Down to the Wire – Support is There for the Public Option
Here’s a great clip of Adam Green talking to Ed Schultz about Senatorial support for the Public Option, if the House puts it in the bill.
24 have signed a letter to Harry Reid asking for a public option in reconciliation. 19 have given statements to us, reporters, or their constituents. 4 more have made statements on video. And 4 are extremely likely based on their previous support for the public option and Senate leadership, even though they haven’t made an official statement yet.
“I want to be crystal clear: Sen. Durbin and the rest of the Senate Leadership will be aggressively whipping FOR the public option if it is included in the reconciliation bill the House sends over.”
—Senate Whip Durbin’s spokesman, Joe Shoemaker
Kudos to Adam Green and the people at The Progressive Change Campaign Committee. Click HERE and find out where your senator stands! I want that health care ticker in the corner of the screen up there to start scrolling backwards! This will likely be the most important bill of our life time. We cannot continue to be the only modern industrialized country that does not consider health care a basic right of its citizens.
I know you’ve signed petitions before, and made calls and sent emails. Do it again – for your kids, and someone else’s kids, and the kids that aren’t even born yet. Let’s get it done.
CLICK HERE to add your name, and find out how to contact your senator.
it’s an exercise in futility for me in eastern Kentucky.
However, I keep emailing & writing letters anyway.
justa – me too. It is an exercise in futility. I keep on going, writing, emailing, etc, also, too. Don’t even get a form reply from Bunning anymore. And Rand Paul scares the —- out of me.
weaver…you got that right about Paul!!!!
I’m just hoping Dan Mongiardo can fight the good fight come November…wouldn’t it be great to have a Democratic senator for a change?
quote from Mongiardo’s campaign website:
“The lawyers and politicians in Washington have done a great job in messing up healthcare. As a doctor on the front lines of our health care delivery system for more than 25 years, I know our health care delivery system is broken. We need real, comprehensive health care reform and we need it NOW.”
for those unfamiliar with the competition for Bunning’s Senate seat…we have Rand Paul and Trey Grayson on the Republican side in the primary in May…they both APPLAUDED Bunning for that eejit “I object” debacle.
Dr. Mongiardo is our current Kentucky Lt. Gov.
His campaign website is
http://www.drdan2010.com/
Excellent. Excellent.
Public option and/or Medicare buy in. Take this Health Care Reform bill and make it better. Thumbs up to all Senators wanting to do right by those who put them in office.
Thumbs down to newly elected Sen. Scott Brown who says “Trash this bill and let the states do it.” Arrgghhh.
When I wrote, I got a reply, canned as it was, from LIEberman, but nothing from Dodd.
I hope something comes of this whole thing that will benefit me, you, and all of us.
Bill Nelson, D Florida, won’t sign The Letter, but did make a (lukewarm, seems to me) statement of support. I’ve called and snail-mailed and emailed, including personal and impassioned pleas on behalf of friends and neighbors and colleagues.
Our Nelson has long been considered a friend of education. I pointed out to him that we have school support staff (custodians, cafeteria workers, bus drivers…) who have been “substitutes” for up to 10 years (and longer) so our school district doesn’t have to provide insurance. It’s not illegal, but “it just ain’t right.” I also pointed out the irony of our elected officials getting that good government healthcare while denying it to others…
Early replies were generic form responses. After playing the friend of education card, and getting personal, I got a prompt and more personal response…yesterday on the very day his “statement of support” was “confirmed.”
When you write or call or contact your reps, include even a sentence or two of specifics about why this is So Important for you or your family or friends and neighbors or co-workers (if you are fortunate enough to have a job). It helps remind them that We are the folks they are elected to represent.
Mudpup Power is an awesome Force for Hope and Change, eh?
yay, thatcrowwoman!
I just hope the Democrats realize what will happen to the people of this country if they get blitzed next fall. And if they don’t pass at least the public option they can kiss the Democratic party good bye for a long time. We’ve all seen what kind of dicttorial rule the RepoTaliban have planned. They make not secret.
If there is not better reason for the spineless Dims to do right, they should think about what kind of country they will pass to their children and great great grandchildren if they loose to the RTaliban in 2010 and 2012.
duh, duh, dictatorial
There’s some politics being played here. The Senate passed their Bill. It did not have the public option. Now the Senators are saying they support the public option, while Pelosi is saying she won’t let the House vote on it. And of course last fall it was Pelosi and House for it but, Senate against it.
So your politican can tell you; he/she supported the public option but, never had a chance for it to pass. Even Max Bacaus who had advocates of the public option arrested, says he’s now supports it. LOL!
I think most already know Obama cut a deal last Spring with the for-profits in health care, hospitals, Med device manufactures, Big Pharma and the Insurance titans. Which killed the public option.
We need to vote “incumbents” out of office!
I don’t think this is OT, because it’s been in the news regarding Health Care…. but Keith Olberman’s dad passed away today.
http://keitholbermann.mlblogs.com/archives/2010/03/theodore_c_olbermann_1929-2010.html
Condolences.
*waving to justafarmer*
R’ipley, how very sad for Keith Olberman, who has shared his father and healthcare horror stories with us all. By contacting our reps about healthcare reform, we honor his memory.
*his father’s memory*
yessssssssss…of course, we can’t get away from all the attacks and criticism from the Repugs…they just can’t believe we are acting like they would if roles were reversed.
Please note that Mark Begich (D-Alaska) is NOT on the list supporting a public option. In this, I believe he is making the type of mistake of caution that has plagued him in his earlier career. The people in Alaska who would vote against him because of his support for a public option would never have voted for him to start with. On the other hand, people who supported Begich may very well switch away from him if he continues his failure to support a public option. You say that’s only a few people? Recall that Begich beat Ted Stevens only after Stevens had been convicted of a felony and then only by the slimmest of margins. Begich might start looking at his progressive core. Otherwise, he will compromise himself right out of a second term. Any Alaskans concerned about a public option should let Begich know now.
I’m so ready for all these ‘popcorn’ moments…no, really. I just bought myself a Presto Poplite hot air popper…yummo…makes great popcorn fast and with virtually no unpopped kernels. I am one happy camper.
Once again, I will hope that my fellow Mudders allow me to express opinions without hating me.
1. I lived in Nancy Pelosi’s penumbra for her whole career in Congress — not in her district, but nearby. She is a liberal Democrat. She is also a very savvy politician, although she has never completely mastered the art of soundbites.
2. My regard for Speaker Pelosi’s political instincts is so high that if she feels there are not enough Senate votes to pass a sidecar with public option, I don’t care how happy Dick Durbin is to “whip as hard as he can”. Despite the laudable efforts of the PCCC, there are only 43 Senators who have made what one might call “commitments” to the public option. That means we need 7 of the other 15 Dems (no LIEberman). Certainly, there is some possibility that this could happen. But consider the result if it doesn’t happen. The sidecar fails, the unmodified Senate bill becomes law, the Democrats in the House lose all trust for the Democrats in the Senate, the Republicans achieve major gains in the 2010 election because the Democrats are visibly incompetent.
3. Note also that the Speaker has decided to stop catering to the Stupak fringe. The basic leverage of the Stupies during the voting on the original House bill was “we’ll accept the PO in exchange for more restrictions on abortion”. By dropping the PO, she neutralizes that argument. Now the Stupies have to consider what, exactly, they object to, and how their constituents will view matters.
Those reading this far will have detected a pro-Pelosi bias, which I am happy to admit. She will never be President, because she lacks the necessary charisma, but she is a marvelous liberal politician. And she’s a much better politician than her approximate opposite numbers (Boner and McTurtle), and, unfortunately, than her President.
Well, I’ve called Mark’s Juneau office THREE TIMES to voice my support for his support of a public option, and all I get is dead silence. I don’t even get the courtesy of a bogus reply, which Ted and Lisa always sent. Mark? Hello? Do you listen to Alaskans or insurance lobbyists?
off topic – i think i’m politically in love with dan mongiardo.
and yeah, i feel justa on the whole eastern KY thing. anything that’s even remotely “socialist” sounding, and glen beck gets the entire mountain region up in a tizzy.
our people are smarter than this…
strangelet @ 19, no haters here. Didn’t $omeone tell us not too long ago that women who don’t support other women are going to he11?
… Some folks just cannot accept any woman in a position of power. Like you said, “…but she is a marvelous liberal politician. And she’s a much better politician than her approximate opposite numbers (Boner and McTurtle)…”
btw, DH Happy agrees with you about Our President, only half-jokingly calling him “our best Republican president in years.” Ouch! I tell him to get back to me about that seven years from now. We’ll see how healthcare, education, the environment, jobs, infrastructure and war(s) look then…
*hanging on to Hope and working for Change*
thatcrowwoman I agree with you,one year is not enough time for all the changes needed.I think President Obama has to keep to the middle ground after all he is everyone’s president even if they don’t like it.I also think that if he had come out in full support of almost anything about health care(look what happened when he gave his short list) HE WOULD HAVE BE DEMONIZED BY THYE RIGHT.More than he already has been. I have given every president their chance so why not President Obama with is great smile and encouraging words.Something is still better than nothing and the bill can be fixed later like medicare and S.S. were.I want the public option or a medicare buy in as much as anyone but sometimes we must face reality even if we do not like it.
I will say one thing If any of the democrats think that by voting no on health care reform they will keep their seats think again .No mater how you vote the repugs or teabaggers will go after you full force ,count on it..Any one who falls for the lose your seat if you vote yes ,by the republicans are fools and believe in fairy tails JMO
Matter sorry
@thatcrowwoman
Excellent work there.
@strangelet
Kudos to our hard-working Speaker of the House!
Dear Strangelet – Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower and Kennedy all sought and failed to pass health care reform. It took a conniving political manipulator, Lyndon Johnson, to wheel and deal a compromise called Medicare through Congress. If Obama and Pelosi can carry the torch another step further, bless them. Do I wish that Obama and Pelosi would slam Single Payer Universal coverage through? You bet – but whether they can’t or won’t, it isn’t going to happen tomorrow. So, to paraphrase the Rolling Stones, what can a poor boy/girl do? Keep pushing.