Tuesday was a victory for people who want real health care reform. White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel set off a fire storm by claiming that the administration was open to a public option "trigger," which would delay the implementation of reform for a decade. By the end of the day Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) was telling Max Baucus (D-MT) that a failure to include a public option and the inclusion of a health benefits tax--the price of getting the almighty vote of Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley-- would be a poison pill to health care reform.
But Baucus didn't listen to Harry Reid. Instead, he is pursuing almighty bi-partisanship even if that means watering down health care reform, and passing a junk bill which will cost average Americans thousands of dollars and gets them no health care in return. This is what happens when people in power decide not to listen to well-versed patients and single payer advocates, and instead place weight on the ideas of someone like Senator Grassley.
Senator Grassley has laid out his health care reform plan on Twitter:
"Pres Obama while u sightseeing in Paris u said 'time to delivr on healthcare' When you are a "hammer" u think evrything is NAIL I'm no NAIL
Pres Obama you got nerve while u sightseeing in Paris to tell us"time to deliver" on health care. We still on skedul/even workinWKEND.
co-op possibility if rules same as for other plans and txpayers not on hook. No one can afford another fannie or freddie..
G steph bipart talks cont. No hard timeline More thn 17 pct of economy Need to do right With a lot of support
185 people in Pella. No count for Brooklyn but Library had standing room only. Brookln group had public option supprt and opposition
ella town meet.Very large turnout. Emotional concern xpress abt budget deficit and govt control health care, even concern abt bipartisanBil
Go to Senate Finance Committee Web find posted discussion paper of reform of health care delivery system. I need ur imput Lots of work to do "
Senator Grassley is right, health care reform needs to be done right and with a lot of support. That is why it must include a solid public, or non-profit, option with national bargaining power. The health care system that Grassley is so vigorously defending on Twitter spends twice as much as most other industrialized nations, yet gets results which are worse than the Costa Rican system and on-par with the Cuban system.
The public has given their input, or "imput" as Senator Grassley would say, quite clearly. We voted for a public option and against a benefits tax last November. The people Grassley represents, Iowans, voted for a public option and against a benefits tax by a 10% margin. Polls conducted recently show that the American people have not changed their minds on these issues.
But Senator Baucus kept patients and single payer advocates from the table. While the people most affected by health care reform were relegated to the streets, Grassley's twitters became a key part of the health care reform debate. Health care reform is something that single payer advocates have spent a generation fighting for, and something that will affect chronically ill patients for the rest of their lives. It's little wonder that frustrated liberal groups are pressuring the administration and Congress.
This new-found progressive and patient activism is irritating those who prefer to play the same old stale Washington game. Senator Robert Menedez (D-NJ), the chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, complained that progressive groups were "firing away before they have to fire," in today's Washington Post. The reason we're firing is that we've been left out of discussions which will affect the rest of our lives; then we're forced to sit and watch as Grassley's twitters gut health care reform, and continue the current broken health care system. We're forced to watch as a bill that will do nothing to prevent farmers going bankrupt from medical expenses passes because Chuck Grassley has been made the most important person in Washington by Max Baucus.
Behind the scenes, there was an agreement to have bills ready for floor votes by now. All of the other Committees did their work. The HELP Committee and the tri-Committee House effort did their jobs. They have bills which are ready to be brought to the floor, and which could be voted on tomorrow. Baucus has dragged his feet, listened to Grassley, and made compromise after compromise which undermined the effectiveness of health care reform. The difference in the approaches can be seen in the final results:the HELP bill covers 97% of Americans and costs $694 billion over ten years; Baucus' bill doesn't cover nearly that many people, and costs $1.3 trillion over ten years.
It's time to pull the plug on Baucus and his dream of bipartisanship. Senator Grassley says he'll only vote for a bill which costs less than a trillion dollars over 10 years. Harry Reid should give Grassley that opportunity, he should bring the HELP bill to the floor. The Vice President might be needed for final passage, but that's OK. It's better to do health care reform right, than get a bill which reads like Grassley's twitters.