Pelosi shoots down public option 'trigger'

[t0dd]

Source: The Hill

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday shot down a healthcare compromise that has been viewed as the best chance for getting a bipartisan bill through the Senate.

Pelosi (D-Calif.) rejected the idea of a “trigger” for a public option. That means that the government-run healthcare plan would be a fallback option, enacted only if other reforms didn’t make healthcare more accessible.

Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), who is being courted by the Obama administration as their best hope for getting a Republican to sign on to President Barack Obama’s healthcare initiative, supports a trigger. But Pelosi does not.

“I don't even want to talk about a trigger,” Pelosi said at her weekly press conference. She said the “attitude” of her fellow Democrats is that “a trigger is an excuse for not doing anything.”

By dismissing a trigger, she also risks further alienating Blue Dog Democrats, who are angry at Pelosi's handling of the bill, particularly her push to include a public option supported by the liberal wing of the caucus. Blue Dogs at times have threatened to block the bill.

Pelosi spoke after a caucus meeting Thursday morning at which outside experts talked to members about the public option, and health “co-operatives.”

Co-operatives, which would be run by members, not the government, are a popular idea in the Senate, and with some centrist Blue Dog Democrats.


Pelosi told her fellow leaders last week that she planned to write a bill that includes a public option tied to Medicare rates, pulling back from a deal she and other leaders had cut with a group of Blue Dog Democrats in July. She also said she wanted the bill to include an income surtax on the wealthy to help pay the cost.

Read more: http://thehill.com/homenews/house/60181-pelosi-shoots-down-public-option-trigger

[Taverner]

1. GO PELOSI!!!!

[TheCoxwain]

2. Pelosi is carrying the torch folks ..... She has earned some serious respect after 2 years under

BUSH

[winkanator]

16. Carrying the torch

Nancy really needs to work on her speaking skills. Does she
have some type of dissability? It makes us look bad when she
stumbles and fumbles through these things.  How embarassing.
Maybe she should up whatever meds she is taking or see her
doctor.

[Hekate]

22. And your point would be? That's a helluva first post....

Welcome to DU, btw, and enjoy your stay.

Hekate

[elocs]

25. Perhaps you need to work on your spelling skills. How embarrassing! n/t

[NBachers]

26. Uh Oh! Someone wandered off from the SFGate commenter's day-care

Li'l tyke needs to go back to the kiddee pool

[JuniperLea]

27. Maybe you should go back to school...

And learn to spell. How embarrassing for you! Do you have a disability? Because if you do, I will forgive your silly throwing of stones from your very clear and clearly glass house.

[tavalon]

31. I know you aren't used to it, but

at this site, we have spell checker. It is your best friend.

[Igel]

32. You don't understand dysfluency.

It happens for a number of reasons. One older study started off assuming that English professors would speak faster and more fluently than, say, engineering faculty; and engineers would speak more fluently than workers with just a high-school education. The results were the opposite.

Turns out that if you know the vocabulary well, have limited synonyms and a restricted grammar, and don't discuss anything complicated that you have to reason through or figure out how to present, you speak fluently. And fast. Esp. if you're in a familiar setting. Hence most of our speech most of the time.

If you have lots of words at your disposal, you have to stop and choose. You often want an infrequent word (and they take longer to dredge up). If you have a wide range of grammatical options--often abetted by having a lot of different words that allow roughly the same content to be presented in different ways--then you're less fluent as you choose your style and fine-tune the focus.

If you are presenting something complicated, or something that you want to present with precision, you speak slowly and dysfluently as you work out what and how to say it, lest you make a mistake and have to repair the narrative.

Other things affect dysfluency, as well: Audience (since speakers do adjust what they're saying to an audience--so even something you've worked out in detail in advance may need reworking), your emotional state, whether things leading up to the talk have gone smoothly and meet your expectations. Concentration also matters--if there's a lot of hubbub your attention will be diffuse and you'll be more dysfluent. Take Obama: When reading, he's fluent. When speaking extemporaneously, he's markedly less fluent--and that's almost always on topics that he's been briefed and vetted on. If he's been challenged his emotional state's off balance, and he pauses--or speaks with a lot more dysfluencies. He's not easily flappable, but it happens. When you see him very fluent and not reading, you know that he's gone over it so many times that his answer's almost canned, and things are going as he intends. This isn't an insult; it's just how people's minds work, and to say it is an insult would imply that Obama is superhuman. He isn't.

Moreover, some people have learned ways around being seen as having dysfluencies. A practiced speaker may drag out words or allow silences to mask dysfluencies. A less practiced speaker will use fillers like 'uh' or 'um'. A speaker that's comfortable giving the talk and familiar with one-sided exchanges will simplly go through the talk; a speaker that's less comfortable with his/her subject/format and less familiar with lecturing will intersperse back-channel filler ("you know," "right?" etc.), especially when there's a dysfluency present. Obama's used to one-sided exchanges. He's comfortable telling people stuff. And he's also trained himself not to use fillers. It means that his dysfluencies are invisible--and with a modicum of good will they're dismissed as nonexistent. (Getting over good will is as necessary for an objective evaluation as getting over ill will.)

I could go on, but why?

[Hekate]

34. That's very interesting, Igel. It was obvious that Nancy P was reliving an emotional horror...

... when she spoke on this subject, and that it took a lot out of her to do it.

But I think this all goes right over the head of our little hit-and-run visitor.

Incidentally, Nancy Pelosi was telling the truth, in my opinion. :-(

Hekate

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

40. How...prepossessing.

[saigon68]

39. What the FUCK is a dissability?

Enjoy your stay

It will be BRIEF

[Captain Hilts]

3. Pelosi's fighting the Good Fight here. nt

[Xipe Totec]

6. +1 n/t

[NoSheep]

4. Thanks Nancy. Keep it up! That's what the people voted for. CHANGE dammit.

[high density]

5. "A trigger is an excuse for not doing anything" !!!! Exactly, shout it from the rooftops.

Trigger = status quo

[Igel]

33. Perhaps in this case.

A few years back there was a trigger built into some Medicare provisions passed by Congress. In the event that the trigger was pulled, fees would increase or spending would be cut according to rules outlined in the law. It was one of these measures to make sure that the budget fallout of a politically desirable bill were contained.

The trigger's been pulled every year as expenses exceed predicted costs and revenue.

Yet what is provided is still politically desirable, so each year the Congress votes to ignore the budget shortfall and allocate more money in order to prevent service cuts or fee increases. I.e., to override the trigger.

In a way the trigger was an excuse for not doing anything--i.e., doing due diligence and making sure that the budgetary claims were honest. However, since then the trigger's been a claxon calling Congress to action and provoking their doing something. (A non-partisan one, at that.)

Trigger = change. Action = status quo.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

7. Good to see!

Way to go Pelosi!

[abq e streeter]

8. I, among others here, have been critical of her on many issues--but good job here, Ms. Pelosi

[Jackpine Radical]

9. The income surtax is totally appropriate.

Universal healthcare will increase corporate profits, not least because they won't have to pay for the health insurance of their employees. If the corporations just split their gains with their employees, both they and the employees would be very happy.

[aquart]

10. Lovely. Let the Blue Dogs twist slowly, slowly in the wind.

And I simply adore that surtax. Let's see a little patriotism from our disgustingly rich.

[No Elephants]

14. Sadly, unless the fuckers will vote for cloture, even if they vote against the bill, we don't

have the luxury of letting them twist in the wind. I wish we did. Primaries are our only hope.

[frebrd]

11. I'm liking Pelosi better all the time!

It's time to quit diddling around with "bipartisan"! When were the Repugs ever "bipartisan"?

:grr:

[No Elephants]

12. To the next moran who posts anything about Reid growing a pair, I have a request:

Unless you mmean a pair of boobs, to make him more like Nancy, just STFU.

Just compare Nancy, even with her clean tables, with Reid, if you need any proof at all that courage, steel, backbone, strength, etc. have nothing to do with balls or that cowardice, weakness, etc. have nothing to do with pussies. Oh, and then STFU again. And, for pity sake, if you can't let go of it, at least don't have daughters.

[bain_sidhe]

17. + 1000

Thank you for saying it!

[No Elephants]

35. You're welcome. I try to say something whenever I see one of the testicle or pussy references

being used to imply that men have some kind of monopoly on strength and/or courage, while women (and men who allegedly behave like women) are weak and/cowardly. I hope others join me. If any post here implied that people of a certain race, religion or orientation were inherently inferior, we could alert on it and the post would be deleted. Not so with this gender-based slur, though.

[Odin2005]

13. Go kick their asses, Nancy!

:woohoo:

[Javaman]

15. Although it appears as if she's growing a spine, I still am holding my opinion

until the actual deal takes place. Actions speech louder than words.

[stuball111]

18. Good for her... she's got a spine! nt

[GoddessOfGuinness]

19. Scuse me...Have to go write a thank you letter to Nancy...

Sounds like she needs our support right now.

[Deep13]

20. Sounds like she is sick of being dicked around.

So am I.

[Vidar]

21. Good for Pelosi, though I'm loathe to say it.

[silenttigersong]

23. Me too..

Never ok with the war ,impeachment stuff.

[Zorra]

24. My sentiments exactly. Way to go Madam Speaker! n/t

[opihimoimoi]

28. Nancy GOT BALLS......she is doing the right thing...fuck the Pubs

[No Elephants]

36. Actually, she has a pussy and Reid has balls. Deal with it.

[opihimoimoi]

Nancy GOT BALLS.....Fuck W Bush too...sob started this bad econ shit

[opihimoimoi]

29. Nancy GOT BALLS.....Fuck Beck, Hannity, Oreally, and Zitt Butt

[No Elephants]

37. Again, she has a pussy. O'Reilly, Limbaugh , Hannity and Beck ALL have balls, though.

Deal with that, too.

[opihimoimoi]

38. Nancys pussy got teeth.....them GOP stooges got marshmellows for balls

[appal_jack]

30. +1 for Nancy; but -1 for this biased-assed article

I am really impressed at the resolve and leadership that Nancy Pelosi is showing on this issue, but can you believe the bias that this Hill writer shows? Loaded terms are quoted in bold:

"Nancy Pelosi... shot down a healthcare compromise that has been viewed as the best chance for getting a bipartisan bill..."

(snip)

"By dismissing a trigger, she also risks further alienating Blue Dog Democrats, who are angry at Pelosi's handling of the bill, particularly her push to include a public option supported by the liberal wing of the caucus."

(snip)

"Co-operatives, which would be run by members, not the government, are a popular idea in the Senate, and with some centrist Blue Dog Democrats.

(snip)

"...public option tied to Medicare rates, pulling back from a deal she and other leaders had cut with a group of Blue Dog Democrats in July."


Why is standing-up for a public option, which was already a compromise from the single-payer system that most Americans (and a healthy majority of Democrats) really want, "shooting down... compromise," and "pulling back from a deal" ???

The Hill Writer clearly has an agenda, and I contend that this agenda runs rather opposite to the needs of regular Americans here.

None of my critique should be taken as an attack on the OP though - thanks for posting this t0dd! k&r.

-app

[La Lioness Priyanka]

41. Go Pelosi. Also go left wing democratic activists who are clearly communicating

what is and is not acceptable

[greeneyedboy]

42. Gotta call her again and thank her for this. Awesome. n/t

My last call was more of a "WTF is up with this change of tune on the public option?" Guess I wasn't the only one she heard from.