The White House obviously has a loser mentality -- but America rallies around winners. Polls show that in state after state, voters hate the Senate bill and overwhelmingly want a public option, even if passed with zero Republican votes. More than 50 Senate Democrats and 218 House Democrats were willing to vote for the public option before, and the only way to lose in reconciliation is if losers are leading the fight. That's why Democrats in Congress should ignore the White House and follow those like Chuck Schumer and Robert Menendez who know that the public option is a political and policy winner.
Now that we know he is the one of the first two names that come to mind when you think "winner," I trust Senator Bob Menendez will never think he doesn't get praise from the left.
Senator Menendez appeared this morning on MSNBC talking with David Shuster about the vote in the Senate yesterday to overcome a filibuster for the jobs bill and his signing onto the letter calling for the public option for healthcare reform. Both Senators Lautenberg and Menendez have signed onto the public option letter. You can see the segment here:
But I would warn them that if they think that building up the base's hopes on this again only to fail to even get 50 out of 58 Democrats it isn't going to work. If they are serious about rallying the base they need to deliver, period. No excuses. They have a majority. If they hold a vote that only requires 51, they need to win it.
I'm just praying they aren't going to have a spirited losing debate on the floor and then go the Evan Bayh route yesterday when he was on TV, righteously blaming the Republicans for being obstructionists (good) but also blaming Democrats for making the "perfect the enemy of the good". One more lecture about this and I'm going to put my foot through the TV. The truth of the matter is that liberals have been accommodating every damned step of the way, forced to eat dirt from backstabbers like Joe Lieberman and have been far more compromising than jackasses like Bart Stupak and Ben Nelson. It pays to remember that if liberals had their way we would be talking about a national, cradle to grave universal health care plan (Medicare for all) instead of this Rube Goldberg contraption that's been put together with toothpicks and ear wax. So lectures about demanding perfection really need to be aimed at the vaunted "centrists" and the conservatives, who made this mess a necessary requirement for passage....
But if they are running the same game they ran before I can't imagine how much worse they are making it for themselves. They need to be very, very serious about passing it. This Charlie Brown with the football routine is what's killing them with the base. They just can't afford to do it again.
I don't think it's hard for Blue Jersey readers to think of examples at the state level, but here there are really no excuses, because health care reform has been in the Democratic platform longer than most Americans have been alive. Pass a public option that covers anyone with a pre-existing condition, with subsidies for everyone without insurance and a tax on high incomes, and you are finished. And it's more popular than the current bill.
Vote was 60-39. Both New Jersey senators Frank Lautenberg and Bob Menendez voted yes.
Update: We now know who the missing Republican was, that led to a 60-39 vote instead of 60-40. It was Senator Jim Bunning of Kentucky, who was entitled to vote today, but is not running for re-election after heavy pressure from fellow Republicans to drop out.
Senators Russ Feingold and Bernie Sanders, both lobbied heavily to vote no on deeply imperfect legislation, both voted yes.
Senator Robert Byrd, whose death or injury was wished for by some Republicans this holiday season, was wheeled in and cast his yes vote, adding, This is for my friend Ted Kennedy.
Senator Harry Reid brought the funny, but not on purpose. When the rollcall got to him, he voted loud and clear: No!
The clerk paused, as the room tensed up a little, to let an exhausted Senate Majority Leader catch up with what he just did, and change his vote. Which he did, as everybody in the room cracked up.
I only saw the last minute of the vote. There's more to say, so consider this an Open Thread.
DNC is keeping up the pressure on Leonard Lance and Frank LoBiondo, two of the 32 GOP congressmen in America whose District voted for Obama - and his health care reform platform - but who betrayed the interests of their constituents by voting against reform 9 days ago in the House. Full list here.
It was an angry crowd that met Rep. John Adler Saturday at his first Town Hall since he voted to scuttle the public option when the House debated and passed it last weekend. But this time, the crowd was upset because the guy they sent to Congress is standing against the public option. Adler is one of the 39 Democrats voting no, and the only one from New Jersey. Pro-reform advocates from NJ Citizen Action and Grassroots 4 Change both showed up in numbers in Willingboro.
Several dozen constituents rose to address the congressman yesterday, and nearly all were unhappy with his vote.
"You were one of the first to support Barack Obama, and we looked at you as our Democratic congressman who would vote to make a change," said Rev. Charles Levi Martin of Willingboro. "I love you, but I don't like your vote. You gotta change your vote."
Adler's reasons for balking at the public option plan passed just days ago - largely about cost-containment and well outlined in this balanced review by Tom Moran - seem cheesy in light of the need for reform and the connection to personal bankruptcy and a cratering economy that uncovered and rapidly rising health care costs are. Adler seems dedicated only to the idea of a perfect bill, one that goes lighter on the landscape than he feels this one does. The strongest health care advocates started out on day one with their legislators already having compromised a single payer plan right out of the equation. Given that, it's hard not to see Adler's vote in the more conservative waters of South Jersey as political calculation, and a weak attempt to insulate himself from the inevitable GOP mission to snatch his District back when Adler stands for his first re-election in 2010.
Still, an overhaul of our health care system has a few steps to go before it gels, and there is at least the suggestion that Adler, his issue of cost-containment now on the record, may yet come to support a public option plan.
Adler still says he has "expressed support" for a public option, and notes that he has supported other Obama initiatives, including the federal stimulus package, stricter govenment oversight of banks and lending institutions and a new energy bill. But it isn't clear whether that was enough for his audience Saturday. Evelyn Liebman, of NJ Citizen Action, urging Adler to correct his course:
I urge you to reconsider your vote so you will be on the right side of history.
While every one of the state's five Republicans marched in lockstep with John Boehner and Eric Cantor by opposing health care reform, seven of eight New Jersey Democrats voted for the historic health care reform bill. Among Democrats, only 3rd District Congressman John Adler voted no.
Of the 39 Democrats who voted against H.R.3962, only four come from more Democratic districts than NJ-03. Some 30 Democrats who represent redder districts than Adler's voted yes. Adler's vote was nothing but cowardly.
Adler's vote may not have been a surprise, given the series of negative statements he has about the bill since the summer, but it certainly is a disappointment. Adler has moved hard to the right ever since being elected to represent NJ-03 last November. Where is the John Adler New Jersey progressives fought to elect?
What happened to the John Adler who pushed the death penalty repeal through the State Senate Judiciary Committee in 2007? What happened to the John Adler who expressed support for marriage equality in the Senate civil union hearings in 2006? The courageous progressive who served in the state Senate for more than a decade has exited the political stage to make way for a cowardly freshman Representative who caves in to the teabaggers on the big votes.
What happened to the John Adler who knows from personal experience what a lack of health insurance can do to a family? What happened to the "outspoken advocate for providing health insurance to all families"? The Congressman seems to have forgotten about the uninsured, for all he talks about these days is cutting costs.
It seems Adler has forgotten what got him elected to Congress in the first place. He won the support of rank-and-file Democrats and thus an easy path to the nomination by maintaining a progressive voting record in the State Senate. He rode Barack Obama's coattails into office in the general election (remember that Obama outperformed him in the district in 2008). But for his first Congressional re-election campaign, Congressman Adler is casting his lot with the big-money donors looking to influence his votes on the Financial Services Committee, and with teabaggers like William Green.
"I felt both lonely and courageous." Freshman Republican Anh "Joseph" Cao was pressured by both his GOP superiors and the White House. In the end, despite the fact he had two powerful GOP leaders physically leaning on him, he voted for public option. The first Vietnamese-American in Congress represents part of NOLA, where a huge number of his constituents are uninsured and sick.
Of the many heroes today, is my former boss, Rep. Rush D. Holt of New Jersey's 12th congressional district. Hopeful has his full statement from the floor of the House in Comments. Here it is on vid:
Organizing for America (OFA), the DNC-ruled "grassroots" organization formed from the massive Obama '08 email list, is asking people in NJ-2 & NJ-7 to drop what they're doing and call Frank LoBiondo and Leonard Lance and ask them to vote Yes on the public option. The debate has been going on all day on the floor of the House. Watch LIVE.
Obama voters in 31 other districts got the same email, districts Obama won but have GOP congressmen. But it's a complete waste of time to call Republicans, and the DNC/OFA knows it. This is a muscle-flex for the GOP. They've spent all day, in some ridiculous, dramatic and even toddler-juggling vignettes, telling you they're voting no. So why is OFA trying to get you to waste your time on Lance & LoBiondo when you could be calling an actual Democrat who plans to vote no on Public Option?
In fact, our friends at AFSCME have an easy tool for you Adler constituents to call him now. Just click the green flashing ad to the right of this diary.
The swine flu vaccine is limited in supplies and H1N1 is spreading like wildfire. This combination should send us all running for the hills, right? No, not at all actually. According to BrowardPalmBeach, when in doubt, do nothing. The media has publicised H1N1, the government has aided in public panic and the health care industry has nothing to lose by the hysteria. That is a combination most American's are not going to trust.
The health care watch has been a nailbiter the last few weeks, with conflicting rumors about what proposal the Senate would bring forward, and whether it would include the public option. Now that progressives in the Senate have decided to stand tough and bring a public option with a state opt-out provision, Harry Reid's made a surprise hero of himself for not allowing Sen. Olympia Snowe to hold hostage the entire Senate in her demand for a trigger provision. The opt-out's an imperfect situation, and for Sen. Reid, it's a high-wire act with an uncertain number of votes in the Senate to match a clearer picture in the House. But it's a muscle-flex for progressives. Good news.
But it's a game changer. It brings unaccustomed new power to Governors to decide whether to opt-in their states, or opt-out and leave uninsured and underinsured citizens to fend for themselves, a situation which has left us with 47 million (1.3 M in NJ) uninsured.
Governor Corzine has been an outspoken supporter of the public option. He would not opt out of it, as the public option is a critical piece of making health reform sustainable and holding private health insurance companies accountable.
And Christie? Watch this. See if you can conclude anything else than Christie would opt New Jersey right out. From DailyKosTV:
I do not favor a public option. I think there are a lot of other things that we could do on health care reform, and not have a public option. That's not something I would favor nor do I think that would be something that would be good for the state of New Jersey, for the federal government to do.
Three of NJ's Democratic congressional delegation are being targeted to firm up or gain their support of the Progressive robust public option (Medicare +5 rate).
The Congressional Progressive Caucus is closing in on the support needed to pass a Health Care Reform bill with a robust public option. Speaker Nancy Pelosi needs the strongest bill possible to give her a strong negotiating hand when she goes to conference committee with the Senate.
Congressmen Steve Rothman, John Adler and Albio Sires are all listed as either lean yes, undecided or lean no on Health Care Reform with a robust public option that sets reimbursement rates at Medicare levels plus 5% instead of a weaker negotiated rates level.
Please reach out to these Congressmen and let them know we need the strongest most progressive version of the bill possible!
This is a very welcome development from Saturday's NJ3 town hall: Representative John Adler now supports a public option.
Adler said he supported providing some type of public option in a reform bill, arguing that it would increase competition among private health insurance companies.
"A public option would be a real hammer in some areas without competition," he said, adding that he also favors permitting insurance companies to write policies to out-of-state residents.
This is great news. I do think, though, that last bit is odd. Out-of-state insurance policies without New Jersey regulation is exactly what cost Chris Christie his lead over the last month. Why would Adler trumpet his support for a right-wing political loser of a proposal? Now, if Adler is just talking about letting in other insurance companies that obey our local laws, I have no problem, but I find it pretty shocking anyone would deliberately seek to recreate the "South Dakota/Delaware" credit card "race to the bottom." If you enjoyed 25% interest rates and late fees, you'll love your new insurance policy. Still, he was facing a pretty hostile audience and I have to congratulate him for standing up for health care reform, a public option, cap-and-trade, and the stimulus.
Imagine how dumb these Republicans are Adler had to deal with. (They do seem to be self-described conservatives.) They supported Reagan and Bush's massive deficits. They supported another Bush's deficits. They borrowed the entire costs of their wars. But today, with a worldwide recession, they want to follow Herbert Hoover's policies and complain about debt. If we didn't live here we wouldn't believe it.
Following his vote in the Senate Finance Committee yesterday that passed out the Baucus Healthcare bill 14-9, Senator Menendez and Senator Shumer appeared on the Ed show on MSNBC to talk about what' next. Menendez's exchange is toward the end of the segment:
Before having Menendez on, Ed was very critical of the baucus bill and how it was the most conservative of all the bills out there. Menendez said he is more confident they will get healthcare reform and that a 'No" vote on the bill was a vote for the status quo. A 'Yes' vote was about changing that reality and ticked off some of the things the bill would do including pursuing the public option. On the public option, Ed asks if Olympia Snowe was providing cover for those that oppose the public option. Menendez said there are more than enough significant members including half of their caucus in support and they will see a public option at the end of the day. He said he is convinced that they will get a public option in the bill that they can all be proud of and will help save the system.
In a story out today, we hear a compromise is being "very seriously considered" by Senate Democrats to establish a national public option for insurance coverage, but one that individual states could opt out of: Huffington Post:
In private, aides on Capitol Hill say that the opt-out option remains one of several proposals being debating as a compromise to a straightforward national public plan. But, they add, it is quickly winning plaudits within the caucus.
That of course raises the serious question of whether a Governor Chris Christie, who so casually dismisses mandates New Jersey has in place to protect its citizens in the face of profit-hungry insurance companies, would opt out if given that chance. Wanna bet?
The whole idea of "compromising" on public option is idiotic, because the point is scale and bulk negotiating, which you lose if all Republican states opt out (h/t bytheshore). Then there's the issue that before we give Republican states the chance to opt out of a public option, we have to deal with those Democrats - Congressional and Presidential - who would be completely letting us down if that was allowed to happen.
There's also this view, which suggests we let state opt out happen, if that's the only legislation we can get ... and let GOP electeds have to deal with voters denied what they need.
In the Senate Finance Committee the other day, where the healthcare debate is centered at the moment, Senator Menendez spoke out in favor of the public option:But unfortunately, both the Rockefeller and Schumer amendments that would have established a public option failed to get the necessary votes. Still another amendment sponsored by Senator Maria Cantwell would involve the states in the public option:
Under this amendment, the federal government would provide funds to participating states in order to allow such states to provide affordable coverage through private health care systems under congract. People with incomes above medicaid eligiblity but below 200 percent
This amendment actually passed the Senate Finance committee last Thursday. If it were included in the final bill, that could pose an interesting question for Chris Christie. He's already backtracked on his unwillingness to accept federal stimulus funds, would he turn down funds for healthcare to create a public option on the state level too?
MSNBC's first read had this exchange with Congressman Andrews trying to get some details about how co-ops would work if they were in place of the public option with healthcare reform:
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in her opening remarks, vowed that health reform would provide choices and noted, "I believe a public option is the best way to do that."
Others pressed further, trying to take down the proposed alternatives.
Democrat Rob Andrews (D-NJ) prodded Yale professor Jacob Hacker, a proponent of reform, on ways in which co-ops would not be effective.
Hacker said it's difficult to create a large enough provider network with co-ops and declared they have "little chance of success." He said the public option is better because there's a "presumption of participation." In other words, there would likely be more people who participate; it would guarantee a larger pool.
But Baucus, in what appears to be a doomed attempt to achieve bipartisanship, favors a system of regional, consumer-run insurance cooperatives over a public option.
Health care co-ops have been tried, and most have failed. And it's doubtful any could recruit enough members to compete aggressively with the insurance companies in negotiating cost savings with pharmaceutical companies, hospitals and physician groups. Only a single public option would have that clout.
So, a fool from South Carolina yelled out You lie! at the President while he was delivering a heath care talk to a joint session of Congress. Of course, Rep. Joe Wilson's spontanteous planned outburst blew up in his face. Even his apology is crap.
So now we have congressmen turning joint sessions of Congress into common town halls, and yelling out any fool drivel that pops into their ossified heads. Come on, it's fun. Not the disrespect itself. He should be censured. What's fun is to watch this thing shift on its axis a little because the crazy's come all the way out of the bottle.
And now, all the shouty people at the town halls are stuck with their king, who made such a fool of himself that his opponent, by the end of today, will have raised a million bucks to defeat him.
Which brings me to Rush Holt. He's got two town halls today. One, in Somerset is already underway.
Maybe it was the configuration of the room, shallow and wide and not narrow and deep, making no allowance for shouters to use distance from the stage to intimidate like at Frank Pallone's Red Bank Town Hall. Maybe it was the Congressional District, NJ-12 not NJ-6. And this congressman doesn't bear direct responsibility for the public option bill, the way Pallone does, with HR 3200 out of his Health Subcommittee, of House Energy & Commerce.
But the experience of sitting in on Rush Holt's event, while contentious, was different. It lacked the manic surges, and lines of people demanding serial sessions. Questions were collected and read aloud by the congressman. That tended to lead to briefer, substantive audience feedback, rather than the set-up Pallone staggered under in Red Bank, grappling with questions from microphones louder than his own.
I saw Holt slip into a reactive posture only once, when he called some shouters "noisemakers." Minor. Pallone, who I saw through nearly 9 hours on his feet over 2 nights, kept his cool completely. The tamer audience allowed for a better information flow. From both sides. And Holt got the chance to be eloquent.
Asked if public option meant rationed care:
As a matter of fact, health care is rationed right now. Some people don't get it! And I prefer rational health care, which this would be, over rationed.
Why is this legislation moving so fast?
The situation as it is now is not sustainable. And it's not morally or ethically acceptable. Further, the economy will not recover as long as we're saddled with these escalating health care costs. In fact, this should have been done before this time.
To a similar question, about timing:
We've been working toward some of the elements of this for many years. It goes back to Roosevelt - Teddy Roosevelt, as well as FDR.
After the Town Hall, Holt met privately with three reporters. One of us asked where all this vitriol and opposition was coming from:
Well, I can certainly point you toward some websites that are the source of misinformation and upset. But where the anxiety of people is coming from is tougher to say. We are living through tough economic times. A lot of people are on edge. And, in fact, a lot of people are living on the edge.
