Raul Grijalva says the House Progressives won't blink first on a Medicare plus five public option under pressure from Pelosi and the White House to back down.
Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) told the Huffington Post that he and fellow liberals within the House would not be "rolled" over in a key debate regarding the reimbursement rates rewarded under a public option. Noting that the preponderance of votes were there to reimburse providers at a rate paid under Medicare (plus five percent), Grijalva called out his party's leadership in Congress and the White House for entertaining a provision that would allow the rates to be negotiated.
"If the issue is who is going to blink first and the assumption is the progressive caucus is going to roll over... that is a test that leadership and the White House might want to reconsider," he said....
Grijalva insisted that if Pelosi and the White House simply put their weight behind a Medicare-plus-five approach it would "get to 218" - the number of votes needed for passage in the House. He recognized that the politics were different in the Senate, where it remains uncertain that a public option -- even one watered down -- will get to the floor. But the congressman stressed that, if the goal was to placate Senate Democrats before they even produced a bill, it would make for bad politics and policy.
"I don't know if we are trying to give into the Senate before going to conference committee," he said. "That would be a big mistake if we go in with a weak hand."
He's absolutely right--the bill that goes into the House/Senate conference should be the strongest possible bill that they can create. That's Medicare plus five and whatever else they can add in floor amendments--maybe Dean's Medicare for 50+ idea. Let Harry Reid placate the Senate Dems--that's not Pelosi's job. Pelosi's job is to get the very best bill to conference that she can.
That's looking more and more doable on a daily basis. According to a report in The Hill today, the Progressive Block whip count is at 208.
Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.), the leader of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, told a closed-door caucus meeting that the group’s “whip count” showed it had 208 of the 218 votes needed to pass what liberals call a “robust” public option. That version would link rates to Medicare plus 5 percent.
Actually, at the moment there are just 433 members in the House, so the magic number is not 218, but 217. The Progressive Block needs to keep holding that firm line. It's the best shot we've got at making this reform meaningful.