Top House Liberal: We’ve Still Got Strong Bloc Of Votes Against Bill Without Public Option
Don’t look now, but House liberals are still standing firm on the public option. Or so they’re saying, anyway.
After conducting an internal and informal count of House liberals who are still willing to oppose health care reform without a robust public plan, Dem Rep. Raul Grivalja, the co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, says he’s still confident that he has a big bloc of House liberals on board to vote against anything that falls short.
“We are comfortable with the sustained support for the public option and, for myself and others, the original letter we signed is still our position,” Grijalva said in a statement emailed over to me, in a reference to 60 House liberals who signed a recent letter pledging to oppose any bill without a public option.
A Grijalva spokesperson confirms that he reached that conclusion after multiple conversations with House liberals in the last few days.
To be sure, it would be a bit firmer to have an exact whip count, and some of this could be a bluff designed to extract meaningful concessions if liberals do end up softening on the public option. But for now, at least, House liberals appear to be holding the line for the public option, even as the Senate version proceeds without one.
In other words, the showdown over the public plan continues to loom.
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[bangingforeheadonkeyboard]
I’m almost as tired of the two words: public option, as it’s possible to get. I’ll be very glad when this is all settled.
Every 30 minutes there is another conflicting story on public option. It’s dead! No, it lives! No, it’s on life support! No, we insist we’ll have it…no I didn’t say that, yes I did say that…
sorry Tena, from now on I’ll just keep writing that it’s dead, just to be consistent
It’s in 4 bills and might be added to a 5th. If that’s dead, what’s alive?
They are bluffing.
The longer it lives, the better the final product will be.
Video of Rahm Emanuel being interviewed by Charlie Rose, yesterday. It runs for about forty minutes, and covers a broad range of issues.
Here is the link. I will not know if it takes until after I post first, because of the lack of a preview test feature, yet. Coming soon I hope.
http://charlierose.http.internapcdn.net/charlierose/092309rahm.wmv
If you have trouble playing it. Let me know, and I will see if I can find another link.
The first couple of minutes of the video are devoted to clips of the Libyan and Iranin leaders speeches at the UN, and is followed by the full interview of Rahm.
Liam
The link didn’t work but I’ll try to find it on my own.
Thanks
Try this link.
http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/10625
Click on the “share here” caption, just below the image of Rahm.
http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/10625
You must click on the word “here”
@Greg
You joke, but look at the rest of the news media out there. It’s 9 out of 10 stories is about how it’s dead…then almost never an update when it’s not.
They are praying to god almighty that the CW becomes “Public Option is dead”. They are doing their best to repeat it over and over again. It’s actually pretty transparent.
Even your old stomping grounds (TPM) has gotten pretty loose with it’s standards for headlines and quick updates. If you still have any pull back there, can you tell them to tighten things up. It’s really dissapointing to see TPM degrade into just another media outlet…and some of their headlines lately have been incredibly HuffPo-like.
“House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday shot down a healthcare compromise that has been viewed as the best chance for getting a bipartisan bill through the Senate.
Pelosi (D-Calif.) rejected the idea of a “trigger” for a public option.”
http://thehill.com/homenews/house/60181-pelosi-shoots-down-public-option-trigger
BBQ. I agree totally. TPM SUX now. It’s pissing me off to no end. Even traded emails with Josh because I complained bitterly and he had nothing to push back on. I suggested a number of suggestions. Story lines to cover that are being ignored, content sections, etc. No response. And FDL has become a bunch of far left purists. The only thing that pisses me off more than losing interest in these two sites is the hate-mongering that is supported by the GOP. As you can tell, I’ve reached a breaking point on this and I’m frankly sick of it. It is terrorism. There is no other word to describe what sbj, quarterback, Scott C, Jim DeMint, Bachmann, et al. They use fear to create TERROR. Therefore it is TERRORISM and they are TERRORISTS. Scum. All of em. And I include in that boat anyone that goes soft on these freaking fools. We need a hardline Democratic Party. Not an issue-based purity test, but on presentation of fact.
Fact: The GOP failed us on 9/11. Fact: the GOP failed in the Iraq War. Fact: the GOP failed us in Afghanistan. Fact: the GOP supports torture. Fact: the GOP did NOTHING on nuclear proliferation for 8 YEARS. Nothing on Iran. Nothing on N. Korea. Nothing with Russian lose nukes. Nada.
And here they are TERRORIZING American senior citizens. TERRORIZING the political middle for political expediency. ENOUGH. ENOUGH ENOUGH ENOUGH. Stand up. Be angry. This cannot go on. And if WE don’t do something about it, THEY will and more people are going to die. Stand up and push back on their fear tactics, on their stall tactics, on their whole ideology. Stand up now and FIGHT for control of this country or we will regret it. Mark my words.
Thanks Liam
Here’s another good FDL article discussing the Baucus bill and lack of cost control versus the public option and how it would control costs. It astonishes me that people don’t get how important the PO is, especially if you’re going to mandate insurance coverage. Subsidizing the mandates will cost much more in the short and long term without the PO.
http://campaignsilo.firedoglake.com/2009/09/24/you-need-to-control-the-growth-of-premiums/
Ethan
I agree that FDl is over board on the left but they still have some decent articles.
Sorry FDL
You go, Ethan. More progressives need to get really pissed off and go after conservatives twice as viciously as they go after us, even if that means getting in a fist fight with the ********. Punch a few of these knuckleheads in the nose, who are yelling at town hall meetings and see how fast they shut up. Conservatives tend to be abject cowards at heart.
I will NOT be terrorized. I will not ALLOW Americans to be terrorized. This is the line in the sand. It is OVER. Terrorism is what it is and these people are terrorists. The games are OVER.
@ethan: “There’s a blue pill and a red pill.”
You should probably take a handful of each…
sbj, you are a terrorist. Go away. You are unwelcome.
SBJ is not a terrorist.
However, he is a G*ay Uncle Tom, who is willing to scapegoat immigrants, for the political party that scapegoats him, and his partner, because of their sexual orientation.
@liam: No, no – my PARTNER is the g@y Uncle Tom!
I’m the WASP.
Greg – It’s not you! It’s everybody!
SBJ, since you are a G@y WASP, that just makes you a White G@Y UNCLE TOM.
You go straight to Newt, Rudy, and John McCain, and apologize for having destroyed their previous Christian Family Values marriages. I am sure they will accept your apologies, if you promise to stop being G@y. After all they claim that you just made a choice, like they did. Who knew that all those Republicans were actual Bi-Sexual!
@Liam: Some of the time you are reasonable, open to discussion, and make sense.
Then there are responses like the one above.
sbj – and I supposed you always are reasoned and reasonable.
Like when you followed me around asking me if I was high; when you post comments with my name in them as an example of everything that is dumb.
Stones, glass houses, all that -
HR 3400 is the health care bill that makes sense, and will actually help people to get affordable care. HR 3200 and the Baucus bill are not worth the paper upon which they are printed, and will hurt the nation more than they help the uninsured.
“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”
H.L. Menecken
Sam Simple, you go ahead and start a fist fight at a town hall with centrists at a townhall meeting. You won’t like the results. IN fact, you will positively hate the results.
My observation: progressives and other leftists are abject cowards. You talk a great fight, but that’s about all you are – talk. You morons are already setting the stage for a true civil war. You would be very wise to back down and read the constitution. The FedGov has no authority to legislate on medical care, and most of the other issues you idiots push.
Quartermaster says “…Sam Simple should read the Constition”. That’s reasonable to suggest to anyone. But Quartermaster might also want to read other historical documents, particularly those central to understanding what is reasonable to expect from our government. He will find that providing for the “common welfare” is indeed a reasonable expectation of all citizens. And that’s precisely what the issue is. He may argue that the phrase had nothing to do with insurance when written. But the founders of our government were writing about respect, principles, equality, and decency in treatment of one citizen to another. They tried not to limit themselves to the vagaries of the 1700’s in defining the reasonable expectations citizens rightfully had, and should have, of their government. So the current debate seemingly should be about what is reasonable, and it should be done without name calling, if your intent is to help define what is reasonable. Otherwise, it would seem you are just trying to force your view on others, as King George once tried to do. By the way, King George lost.
Here’s the hook: They pay for it using your money then tell you how much they are doing for you. Don’t forget the administration fees for dishing out your money to you.