I'm proud of the way that our progressive Democrats in the House and in the Senate stood strongly on the public option as the line in the sand in response to Rahm Emmanuel's remarks in the Wall Street Journal about supporting a public option with a trigger or the co-op plan proposed by Senator Conrad.
One of the members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Rep. Lynn Woolsey, demonstrated just why she has bigger balls than Senator Max Baucus:
Progressive Caucus Co-Chairwoman Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.) warned Emanuel that he would lose the caucus’ votes if the White House compromised on the issue and included a "trigger" that could delay a public insurance plan indefinitely. The trigger idea is backed by conservative Democrats but is anathema to liberals.
"We have compromised enough, and we are not going to compromise on any kind of trigger game," Woolsey said she told Emanuel. "People clapped all over the place. We mean it, and not just progressives."
And her fellow member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Rep. Raul Grijalva, also chimed in support of the public option:
Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), co-chairman of the 77-member Congressional Progressive Caucus, fired off a letter to President Barack Obama warning him against dropping a public insurance option from health care reform plans.
Grijalva described the "alarm and dismay" he felt after reading a Wall Street Journal story that cites White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel offering support for a "trigger" mechanism, under which a public plan option is only part of health care if the marketplace fails to provide sufficient competition on its own.
"I want to be crystal clear that any such trigger for a strong public plan option is a non-starter with a majority of the Members of the Progressive Caucus," Grijalva said.
"Moreover, I consider it unacceptable for any of the cost savings that you are negotiating with hospitals and other sectors of the health care industry to be made contingent upon a robust public plan option not being included in the final legislation," Grijalva continued.
It's clear that our progressives in Congress have finally found their spine as a voting bloc against any weakened, watered down health reform with a toothless public option or a co-op proposal in place of the public option.
Why don't we CALL the members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus to thank them for supporting the public option as the line in the sand for them on health reform? Also please ask them to vote against any health reform plan that doesn't include a strong, robust Medicare-like public option.
Please click on this link to CALL these members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus!
And our liberal allies such as Democracy For America, Health Care For America Now, SEIU, and other organizations are continuing the fight for the public option in health reform. They're not backing down because we're not backing down.
We're keeping up this fight because the public option in health care reform isn't just a pony that some "pragmatic progressives" think that we're outraged about. It's an issue that directly affects all of us, and we only have this chance to get health care reform right with a strong, robust Medicare-like public option.
The stakes are high in this---if we don't get through actual health reform legislation that isn't watered down for the benefit of center-right Democratic and conservative Republican votes, then we won't get actual health care reform at all. It'll be a disastrous effect as Howard Dean says below about the idea of a weakened public option with a trigger:
"I think that a public plan with triggers is not a real public plan and it is going to be a trillion dollar failure," Dean said. "Anyone who thinks a trigger is going to lead us to a good place five years from now is wrong... It is not a sensible policy compromise."
And Bernie Sanders also chimed in as well about the public option with a trigger:
"Emanuel is dead wrong," Sanders said. "The triggers are meaningless. The American people have shown in poll after poll their contempt for private health insurance companies. They don't trust them and for good reason.
"Now, where we are right now politically is the HELP Committee, of which I'm a member, is going to bring forth a public plan," Sanders added. "The House of Representatives is supporting a public plan. And President Obama ran for office talking about a strong public plan. Why, with that political reality of the American people wanting it, the House going forward, the Senate HELP Committee going forward, would Rahm Emanuel suggest that we would compromise on this issue?"
Bravo, Senator Sanders. Only if we had fifty like him in the Senate. Then we wouldn't have Republicans trying to pull over these so-called Democratic moderates in the Senate such as Lieberman, Bayh, Landrieu, and Nelson in order to destroy the 60-vote Democratic majority in the Senate. It's what a Republican staffer said about the danger of these Senate moderates in weakening progressive health reform:
Ron Bonjean, who formerly served as chief of staff under Senator Kyl, said: "Creating bipartisan coalitions on key issues is important to prevent Democrat legislative victories."
It's why this bipartisan fetish has to stop. It's why I was glad to see Senator Reid call out Senator "Feckless" Baucus on his bipartisanship fetish:
According to Democratic sources, Reid told Baucus that taxing health benefits and failing to include a strong government-run insurance option of some sort in his bill would cost 10 to 15 Democratic votes; Reid told Baucus it wasn’t worth securing the support of Grassley and at best a few additional Republicans.
Also, it's rather interesting how Senator Baucus is delaying the mark-up of the Senate Finance Committee health care bill, because the longer he takes, it means that the HELP Committee bill with a public option might not be merged with the Finance Committee health care bill.
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee is set to complete the markup of its health care reform legislation this week or next. One senior Democratic Senate aide warned Tuesday that further delays by the Finance Committee could result in the planned merger of the two panels’ bills being scrapped in favor of allowing each one to move to the floor on its own.
The HELP bill is unanimously supported by the panel’s Democrats, with all Republicans opposed. It was drafted with liberal reform goals in mind, including health care policies that many Democrats have sought for decades.
"The longer Baucus takes, the trickier it gets," the senior Democratic Senate aide said.
In this scenario, we could have two bills on the Senate floor, and then there'd be huge pressure on the Senate Democrats to vote in favor of one of these bills. If Max Baucus's bill without a public option gets voted out of the Senate with the help of the Senate Republicans, it means that we'd be in a weaker negotiating position if we have to merge the Finance bill with no public option or the Conrad co-op proposal with the House Tri-Committee bill in the conference report. We'd be in a strong negotiating position if the HELP bill is merged with the House Tri-Committee bill which also has a strong public option in the conference report.
It's why we should be pressuring the Senate Finance Committee to mark-up their bill with a public option in it, and to get it OUT of the committee. Or else we're facing the situation where the Finance Committee marks up their bill without a public option or the Conrad co-op proposal and the Republicans vote in favor of it rather than the HELP bill if they're not merged in time. That would be a bad turn for us. I hope that Senator Baucus listens to Senator Reid in this case.
In order to prevent that, please CALL these Senate Finance Committee members, particularly Senator Baucus, and ask them to mark-up their bill with a public option in it and to pass it out of committee. We can't have any more delays with health care reform for the goal of bipartisanship.
ALSO, PLEASE CALL the phone numbers of ALL the Senators on the Finance Committee with these talking points below for the mark-up:
Tell Senator [Name] that you DO NOT want the 7-year trigger for the public option and take it off the table, and that you want him to support an affordable strong, robust Medicare-like public option. We NEED a strong, robust Medicare-like public option NOW OPEN TO ALL AMERICANS AND AFFORDABLE, not more of the SAME broken system that's given us unaffordable premiums, little private insurance coverage, and rising co-pays. Also, DON'T TAX OUR EMPLOYER HEALTH BENEFITS. Instead, follow the proposal by President Obama to tax the wealthy above $250,000, eliminate the overpayments in Medicare Advantage, and put tax capital gains to help fund health care reform. TELL YOUR SENATOR NO ON THE CONRAD CO-OP COMPROMISE.
Please CALL Senator Max Baucus at (202) 224-2651
Please CALL Senator Olympia Snowe at (202) 224-5344
Please CALL Senator John Rockefeller at (202) 224-6472
Please CALL Senator Ron Wyden at (202) 224-5244
Please CALL Senator Kent Conrad at (202) 224-2043
Please CALL Senator Jeff Bingaman at (202) 224-5521
Please CALL Senator John Kerry at (202) 224-2742
Please CALL Senator Blanche Lincoln at 202-224-4843
Please CALL Senator Debbie Stabenow at (202) 224-4822
Please CALL Senator Maria Cantwell at 202-224-3441
Please CALL Senator Bill Nelson at 202-224-5274
Please CALL Senator Robert Menendez at 202-224-4744
Please CALL Senator Thomas Carper at (202) 224-2441
We can't afford for the Tri-Caucus health reform package to be weakened any further, or to have the public option stripped out in conference committee. It'd be a mandated bailout of the private insurance industry, and no amount of flowery rhetoric about cost controls and lowered premiums can change that fact.
Also, want to bring some serious local grassroots smackdown on Senators like Baucus, Wyden, Conrad, Lincoln , Landrieu, Hagan, and Feinstein? Let me tell you how we can do this. We're going to use President Obama's website, Organizing For America, to accomplish the greatest smackdown of all time this weekend.
I want you to sign up with Organizing For America this week. Once you've signed up with OFA, I'd like you to go to the Health Care Action Center and take a look around.
The most important tool we'll be using in the Health Care Action Center. will be the "Contact People Near You" phonebanking tool.
This is the action item agenda with the "Contact People Near You" phonebanking tool below:
- Sign up with Organizing For America.
- Go to the Health Care Action Center and click on the "Contact People Near You" phonebanking icon to the left of the screen, near the bottom of the page.
- Select your state from the drop-down menu. This is where the fun action comes in!
- Let's say, you select Montana from the drop-down menu. It takes you to a new webpage where it has a red icon that says "Make Calls Now" with a list of 25 supporters to call. It asks you to make a report after the call, and gives you talking points. In my opinion, these are weak talking points since it doesn't mention the public option, so I'll be fixing that a bit.
- So what we'll be doing is calling 25 people, asking them if they support President Obama's health care plan, which includes a public option to help keep private insurers honest. Then we'll tell them to call their Senators, such as Max Baucus, Conrad, Hagan, and others, to ask them to support the public option in President Obama's health care plan.
That's what we'll be doing---bringing down the grassroots smack-down at a local level by calling people in these Senators' states. Here are the talking points for each of the states below that you can use when calling supporters from your call list. I'll use Montana as an example first.
Montana
Hi, is [person's name] home? My name is [blank], and I'm a volunteer with Organizing for America, the grassroots organization formed to continue bringing the change we worked for during President Obama's campaign. How are you today? (Wait for response and make sure to engage in a conversational manner). As you might know, Organizing for America was formed after the campaign to support the President's agenda for change.
Recently, President Obama laid out the three core principles for real health care reform in America which has to reduce costs — such as rising health care costs which are crushing the budgets of governments, businesses, individuals, and families, and they must be brought under control. Secondly, real health care reform must guarantee choice in that every American must have the freedom to choose their plan and doctor – including the choice of a public insurance option which helps keep private insurers honest and lowers the cost of the monthly premiums that we pay. The public option will be available nationwide, available on day one, and is accountable to Congress and the voters.
Third, it must ensure quality care for all in that Americans must have quality and affordable health care. The need for action in reforming our health care could not be greater; the costs for premiums are rising 4 times the rate of wages and families and small businesses can no longer afford their existing health care plan. If health care reform is going to be passed it cannot wait another year. For American families, the status quo is unacceptable.
Do you support these principles for health reform? I also would like to ask you to call your Senator, Max Baucus, at (202) 224-2651 on Monday to ask him to support President Obama's health reform by helping pass a strong public option which keeps private insurers honest.
Here's the list of states that we should call that presently have Senators that are threatening to block President Obama's health reform, which includes a strong competitive public option to keep insurers honest. So, when you use the "Contact People Near You" phonebanking tool on OFA and use the generic talking points which I provided, I want you to choose one of these states to call and to have the phone number of the Senator ready on hand to give to the local person you're talking to when you ask that person to call his or her Senator to support the public option in President Obama's health reform bill.
California--Senator Dianne Feinstein (202) 224-3841
Louisiana--Senator Mary Landrieu (202) 224-5824
Montana--Senator Max Baucus (202) 224-2651
Nebraska--Senator Ben Nelson (202) 224-6551
North Carolina--Senator Kay Hagan (202) 224-6342
North Dakota--Senator Kent Conrad (202) 224-2043
Oregon--Senator Ron Wyden (202) 224-5244
Hope you'll be signing up with OFA this week to bring some serious smack-down at the grassroots level to these corporate Senate Democrats! Please recommend this diary so others can see the phone numbers and call!