Dodd says he's "still confident" about having a financial reform bill passed including new consumer protection measures. However, see this criticism from Ariana Huffington on the compromises made in the bill to appease Republicans. When asked about health care and specifically on reconciliation, which to my knowledge Dodd has not publicly supported, he said he would prefer not to go that route but also said "we have to get this done".
Sharing an email received last night from a friend in Arizona about Massachusetts, Healthcare, and a special High One to Joe Lieberman
Sent: Tuesday, January 19, 2010 10:53 PM
To: Tessa Marquis
Subject: I'm with Stupid
Hi there....Everything's fine healthwise...We haven't lost the house or anything, but I was pacing around the house, ranting ... and thought of you...hee hee.....What the hell were they thinking in MA !!?...Losing that seat was the most irresponsible damn thing I've seen in a long time ... An awful candidate who appeared not to care what happened or that it was a gift bestowed on her or I don't know what...We've been huge Obama supporters and after all these cynical years have definitely given the benefit of a doubt to the congressional Dems, but where were they?...How did the national committees miss this until it was too late?...shit!... I, of course, am one of the millions of uninsurable Americans with a big ol' pre-existing condition ... In our particular case we had insurance for years but in '97, when I was diagnosed with Hep C, one fuck-up at a hospital put through a bill for $380 on the insurance...In the state we were in, they couldn't just drop me, but they could and did double and re-double the rate... We actually paid $1400 per month for just me for some years...Then they raised it to $2400 per month and that was that...In all that time the only bill the insurers paid was that $380...The nature of the disease was that I went for more than 10 years with no real problems other than the occasional blood test...Of course if I now had all the money I paid in premiums.....well.....And as I'm sure you're well aware, there are millions like me and worse....Sooo it really pisses me off when "my guys" pull a bone-headed screw-up like tonight...Thanks for listening...Hope you and yours are happy and well...By the way.....If you should happen to see Joe Leiberman on the street up there---please do something horrible to him----and tell him I sent you........lovetom
As I was looking for something else this morning, I found the following Word file which includes:
> A message sent to the DCCC and DSCC explaining why I support individual candidates, but won't contribute to their "umbrella" fund-raising efforts, AND
> A June '06 letter to Senator Schumer -- written by Robin Winick and me, and read by 31 Connecticut voters who endorsed its contents. It's small consolation that we were so on target. Given Lieberman's continuing outrages, and Ned's possible run for Governor, I thought it would be interesting to see what fell on deaf ears at the time.
The letter also is relevant to this week's close House vote on health care. While Republicans vote in lock step, Blue Dog Democrats continue to thumb their noses at meaningful reform. Why on earth should we support those who ignore their own constitutencies?
And aren't those of us who blog on and read My Left Nutmeg getting tired of the endless copy written about Joe? I apologize in advance for contributing to his obvious hunger for public attention -- however negative. . . .
Congressman Himes gave the following statement yesterday announcing his intention to vote in favor of the Affordable Health Care for America Act and urged his colleagues to support the legislation as well.
Full disclosure: I am Congressman Himes' Communications Director
Revised health care legislation was introduced in Congress Thursday. The legislation is still changing some, but we should have a good idea of what the final bill will look like soon.
Over the coming week, Congressman Himes will be sending out updates via email as more information about the improved legislation becomes available. Click here to sign up for the Congressman's email list. If you receive the Congressman's campaign email newsletters (The Himes Times), you need to register separately for this list that operates out of his official office. Sorry about the multiple lists; laws require we keep campaign and official communication separate.
Also, please let me apologize for not noting my affiliation with the Congressman's office in my last post--total oversight. FYI: I am Congressman Jim Himes' Communications Director.
In stating his opposition to a public health insurance option, Lieberman sounded familiar notes from reform's opponents, calling it a "government entitlement program" that will cost the government more money. Neither assertion is true. The public health insurance plan would be paid into, not subsidized, and as the Congressional Budget Office has repeatedly stated, the plan would reduce both premiums and government costs.
I present to you, The Doctor's Option (transcript for the video-impaired below the fold):
This is our video for Organizing for America and the Democratic National Committee's Health Reform Video Challenge. Written/Produced/Directed by Will Urquhart and Mitch Malasky. Starring Yvette Lewis and Dr. Joann Urquhart, MD. A special thanks to David Hart for helping to make this video happen.
If you enjoy this, please go to the video, rate it/comment on it/favorite it and share, share, share. The more attention it gets, the more likely OFA/DNC will pick it for the 20 finalists.
Yes, Ned Lamont may be the most important name in 2009 politics. Right now, it may be a more important name than Barack Obama. Let me explain.
The fight for health care reform comes closer than it has ever been before, and the Republican party continues to demonstrate that no compromise, not even tort reform, will draw a single Republican vote. At this point, the last thing standing between us and a strong health care bill is conservative or moderate Democrats. The progressive blogosphere has drawn a line in the sand. And I am reminded of 2006, and the Lieberman vs Lamont primary. I am reminded that when progressives draw a line in the sand on the most important issues to voters, they will follow through on holding politicians accountable.
I watched President Obama's stirring address to a joint session of Congress on the urgent need to deliver on the American people's long-standing demand for real health care reform. The full video is here. At the beginning I was excited, hopeful and impressed. At the end I was moved to tears, knowing just how long and hard the battle has been for the moral and economic necessity of health care reform -- and how close we may be now.
But in between, as the President forcefully knocked down the most bogus claims of right-wing reform opponents, hearing a group of Congressional Republicans booing and heckling the President, followed by Republican Congressman Joe Wilson shouting "You lie" -- video of that segment is here -- it was all too clear that for a certain segment of Republicans, the extremes of their ideology have led them to emulate the sociopaths who tried to disrupt Democratic town hall health care forums this summer.
While making the rounds of Town Hall meetings throughout Fairfield County, Congressman Jim Himes expressed strong support not only for health care reform, but also for the public option. His general support of the public option is encouraging and important to getting the bill passed.
What's confusing, however, is that Himes tends to withhold full support for HR 3200 because he says it doesn't do a good job of cutting costs.
"The bill is lazy and long-term untenable in respect to cutting costs," he said. "We have not taken up the hard and terribly necessary work of figuring out a way to create a system that incentivizes citizens to be healthier and incentivizes the whole process to keep us healthy. Right now, everyone is paid to fix us when we're broken. Nobody is paid anything to teach us how to be healthy."
Actually, HR 3200 includes a number of measures aimed specifically at what he's talking about. In the Kaiser Foundation's summary of the bill, it lists several "cost containment" measures as well as prevention/"quality" measures. Here are a few:
Modify provider payments under Medicare including:
- Modify market basket updates to account for productivity improvements for inpatient hospital, home health, skilled nursing facility, and other Medicare providers; and
- Reduce payments for potentially preventable hospital readmissions. [...]
Develop a national strategy to improve the nation's health through evidenced-based clinical and community-based prevention and wellness activities. Create task forces on Clinical Preventive Services and Community Preventive Services to develop, update, and disseminate evidenced-based recommendations on the use of clinical and community prevention services.
Improve prevention by covering only proven preventive services in Medicare and Medicaid. Eliminate any cost-sharing for preventive services in Medicare and increase Medicare payments for certain preventive services to 100% of actual charges or fee schedule rates.
There are several more such items listed, but these never seem to come up in any of Congressman Himes' discussions. It's commendable that Himes would like to see more cost-cutting and prevention measures in the bill. But I wish he would share some of his cost-cutting ideas with us rather than give the impression that bill contains no cost-cutting or prevention measures at all.
Following is a comment I posted at Connecticut Local Politics, which, as usual, is being "held for moderation". Of course, the original posting that quoted a highly distorted and dishonest report by Teri Puhl was published right away. I think it's important to get the truth out, so here it is:
This report is a pack of lies. First, Teri Buhl did not attend Lawrenceville Prep with Jim Himes, because Jim Himes never went to Lawrenceville Prep. He attended and graduated from a public school, Hopewell Valley Central High School in New Jersey. Second, the strong majority of the audience was in favor of health reform and the public option. I was there, sitting half way up on the middle isle on the right side. No one who attended that meeting could suggest that the anti-reform people were in the majority. It was a clear lie. And the audience inside was closer to three hundred people counting all those standing in the back. It was also not true that anyone packed the venue. Lots of people showed up early enough to get in. The person at the front of the line to get in was against reform. That woman, who had a nametag with "Ann" on it, started out by defacing an entire sheet of stickers that said "I support the public option". Real class act! And according to Greenwich Post reporter Ken Borsuk whom I spoke with as we were leaving the meeting hall at the end, the crowd outside numbered about a hundred and were evenly split between supporters of reform and those against. So most of the people who wanted to get in did get in.
Furthermore, I went outside afterwards to the front of Town Hall where Congressman Jim Himes came out to address the crowd. There were not eight police officers out there. I could see the gathering clearly, as I stood to the left of the main entrance about ten feet away from the steps. There were about fifty people remaining, most of whom were against reform. There were three police officers: two who were stationed at the front door of Town Hall, and had been stationed there since before the meeting began, and one additional officer who stood at the back of the crowd. The suggestion that Jim Himes was somehow protected by a phalanx of cops is a lie, although that sort of dishonest reporting is the hallmark of Greenwich Time's Neil Vigdor, who reported that. There certainly was a need for police officers, however, because the people in the crowd were ugly and bent on trying to harass and intimidate anyone who disagreed with them. When Congressman Himes came out to talk with them, they yelled insults, shouted him down, and generally acted like the low-life thugs they were. They frequently refused to permit him to answer their questions, and shouted him down when he tried to. It was a thoroughly disgraceful display by people whose behavior treaded the line that could have had the cops putting them in handcuffs.
The Wilton, CT Democratic Town Committee tonight unanimously approved a strong Resolution for health care reform with a public insurance option, and urged representatives in Congress to stand with them at every stage of the legislative process.
The Resolution comes on the heels of a contentious public event Sunday, August 30 outside Wilton Town Hall where Congressman Jim Himes -- faced with a group using fear, prejudice and ignorance -- spoke with courage, conviction and intelligence about the need for a public insurance option as part of real health care reform in America.
I attended the just-completed health care town hall meeting at Greenwich Town Hall attended by roughly 300 people. To summarize Congressman Himes did a very admirable job of explaining the problems with our health care system, explaining what health care reform is necessary, what Congress is debating, and what he intends to vote for. I'd estimate that about 40% of the people in the meeting room tonight were anti-health care reform. They started out interrupting, throwing out catcalls, and being rather disruptive. But Congressman Himes answered questions thoroughly, he used data, he explained his positions clearly, and by eight o'clock at the end of the hour and a half session, all participants were much more subdued, and it appeared that many of the anti folks in the audience had their fears calmed. Of course, you never know with these tin hat types, but the mood in the room certainly became more calmed as the meeting went on and I will have to credit Jim Himes for soothing the fears of many in attendance.
Himes made the following points:
In his introduction he pointed out that the average American family now pays nearly $15,000 either directly or indirectly for health care coverage, and in ten years it is estimated to rise to #30,000.
He stated that we cannot reform Medicare or get our fiscal balance under control without reforming our nation's health care system.
He stated that reforming our health care system and giving every child the opportunity to see a doctor is a matter of morality.
Disturbingly, however, Congressman Himes repeatedly referred to Medicare having $30 tn in unfunded liabilities in terms of the present value of promised care over the next 75 years. He also stated repeatedly that reforming Medicare will be difficult, involve difficult choices, and demand that services to Medicare beneficiaries be reduced in the future.
While progressives are working hard to fight for health care reform, Connecticut GOP members are doing their part to protect the outrageous profits of America's insurance companies.
In this case, it's through an online petition, which I found on the Ridgefield RTC's website (sourced from the OurCTGOP.org website -- and I'm not sure how long it's been circulating). The petition is pretty clever, actually. These GOPers paint a negative picture of reform, try to make their views sound bipartisan and sensible, and get locals to sign it. Here's a sampling ...
Our government has recently taken remarkable steps into the uncharted water of private industry with the take over of GM and Chrysler; are we certain that we want to also get into the health insurance business? There is certainly debate going on about what impact this will or will not have on the existing insurance companies. Will the government crowd out the private insurers with which many of us are happy?
The problem is anyone with half a brain knows that our government is already IN the health insurance business. We insure seniors, kids, veterans and the poor -- and we do it more economically than private companies.
What's more, 77% of Americans WANT a public option. The petition has other misleading claims (point them out in the Comments section and earn yourself a gold star*).
Essentially, the petitioners underlying message is health care reform is really scary, and ...
... please do not vote in favor of the House bill as it stands now; rather allow more discussion and a full analysis of the issues and solutions that are required.
Among the petition signers are Republican State Senators Toni Boucher and Dan Debicella (who recently announced plans to run against Himes in 2010). It's odd, too, that they're not petitioning any of CT's other Democratic Congressmen.
I hope Jim Himes realizes that, no matter what he does in Congress, he'll never win the votes of this crowd.
(Update ctblogger): Why on earth would Jim Himes agree to participate on this panel?
This email from the chairman of the Ridgefield RTC was circulated to his flock.
From: "RRTC Chairman"
Date: Tue, 25 Aug 2009 17:37:49 -0400
Subject: HIMES IS NOW COMING TO OUR EVENT
RTC,
KUDOS TO ALEX!!!
Congressman Himes has committed to come to the event.
President of the Fairfield County Medical Association, Dr. Claudia Gruss
State Senator Toni Boucher (representing Ridgefield and the 26th District)
State Senator Dan Debicella - Ranking Republican on CTY Public Health Committee-(representing Shelton and the 21st District)
Given this nonsense (and the fact that the looney Ridgefield teabaggers would certainly be in attendance) why on earth would Congressman Himes agree to participate in this sham of a forum?
Perhaps someone in the Obama administration or Congressional leadership thought this weekend's noises from the White House backing away from the public option in favor of "co-ops" would encourage Republicans (like Chuck Grassley, who thinks government is a "predator") to finally jump on board the bipartisan health care fun-train. Needless to say, it's not happening.
Yesterday, under the premature assumption that the public option had been declared dead, the Republican National Committee set their sights on the next "compromise" goalpost by sending a release around to reporters claiming that, to them, co-ops were really just evil "government health care" by another name:
The RNC forwarded a press release/research memo to reporters today claiming that a "'public option' by any other name is still government health care." But does it smell as sweet? Probably not to supporters of a true public option, and it was perhaps out of a desire to alleviate those concerns (and pose a future co-op passage as a White House victory) that Reid deemed co-ops as "some type of public option" in early July--a quote the RNC references prominently.
Chris Healy apparently also got the memo (if not that official RNC spellcheck software he's still waiting on). He too may have looked a bit too far down the field in a blog post yesterday:
And what about this co-op idea? It's just another name for the same bad deal. Co-op sounds benign. You buy vegatble [sic] and books at co-ops. You can live in a co-op in Manhatten [sic] and still be rich. But a co-op under the Obama means a large subsidy for a very large non-profit that will always be fed.
Co-ops, of course, are the latest in a series of unilateral Democratic "compromises" that have yet to - and will not - attract a single Republican. The public option was originally such a compromise position itself. Democratic members of Congress can now simply not escape the already-obvious fate of any such compromise: it will win no Republican votes, it will make any "reform" less effective and more expensive, and, crucially, it will result in Democrats in general and progressives in particular being blamed at the voting booth for the ensuing policy failure - and Republicans being rewarded for it.
GO TO THESE TOWN HALL MEETINGS AND CALL THEM OUT, using the same type of language, including the "insurance companies don't think very highly of our intelligence"; they are not prepared to be called out, and it throws them off their game. There was no doubt leaving that meeting that the public option side in the room had won the debate, and that the wingers actually only represented 25-30% of the room - but the perception could have easily gone the other way had the meeting continued the way it started, with the minority sounding so loud it seemed to be a majority.
I also have to mention that if I at all managed to disarm the RW at that meeting, I was at best the third most effective speaker in the audience: it was a tough guy steel worker union man with the populist sharpness and effectiveness of a Jesse Ventura or a James Cornette, and especially a pro-life military family Sunday school teacher with a child she couldn't insure because of pre-existing condition whose incredible comments in favor of a public option were a home run, and made it very clear which side of the debate won that meeting. If I had to guess, I would strongly suspect that the wingnuts left that meeting fairly dejected, and that Congressman Courtney was generally quite happy with the way the meeting turned out (all the stress and drama not withstanding).
As well as a link to a downloadable flyer made by ShadowSD with some excellent points called Why A Public Option Makes Sense, aka "The Ten Health Care Talking Points EVERY DEM MUST REPEAT".
Central to the Blue Dog/insurance industry/Republican-led efforts to kill health care reform has been their strategy to delay until the fall the House and Senate floor votes President Obama originally wanted before August. By playing for "more time", and by assuming the on-the-ground reality we are seeing now - the rabid response of the right wing against any health care reform in August town hall meetings - the Blue Dogs fully expected the terms of the national and local debate to shift against health care reform the longer the process was drawn out.
Delay was so central to their strategy that when, as part of the Waxman-Blue Dog "compromise" in the Energy and Commerce Committee, a floor vote in the House was delayed until September, Blue Dogs proudly declared "victory":
Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D-S.D.) said she believes the Blue Dogs have scored a major victory by getting leaders to back away from their goal of having the House vote on a healthcare bill before members return home for the month of August.
"We've achieved the victory of not having a vote on the House floor that will give every member a chance to digest what's in the bill, whether it's in a markup that occurs in Energy and Commerce or whether it's as the bill exists right now," she said. "It is because of the Blue Dog Coalition that there is no floor vote before the August break."
The Blue Dog "victory" was to kick the can down the road, wait for Obama's approval ratings to fall back to earth, and allow the teabaggers, the insurance industry, and the Blue Dogs' right-wing allies in the Republican party to attempt to shut down democratic debate and beat the crap out of progressive members of Congress for an entire month.
Speaking to the editorial board of Greenwich Time and The Advocate, the first-term congressman said there have been several major instances where he has broken with his party's leadership since taking office in January.
Chief among them, Himes said, was his siding with Republicans and conservative Democrats in the House who want more time to digest a sweeping health care reform bill before it comes up for a vote.
"If something as important as health care reform can't stand five weeks of scrutiny and debate, then we probably should go back to the drawing board," said Himes, who defeated 21-year incumbent Chris Shays in November.
We have had 15 years since Joe Lieberman helped kill the last failed attempt at health care reform to digest the issues at hand.
And while self-described "centrist" Democratic representatives - including those who could not have been elected without the hard work of progressive activists - are busy happily applauding every day that goes by that more and more of their constituents lose coverage, go bankrupt, and die due to lack of health care reform, the national debate on this issue is meanwhile rapidly being digested and excreted on their heads by an organized right-wing effort of which they are at best an unwitting ally, at worst an active participant.
I only hope every Democratic Representative who shares these sentiments will truly enjoy the enlightening "scrutiny and debate" that crazed right-wing mobs are bringing to their town halls this month, thanks entirely to their painfully disappointing refusal to stand up and lead on this issue.
(Op-ed edited to meet Fair Use requirements. Use link provided to read the entire piece. - promoted by Jon Kantrowitz)
Jim Himes has gone on record with his views regarding health care reform. Here is his oped that was carried in Greenwich Time today:
Health plan good start but must control costs more
By Jim Himes
...Health care reform must have two primary goals: provide Americans with stable access to high-quality care, and substantially reduce the costs in the system. Fail in the first goal, and we will continue to live with the moral and economic costs of a broken system. Fail in the second, and we will simply accelerate the unsustainable trajectory of this system.
The reform proposal being discussed in the U.S. House of Representatives does well on the first goal. It would cover almost all Americans, and provide subsidies to those households unable to afford it...
The public option has been the subject of much debate. Properly structured to assure a level playing field, a public option will provide much needed competition for the insurance companies and help bring down costs nationally..
Unfortunately, the proposal before the House is weak on the second key goal: cost reduction...
We must revisit our current fee-for-service, volume-based model, in which every provider at every step has powerful incentives to order test after test, procedure after procedure, with little regard for what is actually effective.
Instead we should reward hospitals and doctors who deliver higher quality health care. Doctors and patients need access to the best information and evidence on effectiveness. True health care reform must encourage proven best practices...
The Democratic Party represents the people... The Democratic Party puts human rights and human welfare first... These Republican gluttons of privilege are cold men. They are cunning men... They want a return of the Wall Street economic dictatorship.
Something happens to Republican leaders when they get control of the government... Republicans in Washington have a habit of becoming curiously deaf to the voice of the people. They have a hard time hearing what the ordinary people of the country are saying. But they have no trouble at all hearing what Wall Street is saying. They are able to catch the slightest whisper from big business and the special interests.
Republican candidates are apparently trying to sing the American voters to sleep with a lullaby about unity... They want to kind of unity that benefits the National Association of Manufacturers... the real estate trusts... [the] selfish interests... They don't want unity. They want surrender. And I am here to tell you people that I will not surrender.
Some things are worth fighting for... We must fight isolationists and reactionaries, the profiteers and the privileged class... Our primary concern is for the little fellow. We think the big boys have always done very well, taking care of themselves... It is the business of government to see that the little fellow gets a square deal.
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