Dem Senators Unenthusiastic about (show pony) "Public Option" (HuffPo)

[Leopolds Ghost]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/25/dem-senators-unenthusiast_n_513078.html

Democratic senators have expressed little enthusiasm for adding a public option to the health care reform fix-it bill that is expected to pass the Senate on Thursday before a final vote in the House.

"Not in this bill, because we can't make any substantive changes, but down the road we will be debating that," Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) told the Huffington Post.

The plan was for the Senate simply to approve the "reconciliation" measure unchanged from the version passed by the House on Sunday. Making any changes requires the bill to go back to the House for yet another vote. Hoping to avoid that, Democratic leadership urged caucus members to vote against every amendment -- even tempting ones, such as one that provided a public option -- as Republicans planned to delay the process with an amendment "vote-a-rama."

The obstacle to the public plan when health care reform passed the Senate in December was the need for a 60 vote supermajority to break a filibuster. Under the reconciliation process, amendments require a simple 50-vote majority and a vice presidential tie-breaker to pass. It's possible that Democrats could, in fact, muster the votes.

And now, for mind-numbingly arcane parliamentary reasons, the reconciliation bill will have to go back to the House after all.

So why not go ahead and see if a public option amendment can muster 50 votes? "Oh, we'll have to see here," said Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) before entering the Senate chamber. "We'll have to see."

Asked about adding a public option through reconciliation when passing the 2011 budget, Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) didn't want to talk about it.

[amborin]

1. many had their arms twisted, i guess

[Name removed]

4. Deleted sub-thread

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[Leopolds Ghost]

21. Interesting, I wonder what that was about.

I guess someone mentioned how the public option was the progressive line in the sand only a few months ago. Can't talk about that now... where did all those people go?

[Leopolds Ghost]

2. Not that it matters. Anyone who followed the original (ca. 2000-2006) debate knows

The public option was carefully tailored to support the financial math of forcing 80% of the uninsured to buy private health insurance. The fines on those who do not qualify for the public option would be used to pay for those who do. The goal of the plan, the actuarial goal, in hard numbers, required a public option to be narrowly restricted so as not to compete with private plans in any way. This, according to one of the Yalie insurance exec / insurance policy wonks who wrote the math behind the bill, appearing on the Ed show some time ago.

[Fumesucker]

3. The Powers That Be *Do*Not*Want* a public option..

It couldn't be more clear if it was written on the moon in thousand mile high neon letters..

[Leopolds Ghost]

7. Not only did they never want one, it was engineered to be a show pony. Engineered in hard math

As in, it was designed to be financed with fines on those who resisted purchasing private health insurance, and designed to be run as an alternate private plan, administered by the same firms, so as not to compete with those firms. Obama and Edwards were convinced to adopt the plan after being "persuaded that the vast majority of the uninsured could afford health care but choose not to", and that "the additional income from those 35 million uninsured" would be needed "to pay for the costs (i.e. offset revenue loss from) new regulations on the insurance industry."

The authors of the bill said this in Wash Monthly, Harpers, progressive talk spots, etc. over past 5-10 years.

[DJ13]

5. They got the insurance welfare bill they wanted

Theres no need to continue the charade of pushing a public option any longer.

They may trot it our when they want to distract from another issue in the future, but they have no intention of giving a serious effort to passing it any time in the next few years.

[Leopolds Ghost]

10. Public option will be the DLC's version of the Republican "repeal Roe v Wade" rally call.

A great way to rally the troops and distract people from corporate rule without any intention of follow-thru.

Want to know the future of those of us who spend the rest of our lives trying to "improve" this bill and make it "fulfill the original promise of universal health care"? Picture the horse from Animal Farm. The horse could not read anything more complicated than Twitter length (dead trees, you know?), but if he could make out the changes the pigs made to the sign on the barn:

v MANDATORY

PRIVATE v

v HEALTH CARE

UNIVERSAL <strike> COVERAGE </strike>

Nevertheless, the horse continued pushing the troops out to every rally, carrying the party on his back, despite the onset of arthritis, rallying people by reminding them of the memory of Ted Kennedy, refusing to let down the Party of Kennedy and Johnson, not realizing that Kennedy and Johnson had been deposed, until the day he got sick and was shipped off to the glue fact<^H^H^H^H^H^H> a suitable retirement facility. He still could not afford insurance, but he blamed that on the evil insurance companies refusing to lower rates despite the fact that now, all Americans were required to purchase their product. An affront to decency if there ever was one!

But this only spurred the horse to continue marching in every annual "fulfill the promise of health care reform" march and every annual anti-war march until the day the horse got sick from pneumonia during an act of civil disobedience and contracted a chronic illness and was shipped off to the glue factory anyhow. (sadly I've met a couple people who have terrible chronic illnesses from serial march attendance.)

[DJ13]

11. Sadly I bet you're right

And many on the left will fall for it just like the right has been fooled by the GOP campaigning the last 30 years on Roe v Wade.

[Jackpine Radical]

12. Damn, you're likely exactly right.

"Public option will be the DLC's version of the Republican "repeal Roe v Wade" rally call."

They'll probably occasionally nibble around the fringes of the privatized system once in a while with some show legislation, but they have no intention of giving this one up. They NEED the 60-vote rule, and they need Blue Dogs.

[Bluebear]

6. Yeah, we'll "see" alright. And we will "fix" it later. Like NAFTA and DADT!

[Nikki Stone1]

8. The Senate was never going to do the public option

And unless the insurance industry begs them to, they won't.

[glinda]

9. thanks alot Amy (my Sen.) for leaving me with no options or help!

[rocktivity]

13. No, they shouldn't be bothering with it now

Let's see how this lawsuit against the constitutionality of the mandates plays out first...

:evilgrin:
rocktivity

[Leopolds Ghost]

14. "If the mandates are constitutional then we don't need a public plan", they'll say.

After all the premise of the mandates is to force Americans to purchase existing insurance plans.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

15. I think they did the right thing. It would've distracted from what we needed to get done.

Reid said that a public opinion vote is forthcoming. And Debbie Stabenow was on Randi's show the other day reiterating the intent on having a separate public option vote.

We'll then really be able to see who the grandstanders are. They wouldn't be able to hide behind this reconciliation bill.

[flyarm]

16. OH PLEASE.. we have been hearing that crap since the get go..

remember the Public Option WAS THE COMPROMISE!!

BULLSHIT IS BULLSHIT AT THIS POINT

and the new polls on this bill are coming out and not looking too good..

cehck out the Mason Dixon polls in Fla..

and this;

http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/03/28/poll-finds-low-enthusiasm-high-skepticism-for-health-care-overh/

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

18. Hey, dude. Don't yell at me. I' m just relaying what I've heard.

It probably is bullshit. We'll see...

Yeah, those polls are fascinating to say the very least.

[Garbo 2004]

17. Yet they have no problem with their publicly funded health care....

People should be asking them when they are going to give up their publicly funded health care since they don't approve of it for anyone else.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

19. I've been real disappointed in Amy Klobochar, anyway. You support the public option?

Yeah, right. Flippin' Phony!!!

[Leopolds Ghost]

20. If it's available to all.

[Leopolds Ghost]

22. Interesting, I'm getting bulk mail from prog sites praising success in fighting for public option.

To quote a famous American, "That's all I can stands, and I can't stands no more!" I finally had to unsubscribe from MoveOn etc. I can no longer stand their shameless hucksterism for Congressional bills, not to mention their apparent dependence on CREDO mobile (a telecommunications spinoff company created under the 1997 Telecom Act) for... something.