AFL-CIO's Trumka Selling Us Out on Health Care Today? (UPDATE: So far, So good)

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Wednesday September 30, 2009 · 8:48 AM PDT

2009/09/30 · 08:48

Newly-elected AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka meets Rahm Emanuel today, and the scuttlebutt is it's to sell us out on the public option.

Trumka apparently fears that not passing even a garbage bill will hurt the Dems next year. Write to him here (or call the AFL-CIO media office at 202-637-5018) and tell him this:

Dear Mr. Trumka:

It was Rahm Emanuel’s betraying the base with NAFTA and other "third way" neo-Republican garbage that gave us the 1994 Congressional disaster. Democrats who’d voted for change were instead screwed with Bush-lite policies. (http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/8372)

If you really want to help the Democrats win in 2010 and 2012, you don’t do it by letting Emanuel shove a garbage bill with mandates and no public option down the voters’ throats. That, instead, will cause the very 1994-style disaster you fear.

[UPDATE: So far, so good -- more below.]

UPDATE: TomP reports that -- so far -- it looks like Trumka's holding fast, and maybe even pushing back at Rahm a bit. Whew! But even if he's holding firm now -- even as unions like SEIU have been reported to be wavering -- it still won't hurt to let him know we're watching.

UPDATE 2: If people are wondering why this is important, notice that Trumka's current stance is stronger than that of SEIU, which apparently doesn't consider the public option essential (h/t mcjoan):

Burger acknowledged that both she and the SEIU remained open to the possibility that another mechanism could arise which met the health care reform principles demanded by the union. "We have been studying these bills looking at every single one that comes out to figure out what works and doesn't work and what can make them stronger. And that's what we are going to do all the way through this," said Burger.

So SEIU is not taking the AFL-CIO position that the public option is the deal-breaker, but at the same time saying that there could be another mechanism that could do the trick of providing competition for private insurers. To date, the only mechanism forwarded has been the wholly inadequate co-ops.

This isn't surprising to those who've been following how Rahm Emanuel's been twisting arms in exchange for access. As we've seen too often before, unless we're willing to draw lines in the sand -- just as the anti-choice Blue Dogs successfully did to make sure no health-care bill passes if it contains funding for abortions -- we won't get what we want, ever.

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