More: Speaker Nancy Pelosi is taking bows in Washington for coming up with the House version of the health care reform bill. The bill does contain a public option, but it is not the robust version progressives wanted. 5% over Medicare rates upset conservative members of her party who convinced her to back down on the provision as too low and opt for negotiation of reimbursement rates, the same version the Senate bill contains. So the majority of Americans who want a public option have gotten bills in both chambers with the government plan included; unfortunately it is the weakest version possible except for also subjecting government entry into the health insurance market to a so-called 'trigger' mechanism. Democrats have votes to spare in the House of Representatives; the close struggle will be in the Senate where the filibuster rule will be used by Repugnants in an effort to block the legislation.Update: Business reporter Paul Kangas engaged in a classic bit of spin journalism last night on supposedly unbiased PBS. He said, "support for the public option was drying up", trying to turn 'Zion' Joe Lieberman's discredited grandstanding into an opposition movement. Senator Reid has decided to launch a public counteract by collecting signatures from millions of Americans--a clear majority--who support a public option. Go to Senator Reid's website and sign the petition. Show the entrenched business lobby in Washington and the corporate media that you mean business too. And remember, the Public Option is the compromise because single payer would be cheaper and more efficient. Just ask the French.
{posted 10.27.09} Which states will opt out of the Public Option? Good question, but US Person has consulted, not the stars, but the NY Times [chart]. Chances are one of those states colored red will be the first. Opting out will not be politically easy, but some states have conservative enough legislatures and governors, and relatively fewer uninsured like South Carolina or Utah, for the issue to become a political football. Senator Henry Reid, facing re-election in purple Nevada, did the right thing and forced opponents to come up with sixty votes to strip government insurance out of the bill he will send to the floor. His task now becomes holding sixty Senators in line for the cloture vote to end the inevitable Repugnant filibuster. US Person suggests Nebraskans who have an ounce of populist sentiment left in their bodies call or write Senator Ben Nelson (?-NE) and ask him to at least act like a Democrat and allow the bill to reach the floor for a vote on its merits. If the Senate invokes cloture, the bill will pass despite the enticements of a well-heeled insurance lobby.
{posted 10.27.09} Which states will opt out of the Public Option? Good question, but US Person has consulted, not the stars, but the NY Times [chart]. Chances are one of those states colored red will be the first. Opting out will not be politically easy, but some states have conservative enough legislatures and governors, and relatively fewer uninsured like South Carolina or Utah, for the issue to become a political football. Senator Henry Reid, facing re-election in purple Nevada, did the right thing and forced opponents to come up with sixty votes to strip government insurance out of the bill he will send to the floor. His task now becomes holding sixty Senators in line for the cloture vote to end the inevitable Repugnant filibuster. US Person suggests Nebraskans who have an ounce of populist sentiment left in their bodies call or write Senator Ben Nelson (?-NE) and ask him to at least act like a Democrat and allow the bill to reach the floor for a vote on its merits. If the Senate invokes cloture, the bill will pass despite the enticements of a well-heeled insurance lobby.