rssNo Public Plan From Finance Panel
Friday, June 19, 2009 at 11:07 am
- 9 Comments
When Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Max Baucus (D-Mont.), who head the committees charged with writing health reform legislation this year, vowed a few weeks back that they would introduce similar reform bills that could be easily melted into one, the skeptics howled.
How, observers wondered, would the two committees reach a compromise on the issue of a government-backed plan — an option that Kennedy clearly wants but Baucus, working closely with public-plan opponent Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), has been more skeptical about?
Yesterday evening, the Finance Committee released a draft version of their bill that omits the public plan altogether. Instead, it proposes to create cooperatives offering consumers new coverage options that would be run by neither private insurers nor the government. The Washington Post explains:
The absence of a “public option” marks perhaps the most significant omission. Obama and many Democrats had sought a public option to ensure affordable, universal coverage, but as many as 10 Senate Democrats have protested the idea as unfair to private insurers. In its place, the draft circulated yesterday outlines a co-op approach modeled after rural electricity and telecom providers, subject to government oversight and funded with federal seed money.
Yesterday, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) met with four Republicans, including Sen. Charles Grassley (Iowa), the ranking GOP member on the panel, along with two Democratic colleagues in an attempt to find bipartisan consensus. Baucus dubbed the group “the coalition of the willing.”
This might answer the question of how the Finance panel intends to approach the thorny private-plan issue. The question remains, of course, how Baucus and Kennedy would combine their efforts.
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Comment posted July 13, 2009 @ 5:07 pm
Listen well, Senators: I know Democrats bend over backwards to accommodate the Republicans and appeal to bipartisanship…If you squander this – with control of the White House, a huge majority in the House, a filibuster proof majority in the Senate and all of the national polls behind you – then you were lying. You never intended to bring us change in the first place. The lobbyists will have won. And Obama's presidency will be like all of the others. A lot of bullshit promises and no change despite every conceivable advantage. If you can't get it done under these circumstances, then you can never get it done – nor did you ever want to.
You don't bend over backwards to accommodate the Republicans and appeal to bipartisanship, you bend over backwards to accommodate the same money bags that back the Republicans and their Republicanism and use bipartisanship as a sop to your own base you constantly screw over.
You will not agree to Sanders rule because it will force you to openly vote for the corporate intrests that own you and against your democratic rank and file base…that is counter to your political survival and thus their piggy bank .
You can be fair to the health insurance companies, or you can be fair to the American people. You can be fair to the industry or you can be fair t/o your constituents. You can be fair to the corporations that financed your campaigns, or you can be fair to the people who will vote either for you or against you in the next election. But if you do not fully and loudly support a Robust Public Option, we will make sure you do not remain in public office any longer.
If you fight for Special Interests over the interests of We The People, you will regret it at the ballot box, that is certain. You are not Too Big To Fail. I will fight to unseat you. I will actively encourage other voters to do the same. I will guarantee your failure. And there are thousands and thousands of others like me who will do the same. Hand the President a bullshit bill full of Co-ops, triggers and other bells and whistles, we will lay the blame at your feet, and the Democratic base will rise against you with furious anger and righteous that we may strike you down. (Electorally)You have been put on notice.
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