There has been much worrisome news to say the least as the Obama admin seems intent on appeasing Sen Snowe with a trigger among other things. Most Americans voted for universal healthcare when they voted in the Dems. Not for a pared down bill with a trigger on the pub opt etc.. The people need help and trusted Democrats, as they did with FDR, Truman , Kennedy, LBJ and others. Failure with a bad bill is not an option.
As the news spreads on a possible Obama capitulation on one of the greatest opportunities in our history to achieve real reform liberals on the Hill are organizing and reacting.
Rep Weiner tonight wonders if Sybil is running the WH message dept. He says no deal unless PO is there. Pelosi staff say the PO is happening. Sen Brown and Harkin say they likely cannot support a bill with no PO. Trumka of AFL CIO is not pleased and warns Dems afte r years of giving millions to this party that such support will end with no PO.
Rep Van Hollen tonight told his constituents he backs a strong public option and it is essential to the bill. Rep Woolsey warns Obama- you don’t really want to screw us do you? Oh yeah. The fight is on. It is a depressing one that shouldn’t even have to be done with a dem president but alas. Don’t sink into full despair- key liberals on the Hill are fighting and need our support in the days ahead. We need to take this week and give the message- Sen Snowe aint worth paring down this bill. PO is a must. Subsidies are crucial. Drog cost controls are needed not backroom deals.
So read and listen to what progressives on the Hill are saying tonight:
Trumka lays it out today on MSNBC. This is no joke President Obama:
Rep. Schakowsky: Bill With Public Option Will Pass; Media Needs to Call GOP on Their Lies - House can only pass bill with PO:
Politico quotes key liberals and they aint thrilled:
...Pelosi, for one, is still committed to the public option and believes no bill can pass her chamber without it, according to several Democratic sources.
"They have been messaging the public option as if Sybil has been in charge," said Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) expressing widespread liberal disgust at the White House’s mixed messages on the plan.
But comments from senior White House aides to POLITICO that the president does not plan to insist on a public option once again served as a reminder that the White House could be in for a rough September.
"If the president says, ‘Here is what I need in the bill,’ and it doesn’t include the public option, there will be no other way to interpret it than it was a retreat," added Weiner (D-N.Y.) said. ..."I speak for a lot of members who are allies of the president. ...But I don’t like this sense of us charging up the hill, and not only is the president not leading us, but he is not on the hill with us."
Rep. Lynn Woolsey, co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said it would be a mistake for Obama not to signal his support for a public option on Wednesday..."We won’t be with him on that, and then it doesn’t work. So he’s making a big mistake. I’m not saying that as threatening. I’m saying that as a reality," she said.
If Obama doesn’t signal his support for a public option, progressives said they will redouble their efforts to convince House leadership to include it.
Public plan proponents have long held out hope that Obama would stand with them in the end. ....On Tuesday night, Brown told CBS News that he does not know if he could vote for a bill without it.
"The president needs to step forward, be more specific, more aggressively fight for a strong health reform bill with a strong public option," Brown said.
Gerald Shea, a top lobbyist for the AFL-CIO, said in an interview Wednesday that the public option is one of three "absolute musts" in the bill because lowering health care costs is a "do-or-die" issue for union members. The AFL-CIO’s incoming president, Richard Trumka, told reporters this week that lawmakers could not count on the union’s support if they abandon the public option.
.....
Asked whether Trumka would walk from any bill that didn’t include the public option, Shea said: "He is the ultimate negotiator, in my experience, and he knows how to get a deal. We are not going to cut off our nose to spite our face."
-- Chris Frates contributed to this story.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/...
Rep Van Hollen tonight pushes public option as crucial to any bill:
Van Hollen Gets Late Start in Health Care Push
Sept. 2, 2009, 8:55 p.m.
By Tory Newmyer
Roll Call Staff

Just days before returning to Capitol Hill to face a restive Caucus, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Chris Van Hollen (Md.) took to the phone lines Wednesday to make the case for a public insurance option — and the Democrats’ broader health care reform drive — in three teleconference town halls with his constituents.
Van Hollen used an early evening session to argue that the public plan now at the center of an intraparty debate over how to move forward "is an important way to provide competition and choice."
The Maryland Democrat, who also serves as Assistant to the Speaker, has helped lead House Democrats’ late-summer charge against insurance companies, whom he says have enjoyed surging profits by denying quality care. "They’ve done well, and they’re fighting this," he said.
http://www.rollcall.com/...
HCAN- If Obama drops PO then a line is crossed shall we say-
Reformers to Obama: You Don't Win By Disappointing Your Supporters
Brian Beutler | September 2, 2009, 5:45PM
..."The question is what's he gonna do in a week," says Richard Kirsch, campaign director for Health Care for America Now. "He's giving his address next Wednesday. We have to see what the President says."
HCAN is an umbrella group for dozens of influential liberal interest groups supporting reform.
"A lot of people will be disappointed if he doesn't continue to show his commitment [to the public option], but hopefully he will," Kirsch tells me.
His remarks indicate that if the President does not at least continue to articulate his personal preference for a public option, he'll be crossing a line.
"You win by rallying your supporters and convincing the middle," Kirsch says. "You don't win by disappointing your supporters and confusing the middle."
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/...