Let's go for reconciliation on the Public Option!

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[Lani]

              
Let's keep those calls, letters and emails coming!

[futurexpat?]

I heard that Specter and Casey (PA) are going to sign on. I'll watch for more on this.

[pacos_gal]

Specter said that he signed today!

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/02/specter-signs-the-public-option-letter.php

Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA) announced via Twitter today that he has signed onto Sen. Michael Bennet's (D-CO) letter urging leadership to use reconciliation to pass a public option.

[Lani]

Specter is doing a very nice job of being a Democrat.  Who would've thought?

[futurexpat?]

Not me. 

[daMamma]

Keep it going boys and girls, keep it going.  You know you are finally doing the right thing for America and Americans.  Good for you!

<daMamma is pleased>

[Lani]

Gov. Dean updated the figures today in an email:

The momentum keeps building, with 19 Senators, 119 House Democrats, and over 300,000 Americans signed on to endorse this strategy as the way forward for healthcare reform.

[daMamma]

Cool.   

[Jackie2]

More email last nite - MoveOn.org is pushing for our Senators (both Dem & Repub) to receive a million phone calls & faxes (they're sending the faxes)  in favor of health care reform the day before the Healthcare Summit on the 25th.

Here's a link
http://pol.moveon.org/virtualmarch10/

[Lani]

Click on the link above & sign up for the calls and faxes today and tomorrow.  MoveOn will send the faxes for you!

Meanwhile, the call for the public option through reconciliation now has the support of 23 Senators and 120 House members.  You can see who signed here: http://whipcongress.com/?source=bp

[judi]

You might want to click on that link from Lani
not only do you get to see who signed...but you can sign the letter to congress telling them not to stop working for the public option

also...anyone know more about the march 9 rally in dc?

[Lani]

Today, the 24th senator (and the 6th committee chair) signed on!  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/24/levin-becomes-sixth-chair_n_475346.html

"There are a lot more people who I believe will join," Menendez [Dem NJ] said on MSNBC. "When you get to a certain number, there is a tipping point and people who may have felt like it's not possible may feel it's possible."

So keep calling, emailing & faxing!

[Forty Watt]

So keep calling, emailing & faxing!

I am, I am!  Let's make this *hopey changey* thing work out beautifully.

[Sister Artemis]

Ya know, as an aside...

When I heard that snarky, mean spirited "how's that hopey changey thing working out for ya?"  I really thought about it.  Things aren't good, but they're getting better, and though I'm worried, I'm not so worried, and ya know, Ms. Caribou Barbie (not meanin' to cast any aspersions on said caribou...), I think that hopey-changey stuff is working out just fine, thank you.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled posting.

[Forty Watt]

On the issue of reconciliation, what it means and how it works, Senator Byrd, in rather evocative language, accused his hometown newspaper of misunderstanding the congressional rules and procedures. 

From Sen. Byrd's letter:

With all due respect, the Daily Mail's hyperbole about "imposing government control," acts of "disrespect to the American people" and "corruption" of Senate procedures resembles more the barkings from the nether regions of Glennbeckistan than the "sober and second thought" of one of West Virginia's oldest and most respected daily newspapers.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/05/robert-byrd-daily-mail-ed_n_487542.html

 

[Lani]

Cheers, Sen. Byrd!  What a great letter.  I remember him on the Senate floor speaking out against the Iraq War.  When son & I heard on the news yesterday that he saw a way to pass HCR with reconciliation, we cheered.  He is the expert on the Constitution and Senate rules, so this goes a long way to support action on the stalled legislation.

“I believed then, as now, that the Senate should debate the health reform bill under regular rules, which it did,” Byrd wrote. “The entire Senate- or House- passed health care bill could not and would not pass muster under the current reconciliation rules, which were established under my watch.” “Yet a bill structured to reduce deficits by, for example, finding savings in Medicare or lowering health care costs, may be consistent with the Budget Act, and appropriately considered under reconciliation.”

http://thinkprogress.org/2010/03/04/byrd-on-reconciliation/

[daMamma]

Good on Sen. Byrd!  More of our level headed congressmen need to stand up to the stupidity of the media and call them out on it.  As our media has been sorely lacking in accountability, integrity, intelligence, facts and investigation.

[boodog]

Talk about change you can believe in, Sen. Byrd has come a long way.

[Forty Watt]

Talk about change you can believe in, Sen. Byrd has come a long way.

It's heartening isn't it? 

[futurexpat?]

We have heard soooooooooo much about the reconciliation on the public option. Media Matters has a piece about how much it was talked about when the Republicans were using it in 2003 to push Bush tax cuts, which is part of the reason we have such a deficit now.

But what's really striking about the media's approach to reconciliation is how much it differs from the way they treated the Republicans' use of reconciliation to pass President Bush's 2003 tax cut legislation. Only two Democrats voted for that bill -- one of whom, Georgia Sen. Zell Miller, doesn't really count, as he was a de facto Republican -- and Vice President Dick Cheney had to break a 50-50 tie. (Three Senate Republicans joined 46 Democrats and one independent in voting against the bill, which these days would be described as "bipartisan opposition.")

And yet, in the weeks leading up to the reconciliation vote, the media didn't portray the Republicans as ramming tax cuts through Congress via unprecedented use of an obscure procedural gimmick to circumvent Senate rules. In fact, they didn't say much of anything at all about reconciliation.

The Senate reconciliation vote occurred on May 23, 2003. In the month of May, only one New York Times article so much as mentioned the use of reconciliation for the tax cuts -- a May 13, 2003, article that devoted a few paragraphs to wrangling over whether Senate Republicans could assign the bill number they wanted (S.2) to a bill approved via reconciliation. The Times also used the word "reconciliation" in a May 9, 2003, editorial, but gave no indication whatsoever of what it meant.

by Jamison Foser

http://mediamatters.org/columns/201003030032

That's that liberal media, for you.