Key Dem (Harkin): The Public Option Will Be 'Revisited'

[kpete]

Source: Huffington Post

Key Dem: The Public Option Will Be 'Revisited'

One of the public option's strongest Congressional supporters insisted on Monday that while the Senate is poised to pass health care legislation that does not offer consumers a government-run insurance plan, he will bring the idea up again -- most likely after that bill is passed.

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) told reporters that the public option is not dead. "It will be revisited," he said. "I'm just saying, I believe it is so vital and so important that it is going to be revisited. Believe me." The Iowa Democrat said that "even next year," senators "may be doing some things to modify, to fix, to compliment what we've passed here."

The idea of pushing for the public plan as a stand-alone piece of legislation sometime down the road has been championed by other supporters of the provision.

Harkin did not blame the White House for the absence of a public plan in the Senate's bill, as his colleague, Senator Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.) did in a statement on Sunday night.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/21/key-dem-the-public-option_n_399608.html

[ixion]

1. blah blah blah

then they go ahead and do whatever the insurance lobby says to do.

[lapfog_1]

2. Did he say "revisited" or "a visitation"?

as in "last rites" or a funeral viewing?

Just wondering.

[BR_Parkway]

13. I was thinking more like a conjugal visit

[ShortnFiery]

3. I don't trust Harkin as far as I could throw him ... that wouldn't be very far.

:eyes:

[RBInMaine]

16. Oh great, so now the ultra-moonbeamers are trashing Harkin. Who's next on your hit list, Sanders?

[nyy1998]

20. Agreed

And Harkin has been very consistent on this. He wants the public option, but he realized that politically it's not feasible right now.

[lapfog_1]

4. Why do I have the feeling that a group

of progressive Senators and Congressmen will jump in a cab, run over the Public Option's home, ring the doorbell and giggle hysterically as they run back to the taxi cab. When the Public Option door is opened, they will wave goodbye from the speeding taxi?

[Jefferson23]

5. Yep, sure thing there Harkin, LOL

[Botany]

6. kinda like NAFTA?

n/t

[Bluenorthwest]

7. The oldest song in the hackbook

But if they want to play that one, they need to stop the one that says 'that which is not done now will not be done for a generation' because they can not both be true.

[regnaD kciN]

15. Actually, both are TRUE...

...because the keystone of any reform, now or in the future, is the ban on "adverse selection" (pre-existing conditions, dropping people if they get sick, etc.). Since that's a regulation that doesn't cover spending or taxes, it can't be subject to reconciliation, but must pass with 60 votes. Now, once that passes, the changes needed to create a public option can be passed by reconciliation, so you'd need only 51 Senate votes for a public option, Medicare buy-in, or other such measure. However, if you don't pass this bill, and its ban on adverse selection, that would need to be included in any future bill, meaning that it couldn't be put through via reconciliation, but would still need the same 60 votes as this bill...so we'd be subject to vetp by the Liebermans and Nelsons yet again.

That is one of my main reasons for supporting this admittedly-flawed bill -- that it makes future reform much easier.

If I were counseling progressives, I would not try to stop this from passing (we wouldn't be able to do so, anyway) but would start a long term campaign to revisit this in 2013, just before the whole plan (including mandates) is about to begin, and when we'll have a better idea of what the actual costs for individuals and families (not to mention the government spending on subsidies) are going to be...and, if it seems people will be paying too much, rally public outrage to "fix" the bill via a strong, Medicare+5 public option (which wouldn't have happened this time around, even if the House bill had been the one adopted), that can be passed with only 218 House and 51 Senate votes.

[DJ13]

8. .....at the same time we revisit NAFTA

:rofl:

[BP2]

9. How about this, Sen. Harkin:

Revisit it NOW, before the train leaves the station!

Cause the players on your side, the Pukes and Big Phama/Insurance ain't changing anytime in the near future.

[NorthCarolina]

10. What was it Senator Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) said again? Oh ya,

"It is very clear that the final bill that passed in the United States Senate is going too have to be very close to the bill that is being negotiated here," he said. "Otherwise you will not get 60 votes in the United States Senate."

[andym]

11. If he's going to do it, he should really keep quiet

before Lieberman etc get wind of it and shut it down...

[wordpix]

19. THAT I agree with. Never reveal to your enemies what you're planning to do until you do it

[peace frog]

12. Uh huh. Yeh right.

Throwing the heartbroken progressives a bone, eh Harkin? A bone of hope!11! :eyes:

NO SALE.

[corpseratemedia]

17. I like that!

"The Bone of Hope"


...that's what the soilent green gets if it's a goood little green...and shuts up

[onehandle]

14. Duh. nt

[Blasphemer]

18. Translation: once we realize we are getting drummed out of office, we'll have to start listening to

the voters. They may well be left with no choice but to cobble together something to appease voters.

[midnight]

21. Key Dem: The Public Option Will Be 'Revisited'

Source: Huffington post

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) told reporters that the public option is not dead. "It will be revisited," he said. "I'm just saying, I believe it is so vital and so important that it is going to be revisited. Believe me." The Iowa Democrat said that "even next year," senators "may be doing some things to modify, to fix, to compliment what we've passed here."

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/21/key-dem-the-public-option_n_399608.htm

---

Just do it.... NOW.

[texanwitch]

22. Sure.

Some half ass version if we lucky.

Everytime they work on the bill it gets worse.

[GreenPartyVoter]

23. That sounds liek my cooking skills. You should have seen me pulling

the burnt crust off the chicken pot pie last night, scraping off the burnt stuff and tossing what was left back into the dish. It sure was appetizing to look at. :eyes: And why did I burn it in the first place? Because I got involved in a thread on DU, of course, and didn't notice the timer. x( (Plus you really shouldn't walk away from teh oven when it's set to broil.)

[texanwitch]

25. Done that.

I don't cook and DU at the same time.

[dflprincess]

28. Right after they fix NAFTA and NCLB (n/t)

[Selatius]

40. People have been waiting for the NAFTA "side agreements" to be put in for years now.

Nothing has been on the radar screen as far as those side agreements go. Sure, Obama gave some lip service to renegotiating NAFTA during his campaign, but I haven't heard a peep from him since.

[w4rma]

42. And Obama hired a bunch of pro-free traders to handle his administration's economic plans. (nt)

[Eric J in MN]

24. "complement" not "compliment" NT

NT

[Cleita]

26. Sure it will.

:-( The PO that could have changed things was not what emerged in the House bill and it won't make much difference if some insurance friendly piece of crap ends up in the final bill to dump on poor people. The point of the PO was so that people could buy into it no matter their class and what they earn. It had to be attractive but cost effective. Also for those who couldn't afford it, government subsidies would kick in. There is nothing like this in the PO that emerged from the House. What makes you think something better would happen in conference?

[Bolo Boffin]

27. Building an exchange is something that can be done now.

Establishing standards that all insurance policies within the exchange must meet is something that can be done now.

Establishing a public insurance option to meet those policies and be offered on the exchanges is something that can easily be done later, when the exchanges go online.

That's my only thought here: that this is only the end of the beginning we are watching.

[texanwitch]

29. I hope so for all us.

We going to need new Democrats in Congress.

Democrats that kick ass and take names are our only hope.

Our current Democrats are scared of their own shadows.

I will be collecting SS before I see it happen.

[David Zephyr]

30. And Jesus is coming soon...and the South will rise again...

and clap your hands if you believe, clap your hands...

[Hannah Bell]

31. Because if you can't do it now, you'll be able to do it when the dems lose seats. uh-ok.

[GreenPartyVoter]

32. That is my biggest concern too, besides the fact that our track

record for revisiting things is a bit shaky.

[Born Free]

41. I am not saying they will do it ....

They could do it a lot faster using reconciliation and only 51 votes in the senate - but they can not even suggest that method until after this bill is finished, or the threat will kill this bill. Furthermore, the GOP would have shot their load on this bill making it very tough to then say the next bill is the one that is socialism . The sad part is it will take a little spine to stand up, something the democrats these days are not known to have.

[No Elephants]

43. "The threat will kill this bill."

I am sure every Senator and his or her staff has considered the possiblity of reconciliation.

[Jefferson23]

33. For crying out loud, I can't believe he actually said,

"I'm just saying"....

[Captain Hilts]

34. Then they'll pull the football away again...

[IndianaGreen]

35. Just like they did PATRIOT

Let's grab the torches and pitchforks and storm Capitol Hill.

[girl gone mad]

36. Next year?

Our mascot may be a donkey, but we are not fooled by the old carrot-and-stick routine.

[shotten99]

37. Thankfully they weren't rash and we'll have *some* reform soon.

Ladies and gentlemen, the door is now open.

[BP2]

38. Fool me once shame on you,

so please stop making promises you don't intend to keep.

[Umbral]

39. Do pigs flying out of my ass constitute a preexisting condition? nt

[No Elephants]

44. Get in line, HCR. NAFTA, Patriot Act, FISA, Iraq and WOT Resolutions.

As soon as the Democrats have fewer seats in the House and the Senate, they will do better on health care reform than they did this time. And fix all the other turds they passed in the past, too.

Face it. We accomplished a transfer of wealth from American taxpayers and American consumers to the health insurance insdustry, even though that murderous industry did not need a bailout, having already made itself rich by overcharging and by allowing Americans to die.

The DLC/New Democrats won. I hope they never get another good night's sleep as long as they live, but that is a false hope. That would imply they had consciences.

Oh, how I miss the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party.

As for Harkin, he sounds as though he's been smokin' hope. Been there, done that, bought the T shirt (literally). Over it now, though.

[SlavesandBulldozers]

45. Justice delayed is justice denied. nt

[Jennicut]

46. Actually, they should have broken up the bill a long time ago

but I guess it is too late now.