House Liberals Complain They’re Being Left Out Of Loop On Health Care
Hmm, this doesn’t bode well for liberal hopes on health care: Some House progressives are beginning to complain they’re being kept in the dark about House leadership negotiations over reform, suggesting they don’t know what direction reform is headed in.
The complaints are few and scattered, but they’re beginning to add up. While the leaders of the Congressional Progressive Caucus have pledged to maintain a united front, insisting they won’t support any bill without a public option, rank and file House progressives complain that the process is adrift and that they have no sense of direction from leadership.
“Out of 435 House members, 430 don’t know what’s going on,” Dem Rep. Maurice Hinchey of New York said the other day.
“It’s being done by the leadership, and we don’t know what’s going on,” Dem Rep. Dennis Kucinich said in a recent interview.
Asked by constituents recently what would be in the final bill, Dem Rep. Corrine Brown of Florida said she didn’t know. “You wouldn’t want me to tell a lie, would you?” Brown said, adding: “Right now we’re just talking about concepts.”
Meanwhile, Dem Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York suggested he didn’t know what the cards held, but added that word of no public option “had better be wrong.”
The point is that despite the strong talk from House leaders about keeping the public option, there seems to be a growing sense among some House progressives that they don’t really have a seat at the table as the process unfolds. They don’t seem to think they’re in the game. A dynamic worth keeping an eye on.
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but but Obama is teh most librul prezident ever!!!!1!!!
Obama is not nearly as liberal as the right would have us believe. He has actually done very little that the progressive left has wanted, yet the right still tries to portray him as being to the extreme left.
I am to the extreme left and I haven’t seen Obama at any of our meetings.
It might be instructive to the right if Obama actually did do something that WAS liberal. Then the conservatives would have something to howl about. However, since their rhetoric has been so hyperbolic to date, how would they describe it?
All Obama has to do is hire infamous racist, Mark Fuhrman as a health care reform advisor…Problem solved. Watch this Jack-o flat out lie.
http://progressnotcongress.org/?p=2777
Is Hinchey hyperboling much ? 430 out of 435 ? Then what were these dumb aSSes doing all these days ?
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/09/brown-to-white-house-congress-is-writing-the-bill-the-presidents-not.php?ref=fpblg
From Senator Sherrod Brown(D) Ohio
“”The most important thing is the public option,” Brown said. “I don’t know for sure if I would support it with out a public option but it would be hard to get there…. We’re not going through this to write some namby pamby bill so we can check a box and say we did health care reform.”
If President Obama caves in on the Public Option, etc,
Then Senator Sherrod Brown would make a good candidate to mount a primary challenge for the 2012 nomination.
His state of Ohio would be a big help to him, in order to win the nomination.
Mr. Sargent:
“Hmm, this doesn’t bode well for liberal hopes on health care: Some House progressives are beginning to complain…”
I’m sorry, but are you trying to tell me that House Liberals, at some point in time had ever STOPPED complaining?
If this were so, it would alter the very fundamental laws of the universe.
““Out of 435 House members, 430 don’t know what’s going on,” Dem Rep. Maurice Hinchey of New York said the other day.”
My, but isn’t HE the optimist?
“Then Senator Sherrod Brown would make a good candidate to mount a primary challenge for the 2012 nomination.”
Please, oh please, nominate and run Sherrod Brown.
Gasman:
“I am to the extreme left and I haven’t seen Obama at any of our meetings”
I don’t think getting yourself tagged as a member of an organization on the Attorney General’s List would be a good thing if you were planning on running for President, y’know.
He’s had no end of trouble and suspicion over the character of his past associations as it is.
Bilgerman,
“He’s had no end of trouble and suspicion over the character of his past associations as it is.”
No, not from credible sources. But I’m sure that you’ll trot out the old “palin’ around with terrorists” trope that was so effective and informative during the presidential campaign. That charge says nothing about Obama, but is very instructive about those who level it.
Progressives: “the taken for granted constituency”. Watch Chris Matthews, Morning Joe, Andrea Mitchell and the play is the same: Obama has to dump the P.O.go for the centre and take advice from the Village Idiots. Then in 2012 The Progressives will be genuflected too, made promises and then forgotten if the Dems win back the WH. The perfect is the enemy of the good is the mantra.
Checking in to say goodbye. It’s been real.
Bilgeman: Please, I neither want or need your pity. Your paranoia needs treatment. It’s been interesting but I can’t say I’ll miss you.
Scott C: I’m not really stupid enough to think the insurance companies cause disease. But they sure cause the very real problems sick people have when their coverage is cancelled or they can’t get coverage in the first place. Try not to worry too much about the Netherlands or the UK.
sbj: Always pointing me to an article and I actually read most of them you sneaky *******.
actuator: You and your numbers, reminds me of my Dad. He and I argued for 40 years over politics, but I loved him dearly. Please don’t infer anything from that.
NIN: All I can say is “Create the lie, then pretend faux outrage”. I think you’ve been watching too much Beck.
Tena: You crack me up. They really beat up on you yesterday from both sides. Talk about exagerating someone’s words. I’ll check in sometimes to read your posts, I love your outrage.
Kathleen: A kindred spirit. Keep up the fight and call out bilgeman for me occasionally.
Bernie: The voice of reason. Thanks
Greg: I’ll keep reading but don’t have plans to post anymore. I’m really busy right now and starting the campaign to put a new congressman in my district.
Don’t worry I won’t sign in using a different name. I’m sure you’d all recognize my bleeding heart liberalism. Ha! Ha!
I supported Obama 100% during the 2008 campaign because of his great speaches: “Change we can believe in”. Now I am bebinning to fear Obama is great orator but has no administrative skills. LBJ where are you when we need you?
President Obama’s own words:
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/us_politics_obama_health_mother
Excerpt:
“”It’s… personal for me,” Obama told a crowd at a high-profile forum on Tuesday in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
“I will never forget my own mother as she fought cancer in her final months, having to worry about whether her insurance would refuse to pay for her treatment,” he told the crowd.
He was reprising a story he told frequently on the campaign trail, and more recently on the road, while drumming up support for his health industry reform agenda.
“The insurance company was arguing that somehow she should have known that she had cancer when she took her new job, even though it hadn’t been diagnosed yet,” Obama told the New Hampshire audience Tuesday.
“If it could happen to her, it could happen to any one of us. And I’ve heard from so many Americans who have the same worries.”"
Then what do you plan on doing about it, President Obama?
It is past time for you to act like it is personal, and fight for the changes that will fix it.
Senator Brown backs a Public Option, because that is the only way to end the Private Health Racketeers abuse of sick people, such as the way your own mother was treated.
@LindaS: STFU and get back in here!
Here is a very interesting counter-intuitive take on h/c reform:
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200909/health-care
“How am I supposed to be able to afford health care in this system? Well, what if I gave you $1.77 million? Recall, that’s how much an insured 22-year-old at my company could expect to pay—and to have paid on his and his family’s behalf—over his lifetime, assuming health-care costs are tamed. Sure, most of that money doesn’t pass through your hands now. It’s hidden in company payments for premiums, or in Medicare taxes and premiums. But think about it: If you had access to those funds over your lifetime, wouldn’t you be able to afford your own care? And wouldn’t you consume health care differently if you and your family didn’t have to spend that money only on care?
…
“Ten days after my father’s death, the hospital sent my mother a copy of the bill for his five-week stay: $636,687.75…why should my mother care? Her share of the bill was only $992; the balance, undoubtedly at some huge discount, was paid by Medicare.”
“Wasn’t this an extraordinary benefit, a windfall return on American citizenship? Or at least some small relief for a distraught widow?
“Not really. You can feel grateful for the protection currently offered by Medicare (or by private insurance) only if you don’t realize how much you truly spend to fund this system over your lifetime, and if you believe you’re getting good care in return.”
Here is my post entitled, “The Politics Of The Public Option: Concern Troll Edition”
http://smoothlikeremy.blogspot.com/2009/09/politics-of-public-option-concern-troll.html
I welcome all responses.
We will miss your comments LindaS but you gotta do what you gotta do. Good luck with turning your district blue!
Hey everyone, I just finished my review on Dick Morris’ Catastrophe. In it I discuss some of the topics covered in this article. Please check it out: Click Here
Feel free to leave a comment. I especially want to know what this crowd thinks. Any constructive criticism is greatly appreciated.
@sg: Read it (quickly), enjoyed it. I just have three quick points.
I think that it is questionable as to whether a robust public option bill would pass the House.
I DO think there are at least 10 Dem Senators who are willing to join the Repubs.
I DO think that Obama and the Dems would catch hell if they passed nothing. (I also think that if the Dems pass a very strong bill through reconciliation that the conservative Dems in the House would be decimated in 2010.)
Okay, four points. I’d much prefer black text on a light background!
Obama is a far-left radical and idiot, but even he apparently knows which way the wind is blowing. If he hopes to change this hardening perception of him (that he is a commie), he should probably start cleaning up his administration right now. I mean this guy Van Jones, he is a Czar and a Commie? That isn’t right. What would Anastasia think?
Says LindaS:
“I’m really busy right now and starting the campaign to put a new congressman in my district.”
Huh…she could be making some sales calls or meeting with suppliers or doing something to make her business grow, but instead she’s marching ar
around OC with the Finger-Biting Cadre to help elect a Congressperson who willsupport policies that will raise her taxes.
Because higher taxes is GOOD for small business-owners and their employees.
Am i missing something?
All you libs crack me up, did you really believe snake-oil salesman Obie during the campaign? Then you deserve what you voted for — only thing is the rest of our brave patriot voters supported the other guy.
I suggest you all put out that other notorious racist Van Jones to oversee the health care crisis (?)
Ok, so here’s what I see..
The Liberals in congress are now claiming that they haven’t had a say in what’s going on with the healthcare bill, yet there are a few version that have come out of the House..
Well, it would seem to me that they are trying to make sure they are re-elected, yet have the perfect excuse to claim ignorance at their townhall meetings.. After all, if they claim they’re not included, then saying ‘I don’t know” when a tough question is asked doesn’t put them in a bad light in fron of their constituents..
I live in NC, and Kay Hagen, who’s a Senator, has actually said ‘I don’t know” to some tough questions.. She knows, I could tell by her breif pause then stumbling upon words to answer..
They know, or their absent from their duties. I find it extremely hard to believe that the Left isn’t doing everything they can to attain votes on this. Besides, if they don’t know what’s in it but as long as the public option is they’ll vote ‘yes’ for it, do you really want them representing you anyways? What if it said (compltetely hypothetical) that ‘all persons which reach the age of 85, will be exterminated as to control the population’? Now I realize that’s completely out there, but they wouldn’t know either way..
Somethings fishy here… I don’t believe for a second that the House Dems really have no idea what’s going on…