While all attention has been focused on the Senate and the "moderates" obstruction, the House Progressives want to make sure that the White House remembers that they are still integral to the process.
House liberals have fired off a letter to the President demanding a meeting to discuss health care reform and reiterating their insistence that the bill include core liberal priorities — another sign that if the bill is watered down enough in the Senate, it could face a headwind in in the House....
Dear Mr. President:
On behalf of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, we write to request a meeting with you to discuss health care reform legislation. We have attached the Congressional Progressive Caucus’ Principles that we expect to be included in the health care reform bill conference report.
We look forward to meeting with you soon to discuss how we can work together to ensure these provisions are included in the final bill.
Sincerely,
Rep Raul M. Grijalva
Rep Lynn Woolsey
The CPC represents at least 80 House Dems. The attached principles that the liberals want included, of course, include a robust public option. Obviously, liberals supported the House bill without a robust public plan, so this may not be all that worrisome to the White House.
But, as Greg points out in this post, there is likely a breaking point for those progressives and they can make life very difficult for Pelosi to reach 218. They've bent pretty far thus far, and the pressure on them to pass something, anything, will be extreme. But there could very well be a breaking point for them, and it's likely to be what Joe Lieberman would strip from the bill, and what Ben Nelson would add to it. That's part of the equation that Obama, Reid, and Pelosi have to keep in mind.