Reid to Bring a Health Care with PO

The link for the article referenced in the headline, from The Post, appears at the bottom of this page.

1. Reid declared today he will proceed proudly with a PO comprising a states right to opt-out proviso.

2. He's quite confident, he says, that he can hold together his 60 required to deliver reform to his floor.

3. Of course, this is the same "wizard head counter," as liberal leader Schumer called Reid on yesterday's MTP, who was wrong by a most unfortuitous 13 on last week's "doc fix."

4. Feingold, Bayh, Conrad, McCaskill, Lieberman, Wyden, Dorgan, Byrd, Tester, Kohl, Bill Nelson and both Virginians, Warner and Webb---a choice cross section of libs, mods and cons---resisted Reid's arithmetic on his cynical stand-alone sop to surgeons, $247B, sliced off Obamacare, unaccounted for, unpaid for, and charged instead against the general fund.

5. The White House today says it's pleased with the opt-out, settled upon after months of tortured twists and tergiversations, all publicly performed.

6. But just yesterday the administration was signaling the exact opposite, all to induce uber-important Senator Olympia Snowe.

7. The White House wanted Ms Snowe's trigger---"If you don't have Snowe on board you end up losing the votes of a handful of conservative democrats, so the White House is pushing an alternative proposal that would have the public plan triggered," reported Sunday's Huffington Post.

Feingold: No Public Option A "Strong Reason" Not To Support Reform

8. "The White House thinks Reid's whip count is too optimistic," reported the same source.

9. Rahm's right, Reid does NOT have 60, not even close.

10. Confronted with a choice between Snowe's trigger and Schumer's opt-out, Reid today decided in favor of the preeminently progressive approach which preordains the party's Sisyphean failure.

11. Snowe's trigger had a chance, Schumer's opt-out is hopeless.

12. Whip Durbin, briefed this afternoon about Reid's sudden direction, recounted to a room full of reporters: "Progressives forced our hand."

Durbin: Progressives Forced Our Hand On Public Option

13. "It's a zero-sum situation," said Durbin, who is in charge of counting votes in the Senate, "if we thought that just putting the trigger in meant that we'd end with 61 votes," he explained, then that's what leadership would have done.

14. "But there were some that felt that that just didn't go far enough moving toward a public option," whispered the whip.

15. "We have 60 people in the caucus," reasoned Reid, "we'll all hang together and see where we come out."

16. Does that sound confident to you?

17. Ms Snowe, meanwhile, called the leader's decision "deeply disappointing," she's indicated decisively that she will support nothing but her obstinate trigger.

18. Ms McCaskill, one of the nose-thumbing thirteen on the doc fix, asserted on yesterday's Stephy that the Maine maverick was key to the swing of crucial Senators without whom movement is impossible, moderates like Ben Nelson, Evan Bayh and jibing Joe Lieberman.

19. Nebraska's Ben Nelson on Sunday's CNN elucidated unequivocally he would never support an opt-out.

20. Indeed, the moderate made clear, he would not even commit to bust an opposition-backed filibuster.

21. "I have made no promise," said the centrist Sunday, "I can't decide about the procedural vote until I see the underlying bill."

Reid announces push for public option - Glenn Thrush - POLITICO.com

22. Last week, Evan Bayh of Indiana spoke similarly: requiring reps to interrupt Republican procrastination "is asking some of us to enable passage of legislation that we think would be harmful to the people of our states, I don't think that's a fair thing to ask."

Some Senators Wary of Obama's Health Care Appeals - ABC News

23. Blanche Lincoln: "I've ruled out a government-funded and government-operated plan."

24. Mary Landrieu: "I'm not for a government-run, national, taxpayer-subsidized plan, and never will be."

25. Reid says he will send his set piece to CBO this week for scoring.

26. But yet another controversy accosts his caucus.

27. Some Senators are suddenly insisting the more salient sweets of health care kick in sooner than their scheduled 2013 start date.

Democrats push for health benefits to start by 2010 - Carrie Budoff Brown - POLITICO.com

28. You'll recall that CBO buddied up to Baucus for $81B in net savings by accounting a full ten years of revenues against only five to seven years of disbursements.

29. Partisans are now perturbed that their voters will perceive the punishments contained in the plan long before appreciating any of the plusses.

30. Debbie Stabenow, sponsor of the failed doc fix: “We want to be able, within the cost framework and the implementation framework, to have as much start as early as possible, even though we know all of it can’t.”

31. Indeed.

32. The rub is---such rubrics will bust CBO projections by adding acutely to health care's costs.

33. Stabenow is not looking forward to heading into the 2010 off-year with voters vexed by a trainload of taxes offset by an empty wagon of wishes deferred.

34. “Anything that we can do to realize reforms that won’t take money upfront and at the same time create real relief for families, we are for,” said New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez, chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

35. Reid doesn't know what he's doing, he's careening over the same cliff he crashed under just last week.

36. Reports Politico: "In a hastily called Oval Office meeting Thursday, Reid presented his idea for a state “opt-out” to a skeptical Obama, who didn’t balk at the idea but questioned whether Reid could truly round up enough votes, according to two sources familiar with the Oval Office meeting."

Reid announces push for public option - Glenn Thrush - POLITICO.com

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) announced Monday that he will seek to bring a health-care bill to the Senate floor that includes a government insurance plan, a major reversal from just two weeks ago, when Reid was leaning against the idea.

He also called for the bill to include a version of the so-called public option with an clause that would allow states to decide by 2014 not to participate in the government plan.

"The best way to move forward is a public option with the opt-out provision for states," Reid told reporters, adding that he "clearly" believes that such a bill would have "the support of my caucus."

Other public-option approaches on the table include an "opt-in" provision for states that many Democratic moderates prefer; and a "trigger" that would create a government plan if private insurers do not offer policies at affordable prices.

The latter has been promoted by Sen. Olympia J. Snowe (Maine), the lone Republican to vote thus far for health-care reform in the Senate, and the White House has been anxious to enlist Republican support for the health package.

But Reid indicated Monday that he would not be swayed by her opinion.

"I spoke to Olympia on Friday. I've talked to her on a number of occasions. And at this stage she does not like a public option of any kind," he said. "And so we'll have to move forward on this."

Reid later returned to the question of Snowe's vote, and those of Republicans.

"I'm always looking for Republicans. ... It's just a little hard to find them, and we've had to do a lot of this on our own," he said.

A little later, he added, "You know, one of the things that's been so astounding to me is, when I came here to the Senate, we had a lot of moderate Republicans who worked with us on everything, and we worked with them. ... But this modern Senate Republican [caucus] -- who, in my opinion, don't represent the thought process of Republicans throughout the country -- haven't been willing to help us on anything. So we hope that Olympia will come back. "

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Capitol Briefing - Reid says he will bring a health-care bill with public option


The Prof

Wow. Good job. I had to lift two of your words to put in 'The Word of the Day' thread in The Tavern.


You're right about the bennies - some Dems want them pushed forward. As you mentioned, I don't know how they'll work out the costs on that, but I hope they do bring some bennies forward. 2013 is very far away.


I read that bringing the bill to the floor with the public option in it was a big deal. Something about procedure, that supporters would have needed 60 votes to put it into the bill via amendment, which they didn't think they could do. But now, opponents will have to muster 60 votes to take the public option out, which they definitely can't do.

thank you, my sincere friend from the opposite aisle

i'm guessing---tergiversation and sisyphus

LOL!

i differ, i'm confused---it will really take only 41 to kill this, to "take it out"

genuinely, i worry that this thing, with all its problems, may never make it to the floor

if it does, all the stuff discussed behind reid's locked door will come out

which will NOT help ms's lincoln and landrieu, mr's nelson, nelson, bayh, conrad, dorgan...

etc, etc, etc

there's more than a dozen of em

even vets like ms difi---she has stated unequivocally that she cannot support these massive mandates placed upon the states

just look at CA's financial situation

i'm a californian

i really expect ms feinstein to oppose this thing

it's got so many problems

it cuts medicare and medicaid half a tril

our parents are freaked

you can't piss off seniors in american politics and survive, they run this country

it puts fines and mandates on individuals, who must under these bills buy coverage for themselves

we're talking single mothers making 40G

in times like these

this bill just has too many gigantic problems

down in the house, the bluedogs are rebelling over abortion

that's very important to THEM, if not some of us

too many problems

i'm really suspecting, the party is gonna kill this thing cuz passage of it will kill the party

the only reason not to kill it is to provide political coverage for the president's skinny ass

and i don't think they hold him in that kind of esteem anymore

we'll watch and see

i'll keep reporting what i read, i pretty much go over every health care piece in any media and take pertinent notes

i hardly editorialize---there's almost nothing positive to report

that's the post, the times, the hill, roll call, the huffington...

almost nothing positive to say about obamacare

just problems, problems, problems

i can't get over what combat boot webbs said on yesterday's cnn---"the white house should have come down with a clean template of what they wanted"

it was one of those under the screen scrolls the networks do these days, i copied it word for word

the point---i think webb has his finger on it, i really think that's what went wrong

obama didn't write cap and trade, either

he didn't write the stimulus

he lets the cats who can't be herded write everything

combat boots is an interesting guy, he's a war hero who dyes all the gray out of his hair, a really BAD dye job

he was a superstar rising senator from VA

almost any new senator from VA is an immediate superstar, as is almost every new commonwealth governor

VA is like that, super bellwether

anyway, combat boots webb, who wears those clodhoppers with his business suit, is the young up-and-comer who, when bush asked him how his son was doing serving in iraq, webb got real mean with bush and answered, how dare you ask me about my son

just a tidbit, webb's a very interesting guy

he promised on yesterday's cnn NOT to filibuster

i can tell he's not gonna vote for this stuff, he's a grownup and he's really pissed that they wrote everything in reid's darkened office with no input

he kept saying stuff on cnn like---how can i answer you, i haven't even seen the piece yet

the nerve of these leaders, he was suggesting, putting us in this spot

i am strongly beginning to suspect that the bill will never make it to the floor

just like cap and trade

thanks for your feedback, your class and your kindness

cliff

The Prof said:

thank you, my sincere friend from the opposite aisle

i'm guessing---tergiversation and sisyphus

LOL!

i differ, i'm confused---it will really take only 41 to kill this, to "take it out"

genuinely, i worry that this thing, with all its problems, may never make it to the floor

if it does, all the stuff discussed behind reid's locked door will come out

which will NOT help ms's lincoln and landrieu, mr's nelson, nelson, bayh, conrad, dorgan...

etc, etc, etc

there's more than a dozen of em

...

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yup on the two words! LOL I had to look them both up.

About the 41, you touched on it in your original post. The Dems do not believe their caucus will vote to filibuster, denying their caucus a right to an up or down vote. I think many of the names you cited will not support the final bill, but they'll have a hard time not allowing an up or down vote on a major piece of legislation from their own caucus. I heard it said that that would be unprecedented.

IA w/ you on Sen Webb. He's very interesting. I like him.

:2wave:

The Prof said:

which will NOT help ms's lincoln and landrieu, mr's nelson, nelson, bayh, conrad, dorgan...

etc, etc, etc

there's more than a dozen of em

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Why won't it help, are you assuming these Representatives will be held to account?

ask virginia

she might try to give you something other than a straight answer, she's like that

but a week from today she goes in for her physical, and her numbers will be published, indisputably

We'll see how the blue dogs hold out when the uber-libs break out the thumb screws on heathcare. I personally think betting on a blue dog buckling under party line pressure will yield all Reid needs, but we'll see. There's just as good of a chance Reid will bungle it given his past record. And as far as the opt-out goes... that never works. The Fed simply tells the State "You opt out, we're cutting your federal funding next year" --- that'll get those pesky States in line.

Ockham said:

We'll see how the blue dogs hold out when the uber-libs break out the thumb screws on heathcare. I personally think betting on a blue dog buckling under party line pressure will yield all Reid needs, but we'll see. There's just as good of a chance Reid will bungle it given his past record. And as far as the opt-out goes... that never works. The Fed simply tells the State "You opt out, we're cutting your federal funding next year" --- that'll get those pesky States in line.

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Or the true desired scenario of liberals drooling over this, and lying about the numbers in polls with skewed questions, opt out is in but what will your state do after the insurance companies go under, or sell out to the Fed in order to keep their jobs leaving one choice, the Gubmint!


j-mac

Whoa, BIG problem for Reid re: Lieberman !

Lieberman Says He'll Help GOP Filibuster


Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) said "that he'd back a GOP filibuster of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's health care reform bill," Politico reports.

"His comments confirmed that Reid is short of the 60 votes needed to advance the bill out of the Senate, even after Reid included the opt-out provision. Several other moderate Democrats expressed skepticism at the proposal as well, but most of the wavering Democratic senators did not go as far as Lieberman Tuesday, saying they were waiting to see the details."

Said Lieberman: "I've told Sen. Reid that if the bill stays as it is now I will vote against cloture."

First Read: "Which Democrat handed him a gavel again?"

Lieberman Says He'll Help GOP Filibuster -- Political Wire

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The Prof said:

ask virginia

she might try to give you something other than a straight answer, she's like that

but a week from today she goes in for her physical, and her numbers will be published, indisputably

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I live in Va so I don't have to ask. But...will those that voted for "ms's lincoln and landrieu, mr's nelson, nelson, bayh, conrad, dorgan...".....be held to account?

Charles Martel said:

I live in Va so I don't have to ask. But...will those that voted for "ms's lincoln and landrieu, mr's nelson, nelson, bayh, conrad, dorgan...".....be held to account?

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Depending on NY's 23rd, 2010 may be a shocker to all concerned.


j-mac

This is such a feckless Democrat run congress; making the Public Option "optional" is such a cop-out.

Message to Democrats: Stop being major ******s and just make your feel-good farcical legislation a non-optional Government run program and make your uninformed voters happy.

Good lord, they don't have the spine to do ANYTHING right. :roll:

But then, we all know why they all act like such spineless whimps and are better at demagogueing their political opponents with false partisan rhetoric than action; they’re Libruls! :rofl

Charles Martel said:

I live in Va so I don't have to ask. But...will those that voted for "ms's lincoln and landrieu, mr's nelson, nelson, bayh, conrad, dorgan...".....be held to account?

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thanks

the voters in those states are hella pissed over M&M cuts (seniors), mandates on individuals (the young, tho they are not yet as aware, they will be), mandates on bankrupt states, fed funding of abortion (in bluedog bailiwicks), taxes on small biz in midst of depression, and a couple other biggies

especially the seniors, they alone are enough to do to the lincolns and landrieus, et al, what virginia is doing to the dems

CA is gonna change color, it's that extreme, just wait and see

cliff