Support for the public option is not dead

[Mass]

Despite its demise promised by the media (for many weeks in a row), this week-end has had a number of supporters reaffirming their support for a public option.

First Obama in his speech at Minneapolis and the crowd listening to him

http://crooksandliars.com/john-amato/president-obama-strongly-supports-publi

President Obama: I think one of the options should be a public insurance option. (Loud cheers) Let me clear. It would only be an option, nobody would be forced to choose it. No one with insurance affected by it. But what it would do is provide more choice and more competition. It would keep pressure on private insurers to keep the policies affordable, to treat their customers better. I mean think about it. It's the same way the public colleges and universities provide additional choice and competition to students. That doesn't inhibit private colleges and universities from thriving out there. The same should be true on the health care front. Minnesota I have said I'm open to different ideas on how to set this up we're going to set this up but I'm not going to back down on the basic principle that if Americans can't find affordable coverage we're going to provide you a choice.

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20090914/NEWS09/909140312/-1/LIFE04
Harkin, head the HELP Committee, who predicted that the bill would have a Public option,

Rockefeller, reaffirming that he would continue to fight for it

http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/09/lindsey-graham-the-house-bill-is-dead.php?ref=fpb

Axelrod stuck for it as well
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/13/AR2009091301492.html

And we believe competition and choice will help bring prices down and improve care and give a better deal to consumers. So he continues to believe it's a good idea. He continues to advocate it. And I'm not willing to accept that it's not going to be in the final package.

And finally another poll by ABC/WaPo, stating that a majority of Americans supported the public option
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/09/poll-health-reform-supporters-are-closing-the-intensity-gap.php?ref=fpa

So, what are we waiting to call all Dems in the House and Senate and say the public option must not be dropped

[tridim]

1. Lather, rinse, repeat.

The same thing happens every week.

The RW/MSM and their online army will never give up protecting the status quo.

[KansDem]

2. NPR this morning went all out in "reporting" on the "No Public Option Option."

Had its usual "Readers' Digest"-like quotes (you know, just one sentence or part of one sentence) from three Dems who were "softening" on the PO. Then a quote from Sen. Snowe that supported the "No Public Option Option" idea.

Then reference to co-ops. It appears the media want co-ops...

[jenmito]

3. K&R. The only people declaring the public option dead are Repubs. and EVERYONE in the media...

which still leaves the Dems. in Congress and members of Obama's admin., which is all we need.

[kenny blankenship]

4. It has nothing to do with what the people want.

it never did. Insurance co.s are facing the twilight of the Boomer generation, who will soon be on Medicare. Loss of Boomers to Medicare over the next 15 or 20 years means the steady erosion of their revenues. The insurance corps therefore must have an infusion of new victims. Rather than face the combined crunch of Boomers aging into Medicare and the continued attrition of enrollees through the spiral of profits, they are engaging in "reform" to forestall challenges to their business model.

A real reform would identify the insurance rackets and their business model as 30% of the national healthcare budget that is pure waste, fraud, and abuse.

What is being done now is a preemptive strike against reform, to tie the hands of the people and prevent them from acting against the insurance rackets for another decade or so. It subsidizes their collapsing business, and buys time to delay real reform.

[slipslidingaway]

5. +1000 n/t

[luckyleftyme2]

6. WE CAN DECIMATE THE PR WITH THE TRUTH

ONE WAY TO GET CONGRESS TO LISTEN IS TO EXPOSE THOSE WHO ARE SIMPLY SAYING NO FOR PERSONAL OR POLITICAL GAIN!
HERE'S ONE EXAMPLE AND ANOTHER IS TO EXPOSE WHO IS PAYING FOR THE VIDEO HE JUST MADE!
crooksandliars.com

Well, frumps, in a kinder, gentler (less informed) time Rep. Joe “You Lie” Wilson might have gotten away with a sharp rebuke for bad manners but would still be able to ride his “high horse” into the sunset. BUT – as happens so often in this crazy little 21st century, especially to the GOP – there are “vigilante fact checkers” out there, who are only too happy to call you out if you turn out to be an opportunistic hypocrite.

And so it is that we learned, yesterday, that Joe Wilson, who was so righteously enflamed over the notion that illegal immigrants might benefit from the current healthcare reform bill, broke with the rules of Congressional decorum and protocol and yelled out that the President was a liar. Well, as we used to say in the old neighborhood “takes one to know one.”

Here’s the skinny on that from OpenCongress.org:

On Wednesday night, Rep. Joe Wilson , shouted “You lie!” at President Obama when he said that the healthcare bill would not cover illegal immigrants. “The supporters of the government takeover of healthcare and liberals who want to give healthcare to illegals are using my opposition as an excuse to distract from the critical questions being raised about this poorly conceived plan,” Wilson said the next day in a campaign fundraising video.

However, in 2003, Wilson voted to provide federal funds for illegal immigrants’ healthcare. The vote came on the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003 (MMA), which contained Sec. 1011 authorizing $250,000 annually between 2003 and 2008 for government reimbursements to hospitals who provide treatment for uninsured illegal immigrants. The program has been extended through 2009 and there is currently a bipartisan bill in Congress to make it permanent.

It’s highly unlikely that Rep. Wilson merely forgot about the MMA or that, over time, he lost his original soft-heartedness for illegal immigrants. This particular bill had one of the most epically contentious and scandalous histories in recent legislative memory.

did you get that last paragraph? the most scandalous contentious legislation recent history! do ya think their was some lobbyists involved?
boo LOUD IGNORANT MOUTHS!
NOW HERE IS AN ERROR IN JUDGEMENT THAT WE CAN EXPLOIT TO OUR ADVANTAGE!
SO LETS DO IT ! COPY AN E-MAIL THIS TO ALL ON YOUR E MAIL LIST!
TWITTER IS GOOD ,FACEBOOK IS GOOD! EXPOSE THE TRUTH!!

[luckyleftyme2]

7. KENNY YOUR RIGHT ON!

It seems strange that the majority of the republicans agree that the system we have is about to implode! they admit that the private sector insurance companies cannot sustain the system we now have. so whats the hold up? like the oil companies they want to reap the huge profits as long as they can!
It's time the american voter stopped responding to the lies and half truths pushed by the right and entertainers like glen beck and rush the lush!
the real truth is 40 years ago I WOULD BE ON WELFARE ! THANK GOD FOR MEDICARE!
THANK GOD FOR THE VA! AND BOTH OF THESE OPERATE ON LESS THAN HALF WHAT THE PRIVATE COMPANIES CHARGE!
WAKE UP AMERICA=INSURANCE COMPANIES OVER PAY THEIR MANAGEMENT AND HIDE THEIR PROFITS! THEY TAKE BILLIONS OF YOUR TAX DOLLARS AS WELL AS YOUR PREMIUMS!

[Mass]

8. Wapo people cannot be bothered reading their own poll, apparently

Not even long enough to wonder why, if a majority of people like the public option, they wont support a plan with a public option (or is it that they did not tell them what the plan they are asked to support has?)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/13/AR2009091302962_pf.html

Reform Opposition Is High but Easing
More Support if Public Option Dropped

But it is the public option that has become the major point of contention, with support for the government creation of an insurance plan that would compete with private insurers stabilizing in the survey after dipping last month. Now, 55 percent say they like the idea, but the notion continues to attract intense objection: If that single provision were removed, opposition to the overall package drops by six percentage points, according to the poll.
...