Update: Senate Majority Leader Henry Reid said through a spokesman Friday that he was willing to allow a majority vote on the public option. The use of the reconciliation process to blast through the Repugnant's stone wall is gaining momentum with ordinary Americans and Senators. By today 18 Senators had signed the letter circulated by Senator Bennett of Colorado. Senator Bennett was appointed to fill the vacancy created by Ken Salazar becoming Secretary of the Interior. He faces a strong primary challenge from a former state Speaker of the House. It is becoming increasingly clear that the public signaled its dissatisfaction with the industry's bill--which featured individual mandates to buy health insurance but no lower cost option--by voting a Republican into office in liberal Massachusetts. A CBS poll shows 6 out of 10 Americans support a public option. Well over 51 Democratic Senators support the idea of public competition for an oligarchic health insurance industry. It only remains to convince a timid White House that reconciliation is the way to go
{Prima Dona of the Senate; 8.25.09}.
{first post 2.17.10} So Evan Bayh (D-IN) decided to retire. Listening to the corporate media you would think it was the end of the Obama administration. Frankly, US Person never had much use for the fence sitting Bayh. He certainly did not measure up to his
father's Senate legacy. Only the resignation or retirement of Joe 'Liar' Lieberman or Ben 'Bedrock' Nelson would be better news. Bayh got one thing right in his retirement announcement, the Congress is in lockdown because of Repugnant intransigence and outmoded rules like the filibuster. Their filibuster fetish began in 2006, but the rule's abuse has reached new highs. The minority has threatened to use the anti-democratic rule over a hundred times this session to block legislation they do not like without offering viable alternatives, or political accountability for their obstructionism. Their total opposition to the public option health plan is
but one example. Beside changing the filibuster rule itself, and there are several
pending proposals to do that, there is a procedural way around this irresponsible and destructive refusal to cooperate in governing the country: budget reconciliation. Using this process, Democrats need only 51 votes to pass a measure that is fiscally related. Certainly the public option plan has a big impact on the budget as scoring by the Congressional Budget Office has shown.
Colorado
Senator Michael Bennet (D) is circulating a draft letter asking Majority Leader Harry Reid to use the procedure to get a vote on the public option plan, already approved by the House. Senators Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), John Kerry (D-MA), Al Franken (D-MN), Roland Burns (D-IL), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), and Chuck Schumer (D-NY) have joined in the effort. The public option is the
quid pro quo for a mandate to Americans to buy health insurance. The idea of being told by their government to buy insurance rankles their sense of self-determination. Being forced to buy expensive private health insurance is enough to make them revolt, as they did in the Massachusetts special election to fill Ted Kennedy's seat. They are willing to sacrifice for the good of the country, but not get ripped off by insurance companies in the process. If Washington is indeed
broken as Vice President Biden says, then extraordinary measures to pass needed legislation are in order. Join 300,000 other Americans, and call your Democratic Senator and ask them to co-sign Senator Bennet's
letter. Because
we need it more than ever.
