I wonder if the White House truly understands the depth of anger they'll face from the progressive side if they fail to pass health care reform with a strong public option. We haven't busted our asses the last four years to pass bank bailouts and give insurance companies everything they ever wanted. If we wanted that, we'd be Republicans.
This is the Democrats' key issue. If they can't do the right thing here, there will be little choice left for us than to continue our efforts to rid ourselves of the corporatist hacks that infest our party. No one ever said this was going to be quick and easy. This week, we're polling the public option in Montana, Nebraska, and Tennessee's 6th congressional district. We want to know of Sen. Baucus, Sen. Nelson, and Blue Dog queen bee Jim Cooper are actually representing their constituents on the issue, or doing their best to keep their insurance company benefactors happy. Results are due Thursday or Friday, and let the chips fall where they might.
- Why I loved my first Netroots Nation Convention.
- The pollsters at PPP tweet:
Don't just blame the south for the birthers: among Colorado Republicans 43% think Obama not born in US, 33% think he was, 24% unsure
Republicans don't have to be Southern to be idiots. They're pretty much idiots regardless of geography.
- I'd like to believe him:
WEINER: The President does seem like he's moving away from the public plan, and if he does, he's not going to pass a bill. Because there are just too many people in Washington who believe that the public plan was the only way that you effectively bring some downward pressure on prices, and if he says well we're not going to have that, then I'm not really quite sure what we're dong here.
BECKY QUICK: So you would not vote for a bill that made it through, if it got through...
WEINER: Not only I but I think there's probably a hundred members of the House, who believe for various reasons that you need to have something to bring down prices. Otherwise you're basically, what you're doing, you're keeping the cost arc. . . the CBO agrees with that. You know as it was, I think the public plan had been watered down so much. So if the President thinks he's cutting a deal to get Senate votes, he's probably losing House votes.
- Nate Silver, on what he sees as the probable death of the public option.
- Bloggers back Obama's agenda, not his strategy.
- Too bad Max Baucus isn't anything like his state's Democratic governor.
As Gov. Brian Schweitzer warmed up the crowd Friday for President Barack Obama, he paid a lengthy compliment to a health care system that leading Democrats, including the president, have declared "off the table" as a reform here: the Canadian single-payer system.
"Did you know that, just 300 miles north of here, did you know they offered universal health care 62 years ago?" he said, referring to Canada's system of providing government-funded health insurance for all citizens.
Schweitzer, a Democrat, said he sometimes mentions the Canadian system when he hears people say that universal health coverage is a radical, new idea being rushed through the political process.
Quoting a Canadian journalist, Schweitzer said it was said that "there's more likelihood of a person in Canada being struck by lightning than there is a likelihood of a Canadian going to the United States for their health care."
Most of the crowd of 1,300 in the Gallatin Field Airport hangar roared its approval.
Someone forgot to tell Schweitzer that his state is "too moderate" to go for something as crazy as the public option, much less single payer.
- Painful.
- This is one protest I can get behind.
- If you travel a lot, the site TripIt.com (and related iPhone App) can be a godsend. It's my favorite travel aid. And it's free.