White House Denies Pushing Trigger Option, Dem Groups Concur

[ProSense]

Sam Stein

White House Denies Pushing Trigger Option, Dem Groups Concur

The White House, along with several progressive groups and high-ranking Democrats, is pushing back against reports that the administration is advancing a compromise proposal in which a public option would only be triggered by certain economic conditions.

<...>

And yet, groups and individuals who communicate regularly with the administration on health care matters insist that they have not been pushed recently to get comfortable with the trigger. And so did the White House itself.

"The story about us reaching out to groups is not accurate," an administration official told the Huffington Post.

"I don't buy that and I'm not much into speculation," said Sen. Bernie Sanders, (I-Vt.). "It makes good media copy but no one knows what is going to happen... Even so, there has already been a major compromise in that we are not on verge of not doing a Medicare-for-all system, which is what many of us want."

"We have not gotten that call," said AFL-CIO spokesman Eddie Vale. (The major union conglomerate deals with the administration regularly.) "And we will continue to do what we always do -- fight for what is best for working families -- and that includes having a robust public option that will break the stranglehold of the insurance companies and lower costs by making them compete."

[jenmito]

1. K&R. I'm so sick of the media lying about the public option. n/t

[Jennicut]

2. Me too, Jen. And yet they do it over and over again.

[jenmito]

3. And they are BOLD in how they lie. They'll show Obama at a rally talking about his support for

the public option and right after, they'll claim he either didn't mention it at all or that he's backing away from it.

[DevonRex]

11. And people HERE do it over and over again, too. You gotta wonder

about some people. :eyes:

:hi:

[Captain Hilts]

4. Then why are we wasting so much time on Olympia Snowe?

[jenmito]

5. There's a powerful ad in Maine trying to get her to support the public option...

if she DOES, they can claim "bipartisanship" without compromise.

[Captain Hilts]

7. Yes, I know some folks making calls into the state also. nt

[ProSense]

6. Who except the MSM is wasting time on Snowe?

Yesterday, she voted with Bunning to stall the bill in committee and Democrats killed the bill despite her.

[Captain Hilts]

8. The White House has as has the Baucus Committee. Fine-tuning triggers to please her. Screw that. nt

[ProSense]

9. "The White House has..." What? Did you just ignore the point made. And you need

to read this.

[DevonRex]

10. They repeat MSM bullshit when it's anti-Obama. And they ignore

anybody who says otherwise. Kinda like the RWers repeat bullshit over and over hoping that'll make folks think their wacky lies are true.

[Captain Hilts]

14. and this...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/03/obama-gops-snowe-working_n_276322.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-lux/triggering-a-democratic-c_b_295954.html

Media reports and insider buzz make it increasingly clear that key people at the White House have become obsessed with Olympia Snowe on health care, and are willing to do pretty much whatever she demands in order to get her on board. The price is looking more and more like this incredibly bad trigger proposal she has been pushing, a trigger that quite literally is written to automatically never trigger a public option.

http://www.tnr.com/blog/the-treatment/why-reform-survived-august

The White House made clear that it saw Snowe as a partner--and that it was willing to write a bill with her, even if it had to do so itself.

http://www.mainepolicy.org/mhpc_blog/2009/09/memo-to-whitehouse-snowe-is-no.html

I think the fundamental problem here is that the folks at the White House - who are very likely spinning this story in an attempt to pressure Senator Snowe - are totally misreading the way she operates. While the "moderate" label is often used by the far right to protest Senator Snowe's actions - the left is about to learn a very important lesson from the Moderate from Maine.

It is not an act. It is not something Senator Snowe does to get re-elected or to curry favor. She believes that there is middle ground and she looks for it. For her, middle ground means giving businesses the opportunity to join together and purchase health care - regardless of state lines. It involves tort reform, it involves ensuring folks have skin in the game (not "free" government health care) and it involves truly bending the cost curve. The bottom line is that Democrats in Congress, and this President, have failed to find the middle ground in the health care debate. In fact, they have veered so far off the center that they will find no sympathy - behind the scenes or not - from Senator Snowe or her other moderate colleagues.

http://politics.theatlantic.com/2009/09/white_house_floating_snowe_trigger.php

[ProSense]

17. "Media reports and insider buzz "

How reliable!

[polichick]

15. Some folks are pretending that hasn't been happening. nt

[ProSense]

16. Where is your proof that has been happening? MSM reports? Also,

in another thread you insisted that it's time to stop, meaning you think it's still going on, despite evidence to the contrary.

If it's not going on now, why are you stuck trying to push an irrelevant argument?

[polichick]

18. It's pretty silly for you to keep saying that only the msm has been "wasting time" on Snowe...

When everybody knows that she has been wooed by the WH and the President himself. Here it is, straight from Snowe...(begin at 50 sec.)

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/17/video-snowe-on-health-care/


I stand by my statements that it's high time for the WH to stop worrying about a "bipartisan" bill and get a good bill.

[grantcart]

13. Because in the end she will vote for it without a trigger

The trigger is simply a device to get Snowe committed to the bill.

In the end they will tell her that the trigger is not viable and ask her "Senator Snowe is there anything else that we can do for you to get you over the trigger hump?".

Senator Snowe will then say "Much to my surprise there will be no trigger. It would be very helpful if you (insert Snowe pet project here) so that my constituents will know how much I care for them and that I was only able to get over the trigger by bringing (insert Snowe pet project here) to Maine. I happen to have the details of the (insert Snowe pet project here) and if you could simply sign a note to this letter showing that you support it I will be able to show my colleagues that the (insert Snowe pet project here) has the strongest support of the President. Let me first say 'Damn' I really really wanted the trigger."

[Cha]

12. Between the Fail Pushers and the corporatemediawhores..

there's a lot of disinfomation around here.