ON LIVE NOW-BIG CROWD-WOW
http://www.c-span.org/...
URGENT! ALL IN DC AREA-PROG CAUCUS NEEDS YOU FOR PRESS CONF ON HEALTHCARE!
ProgressiveCongress.org
If you are in DC, WE NEED YOU at the triangle (Capitol Hill, House side) at 2:15pm on Thursday, July 30 for a Progressive Caucus press conference. I got this tonight urging EVERY KOSSAK IN DC AREA TO COME FOR THIS URGENT MOMENT TO SAVE THIS BILL!
ACTION ALERT FROM PROGRESSIVECAUCUS.ORG
SHAUNNA THOMAS
I need your help – and the Congressional Progressive Caucus needs your help. Urgently.
Today, the Energy and Commerce committee accepted a compromise with the Blue Dogs which would have the effect of crippling the public option. (As reported, it specifically makes it so that the public option no longer pays Medicare+5%, but instead has to individually negotiate rates with providers. In addition to dramatically increasing the overall cost of reform, this has a big negative impact on the public option’s ability to jumpstart operations.)
This compromise is in direct conflict with one of the core tenets of the Congressional Progressive Caucus’s criteria for a robust public option. The belief appears to be that the progressives will once again just roll over.
Not this time. Not this fight.
TODAY THURSDAY JULY 30TH, the CPC will be holding a press conference in conjunction with their allied caucuses the CBC, CHC, and CAPAC. They are going to draw a very clear line in the sand – unambiguously and so brightly it’ll be seen all the way at the White House. We need the largest crowd we can get at the press conference:
Thursday July 30, 2009
2:30 pm
At the triangle on the southeast side of the Capitol
This is the first real moment in which the progressives inside of Congress are being tested for their resolve on healthcare. And this is the most significant ask they’ve made of progressives outside of Congress in the day-to-day fight.
Please help.
Can you reach out to your networks and help us get as many people as possible to come to tomorrow’s press conference?
Many, many thanks,
Shaunna
Shaunna Thomas
ProgressiveCongress.org
shaunna@progressivecongress.org
A liberal revolt is happening the hill. The tri-caucus is enraged that this Blue Dog deal was made which weakens the public option and also cuts some subsidy for the poor. And boy oh boy they are letting the world know it.

Liberals gag over health deal
By: Glenn Thrush
July 29, 2009 08:20 PM EST
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi spent half of Wednesday finalizing a deal with the Blue Dogs — and the other half quelling a brewing rebellion among progressives who think conservatives have hijacked health care reform.
Liberals, Hispanics and African-American members — Pelosi’s most loyal base of support — are feeling betrayed after House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) reached an agreement with four of seven Blue Dogs on his committee who had been bottling up the bill over concerns about cost.
The compromise, which still must be reconciled with competing House and Senate versions, would significantly weaken the public option favored by liberals by delinking reimbursement rates to Medicare.
"Waxman made a deal that is unacceptable," said Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), one of about 10 progressives who met repeatedly with Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) on Wednesday.
By sundown Wednesday, the outcry from the left had become so loud that Waxman was forced to scrap a scheduled markup ... He rescheduled the meeting for Thursday morning and convened a mass question-and-answer session for a deeply divided Democratic Caucus — a meeting that is expected to be extremely contentious.
Two months ago, most of the 80-plus members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus signed a pledge that they would oppose any health care bill that didn’t contain a bona fide public option that would compete with private insurers. ...On Wednesday, they seemed willing to stick to their promise.
....
House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) predicted that House liberals, who believe they have compromised away several core issues to further President Barack Obama’s agenda, might finally buck leadership if they are force-fed a weakened public option.
"I don’t think it would pass the House — I wouldn’t vote for it," Frank, a CPC member, told POLITICO.
He answered "yes" emphatically when asked if progressives were willing to delay the entire process as the Blue Dogs have done.
Frank said liberals are becoming increasingly leery of the clout wielded by Blue Dogs and are learning from the success they have had in leveraging their numbers — a fraction of the liberals’ — into real power.
....
At one point, Carolyn Kilpatrick (D-Mich.), a former Congressional Black Caucus chairwoman, expressed outrage that conservatives would insist on significant cuts and a weakening of the public option, arguing that many of the Blue Dogs were letting down their black constituents, who make up 25 percent to 40 percent of their voters, in some instances.
The group was scheduled to meet with the speaker again Thursday afternoon, followed by members-only meetings of the CPC, the CBC and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
....
"He - Miller -said they would have plenty of opportunities to change it back," said the source, who added that members left the meeting still agitated but "somewhat reassured."
..
http://dyn.politico.com/...
WaPo shows why liberals now rebel. The compromise cripples the public option and the CPC intends a full fight.
Rural health-care providers generally receive less in Medicare reimbursements than their urban counterparts, and delinking the public plan from Medicare was considered critical for conservative Democrats. "We have saved America's rural hospitals from closure," said Rep. Mike Ross (D-Ark.), a Blue Dog leader on the committee.
Liberals countered that the compromise would help private insurers compete against the public plan, questioning how Ross could demand $100 billion in other savings while pushing for a provision that might prove costly. "I think this completely cripples the public option," said Rep. Raul M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.), co-chairman of the Progressive Caucus.
"It's very sobering," said Rep. Anna G. Eshoo (D-Calif.), a close ally of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). Pelosi oversaw the closed-door negotiations with White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, a nearly seven-hour marathon of talks Tuesday and a lunchtime meeting Wednesday.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
Why else are progressives so outraged. Subsidies have been trimed for the working poor of America. This makes this deal untenable for the tri-caucus:
"I think a lot of us are concerned . . . that the public option has been eroded in the bill," said Eliot L. Engel , D-N.Y. "Each member is grappling with whether they feel they can support the bill."
Committee Democrats are also worried about another change won by the Blue Dogs — a slight reduction in the subsidies that would be granted to help low-income people buy insurance coverage. "Members were very concerned by it," Waxman said.
http://www.cqpolitics.com/...