An intraparty war over a basic civil right is spilling over. Rep. Waters showed that today. Watching every day the dream being pushed further down a murky she said what I think we all feel. The Blue Dogs have no right to stall enacting the essential moral right for all to have healthcare. NONE. Her remarks about Rahm were very indicative of how so many progressives have been feeling.
Rep. Lewis is pushing with Clyburn to not adjourn until they pass the bill. Lewis reminds us that he and Dr King endured terrible hardships so the day could come for civil rights-and links this to our current struggle to get healthcare for all.
more below the fold...
The GOP and some Blue Dogs are saying Pelosi has thrown in the towel till Sept. Not true says the Speaker. However, as you will see below, she has her work cut out-and most of it unnecessary. The White House is sending mixed signals say The Hill. Obama gave agreat, emotive town hall with the AARP. He pushed again for a public option. Then certain "officials" and Gibbs telegraph that co-ops are okay too! This type of messaging is adding great confusion Im told on the Hill.
Will liberals reach the watershed moment and say NO DEAL unless these folks meet THEIR demands? Or will they fold? Will it, as in previous measures passed, all be on the progressives? Will the conservatives craft a bill and leave liberals in charge of killing it or not?
Rep Woolsey again asserts in an interview that no deal if bill is watered down. See the piece below.
Baucus thinks he has it made now. But as we are seeing there is much resistance among Dem senators. Sen Rockefeller seems agitated and promises many amendments to any bill Baucus crafts.
We must know the facts on the healthcare bill as of now. Right wingers are sending out all kind s of emails with made up crap to scare folks into opposing reform. And wait till recess comes. Oh lord. So below is a great list fo right wing and left wing misconceptions about the House and HELP proposals. Keep it handy. Email it to friends. ....
Blue Dogs and GOP tells MSM Pelosi is throwing in the towel until Sept. Um not says Pelosi tonight:
July 28, 2009
Categories: Health Care
Memo: No health vote before recess UPDATE
Democratic leaders may have thrown in the towel -- telling their Republican counterparts that there will be no health care vote on the House floor before the August recess starts this Friday, according a Republican memo obtained by POLITICO.
The memo:
From: Cavicke, David
Sent: Tuesday, July 28, 2009 4:51 PM
To: REDACTED
Subject: Schedule
Democratic Leadership has told Mr. Boehner’s staff that there will be no vote on Health on the Floor before recess and we will leave Friday.
We still have no confirmation of plans to resume or end the Committee Markup.
David L. Cavicke
Republican Chief of Staff
Committee on Energy and Commerce
UPDATE: GOP and Democratic leadership sources confirm that the Friday floor vote is off -- but say Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) has left open the possibility of keeping members through the weekend to finish the committee bill.
UPDATE: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi just emerged from a closed-door meeting to say not so fast:
"[She] told reporters that we haven't made any announcements about the floor schedule and they will be the first to know when we do," said Pelosi spokesman Brendan Daly in an email.
By Glenn Thrush 05:27 PM
politico.com
From Rollcall 7/28-
Pelosi Pushes On, GOP Licks Chops
Liberal Members are still pressing for swift action, fearing a loss of momentum if the House adjourns for a month without having passed a bill. Leaders of the 80-member Congressional Progressive Caucus made their case in a Friday letter to Pelosi arguing that lawmakers "must not delay a vote on health care reform."
Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), an icon of the civil rights movement, sought to put the debate in historical context in an impassioned plea for a pre-recess vote to his Democratic colleagues Thursday. He said he reminded Democrats in a closed-door meeting that, of those currently serving, only Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) was in office when Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. And only Dingell and Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) were around to cast votes for the Voting Rights Act and to establish Medicare and Medicaid. For everyone else, he said, "this may be the most important vote that we cast in the Congress."
"If we fail to do it now," he said, "we'll lose some of the steam that we have and the sense of urgency."
Opponents of reform are laying the groundwork for a monthlong advertising blitz targeting vulnerable Democrats. In a preview of what's to come, the Republican National Committee announced Monday it is launching radio ads aimed at 60 Democrats in 33 states focusing on the cost of the bill and blasting it as a "dangerous experiment."
roll call.com
Obama once again does far better connecting with folks when interacting with them like at the AARP forum:
The president has staked much of his first year in office on enactment of landmark health-care legislation. As the effort in Congress has slowed, he has become increasingly involved in selling the initiative to lawmakers and voters. Last week, he spoke every day about health reform, including during a Wednesday prime-time news conference.

But the town-hall-style session at the AARP's Washington headquarters was noteworthy for the human touch Obama applied. Fielding a question about insurance regulation, he spoke of his mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, who died in 1995, at age 52, of ovarian and uterine cancer.
"If you've got a preexisting condition, insurance companies will still have to insure you," he said. "This is something very personal for me. My mother, when she contracted cancer, the insurance companies started suggesting that, well, maybe this was a preexisting condition. Maybe you could have diagnosed it before you actually purchased your insurance.
"Ultimately, they gave in," Obama continued, "but she had to spend weeks fighting with insurance companies while she's in the hospital bed, writing letters back and forth just to get coverage for insurance that she had already paid premiums on. And that happens all across the country. We are going to put a stop to that."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
For Pelosi to even get a bill to the floor that is effective for us she must deal with mixed massaging coming from the White House. From the hill.com:
Dem Infighting Grows
Baucus indicated the six Finance Committee negotiators — himself, ranking member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Democratic Sens. Kent Conrad (N.D.) and Jeff Bingaman (N.M.) and Republican Sens. Mike Enzi (Wyo.) and Olympia Snowe (Maine) — would soon arrive at an agreement that the full committee and the full Senate would adopt.
Instead of including the public option, the bipartisan group is considering federally founded, not-for-profit, member-owned healthcare cooperatives that would compete with traditional insurance companies. Conrad, who has pushed this compromise, said the co-ops would receive $6 billion in federal start-up money and enroll 12 million people.
"We are going to find a solution," Baucus said after meeting with Democrats. "We’re going to find a bill, we’re going to pass a bill out of the committee which does lower costs, which reforms the insurance market, and which provides care for virtually all Americans and which gets 60 votes."
But Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) said he was preparing "probably quite a few" amendments for the committee’s markup.
Infighting among House Democrats has led to an impasse at the Energy and Commerce Committee that is expected to prevent House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) from meeting her deadline of completing work before the August recess.
And on Tuesday it prompted Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) to hint that more liberal members of the party should consider challenging centrist Blue Dogs in next year’s primaries.
On Tuesday, Obama reiterated his support for the public option during an event held at the headquarters of the seniors’ lobby AARP. "I think that helps keep the insurance companies honest because now they have somebody to compete with," he said.
But while Obama and his aides have trumpeted this support, they have not ruled out backing the compromise. "He knows what we’re doing," Baucus said. "I talk to the president daily; our staffs talk to the White House daily."
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said the administration would "certainly take a look at" the co-op idea, but said it was "a little premature" to talk about reconciling the two conflicting bills.
Obama is "comfortable with the path this is going on," Gibbs said.
http://thehill.com/...
Health Care Reform is Still in Session
Posted by: Shana Ray in National, Lynn Woolsey, health care on Jul 27, 2009
Two weeks ago I sat down with the Congresswoman to discuss health care reform and to get her take on the issue. Since so much has changed over these past weeks, I decided I needed another meeting with her to talk more about this critical issue.
Yesterday I talked to her about what is happening in DC and to get some clarification from her directly. Health care is the perfect issue for me to dive into politics head first because there seems to still be so much confusion and emotion surrounding the issue. And that just comes from me...
She helped to clear things up by describing what is happening: Currently three committees in the House have written their own versions of health care packages. Two of the three committees have passed their packages, both with a robust public option like she was hoping for.
Congresswoman Woolsey's Committee on Education & Labor was in session from 10:00AM to 6:00AM the next morning and then they came back to votes at 9:00AM. As inspired as I was to hear this, I was also equally shocked at just how long it takes to go through the packages in order to vote.
The Education & Labor bill included not only a public option, but also an amendment for States to opt out of the Federal ERISA requirements if the state creates a single payer plan. The Progressive Caucus and many American's have wanted a single payer plan and Congresswoman Woolsey said that this is a great first step to achieve this.
The last committee to vote is the Energy and Commerce Committee and the hope is that they come to a vote by the end of Tuesday. After they vote on their plan, the House Rules Committee will create a bill that will have parts of each package for the House to vote on once again.
When that will happen, Congresswoman Woolsey isn't sure, but one thing she made very clear is that if the bill is not ready that she recommends to Leadership to keep Congress in session until the House finishes voting on the health care bill.
"This is our job."
As she did in the letter to President Obama and her blog posting in the Huffington Post, she reiterated to me that if the final bill doesn't include a robust public option then she and many of her fellow members of the Progressive Congress will not vote for it.
The American public has been demanding a public option for a while now. People deserve choices in their health care and that is what Congresswoman Woolsey wants to provide. A public option will help bridge the financial burden that can happen with a single accident.
"What we are proposing is modeled after what we in Congress have. And that is options."
The public deserves a plan that fits their specific needs, be it an older woman, a single male or a young couple looking to get pregnant. We are all different and need a health plan that acknowledges this.
I hope I was able to clear some of this issue up for you. I know after talking to the Congresswoman, my confusion has subsided, though my emotional connection with this issue has escalated.
*shana.
More updates on health care reform can be found on the Woolsey for Congress facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/...
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Health Reform Fact Check
Momentum is building. Strong health care legislation with a public plan option passed two House committees and the Senate's health committee. And polling continues to show wide support for the main provisions in those bills.
Yet the drumbeat for inaction continues to pound, with conservatives vowing to "break Obama," and the media headlining every hiccup and ignoring every success. And opponents are swamping Congress with calls and faxes against President Obama's reforms.
There is only one way to break the Washington culture of inertia and pass legislation this year. SPEAK UP. Even Senators and Congresspeople who want to be with us, are begging to hear from constituents. And the opponents of change can't be allowed to stand in the way of health reform.
That is why we need to push back against lies and smear tactics the right is employing against reform.
This page is updated with your tips, please send them to healthreformfactcheck@gmail.com
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LIE #2: The bill is an assault on the seniors in our country... The cuts in care to pay for this bill come directly from seniors, about 500 billion dollars.
TRUTH: As a factsheet from the Ways and Means Committee explains, "By eliminating wasteful overpayments to private plans under Medicare, reforming how doctors are reimbursed, and creating new incentives for coordinated, high quality care we will extend Trust Fund solvency and improve Medicare for generations to come." The figure of $500 billion represents savings - not cuts - that will result from specific reforms designed to increase efficiency for Medicare and Medicaid.
LIE #3: The bill is effectively a repeal of Medicare.
TRUTH: The House bill strengthens Medicare and Medicaid by "reallocating U.S. taxpayer dollars already being spent on health care to achieving more efficiency, higher quality, and broader coverage."
• $156 billion in savings by eliminating overpayments to private Medicare Advantage plans over 10 years. According to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, private Medicare Advantage plans are currently paid, on average, 14 percent more than traditional Medicare providers – and overpayments to certain plans exceed 50 percent.
• $102 billion in savings over 10 years by incorporating productivity adjustments into Medicare payment updates for hospitals. This adjustment will encourage greater efficiency in health care provision, while more accurately aligning Medicare payments with hospital costs.
• $110 billion in savings over 10 years by: 1) codifying the recent PhRMA- White House agreement, which provides that Medicare Part D beneficiaries will get a 50 percent reduction in price on any brand-name drugs they need while in the so-called "donut hole" where drug costs are not reimbursed at certain levels; and 2) requiring that drug companies provide rebates for individuals enrolled in both Medicare and Medicaid that are at least as large as the Medicaid rebates that were provided prior to the enactment of Medicare Part D.
• $100 billion in additional savings over 10 years through numerous other provisions, including incorporating productivity adjustments into Medicare payment updates for home health agencies; and key delivery system reforms such as incentives to reduce readmissions to hospitals and promoting accountable care organizations.
Source:http://waysandmeans.house.gov/MoreInfo.asp?section=52
The bill requires hospitals, doctors, and pharmaceutical companies to achieve key efficiencies and eliminate waste in Medicare (including eliminating overpayments that are driving up profits for Medicare Advantage plans) and toughens our ability to root out fraud and abuse – but does not make cuts that hurt seniors. It also does nothing to take away choices for seniors.
On the contrary, the bill includes several key provisions that improve Medicare benefits for seniors, including the following:
Phases in completely filling in the "donut hole" in the Medicare prescription drug benefit (where drug costs are not reimbursed at certain levels), potentially savings seniors thousands of dollars a year.
Eliminates co-payments and deductibles for preventive services under Medicare.
Limits cost-sharing requirements in Medicare Advantage plans to the amount charged for the same services in traditional Medicare coverage.
Improves the low-income subsidy programs in Medicare, such as by increasing asset limits for programs that help Medicare beneficiaries pay premiums and cost-sharing.
Source:http://edlabor.house.gov/documents/111/pdf/publications/AAHCA-PARTD-071409.pdf
LIE #4: WSJ article: The House bill being pushed by the president...ensures that seniors are counseled on end-of-life options, including refusing nutrition where state law allows it (pp. 425-446). In Oregon, some cancer patients are being denied care by the state that could extend their lives and instead are afforded the benefit of physician-assisted suicide instead.
TRUTH: AARP Executive Vice President John Rother issued a statement in response,
"This measure would allow Medicare to pay doctors for taking the time to talk with individuals about difficult end-of-life care decisions. It would help provide people with better information on the positives and negatives—both physical and financial—that different treatments can mean for them and their families.
"Facing a terminal disease or debilitating accident, some people will choose to take every possible life-saving measure in the hopes that treatment or even a cure will allow them more time with their families. Others will decide that additional treatment would impose too great a burden—emotional, physical and otherwise—on themselves and their families, declining extraordinary measures and instead choosing care to manage their discomfort. Either way, it should be their choice.
"This measure would not only help people make the best decisions for themselves, but also better ensure that their wishes are followed.
"To suggest otherwise is a gross, and even cruel, distortion—especially for any family that has been forced to make the difficult decisions on care for loved ones approaching the end of their lives.
"AARP is committed to improving the quality, effectiveness, and affordability of health care for our 40 million members and their families. We will fight any measure that would prevent individuals and their doctors from making their own health care decisions. We will also fight the campaign of misinformation that vested interests are using to try to scare older Americans in order to protect the status quo. Profits should never be allowed to come before people in this debate."
According to a Section-by-Section Analysis of the bill (p. 18), Section 1233, on "Advance care planning consultation," "provides coverage for consultation between enrollees and practitioners to discuss orders for life-sustaining treatment" and "instructs CMS to modify "Medicare & You" handbook to incorporate measures on advance care planning into the physician's quality reporting initiative."
The legislation seeks to provide seniors with counseling that will educate them about all of their options. This provision does not mean that seniors will be denied otherwise available end-of-life care, nor does it mean they will be force into "physician-assisted suicide."
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LIE #7: This bill will cover illegal aliens. Or, as Rep. Steve King (R-IA) claimed , "5,600,000 Illegal Aliens May Be Covered Under Obamacare."
TRUTH: As the House Ways and Means Committee Section-by-Section Analysis explains (p.8), Section 246, entitled "NO FEDERAL PAYMENT FOR UNDOCUMENTED ALIENS," "prohibits anyone not lawfully ...
see more facts-
http://www.ourfuture.org/...