State And National GOP: "Co-ops" Now A Non-Starter, Too

Learn a bit.... (0.00 / 0)

From the #1 progressive in the land, Howard Dean. Check out Dean's the post on DailyKos.  Wasn't sure if I could link it here, or how.

This is all part of a process, one that is being orchestrated very well by the White House.  Compromise is what leadership is all about.  Progressives are just too militant to see it.

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by: CT Southpaw @ Tue Aug 18, 2009 at 09:38:23 AM CDT

Can't reply to something I can't read (0.00 / 0)

Come back when you learn how to post a link.

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by: tparty @ Tue Aug 18, 2009 at 09:42:41 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Here's the gist of it (0.00 / 0)

From Morning Joe, yesterday

   JOE: Let me explain to people what you're saying. The House is going to pass a version with a public option. The senate will pass a version without a public option. You get past the 60 votes. You go to reconciliation, you put the public option back in. And then you vote it on it and you only need 50 votes. And you get a public option.

   RON BROWNSTEIN: Wow.

   JOE: Is that what you're saying?

   DEAN: Basically, yes.

   [...]

   RON BROWNSTEIN: Governor, that's a complicated political strategy...

   DEAN: It's very complicated. It's why we're getting all this talk. It's why the message has to be so simple in August...what's most likely to happen, honestly, is the Republicans are going to continue, as they've made very clear, to obstruct the bill. October 16th is going to come along and that's when reconciliation kicks in. They're going to have to write this bill in the budget. There's no question in my mind about this.

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by: Scarce @ Tue Aug 18, 2009 at 10:04:26 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Right (4.00 / 2)

And if Dean is correct about the WH's strategic intentions (and he very well may be), how exactly does pushing back against the false notion that the GOP will ever compromise on heath care (and they won't) not fit in with such a strategy?

Certainly, encouraging progressives in Congress to stick together and create the leverage the WH will need to ensure a public option remains in the final post-conference bill would be a crucial part of such a strategy. Anthony Weiner says there are 100 Dem reps whose votes would be lost if a bill has no public option - let's get names, and reward good behavior.

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by: tparty @ Tue Aug 18, 2009 at 10:12:01 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Great post tparty (0.00 / 0)

There is no doubt the Whitehouse has mishandled this from day one aand that work like yours is the onlt reason the Public Option is still in the ballgame.

I think Rep Weiners idea of changing the wording,and the bill,to Medicare for all who want it is a winning strategy and hopefully the idiots at the whitehouse figure this out.  

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by: ctkeith @ Tue Aug 18, 2009 at 11:26:42 AM CDT

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No Rewards Due Around Here. (0.00 / 0)

I read Howard Dean's piece on Kos yesterday, and it gave me renewed hope. Thank you for posting the information here. But CT's Congressional delegation is not exactly distinguishing itself; it makes me wonder why we worked so hard to turn CT blue.  To piggy back Jon's recent piece on Jim Himes, we appear to have enabled a bunch of purple cows. . . .  

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by: Ann Galloway @ Tue Aug 18, 2009 at 15:22:02 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

That's OK (4.00 / 2)

It's obvious Rosa and Larson,who are both in the house leadership,have chosen to let other progressives lead on this issue in order to be seen as playing fair.

Courtney doesn't have to say a thing because if you know him at all you know he'll never vote for a bill without a public option. As a freshman,Himes is playing this just right,his # 1 job is to get reelected and get himself painted as a centrist right now, not to lead.

I know it's frustrating as hell and to tell you the truth I've deleted far more comments I've written that are way angrier  then anything Jon or you have written or the ones I've posted.  

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by: ctkeith @ Tue Aug 18, 2009 at 16:33:40 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Constructive comment (4.00 / 1)

Thanks for this Keith.

However it is worth noting that a few freshman reps in competitive districts (see Pingree, Massa) have courageously stood up on this fight.

Aside from the grassroots support they are receiving right now and will continue to benefit from until Election Day, I assume they both also realize that their re-elections will actually be a lot more likely if Congress passes and Obama signs real health-care reform, and are wisely doing everything in their power, even as lowly freshmen, to ensure that the final bill is not an unpopular insurance industry giveaway for which they would likely take the fall at the polls next fall.

Obama has reportedly said he is willing to be a one-term president if that's the price of success in this fight. I think he has it backwards. If he succeeds in passing real reform, he will reap the electoral benefits in 2012. If he fails, he will be much more likely to lose.

The same goes for Democratic members of Congress who ran in 2006 and 2008 on health care reform.

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by: tparty @ Tue Aug 18, 2009 at 17:53:04 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Your Argument makes total sense to me (0.00 / 0)

and if the strong Democratic majority all of us here busted our asses for many many years to put in Congress  fail to get a good bill passed with a strong public option Jim Himes won't get a dime from me and instead of talking to my freinds and family in his district on his behalf I'll sit on my hands and perhaps for the first  time in my life I will sit out an election in 2010( This issue IS THAT IMPORTANT TO ME)

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by: ctkeith @ Tue Aug 18, 2009 at 18:21:28 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Does this seem like a risky strategy (0.00 / 0)

to anyone else?  A lot of pieces would have to fall into place to make this work.  It's truly a shame that health care reform needs to be finagled in such a way.

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by: Mr. Clean @ Tue Aug 18, 2009 at 11:08:25 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Who gives a shit (0.00 / 0)

how we get there as long as what we get works.Saint Ronald Reagan actually did an advertisement in 1964 saying the exact same things about Medicare(It's the end of Freedom.Doctors will be told where they can and can't pactice and all the rest of the BS)and today it's the 2ND most successful Government program (Socialm security being #1) this country has ever seen.It's also a SINGLE PAYER plan that covers 40% of our Population.  

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by: ctkeith @ Tue Aug 18, 2009 at 11:33:23 AM CDT

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Reagan was well compensated by the AMA for his efforts (4.00 / 1)

From the 1961 Operation Coffee Cup Campaign against Socialized Medicine as proposed by the Democrats, then a private citizen Ronald Reagan Speaks out against socialized medicine. There is no video because this was an LP sent out by the American Medical Association

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by: Scarce @ Tue Aug 18, 2009 at 11:49:08 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Good Article (0.00 / 0)

TParty...this  is  a good  article.I  for  one  favor  a  single payer  plan, with the understanding  that the  "public option" was a compromise.Like many progressives I  am less  then  thrilled  about  co-operatives under  the  health plan  or Obam's lack  of  intestinal  fortitude  in sticking  to his guns.

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by: BruceRubenstein2 @ Tue Aug 18, 2009 at 09:43:29 AM CDT

Pelosi, Others Still Strong on Public Option (0.00 / 0)

Speaker Nancy Pelosi released the following statement on health insurance reform legislation pending before Congress:

"As the President stated in March, 'The thinking on the public option has been that it gives consumers more choices and it helps keep the private sector honest, because there's some competition out there.'

"We agree with the President that a public option will keep insurance companies honest and increase competition.

"There is strong support in the House for a public option.  In the House, all three of our bills contain a public option, as does the bill from the Senate HELP Committee.

"A public option is the best option to lower costs, improve the quality of health care, ensure choice and expand coverage.

"The public option brings real reform to lower costs over the 10-year period of the bill."

Even in the Senate, the public option draws support:

John D. Rockefeller IV (W.Va.) said that a public option, as the plan has become known, is "a must."  Sen. Russell Feingold (Wis.) said that "without a public option, I don't see how we will bring real change to a system that has made good health care a privilege for those who can afford it."

And the White House is claiming it still stands steadfast in support of a public option:

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs insisted Monday that there has been no change in President Barack Obama's desire to see a public health insurance option be part of a healthcare bill.

Gibbs pushed back hard at reports the administration had abandoned its support for a public option one day after he and another official appeared to signal a shift.

Well, sort of:

The White House on Monday sought to allay concerns by emphasizing that President Obama still supported a so-called public option and had not decided whether to drop that concept to make legislation more palatable to moderate Democrats. The president will avoid committing to either path until at least next month, aides said, in hopes of keeping the issue from overtaking the entire health care debate...

David Axelrod, a senior adviser to Mr. Obama, said the president had "absolutely not" concluded that it would be impossible for a bill including a public plan to pass Congress. With lawmakers in recess and the president preparing for his own vacation at the end of the month, Mr. Axelrod said he expected discussions to resume in September.

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by: Jon Kantrowitz @ Tue Aug 18, 2009 at 10:35:13 AM CDT

Conrad's co-ops another scam to hijack reform for industry (4.00 / 3)

which even Conrad admits won't truly drive down costs of medical care.

Worse yet, as reported in The New York Times today

"Mr. Conrad's own state demonstrates the uncertainties surrounding cooperatives. Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota dominates the state's private insurance market, collecting nearly 90 percent of premiums. As a nonprofit owned by its members, the company would hope to qualify as a co-op under federal legislation, said Paul von Ebers, its incoming president and chief executive."

"Not ideas about the thing, but the thing itself" - Wallace Stevens

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by: catchlightning @ Tue Aug 18, 2009 at 15:24:03 PM CDT

And surprise, surprise (4.00 / 1)

Sen. Kyl today said the unilateral concessions offered by Blue Dogs, Baucus, and Conrad and urged on by other Dems, including the sham "co-ops", will do nothing to earn his vote or that of other Republicans:

Sen. Jon Kyl just confirmed the suspicions of most liberals fearful that the White House is giving away too much in the health care debate.

The Senate Republican whip, speaking to reporters on a conference call from his home state of Arizona, said that even if the Democrats do away with a government-run insurance option, the GOP most likely won't support the bill that's being written in the Senate.

So, a horrifically bad policy that - as a bonus! - will not gain any bipartisan support, and for which, if it passes, Democrats will then take the unanimous blame in the 2010 midterms.

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by: tparty @ Tue Aug 18, 2009 at 18:07:14 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

keeping the pressure on for the public option is also key to allowing (4.00 / 1)

House and Senate supporters to address, and hopefully unwind some of the more restrictive aspects of the so-called "deals" struck by Max Baucus -- ostensibly on behalf of the White House, but I suspect without Obama's direct knowledge -- with PhRMA and the hospital association.

To bring down pharmaceutical costs, legislation needs to go beyond the $80 billion (over 10 years) "deal" on the Medicare "donut hole" (which I suspect Obama himself understood as an initial pledge, not a circumscribed "deal") to allow government and providers to negotiate overall cost reductions.

The public option is both politically and economically essential to real reform.

Without it, as NYT columnist Bob Herbert wrote today in "This Is Reform?" , the resulting bill could wind up being not just reform in name only, but a "bonanza" for PhRMA and private insurers.

"Not ideas about the thing, but the thing itself" - Wallace Stevens

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by: catchlightning @ Tue Aug 18, 2009 at 15:54:59 PM CDT

ObamaScare.. (0.00 / 0)

We cannot predict much with the plans of this government. They are cleverly doing scheme that seems to be good for people, but at the end people will just suffer for a scary effects. Obama is trying to convince people but cannot grant what the people wanted. Many protester are hoping for something vague to happen. More on this Reality Check

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by: Kristopher T @ Wed Aug 19, 2009 at 01:37:37 AM CDT