House Progressives Force Yet Another Mark-Up Delay - Not happy about compromises with "blue dogs"

[jefferson_dem]

House Progressives Force Yet Another Mark-Up Delay
By Brian Beutler - July 29, 2009, 5:36PM

And here we go again. Now that House Energy and Commerce Committee chairman Henry Waxman has enough Blue Dog support to pass the bill, he has to sell it with progressives. And that's not proving to be as easy as he'd hoped.

" have a lot of questions about the legislation," Waxman told reporters, "and I think it's more important that we sit in the Democratic Caucus and let people ask questions, get answers, hear each other out."

What exactly are their concerns? Well, for one, the compromise included a change to the public option that could weaken it on the merits. As originally written, the House bill would have temporarily tied the public option's pay rates to Medicare rates. Now they'll be negotiated by the Secretary of Health and Human Services, meaning the rates will vary regionally, and often fall closer to private insurance rates than government rates.

But more generally, the Congressional Progressive Caucus basically believes that their views have been ignored throughout the process, and are understandably frustrated about being asked to accept compromises with Blue Dogs when they've already compromised a great deal. Last week, several House progressives warned that they couldn't tolerate any further weakening of the public option, and asked to play a greater role in negotiations. Now they feel leaders ignored their concerns.

The mark up was scheduled to resume tonight, but now it looks like it will have to wait until tomorrow, with the goal still to pass the bill by Friday.

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/07/house-progressives-force-yet-another-mark-up-delay.php?ref=fpb

[NC_Nurse]

1. Good for them. The Blue dogs suck.

[jody]

2. IMO it's great that each congressperson votes for her/his constituents and not special interest

groups or a political party.

There's an old saying, "Dance with who brought you to the dance".

[Laelth]

3. Thank goodness for the Progressive Caucus.

At least someone is fighting for us.

:dem:

-Laelth