Good news tonight. Sen Sanders and Howard Dean are expressing anger at Rahm's trigger plan. Sanders said also Baucus type bill wont pass the Senate as too many liberal senators wont back anything that isnt real reform with a real robust public option.
Also of news is Sanders says that his idea of having 60 dems vote to have anup or down vote on healthcare has gained steam with Schumer and others. There is definate pushback today against those trying to sell us out. I bet he CPC has some words to shortly now that Sanders and Dean are speaking out against any Rahm/Baucus compromise bill.
UPDATE-JUST SAW THIS ON ROLLCALL-REID IS NOT HAPPY WITH BAUCUS? OH BOY- SEE BELOW-
UPDATE 2-ROLLCALL NOW SAYS RAHM CONFRONTED BY REP WOOLSEY ON MEDICARE LIKE PUB OPT-RAHM APPARENTLY TOLD DEM REPS THAT OBAMA BACKS HAVING A STRONG PUB OPT. MORE BELOW.
Sanders Takes On Emanuel, Warns Of Dem Opposition To Baucus Proposal
Two major progressive voices in the health care debate took White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel to task on Tuesday for suggesting that a public option with triggers could be a potential compromise on reform.
One of those voices, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) went so far as to insist that some Senate Democrats would vote against any proposal that didn't include a strong government-run option. Even the bill being crafted by Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee, Sanders noted, might not get the caucus' full support because it could stray too far away from an effective overhaul of the health care system.
"I think that it is fair to say that there are a number of us who would not be voting for anything resembling a Baucus-type plan as we understand it right now," the senator told the Huffington Post, referring to Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus' effort at constructing a reform bill.
In separate interviews, Sanders and ...., former DNC Chair Howard Dean, both took umbrage with comments Emanuel made in an interview with the Wall Street Journal... "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."
Later in the day, Sanders offered a similarly critical reaction.
"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?"
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"A plan that is dependent on regressive taxation, taxing health care benefits when Obama ran explicitly in opposition to McCain who advocated that, the idea of regressive taxation... the idea of minimal cost containment, the idea of no strong public plan, that is a Republican bill," Sanders said of the Finance Committee's early offering. "It is not a bill that I think a number of us in the Congress could support."
Not all the health care news on Tuesday revolved around legislative disagreement .... "There is, I think, a growing awareness that it is absolutely important that now that we have 60 people in the caucus, that every member vote to end a Republican filibuster," said the senator. "So I think the strategy right now is that we will get 60 votes to defeat a Republican filibuster and come up with a strong health care reform piece of legislation which absolutely includes a strong public plan.... Sen. Dick Durbin is talking about it Sen. Chuck Schumer is talking about [corralling those 60 votes for cloture]. I think other people are talking about it as well."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
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ROLLCALL UPDATE-IT SOUNDS GOOD-
Roll Call - Reid to Baucus: Stop Chasing GOP Votes on Health Care
DAVID M. DRUCKER and EMILY PIERCE
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Tuesday ordered Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) to drop a proposal to tax health benefits and stop chasing Republican votes on a massive health care reform bill.
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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.
By Tuesday afternoon, the Finance Committee began looking at ways other than taxing health benefits to deliver a health care overhaul that costs less than $1 trillion and is deficit-neutral, as Baucus wants.
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 longer Baucus takes, the trickier it gets," the senior Democratic Senate aide said.
http://www.rollcall.com/...
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UPDATE 2-
Emanuel Reassures Democrats on Public Insurance Option
By Steven T. Dennis
Roll Call Staff
July 7, 2009, 9:11 p.m.
Progressives Warn Obama Against Dropping Public Health Care Option
White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel reassured House Democrats on Tuesday night that President Barack Obama strongly backs a government-run health insurance plan, seeking to quell a firestorm among liberals upset at Emanuel’s comments in the Wall Street Journal that suggested such a plan could be delayed.
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."
http://www.rollcall.com/...