundamental to health care reform is real competition and a check on the market power of the insurance industry. Without that, private insurers will continue to raise their rates and otherwise screw people over at will. The trigger as written by Snowe has a Catch-22 in it that makes sure it would never be triggered in real life, so it would provide no competition or check on insurance power whatsoever. Come on now: if you are going to ask progressives to compromise, don't give us something that is no compromise. Most progressives understand we need to compromise some, and in fact we already have compromised an enormous amount, but we aren't going to let you give us nothing.
I think we are still on track to win this fight and get a very decent health care bill, and in fact the momentum is building. Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid deserve an enormous amount of credit for continuing to push forward on a strong bill in spite of all the obstacles being thrown in their way. Progressives need to stick together and not allow themselves to get rolled on phony compromises. If they do, we are going to be able to celebrate a huge victory before the year is out.
Chris Weigant: Media's Credibility (Not Public Option) Is What Is Dead
The media has been pushing the "public option is dead" theme for so long, it's no wonder they're so astonished by yesterday's news that a public option will be included in the Senate bill.
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It looks like insurers will basically be able to charge whatever they want if you have a pre-existi
What am I missing?
Costs are out of control and congress is going to stick the workers and middle class with most of the cost.
Deductible
It is also an economic and political disaster.
If a state wants to be in the Union, with the distributi
It's amazing how much drama and trauma the for-profit insurance companies have been allowed burden American families and singles with. That's another moral issue - why are insurance corporatio
Enough already! If we can't have single payer, a robust, 50 state public option that starts in 2010 is the minimum to get me to pull the voting lever for my incumbent.
Nonsense. Mixed signals are a deliberate strategy. We've seen this pattern almost every weekend for months now: the White House is rumored to be backing off, the progressiv
It has happened too many times to be a coincidenc
To these ends, Obama has rendered himself an impediment at best, and an opponent at worst. Any other depiction is pure sophistry.
We voters have to do our part -- we need to stay on Congress until they stop playing footsie with the in$urance indu$try.
WHITE HOUSE: http://www
202-456-11
SENATE: http://www
HOUSE OF REPRESENTA
And then we have to do the same with banking, election reform, all of it.
Grab a mop.
But, of course, those who need REAL Health Care don't matter, so long as you know you can have back up prescripti
Respectful
Ange Lobue, MD, MPH, BSPharm
American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology
Academy of Television Arts and Sciences
trinidadca
ii. And it took them a long time but eventually
iii. And lo, the people would be confused enough that they would be too frightened of a government they voted in, to allow it to do anything.
iv. And the ultrarich did laugh for they had insulated themselves against all consequenc
Here endeth the lesson.
Sneer on, chum. There are always foot-dragg
Kind of sad, really.
Instead, we'll get the OTHER public option - the one offered only to those who have been refused insurance - i.e., customers the insurers don't want. All 5-10 million of them. Everyone else - the vast majority - will be legally obligated to buy insurance from private companies.
Anyone hoping for a "strong public option" is whistling up a rope.
When Rep. Weiner offers his amendment for vote by the full House, he should propose replacing all 1500 bloated and incomprehe
Folks, we've been lied to and used again. The insurance industry and big pharma owe Obama a big wet kiss and their's bupkus left over for the people who elected him.
There's the rub, Obama promised transparen
Dems are trying to be creative with "the public option", trying to force their will. The American people don't want that, it doesn't matter how many creatively crafted polls state otherwise, the leading pollsters indicate the propaganda is just that.
Americans do want reform, they want true competitio