Liberals now are very concerned with the conspiracy of journalists trying to link President Obama to triggers, and their shady practice of using anonymous sources is of much more concern than the potential health care costs to millions of Americans.
Now it can be told -- the full history of this dark conspiracy. Follow me past the fold.
Here's a partial timeline of statements on triggers (a more detailed one is here):
February 2009 — Sam Stein of the Huffington Post: "[A] source close to the administration, who has been in contact with the White House on health care matters, said that Emanuel has been "floating" the trigger compromise since January."
June 2 — Obama, Senate Dems Consider Public Health Care Option With A Trigger: "Multiple Democratic sources tell the Huffington Post that the White House and key members of the Finance and Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committees are in the process of hammering out key principles on health care reform — with a meeting scheduled at the West Wing this afternoon. One of the components will be music to progressive ears: that any bill includes an option publicly run health insurance coverage. But it also comes with a caveat that could engender opposition from that very same constituency [a trigger]."
July 7 — Wall Street Journal: "On Monday, Mr. Emanuel said the trigger mechanism would also accomplish the White House’s goals. Under this scenario, a public plan would kick in under certain circumstances when competition was judged to be lacking."
September 2 — Marc Ambinder: "The White House hopes that, having voted for a public option, House Dems would accept a "trigger" as part of a conference committee compromise rather than putting the kibosh on the entire health care reform project. In some ways, this strategy is old, and in some ways it’s new. For months, White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel has been pushing the idea of a "trigger" internally, and he and Snowe regularly trade legislative and political intelligence."
September 9 — The President himself, in his speech before the joint session of Congress: "[S]ome have suggested that the public option go into effect only in those markets where insurance companies are not providing affordable policies [ed -- "Snowe" trigger plan]. Others propose a co-op or another non-profit entity to administer the plan. These are all constructive ideas worth exploring."
February 2009 — Sam Stein of the Huffington Post: "[A] source close to the administration, who has been in contact with the White House on health care matters, said that Emanuel has been "floating" the trigger compromise since January."
June 2 — Obama, Senate Dems Consider Public Health Care Option With A Trigger: "Multiple Democratic sources tell the Huffington Post that the White House and key members of the Finance and Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committees are in the process of hammering out key principles on health care reform — with a meeting scheduled at the West Wing this afternoon. One of the components will be music to progressive ears: that any bill includes an option publicly run health insurance coverage. But it also comes with a caveat that could engender opposition from that very same constituency [a trigger]."
July 7 — Wall Street Journal: "On Monday, Mr. Emanuel said the trigger mechanism would also accomplish the White House’s goals. Under this scenario, a public plan would kick in under certain circumstances when competition was judged to be lacking."
September 2 — Marc Ambinder: "The White House hopes that, having voted for a public option, House Dems would accept a "trigger" as part of a conference committee compromise rather than putting the kibosh on the entire health care reform project. In some ways, this strategy is old, and in some ways it’s new. For months, White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel has been pushing the idea of a "trigger" internally, and he and Snowe regularly trade legislative and political intelligence."
September 9 — The President himself, in his speech before the joint session of Congress: "[S]ome have suggested that the public option go into effect only in those markets where insurance companies are not providing affordable policies [ed -- "Snowe" trigger plan]. Others propose a co-op or another non-profit entity to administer the plan. These are all constructive ideas worth exploring."
October 23 — Brian Beutler, TPM: "High level White House officials have floated the trigger trial balloon a number of times in the press, and it seems they continue to do so, even at this crucial stage of the health care reform process, when their involvement is greatest. That has senators who support the public option concerned."
How horrible! It looks like the President and his closest advisors are part of the conspiracy! I mean, using their own words and everything!
As one of the evil conspiracists said in exasperated sarcasm:
The fact that the White House worked hand in hand with the Finance Committee to craft a bill, which doesn’t have a public option? Meaningless. Reports that they would have put a trigger in that bill but didn’t have the votes to get it through? More lies. When Mike Allen says "Administration officials have been telling POLITICO for weeks now that [a "trigger" option] is the most likely compromise?" Made it up out of thin air. The complete absence of any reporting saying that Obama has called a single Senator or Representative to urge them to vote for a public option? Well, that’s because he’s cleverly waiting until the last minute to fix it in conference. And anything else can be chalked up to Rahm, who obviously doesn’t work for the President.
(The full version of this diary can be found here.)