Chuck Schumer says we'll have the public option in the end
(H/t Heather)
We know that Chuck isn't a progressive and more of a DLC type, but he made it pretty clear on Meet The Press that the public option will be in the final bill and that surprised me. He actually said it's essential to get the costs down. We'll see.
SEN. SCHUMER: If you don't like, you have an option of the public option, which will help bring costs down. And so it is indeed essential to getting the costs down, which is our number one problem.
MR. GREGORY: You're not backing away from it, but there is concern within the Democratic Party that President Obama is backing away. Here was the headline in the New York Post this week that spoke for a lot of liberals, actually, both publicly and privately: "Sellout! Liberals howl as Bam `caves' on the health plan." This is what the reference was to, the president's weekly radio address back in July during which he said this.(
Videotape, July 18, 2009)PRES. OBAMA: That's why any plan I sign must include an insurance exchange, a one-stop shopping marketplace where you can compare the benefits, costs and track records of a variety of plans--including a public option to increase competition and keep insurance companies honest--and choose what's best for your family.(End videotape)
MR. GREGORY: That was July. But just a week ago the president said this.
Videotape, August 15, 2009)
PRES. OBAMA: All I'm saying is, though, that the public option, whether we have it or we don't have it, is not the entirety of healthcare reform. This is just one sliver of it, one aspect of it.(End videotape)
MR. GREGORY: You say it's essential, Senator Schumer; the president saying now it's just a sliver. He's backed away, hasn't he?
SEN. SCHUMER: I don't think he's backed away at all. I've talked to the president personally about this in the last few weeks. He believes strongly in the public option. Obviously he is working hard to get a bipartisan bill, because that would be a better bill. But I believe that at the end of the day we will have a public option. And frankly, I believe we could get a public option that could be passed with the 60 Democratic votes we had. A level playing field public option, where the public option competes on a level playing field with the insurance companies, was backed in the House by both Blue Dog Democrats and more liberal Democrats. And I think that's the direction we're going to end up in.
I know there's a lot of horse trading going on between the White House, Congress, Rahm and every other pol that can get their two cents in during the August recess, but I was surprised to hear Schumer be as supportive on the public option as he was with Gregory. Now, I'm not saying that his words are gospel, but it still was interesting that he didn't back off the public option.
UPDATE: Schumer also threatened the GOP with reconciliation on MTP and then said it again on The Scar.
Sen. Chuck Schumer said bipartisanship is still the goal, but preparations are underway in the Senate to pass ...
... a health care bill without any Republican support.
"We're going to [make] every effort to get a bipartisan bill, but if not we're making preparations for how to get this done without it," Schumer said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe."
Schumer also predicted that a final bill will include some type of a "a level playing field" public option.
There has to be a "public option" for the simple reason that without one this will be just another tax dollar giveaway to multinational corporations. There has to be a way for the public to participate in no-profit health insurance or this whole "reform" is just a gigantic charade.
the Mass Plan (which people who live in Massachusetts consider to be an utter failure), then there are going to be many millions of very unhappy Americans.
Two links for your perusal:
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_o...
www.masshealthlawtruth.org
"The US has an army of 90,000 soldiers in Afghanistan and is spending $100bn a year, but has still been unable to defeat 20,000-25,000 Taliban who receive no pay at all." - Patrick Cockburn
there'll be something in there that somebody will not puke from embarrassment to call a 'public option.'
One thing's for certain: the Health Insurance Parasites will not lose any money...
Chuck Schumer - another Democratic Party parasite and double talker.
Chuck then my message is this --- Get off your fat ass and make it happen already. I am tired of all the idle talk Chuck!
A bit off topic but how about all this torture stuff that's brewing in the media, C&L might cover that?
Call me when NPR calls it "torture"...
for the past 6 years...when the bushies started lying about it
"america does not torture"
bush, rummy, cheney and the rest of the criminal cabal need to go straight to fucking prison and then to a quick firing squad
thats right...i said it
i am for the death penalty when it comes to placing our fighting men and women in harms way to to our immoral and illegal actions
on Morning Joe today
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22425001/vp/32537...
I'd like to see them go the reconciliation route if only
to impress upon the Confederate Party that they did, indeed, lose the last election.
But - NOoooOO!
.
that's where we always get it. lets insure 40 million uninsured with a lesser service that does not compete. basic diagnostic service any way.
WHY is David Gregory such a right-wing hack?? Is it his wife's contacts or does he still get a distribution of NeoNut KoolAide everyday like before?? He clearly is a biased 'middle man' in his use of his MTP platform and it's getting real old...
IF health care reform goes down, it is clearly folks like Gregory that made it happen....
its all them fancy foods that they eat
and old david loves the taste of repuke cock buried deep down his throat
Sen. Schumer's public option idea does not agree with mine. I wanted single-payer. His idea is a public option that contains only a level playing field with the insurance companies....level playing field??? In other words the public option cannot have lower payments than the insurance companies or offer better benefits??? What good is that??
Let's make the insurance companies and PHaRMA even richer by mandating coverage and only give the people the option of even higher payments!
"Public Option" is a perfect oxymoron. It simply means that citizens will be mandated to buy private insurance.
Healthcare insurers get upper hand
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/washi...
i want them to burn all the legislation and add one line to medicare
that it is now expanded to all ages
thats it
single payer
and then...write a seperate bill outlawing all for profit health insurance companies...make it a mother fucking felony to earn profit for doing absofuckinglutely nothing...and send all the fucking blood sucking health insurance ceos straight to gitmo
the above is why you all should make me king of america...for this would be my only decree...and then i would abdicate my thrown..and marry some divorcee
you're accussing the "left of the Democratic Party" of ruining healthcare reform by not caving into the lame ass fake public option. Do you by chance have a split personality???
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYqF_BtIwAU
FUCK THE POOR!
I'm just superstitious enough to hedge my bets.
of bullshit promises. chuck is DSCC, the senate money machine. he does not fool me. he's probably somewhere watching re-runs of his appearance in fromt of the camera. he will deliver nothing but he has delivered the expected empty promise.
chfuck you, chuck!!!!Some stuff you can't make up!
What a crock! A bipartisan bill would be a pro-corporate giveaway.
What Schumer should have said (and probably didn't mean) was:
A Democratic bill with bipartisan support would be a better bill.
Note: "A Democratic bill" is not related in any way to anything that comes out of the Senate Finance Committee. Baucus is a nominal Democrat writing a non-Democratic bill.
Lays out the God awful health care agenda in the current "Rolling Stone". When it goes on-line it will raise quite a ruckus. When you read Tiabbi exposing these jerks who are again playing the coporatist game, it will make you furious. They are putting all kinds of gimmicks in the bill to keep the money funneled to pharma and insurance. One example - if you have access to a crappy health care policy like what you find at Wall Mart, you will be restricted from being able to opt for the public option.
Go out and buy it, or wait till it comes out next week online. But read it. Might end up with progressives and teabaggers both shouting down their "progressive" reps.
Mart
"we'll have the public option in the end"
That sounds like they're going to ram something up our collective asses.
Sounds like...?
but don't act all surprised if Schumers idea of a "public option" is forcing the public to chose between the option of greedy care denying insurance company A, greedy care denying insurance company B OR greedy care denying insurance company C. Because that seems to be the plan gaining the most traction in Congress right now.
Schumer has referred to "defining" what the public option is. He and the blue dogs don't want a medicare-like plan and they have said so. They will probably land somewhere around co-ops or state-run plans, which will not do the job, but they'll call it a "public" option. And the "level playing field" means whatever the "public" option is, it shouldn't be too competitive. It needs to fall onto the plane of the existing playing field. It's all double talk.
I agree.
we're fucked.
What is your conceptual, continuity?
The truth about Canadian Health Care:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXXBCFnhsUc
Perhaps you could post this on the right wing sites. But beware. They will abuse you.
What is your conceptual, continuity?
This needs to be seen by every American. Thanks, LarryHubich!
"A level playing field public option"
Called it that twice. And then a third time on Morning Joe. He needs to explain what he meant by that. I smell "code speak" and the "but I didn't say that" out later.
... a public option so watered down it will be worthless for all intents and purposes... but alas they can brag to the constituents "we got the public option"!
Yep... we truly are FUCKED!
Well I already feel like I took something up the end.
Diarrhea Inversus.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
feature in Rolling Stone on the health care debacle lays it out perfectly. I strongly suggest everybody reading it. He gets into the bullshit Massachusetts Romney plan and the problems the state is having because of it.
The USA/Rethuglicans and greedy Democraps are going to have to get over the idea that everything in this country has to have a price tag on it. Some things should simply be provided as a matter of human rights. A whole shift in values has to happen. It appears that the Great Depression II, courtesy of Bush and Wall Street aren't teaching these crap bags anything.
But that isn't surprising.
"By words the mind is winged." - Aristophanes
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