I think the growing consensus is that we've been had conned by Senate Dems.
I spoke to Congressman Chris Van Hollen late Saturday at the conclusion of the FamiliesUSA annual meeting which I attended in Washington last week. He echoed what Debbie Wasserman-Schultz said last week, Senate Democrats are untrustworthy and were never committed to a public option.
Van Hollen: "It's not clear whether that[the public option] can get through the Senate, and it's still not clear."
Despite the majority rules concept (50 Democratic Senators plus Biden), Van Hollen doesn't think there exist 50 solid Democratic votes for a public option. Yet the mantra percolating through Washington is "Majority Rules".
As Cenk Uygur reported the other day via Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, there aren't 50 votes plus Biden for the Public Option in the Senate. Van Hollen delicately confirmed this quite tragic (for the American people and the mid term elections) reality.
You've really got to scratch your head in wonder these days about the suicidal impulses of the Democratic party. They are clueless or stupid or both. The most popular piece of the bill and the only piece which will really put pressure on the for-profit insurance corporations to hold down costs, and help the desperately struggling American middle class, is the public option. Yet Van Hollen says straight up, as artfully as he can, that it's unclear whether there are the votes in the Senate. This is Washington-speak for no public option. Period.
Fifty million Americans have no health insurance; 32 million are receiving food stamps; and 15.2 million are out of work. One in five Americans is unemployed or underemployed; one in nine can't make their minimum credit card payments; one in eight have defaulted on mortgages or are facing foreclosure; and 120,000 families a month are filing for bankruptcy.
So are Chellie Pingree and Jared Polis two good progressives who sent a letter last week to Harry Reid asking that the public option be reconsidered and reinstated in the Senate bill just whistling past the graveyard?
What else did Van Hollen say? Twice Van Hollen repeated that Senator Nelson never asked for his Cornhusker deal. I kid you not. The Nelson Cornhusker deal just magically ended up in the Senate bill. If I were a Nelson constituent, I would call his office and demand an explanation.
And again here.
"Senator Nelson himself said he didn't want[it]". Huh?!
What's a reticent Democrat?
A reticent Democrat, is a Democrat or what I'm sadly now calling a primordial insect, who feels no emotion. An insect is a nuisance but impervious to pain, joy, grief, or pleasure. So are most Democrats. They respond only to two emotions: MONEY and VOTES.
Here's Frank Pallone describing that many of his Congressional colleagues are disoriented by the Massachusetts election and therefore feel angst about voting for health care for the American people.
Keep in mind:
There is no 60 vote threshold to pass legislation in any other advanced Democracy except ours. We're the only industrialized nation where we have a pay or die healthcare system, where healthcare is not a right but a privilege. Keep in mind as well, that when Republicans controlled Washington, they didn't give a rat's ass about 60 votes. And also keep in mind that because Martha Coakley, the Democratic candidate in Massachusetts didn't have her Red Socks facts straight, the entire Obama agenda, and most critical of all, healthcare for the American people is in jeopardy. Something ain't right here.
Keep in mind that the citizens of Massachusetts, at least have universal junk insurance.
An aside:
The government in Washington is so broken, whether it's the dysfunctional city government taking its cue from the corrupt and broken federal government, that late Saturday, many hours after a snow storm, the streets around the Capitol and at Union Station had not received even a single visit from a snow plow. The doorman at the Hyatt on Capitol Hill, pointed in disgust to the Capitol looming in front of us and said, "they just don't care about anything but putting money in their pockets and getting re-elected!"