The public option is gaining steam in the Senate. Chuck Schumer became the 17th Senator to sign a letter asking Harry Reid for a reconciliation vote on the public option -- a letter that Chris Dodd has yet to sign:
Schumer just fired off an email to supporters in which he announced that he's added his name to the letter, which was initially spearheaded by Senator Michael Bennet and three other Senators. He wrote:
I just added my name to their effort to pass a public option through the reconciliation process, and I wanted you to be the first to know.
This is far from a done deal, but it's an opportunity to break through the obstructionism Republicans have pushed for the past year.
Not sure if Senator Dodd is waiting for an invitation to sign, but his name belongs on that letter too. A bunch of progressive groups (including CREDO) are doing a whip count. Click here if you want to join the effort and help get Dodd on the dotted line.
UPDATE: More Senators are on board (but not Dodd). Chris Bowers of OpenLeft has an updated whip count here.
Public Policy Polling has just released their new numbers for CT-Sen. A stark contrast to what they had been.
When Chris Dodd retired last night his seat went from one of the most vulnerable to one of the safest for Senate Democrats. Attorney General Richard Blumenthal leads all three of the Republicans in the race by at least 30 points in polling we conducted Monday and Tuesday night before Dodd's announcement.
Blumenthal is unusually popular, especially in hyper partisan times when voters like few politicians. 59% have a favorable opinion of him to just 19% who see him negatively. It's no surprise that he's liked by 71% of Democrats and 60% of independents, but even Republicans view him favorably by a 37/35 margin. It doesn't take a lot of hands to count the number of Democratic politicians with positive numbers among GOP voters these days.
Blumenthal leads Rob Simmons 59-28, Linda McMahon 60-28, and Peter Schiff 63-23. It would take an epic collapse for him not to be Connecticut's next Senator.
A year ago Wall Street's financial rupture sent the economy hurtling into a massive crisis, crushing tens of millions of Americans in an avalanche of unemployment, underemployment, home foreclosures, reduced incomes and lost benefits. That financial rupture was caused by a combination of rapacious, mindless greed on Wall Street, the then-bloated housing bubble, and the failure of both regulators and of the financial regulatory structure.
Tomorrow the Senate Banking Committee will begin to take up Senator Chris Dodd's (D-CT) proposals for sweeping financial regulatory changes. In a statement announcing the proposed legislation last week, committee chairman Dodd said:
There's little good news in this just released Quinnipiac poll for Chris Dodd. He's been trending in the high 30's for the last seven months now, while Rob Simmons is back up to near his high.
Of some interest though is that there now seems to a race among the Republicans. Linda McMahon's millions in ad buys have put her on the map, as have to a smaller extent Tom Foley, both at the expense of Rob Simmons.
Counting on your opponent/s to weaken themselves and deplete their resources is not a winning strategy though, as eventually Chris Dodd or someone else will have to win the seat, not expect someone else to lose it.
As you know, our Senior Senator Chris Dodd has been a champion for health care reform, standing firmly behind a public health insurance option, which 68% of Connecticut residents (and a large majority of the U.S.) support.
When Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced earlier this week that a public option will be included in the Senate Bill, it was a direct result of Sen. Dodd's leadership on the issue.
And so Senator Reid deserves our thanks for standing with Chris Dodd -- and with us -- to put forward a health care bill with a public option. More importantly, since Senator Lieberman has threatened to side with Republicans and insurance companies, we want Senator Reid to turn a deaf ear to those threats. Let's tell Senator Reid that a majority of Connecticut residents stand with him and Senator Dodd, and urge them to pass health care reform with a public option, using the reconciliation process if necessary.
We, the undersigned residents of Connecticut, urge you on behalf of the 68% of our neighbors that want a public health insurance option to ignore Senator Lieberman's threats to side with the Republicans and insurance companies in blocking real reform and to use the reconciliation process to pass the Kennedy/Dodd public option if necessary.
In an appearance on Face the State just two weeks ago, Sen. Dodd answered a question about Sen. Lieberman by stressing how hard he worked for Lieberman in the 2006 primary, how he thought Lieberman was the best candidate for Democrats in 2006, how he made an "impassioned plea" to keep him in the party in late 2008/early 2009, how he anticipates that Sen. Lieberman will remain a Democrat in 2012, and how that "would help" him earn Dodd's support in the 2012 campaign:
Q: Let's talk about your friend Senator Joe Lieberman, who has unequivocally endorsed you for re-election this year. Does he have to be a Democrat in order for you to support him in his next re-election bid? If he's an independent, will you support him over the Democrat?
DODD: It would help if he'd stay a Democrat. And I suspect he will. I made an impassioned plea on his behalf at the Democratic caucus in January, in opposition to several in the caucus who took a different point of view. But I've known Joe for 40 years. He had a position that was not unlike other Democrats on the Iraq war. And unfortunately, as you know, I campaigned hard for him in that primary, and believed he would have been our strongest candidate. And Joe wanted to be back in that caucus. There were several of us that spoke on his behalf. He's very much a member of that caucus, and I suspect he'll stay such.
Q: So if he says, that I'm going to run as an Independent, will you support him against a Democrat?
DODD: Well, I'm anticipating he's going to stay a Democrat.
Yesterday, of course, Sen. Dodd received his usual thank-you note.
But Lieberman's fellow Connecticut senator, Democrat Chris Dodd, who faces a tough reelection fight in 2010, dismissed the idea that Lieberman would incur any retribution.
"No, no, no. People are going to be all over the place," he said when asked if Lieberman should be punished. "The idea that people are going to be reprimanded because somehow they have a different point of view than someone else is ridiculous. That isn't going to happen."
In fairness, this forgiving attitude towards his junior colleague been a consistent stance of Sen. Dodd's for almost three years now. Unfortunately, it has been a consistently wrong-headed and almost unfathomably misguided one, which, despite Sen. Dodd's crucial work on multiple policy fronts these days, continually calls into question his personal and political judgment in a very serious way.
Update: This was the official statement from Sen. Dodd yesterday on Lieberman's filibuster threat:
"Joe and I disagree on the public option," said Dodd. "I and many others support a strong public option because it will save money, and it will introduce more choice and competition into an industry that badly needs both. And I'm optimistic Joe will join us."
"Joe and I are good friends," Dodd told me, "and there's a difference on this and that's certainly his right to express it.... I'm disappointed we're not in agreement on this, but that happens from time to time on issues."
He did acknowledge the consensus on the public option: "I believe it brings down costs, I think it's going to save money as well," Dodd said. "And so I'm still hopeful that before we complete this process there'll be a lot more support for the public option, possibly even a good colleague and friend from Connecticut."
Back in June, Sen. Dodd told the MLN community that he was going to fight for the public option throughout the entire legislative process:
As I said, it remains to be seen whether we can pull together the votes to make that happen. But I've learned in my time in Washington that compromise is important, but it's always worthwhile to stand your ground on the issues that matter most. That's how we passed the Family and Medical Leave Act, credit card reform, FDA regulation of tobacco, and many other issues I've worked on over the years. We can't give up on a public option even if it is an uphill battle. And so I won't. And I know you won't, either.
But we have come too far, and worked too hard, to settle for "pretty good." And that's why I plan to take a stand.
First, and let me be very clear about this: I am going to fight for a strong public option. The simple, undeniable fact is that a public option will save money - and it will introduce more choice and competition into an industry that badly needs both. It is the single best way to keep costs low for middle class families - and keep the insurance companies honest. And I am by no means ready to back down on making that argument.
Whatever happens in the coming weeks -- and the fight is by no means close to being over -- this is a significant victory for Senator Dodd. All along, the conventional wisdom was that the Finance Committee's health care bill would have precedence over anything coming out of Sen. Dodd's HELP committee in the merging process. That conventional wisdom has been debunked, and President Snowe and Vice President Baucus are now less relevant to the process than ever -- and progressives in the House and Senate more relevant.
CCAG has a post up urging constituents to thank Sen. Dodd for his leadership on the public option fight.
In the House, the language of the merged bill that will come to the floor is still largely uncertain. Steny Hoyer says it could emerge by the end of this week, and hinted to reporters this morning that it may include a public option with negotiated rates, not Medicare +5 rates:
Though the robust public option has a great deal of support among Democrats, Hoyer asks rhetorically "What additional numbers can you add by going to negotiated rates?...[W]e don't have that exact number. But certainly there are people who want the negotiated rates who would add themselves to the number [that support a robust public option] that is anywhere between 200 and 218 at this point in time."
It seems clear that John Larson's declaration last week that Democrats "had the votes" for a "robust" public option was either premature or imprecise - since whether to include the Medicare +5% public option, largely considered the most "robust" plan under consideration, is still being debated.
One more update: while Jim Himes' office would not confirm his position on the Medicare +5% public option last week, his name has been absent in the most recent target lists, and his office has apparently privately indicated to others that he would support Medicare +5% if it came to the floor.
In an interview with the Washington Post, Schiff explained how he was leaving his true career in the private sector to go into politics.
"I'm interrupting my career. It's not like I want my new career in politics," said Schiff. "But I'm willing to interrupt it the same way that somebody interrupted their career and joined World War II and went off to fight the Nazis. I don't think that I'm that heroic, and I don't think I'm risking as much as a soldier. But it's the same principle."
You have to wonder what these GOP neophytes will say and do in their would-be Senate campaigns. If this any indication just about whatever pops into their heads at the moment.
Hartford, CT - President Barack Obama will visit Connecticut on Friday, October 23 for an evening fundraiser on behalf of Senator Chris Dodd. Additional details about the event will be forthcoming.
"As President Obama has said in the past, Senator Dodd's record is an incredibly strong one on behalf of the people of Connecticut and this country, and he's continuing to work with the President to help reform our healthcare system and make sure our financial regulatory rules protect consumers first and foremost," said Dodd Campaign Manager Jay Howser. "Obviously we're extremely grateful that President Obama has taken time out of his busy schedule to campaign on behalf of Senator Dodd, and we're looking forward to a great event."
Linda McMahon has begun airing tv ads in Connecticut in her quest to secure the Republican nomination and take on Chris Dodd for the U.S. Senate next November. When she recently stepped down as the CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) it was known her approach would be a little different. And from not bothering to vote, to publicly supporting Democrats from time to time, not to mention her own wrestling antics, her entering an already crowded Republican field guarantees Connecticut politics won't be boring.
Only a few days ago, I commented on looking forward to how Linda McMahon will utilize her family business' media influence for her campaign in the coming senatorial election. I did not expect it to start so soon!
I live in Brooklyn, NY, smack-dab in the middle of the #1 media district in the US. Being a part of the tri-state area, it's not surprising to see ads targeted towards issues in NJ or CT on local news networks. (I've been keeping tabs on the New Jersey gubernatorial elections for the past few months.) With most of the political ads targeted towards New Yorkers on municipal races, it was a surprise to see this ad come up in the middle of ABC's New Wednesday Night Lineup: http://www.linda2010.com/video_15.html*.
In fact, Mrs. McMahon has a website fully up-and-running, and a page dedicated to her media mini-blitz: linda2010.com/watch
With the 2010 Republican Primary nearly 11 months away, McMahon has decided to ignore her own party's opponents and concentrate on attacking Chris Dodd straight on. A bold move this early on, but I have no doubt she'll be diversifying her ads for different targets.
I have yet to see a poll with McMahon involved, but no doubt her increased and early visibility will be a boon to her campaign. But, living in New York, my viewpoint is skewed: I only get to see ads targeted towards the Gold Coast. Is any other Republican starting ads this early? Are the ads being played in the Hartford/Springfield Media Market?
Regardless, this is a very visible first shot from a money-laden campaign.
(*I'm not 100% sure I saw the same ad she posted on her site. When I first saw it, I didn't even notice a mention of the state she is running in. Indeed, Connecticut is mentioned only once in both her ads. Could she be hoping to draw on a greater base of support in the region?)
Quinnipiac has released another poll with Senator Dodd against potential Republicans, the most likely of whom is still the uninspiring Rob Simmons. As with the Research 2000 poll released earlier this week, the gap has narrowed a bit but Chris Dodd is still only at 39%, Simmons at 44% with a higher number of undecided. Dodd beats all the other relatively anonymous Republicans, and Simmons is still in the 40's for support among R's while the others are in the single digits. I'd expect with the amount of money being put into the race for that to change rather abruptly next winter and spring.
The other interesting aspects are Barack Obama's approvals in CT down to 57% from 71% last spring. Support for a Public Option remains strong at 64% while support for the President's health care reform is rather tepid (47% approve, 42% disapprove).
In a poll to be released tomorrow the numbers for Chris Dodd seem to be inching up a little. There are several caveats with that, however. Both the Quinnipiac (July) and Rasmussen (September) polls had Dodd down by about 10 pts. Comparing pollsters directly is always an apples and oranges sort of game, and it's much better to compare the polls of the same pollster. Research 2000 hasn't polled the race since March though, when it found Dodd with a 5 pt lead. Quinnipiac a few weeks later had Dodd trailing by 16 when the nasty bank business stuff was unfolding.
I suspect the weighting for Republicans is higher for both Rasmussen and Quinnipiac than Research 2000 anticipates, accounting for the difference in the polling numbers, but I'm just guessing at that.
Dodd's favorables are now good among Democrats (+72/-21), awful among Republicans (+10/-76), of course, but also still awful among Independents which is Dodd's real problem: +32/-53.
Dodd does beat all the other Republicans though, Caliguri and Schiff quite handily.
Linda McMahon, the CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment, is weighing a run as a Republican against Sen. Chris Dodd (D) in Connecticut in 2010. A source close to McMahon said that she is "seriously considering" the race and touted her as a serious candidate based on a résumé that includes leading a $1 billion publicly traded company based in Stamford, Conn. The source also noted that McMahon would be willing and able to spend significant sums on the race, an x-factor that could make her competitive in a primary against former representative Rob Simmons, former ambassador Tom Foley and state Sen. Sam Caliguri. It remains to be seen how Connecticut voters will react to a McMahon candidacy; her husband, Vince, is the public face of a massive professional wrestling empire that has drawn criticism for the violence of its action and the at times lewd nature of its content. One thing is certain: a McMahon candidacy would turn what is already a fascinating race into a contest with a huge national profile.
Peter Schiff is having a Ron Paul-style moneybomb day, with the goal of getting a lot of donations in a short period of time. So far he's around $170,000 today. By way of comparison, Rob Simmons had raised about $750k this year (and spent about 200,000) to 6/30/09. Since Schiff hasn't formally announced yet he's still testing the waters with an exploratory committee. Considering he can also self-finance the waters look pretty good.
Rob Simmons must be a bit concerned, too. He likely won't raise near as much as Schiff or Tom Foley in their quest to take the seat away from Senator Dodd.
Ron Paul sends his regards.
Dear Supporter,
Our good friend in Liberty, Peter Schiff, is planning a run for Senate in Connecticut against Chris Dodd. The grassroots across the country are organizing a money bomb for him today to raise money and send a powerful message to the political elites that freedom is popular and that Liberty can.
Our country needs Peter Schiff in Washington, and you can help today. Please go to www.Schiffathon.com right now and make a contribution. Together, we can help make history.
In Liberty,
Ron Paul
A great day for the Paultards all around. Ron's son Rand declared he was running for the U.S. Senate in Kentucky, as a Republican of course.
It's clear now that the top-down Republican strategy on health care for the month of August (a strategy made possible in part by the Blue Dog "victory" of delaying floor votes on legislation until September) will consist of organized and potentially violent disruptions of town hall meetings scheduled by members of Congress with their constituents in their districts.
On Friday, ThinkProgress posted a leaked "best practices" memo (PDF) written by Connecticut right-wing activist Bob MacGuffie based on his experience taking part in such an organized disruption of a Jim Himes town hall meeting in Fairfield back in late May. The memo includes such advice as:
- Artificially Inflate Your Numbers: "Spread out in the hall and try to be in the front half. The objective is to put the Rep on the defensive with your questions and follow-up. The Rep should be made to feel that a majority, and if not, a significant portion of at least the audience, opposes the socialist agenda of Washington."
- Be Disruptive Early And Often: "You need to rock-the-boat early in the Rep's presentation, Watch for an opportunity to yell out and challenge the Rep's statements early."
- Try To "Rattle Him," Not Have An Intelligent Debate: "The goal is to rattle him, get him off his prepared script and agenda. If he says something outrageous, stand up and shout out and sit right back down. Look for these opportunities before he even takes questions."
As ThinkProgress notes, the tactics outlined in this memo are being used in an organized assault in congressional districts across the nation, led by organized and very well-funded right-wing groups.
And even Rep. Himes, via Twitter after the event, seemed to voice some doubts about the nature of the tough audience he faced:
Town Hall meeting in Fairfield. People very worried about cap and trade. Some anger in the room. Hard to tell if organized or organic.
A few weeks later, on July 14th, MacGuffie described again disrupting a Jim Himes constituent event, this time in in Trumbull, while being videotaped by a "grassroots leader" of Rob Simmons' favorite right-wing activist movement, "Dump Dodd":
"About a dozen of us packed a meet-and-greet staged by our congressman, Jim Himes on Sunday in a supermarket in Trumbull, CT. The link below was posted by another grassroots leader as he filmed me giving Himes a reality check. All those voting for the socialist national agenda should receive a similar treatment. Watch for appearance announcements from your reps and give them a similar reality check. They need to go back to their caucus relating the same treatment from their constituents."
Whether through organized channels or merely through the broadcasts of Limbaugh, Hannity, and Beck, Connecticut's fringe right-wing activists - the teabaggers, DumpDodders, birthers, and others - all seem to have gotten the same memo: attend these events, yell loudly, disrupt, intimidate, and above all, avoid anything approaching intelligent discussion or debate.
The fruits of those tactics were visible today in Hartford, at a Chris Dodd event on health care, as CT News Junkie reports:
Following the event Dodd conducted an interview outside the warehouse and at its conclusion he spotted the handful of protesters across the street and turned to his staff to ask who they were. As he pulled out of the parking lot Dodd pulled up to the protesters and asked if they wanted to discuss the issue with him.
Jim Bancroft, one of the protesters who is part of the Dump Dodd and Tea Party movements, said Dodd asked if he wanted to talk to him and [Bancroft] declined.
Bancroft, who is currently uninsured and on disability for a back injury, said if he needs medical attention he will pay for it himself. Estelle Stevenson, another protester who was standing next to Bancroft, said she has health insurance with a $5,000 deductible and had to refinance her mortgage in order to pay her insurance bills.
Those are two individuals who sound like they would benefit greatly from the heath care legislation that Sen. Dodd got through the HELP committee. And despite the fact that they were protesting the event, Sen. Dodd still made the effort to go across the street to try to talk with them about it. But the marching orders had obviously already been given and received.
For the next year or so, Connecticut will likely find itself a national epicenter of teabaggers, DumpDodders, and birthers engaging in mob tactics like those outlined in the memo above. Instead of writing articles about the "tough crowds" at these events, reporters and analysts would do well to avoid getting played and instead focus on the use of these tactics and the people responsible for them.
And Members of Congress who want to avoid getting played themselves would do well to cancel any currently scheduled town halls they have in their districts, if this type of organized disruption is what right-wing activists are intent on turning those events into.
***
Update: TPM spoke to MacGuffie today, and has more on how his memo was widely distributed to right-wing activists across the country:
MacGuffie and four friends lead a group called Right Principles, described as "a communication and organizing platform so those for whom our core beliefs...ring true." Despite his connection to Freedom Works, MacGuffie insisted to me that his group is unaffiliated with the wealthy conservative interest groups that have fronted the right wing tea party events.
But his memo nonetheless found its way to hundreds of tea party activists, including the very organizations MacGuffie insists he's unaffiliated with....
MacGuffie's memo was posted to the Tea Party Patriots' list serve, which is hundreds of members large, and includes representatives from not just small protest groups, but also major anti-health reform organizations such as Conservatives for Patients Rights, and Patients First, Patients United Now (an affiliate of Americans for Prosperity), and, yes, Freedom Works.
In an editorial this morning, the Hartford Courant addresses this week's "AP Impact" story on the "secret" Congressional testimony of a Countrywide official and concludes that despite the hyperventilating media coverage, there was "nothing new" revealed, and that Sen. Dodd did not receive "special treatment":
No matter how badly Mr. Dodd mishandled this long-running issue from the get-go, especially by waiting too long to release his mortgage documents, the evidence supports him. The senator and his wife, Jackie Clegg Dodd, negotiated interest rates and terms widely available in the marketplace when they refinanced the two homes. That's not special treatment.
Dodd may not have received "special treatment" by Countrywide, but what about by the traditional media in its coverage of the story?
William Cibes has an op-ed in today's Courant comparing Dodd's mortgages to Gov. Rell's, and wondering why the media has so been so transfixed on the former (Google news has indexed 5,380 stories about "Dodd mortgage" since 2008):
For more than a year, accusations have been flung at Dodd for supposedly getting a "sweetheart mortgage deal" when he refinanced his homes in 2003. To hear some people talk, the rates must have been real doozies - far below what an ordinary citizen would have been able to obtain in that market, and much lower than the rate on the Rell mortgage. One would think that no professional reporter could have failed to check the evidence before embroiling the senator in a sleazy intrigue.
So it must come as a real shock to learn that Rell's interest rates were as low or lower than Dodd's....
Now that it's clear that there are no meaningful differences between the rates the Rells and the Dodds secured on their respective mortgages, the partisan contrivance of a phony scandal melts away. The perpetrators of the "sweetheart deal" narrative owe Chris Dodd an apology. Fair is fair.
Of course, zombies don't die easily, especially when they are nourished by a national right-wing noise machine eagerly hand-feeding them reporters' brains.
David Fiderer at HuffPo takes on the AP reporter who wrote this week's story on the "secret testimony" of former Countrywide executive Robert Feinberg, and highlights the role that Republican Congressman Darell Issa has played in orchestrating the attack on Dodd since last year:
Any journalist who had done his homework would have questioned Issa about his decision to have Feinberg do a rerun of his testimony in secret last month. Issa chose to have Feinberg testify one day before testifying for the Senate Ethics Committee, three months after Issa's report was completed, and six months after Feinberg first testified the same information for Issa. In other words, any competent reporter would have questioned whether Feinberg's testimony to Issa was, in fact, real news. Any journalist with common sense would have suspected that Issa's intent was to create a media distraction at a critical juncture of legislative negotiations, and would have addressed such a possibility in his reporting. Larry Margasak of the Associated Press left readers with the impression that Feinberg's testimony was brand new information.
Margasak's unacknowledged rehashing of Feinberg's testimony touches on the real scandal surrounding the Countywide VIP loan story. He and other mainstream reporters are unwilling to report facts that undercut the false premise of their narrative. It's as if they recount demands to investigate Obama's birth certificate, but they never bother to read the actual birth certificate.
At the occasion of the release of yet another recycled, non-newsbreaking hit on Chris Dodd by the AP yesterday, Democratic Senate candidate Merrick Alpert saw it fit to respond via Twitter in what is already quickly becoming his signature, classy fashion:
VIP = RIP
"VIP," in Merrick's pithy retelling, of course must refer to the Countrywide "VIP" program that Chris Dodd has repeatedly said he knew he was enrolled in but was told at the time was "nothing more than enhanced customer service", an assertion not contradicted by any new evidence. And by "RIP", we can infer (and hope) that Merrick is suggesting that this manufactured controversy will be only the "death" of Dodd's campaign.
Still, when musing over Alpert's thoughts on Dodd's "VIP" lifestyle (and his previous criticism of Dodd over his move to Iowa), it's worth contemplating pots, kettles, and glass half-million dollar Florida country club condominiums.
On February 6th of this year, according to the Lee (FL) County Clerk's office, Alpert sold his condo at the Gulf Harbour Yacht and Country Club in Fort Myers, Florida, for $430,000, in order to move back to Connecticut. He would announce his run for Senate three months later. I guess it does help to move back to a state if you plan to run for office in it.
Tee It Up Or Sail It Out!... From Using A Full Service Gym That Has 1 Room Just For Cardio, 1 Room Just For Weight Lifting, 1 Room Just For Aerobic Style Classes, Facials, Pedicures To A Fully Staffed Tennis & Golf Shop With Pros To Answer Every Question. Come Experience What It Feels Like To Live In A Resort.
There is a championship 6,700 yard 18 hole Chip Powell designed golf course and aqua-range. Members also enjoy the Club's private island beach and wildlife habitat, which combined with the golf course, waterfront pool & Tiki Hut, fully equipped fitness center, luxurious spa, championship tennis facility, and yacht basin, provides Members an extensive array of active amenities that enhance this fantastic Gulf Harbour Lifestyle.
It must have been quite the "VIP" Florida resort lifestyle for this supposed down-to-earth Connecticut everyman.
As you may have suspected, the Medicare-style public option that you thought you were fighting for isn't the same "public option" that's coming out of committees in the Senate and the House. Not even close.
In a must-read diary at the Physicians for a National Health Program blog, Kip Sullivan describes how Congressional Democrats, and even some progressive groups, are using a classic bait-and-switch to redefine the public option and sell us a useless watered-down version:
According to the Congressional Budget Office, the "public option" proposed in the House "tri-committee" bill might insure 10 million people and would leave 16 to 17 million people uninsured. The "public option" proposed by the Senate HELP committee, again according to the Congressional Budget Office, is unlikely to insure anyone and would hence leave 33 to 34 million uninsured. The CBO said its estimate of 10 million for the House bill was highly uncertain, which is not surprising given how vaguely the House legislation describes the "public option." [...]
Obviously the "public option" in the Senate HELP committee bill (zero enrollees; 34 million people left uninsured) and the "public option" in the House bill (10 million enrollees (maybe!); 17 million people left uninsured) are a far cry from the "public option" originally proposed by Professor Hacker (129 million enrollees; 2 million people left uninsured).
Go read Sullivan's diary to understand how the original public option is nothing like what's coming out of Congress, including the one drafted by the Senate HELP Committee.
"Leadership is more important at this juncture in my view than bipartisanship... in fact, bipartisanship almost reflects a lack of leadership; in trying to hide behind bipartisanship... we've allowed this to become the goal. At this juncture we need leadership in the country."
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