"Senate Bill As Is Will Die In The House" says Head of Most Powerful Union

[sabrina 1]

The fight isn't over yet. The Bill that just passed the Senate now moves to Conference in the House.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/17/trumka-senate-bill-as-is_n_396542.html

The head of the most powerful union group in the country said on Thursday that the Senate version of the health care bill will not survive a vote in the House without substantial changes.

Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, told the Huffington Post that both he and his members are "extremely disappointed" with the compromises conservative Democrats extracted from Senate leaders. Rather than formally opposing the bill, he expressed confidence that it will change before passage

He seems confident that the bill will be changed. I hope he's right but if the House does send a bill with a Public Option or an extended Medicare requirement, won't it run into Holy Joe & Co. again?

"I can tell you this," he added. "The plan as it currently is would not get much support from the American worker unless it is improved.

"So that is another line they are going to have to deal with. Speaker Pelosi I think will adequately represent everybody involved. And I think that is a better model for a bill."

In separate statements on Thursday, both Trumka and SEIU President Andy Stern expressed similar concerns with the Senate bill: That without a public option for insurance, and with a provision that taxes high-end health care plans that cover many union members, the bill doesn't create enough competition and lacks an equitable source of revenue.

"A progressive tax structure is very, very important," said Trumka. "But so is a public option. And I'm not willing to negotiate right now and jettison any one of those because I think they are both important items."

So now it's up to Nancy Pelosi. I suppose we could start calling and writing again. If he is right, he probably could use the support. Does Rahm consider him to be part of the 'left' no one has to worry about though?

So far, Reid has caved to every whiner from the DLC and Blue Dog wing of the party. The WH meantime has 'taken care of the 'left'. So far, Dean and Conyers have been admonished and Dorgan betrayed by having his amendment removed, we now know. None of these three were holding up the bill, they were trying to support and improve it.

But those who actually were threatening to hold it up, Lieberman and Nelson? Not an angry word was spoken to them. In fact, the more Nelson whined, the more he got.

You might like to know, if you don't already, that Harry Reid has handed over some of OUR tax dollars to Nelson. Aside from the compromise on abortion, Ben managed to get for his state, full Federal coverage for all new Medicaid recipients. 100% Federal dollars. In every other state, the Fed government only pays half of Medicaid coverage.

So it pays to whine, but only if you're a Blue Dog or a DLCer. I love it that no one asked us if we wanted to use our tax dollars to bribe Ben Nelson, former Insurance Commissioner, to get his vote to pass a bill a majority of us are not in favor of.

Meantime Ben Nelson is proud of having 'killed the Public Option':

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/19/ben-nelson-press-conferen_n_398092.html

In a press conference explaining his decision, Nelson noted that he had successfully fought off efforts to include a public option as well as the inclusion of language limiting the availability of abortions.

Nancy Pelosi's contact numbers:

Washington, D.C. Office:
235 Cannon House Office Building,
District of Columbia 20515-0508
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]

San Francisco Office: (more district offices) Burton Federal Building 450 Golden Gate Avenue, 14th Floor
San Francisco, California 94102
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]

You can find all other Congressmembers' contact numbers at this link: http://www.congress.org/congressorg/directory/congdir.tt

[babylonsister]

1. That first article is from two days ago. From yesterday...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7262654

SEIU, AFL-CIO signal they won't stand in way of moving Senate healthcare bill

[sabrina 1]

2. Thanks, yes I'm aware of that.

I believe they wanted to get it to the House where they may have a better chance of getting some changes. They haven't made a statement yet, but there wasn't much point fighting it in the Senate.

I think it's still worth trying in the House.

Obama said today that they may now be able to bring both bills closer together. I imagine they Union felt the best strategy was to fight in the House, as the article in the OP says.