Tuesday, March 2, 2010 at 21:00 Again, from Howard Dean’s website, Stand With Dr. Dean, let those Congressperson’s who have had the guts to declare their support for the public option - via a yea/nay vote with or without a budget reconciliation vote - know you love them. For they are the one’s with a freaking clue.
Here’s the rollcall of those with a clue (keep scrolling for the clueless):
Tuesday, March 2, 2010 at 20:53 Let your Senator know that he/she has done the right thing by supporting a yea/nay vote - via budget reconciliation or otherwise - on a public option for health care reform:
From Howard Dean’s website, Stand With Dr. Dean, here’s a rundown on those Senators who have publically declared their support for the public option ( those against it come later, so scroll down) so let them know you love them :
Sunday, February 21, 2010 at 16:47 It’s Sunday night as I write this and it’s been a busy weekend. Saturday, along with all the usual errands and household chores that don’t get done during the week, I did make it to a fundraiser for Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid of Nevada. The Senator was there with his wife.
The Senator spoke for a while and answered questions from the audience. For the most part it was the standard stuff you’d expect to hear, but I was pleasantly surprised that he seems to really believe that passing some sort of healthcare reform bill is a possibility. In fact, he stood right there and spoke in support of the Public Option and a reconciliation vote - if that is what the party wants. There’s the kicker, the qualifier.
This is why it’s so damn important for you to contact all the people in Congress that you can, and tell them to insist on a reconciliation vote, and that they must insist on a Public Option as well.
This is simply too important to let it fall through the cracks now, especially since there is renewed momentum to get it done.
If you missed it, take a look at my Friday Fish Wrap post, wherein you’ll find listed the links to all the important congressional contacts.
Call or email them this week. Let’s get this done.
Let’s give Senator Reid the ammo he needs to carry it home.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010 at 20:09 I admit that I didn’t used to care much for Nancy Pelosi. I’ve come a long way and it’s statements like this - on bandaid fixs for health care - that did it for me:
“There are some things that sound easy, but you might as well send somebody a get well card, because they don’t have any more impact, except maybe they make you feel good for the moment,” said Pelosi, who paused and rethought her comparison.
“Maybe a get well card might be more effective, as a matter of fact, because it’s sincere,” she said.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009 at 11:58 This just in from Firedog Lake:
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is bending over backwards to give Joe Lieberman what he wants on the health care bill.
Public option - GONE. Medicare expansion - GONE. Joe says he’s looking around for other things he might want to take out of the health care bill, because “Democrats haven’t given up enough yet.”
But if there’s one thing Reid fears more than Lieberman, it’s losing his own seat.
He’s up for reelection next year, and with a 38% approval rating, the Senate Majority Leader is trailing “generic Republican opponent” by ten points.
We need to immediately raise at least $120,000 to run a TV ad in Reid’s home state of Nevada to save health care reform from Joe Lieberman and the insurance industry. Click here to donate now.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009 at 22:19 That’s what Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid said and he’s spot on regarding the repeated attempts by Ben Nelson to insert highly restrictive abortion language into what appears to be an emerging health care reform bill that just might - might - make sense after all.
Reid’s right. This isn’t an abortion bill, and it would be criminal to derail health care reform over this issue.
Meanwhile, and I hope I’m not speaking too soon, it seems like the Senate is trudging ahead - nipping and tucking - toward a real bill.
Thursday, November 19, 2009 at 20:01 “I’m still not giving up. I want every Senator who’s not in the pocket of the private insurers or Big Pharma to introduce and vote for a “Ted Kennedy Medicare for All” amendment to whatever bill Reid takes to the floor. And if this fails, a “Ted Kennedy Real Public Option for All” amendment. Let every Senate Democratic who doesn’t have the guts to vote for either of them be known and counted.”
Robert Reich
Gosh, he is spot on once again. Reich expresses exactly why I half-heartedly battle on for this tired, compromised, bastardized excuse for a health insurance reform effort. Had this been back in the olden times, and a real life baby, the midwife would have taken pity on the sleeping Mother, done the only right thing and taken the malformed and hopeless child out to the river in the dark of night.
In a futile effort to be all nice, warm and fuzzy … oh, and bipartisan, Dems have given away the store, their daughters and signed the country and citizens over in a bizarre insurance reverse mortgage called a ‘public option’.
Thursday, November 5, 2009 at 10:40 I know, I know …. another petition to sign. But if we all sign enough of them it’s going to add up to a powerful voice that represents the will of the American people.
So, please sign all of them.
This is from AARP:
It’s been months – even years – in the making. But this week the House of Representatives will vote on a final health reform bill that includes crucial provisions that will improve the health and lives of our members.
That’s why we’ve chosen to support the legislation about to be voted on by the House – the Affordable Health Care for America Act.
[Maven], we’ve come this far because you’ve taken action. Now, as we’re facing one of the most critical moments in the fight for reform, your member of Congress must hear from you before the vote!
Thursday, November 5, 2009 at 10:36 Here’s the email and the links:
Dear [Maven],
What an important time for America.
Amidst the daunting challenges facing our economy, we’re closer than ever to delivering real health insurance reform. It seems the American tradition of making our greatest leaps forward during our times of greatest trial is alive and well.
On Tuesday night I spoke on the Senate floor about health insurance reform. One of the things I talked about was a Harvard study that said almost 45,000 people die in our country every single year because they don’t have health insurance. That statistic is not just tragic, it’s a national travesty. And it’s devastating for our economy at a time when we can least afford it.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009 at 17:05 That’s the door to the Republican side of the aisle. And, in an ideal world, I would include the Blue Dog/Conservacrats like Ben Nelson and Blanche Lincoln.
I’m told that one of the reasons the Republican party was ( emphasis on ‘was’) so successful was that they allowed NO DISSENT among the ranks. You were either a loyalist or you were out in the cold.
These are not usual times that we live in. This is serious and it requires the loyalty of all who call themselves Democrats…. or in Joe’s case … well, whatever he is. He so needs to be stripped of his chairmanship. He can caucus with the devil. Send him naked into the fray.
Now, there’s a picture guaranteed to keep me awake tonight.
But really, Senator Reid, this needs to be a ‘teachable moment’ for guys like Joe Lieberman.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009 at 19:03 Okay, now it’s ‘put up or shut up’ time. Get off your ass if you want the public option to be a viable part of the health insurance reform bill as it leaves the Senate.
Give Senate Majority Leader Reid the ammunition that he needs to make it so! Reid needs the support of each and every one of you that believe the public option to be the only way to level the playing field for American’s when it comes to health insurance.
He needs your voices, and signatures, to throw in the faces of the naysayers. Do it now!
Read below and TAKE ACTION!:
Sunday, October 25, 2009 at 20:54 According to White House Deputy Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer,
“In his September 9th address to Congress, President Obama made clear that he supports the public option because it has the potential to play an essential role in holding insurance companies accountable through choice and competition,” Pfeiffer wrote. “That continues to be the President’s position.”
“Senator Reid and his leadership team are now working to get the most effective bill possible approved by the Senate,” he added. “President Obama completely supports their efforts and has full confidence they will succeed and continue the unprecedented progress that is being made in both the House and Senate.”
You know what? They’d better freaking be on the same page, and toward a public option that is NOT tied to ‘triggers’ or ‘opt-outs’. Anything less than a robust public option is simply not acceptable, and I will not support those who chicken and play to the center/Snowe/Blue Dogs.
Period.
Now these people, in the ad airing in Maine, get it:
Friday, October 23, 2009 at 20:17 “That gives a black eye to all pilots. In fact, I’m even embarassed by it.”
That’s what Mr. Maven, a retired airline captain, had to say about the Northwest/Delta Airlines flight that, um, overshot the airport by about 150 miles because A- the pilots were asleep at the wheel, B- the pilots were arguing over company issues, or C- the pilots were ‘numb’-er than nine shots of novacaine. Take your pick. None of them are good.
“I can assure you none of us was asleep,” First Officer Richard I. Cole told ABC News. He declined to comment further but said, “I am not doing very good.”
This nimrod needs to not talk to the press.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009 at 21:32 Man, I had to type that last part, public option, very carefully and read it twice, lest I look like a very unfortunate sign at one of the tea bagger events. Whew. I’m so damn tired of working and herding cats on a home remodel project that I could ….
Well, it’s nothing that a little gin and deep breathing won’t cure.
I wasn’t going to blog tonight, opting for my less public (whew! dodged the bullet again!) option of a full nights sleep, but I saw the article by Rep. Jane Harmon and Rep. Loretta Sanchez on Huffington Post and had to step up.
Ladies, you both just rock!
Tuesday, October 6, 2009 at 20:50 This is so amazing! Shepard Smith gives Sen. Barrasso (R-Wyo) some righteous push back on the usual lame excuses he tries to offer against a public option. Who knew this could happen on Faux News.
Listen in (video from Daily Kos):
From Huffington Post:
SMITH: Over the last ten years health care costs in America have skyrocketed. Regular folks cannot afford it. So, they tax the system by not getting preventative medicine. They go to the emergency room in the last case and we all wind up paying for it. As the costs have gone up, the insurance industry’s profits, on average, have gone up more than 350%. And it is the insurance companies which have paid, and who have contributed to Senators and Congressmen on both sides of the aisle to the point where now we cannot get what all concerned on Capitol Hill seem to believe and more 60% of Americans say they would support, which is a public option. This has been an enormous win for the health-care industry, that is an unquestioned fact. But I wonder, what happens to the American people when we come out with legislation now which requires everyone to have health care insurance — or many more people — but does not give a public option? Therefore millions more people will have to buy insurance from the very corporations that are overcharging us, and whose profits have gone up 350 percent in the last ten years. It seems like we the people are the ones getting the shaft here.
Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/06/fox-newss-shepard-smith-g_n_311627.html
Monday, September 14, 2009 at 20:11 Don’t let the public option die. And, don’t fall for faux public options like ‘triggers’, ‘co-ops’ and similar ways of weaseling out of it.
A strong public option - a government backed and sponsored health insurance at a fair and reasonable price ( much like Medicare, but for everybody that wants it ) needs to be a part of any health care reform bill. Without it, it ain’t reform but a sham.
It comes down to this: will progressives stand up against a health care bill written by insurance industry lobbyists? Or will they follow the lead of Rep. Grijalva, who slammed the insurance industry bill as “not legitimate,” and fight for what the President says we need to keep costs down?
We need just 40 members of the House to pledge that they will only accept a final bill that contains the public option. Will you help?
Friday, September 11, 2009 at 19:09 This is the next hurdle. The ‘public option’ is the part of health care reform that the insurance companies would most like to see killed. Folks, we can’t let that happen.
Without the public option, it’s a half measure. Reform will be just more of the same old, same old warmed over compromise that we’ve already seen doesn’t work.
Join those of us who want to fight to keep it in the final bill.
Saturday, August 22, 2009 at 20:57 Mr. Maven decided that he wanted to weigh in on this volatile, and contentious topic:
The real issue is whether our elected politicians can even do the right thing for their country and constituents, or are they so deeply indebted to special insterest groups ( lobbyists ) for campaign contributions that they are held hostage by campaign contributions trumping ‘doing the right thing’.
Another way to phrase this: Are we still capable of self-governance? Or, have we thrown in the towel to mob rule driven by corporations and their shills from ‘K’ Street?
We have a leaderless political party (the GOP) , mistakenly referred to as ‘conservative’, that has only one agenda. It is to make certain the present administration fails, no matter the cost to society or country. I have not yet heard one solution or suggestion from these people. Just fault finding, outrageous deception and venomous lies
Monday, August 17, 2009 at 21:16 Nossir! No how!
This is purely a case of the Obama administration backing away in a lame and desparate attempt to make nice and keep peace among fueding kinfolk.
Within both houses, fortunately, there is continuing support for the only thing that makes any sense: a ‘public option’ for health insurance.
In the Senate, where negotiations are now focused, John D. Rockefeller IV (W.Va.) said that a public option, as the plan has become known, is “a must.” Sen. Russell Feingold (Wis.) said that “without a public option, I don’t see how we will bring real change to a system that has made good health care a privilege for those who can afford it.”
Saturday, July 25, 2009 at 15:28 This is a segment well worth listening to, as it was presented on Democracy Now.
“I don’t give a damn about the health insurance people being in business or out of business. I want a system that works,” said Dean, physician, six-term Vermont governor, Democratic presidential candidate in 2004, and former chairman of the Democratic National Committee.
