If Obama is serious about reducing our deficits then he better hope the House Progressives suceed in their latest efforts to get the public option back in the HCR. If the Democrats are serious about holding onto their seats and fulfilling their promises then what the progressives in the House are offering as a block to get HCR done should be greated with cheers in DC.
HuffPo is reporting House Progs are organizing t o restore the public option based on the abysmal results in the MA Special. Since it appears the Stupak folks in the House wont support the Senate version on abortion rules this leaves Progressives in a key deal making position. House Progressives are asking in return for their votes to get HCR passed and be popular and energizing for the base that: the Public Option be restored in the Senate via reconciliation, Medicare and or Medicaid be expanded, etc..
Reps. Polis and Pingree are organizing a letter and gaining signatures from members of congress urging Sen Reid that he needs to press for reconciliation with the public option in place. Polis and Pingree say if the po was brought back it would energize House dems to pass the bill and give Pelosi a way around the Stupak block. Apparently progressives are getting members of the Senate to sign this letter with them.
Its been a strange political season- maybe the public option can live with a push by House Progressives and pressure from liberal communities? More below...
House Progressives Push Reid To Put Public Option Back On Table
First Posted: 01-27-10 12:28 AM | Updated: 01-27-10 01:05 AM
House progressives are organizing an effort to rescue health care reform, pressuring their Senate counterparts to go back to the provision that has most energized the party and a majority of Americans throughout the debate: The public option.
The effort was discussed during a closed-door meeting on Tuesday night, with a faction arguing that the way to salvage reform is to persuade the Senate to pass the public health insurance option using the budget reconciliation process that needs only a majority vote.
The logic, they argued, is straight forward. The current bill before the House, which passed the Senate, lacks the votes needed to pass because pro-life Democrats don't believe the abortion restrictions go far enough and progressive Democrats don't like the lack of a public option, the weak affordability measures or the tax on private insurance. ... So, in order to move health care through the House, Democrats either need to pick up progressives or conservatives. And budget reconciliation is not available for abortion-language reform, because the provision doesn't have a direct, substantial impact on the budget.
That leaves progressives as the bloc available to pick up. Their demands -- changes related to the tax on insurance, a Medicaid or Medicare expansion, and a public option -- would very likely be able to pass the Senate using reconciliation.
...two House freshmen, Reps. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) and Jared Polis (D-Colo.), circulated a letter, looking for signatures, that will be delivered to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Thursday, Polis told HuffPost. ... If Reid and President Obama decide that the House Democrats have a workable plan -- perhaps the only viable plan left . . .may be able to accomplish it.
"It is very likely that the public option could have passed the Senate, if brought up under majority-vote 'budget reconciliation' rules," reads the letter. "While there were valid reasons stated for not using reconciliation before, especially given that some important provisions of health care reform wouldn't qualify under the reconciliation rules, those reasons no longer exist."...
It's a matter of political survival. "People will lose their seats because they want Congress to deliver what it promises," said Pingree.
Polis said that the signature gathering was ongoing but that the response had been "very exciting."
"There's enthusiasm that if a majority of senators are on board with it, then we should go for it," he said. "I think the inclusion of the public option would make that route much more attractive to House Democrats."...
Pingree and Polis both noted that Obama's focus on fiscal discipline and cutting spending makes the public option - which the Congressional Budget Office estimates could trim more than $100 billion from the deficit in ten years - that much more appealing.
It would also give Democrats something to run on in 2010.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...