The 5 DEMS against the PUBLIC OPTION

[ThePantaloon.com]

All 10 Republicans on the committee voted against the Rockefeller proposal to allow the government to compete directly with insurance companies, Sen. Olympia Snowe among them. Democrats are hoping the Maine lawmaker will eventually break ranks with her party and support the legislation. (Yeah, right.)

Also opposed were Baucus and fellow Democrats Kent Conrad of North Dakota, Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, Bill Nelson of Florida and Tom Carper of Delaware.

If Baucus, Conrad, Lincoln, Nelson, or Carper are in your district, start calling now to demand A PUBLIC OPTION.

call 202-224-3121- tell the operator your zip code, and she'll transfer you.

[harun]

1. People in those districts need to call them, PLEASE!

[MiniMe]

2. To be fair, Nelson and Carper voted FOR Schumer's bill

which had the public option in it. So they do get a little credit for that. Very little, but some. Especially Bill Nelson, who spoke out in agreement for the Schumer amendment

[tsuki]

4. He spoke out for the amendment because he knew it would fail. Bill

Nelson is a POS senator. He has the retired military and the medicare crowd. We know that the rest of us are not on his radar.

He also knows, and I reminded his office, that Co-Ops failed in Florida because the Republicons legislated it away, and even made it illegal for small business to third party negotiate a rate. We were thrown on our own against the mega-Corps.

Tomorrow, after I call his office again, he will know that I am retired, and I shall spend the rest of my days working against his re-election.

[lazer47]

10. Add Lincoln to that list of POS,, she committed political suicide today

[BlooInBloo]

6. That's a key point made by Digby...

In a nutshell: there are really 2 games being played - 1) cloture (60 votes), 2) actual vote (50 votes). Getting Nelson and Carper is HUGE when put into the context of the games actually being played. Huge enough to get Tom Harkin to declare that they in fact have 51 votes for the public option

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/09/up-or-down-vote-by-digby-chris-cilizza.html

"Carper and Nelson flipped on the Shumer public option amendment, leaving only Conrad, Lincoln and Baucus voting against it. This is good news believe it or not. It indicates that there are 51 votes for a public option in the senate."

Harkin's statement: http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/60683-harkin-says-he-has-the-votes-to-pass-public-option-bill

[stray cat]

3. States unlikely to elect a really progressive dem over a republican

[Cant trust em]

7. Should elections solely dictate which policies we pursue?

If we can't actually use a majority to legislate our values, then what good is our majority?

This is the biggest legislative struggle of our time. They need to step up and take some action because its the right thing to do.

[Barack_America]

11. You include Delaware in that category?

:shrug:

[yourout]

5. I would like to know how almost all of the Blue Dogs ended up on the Finance Committee?

Anyone know?

[Walk away]

8. Baucus has to go. We need an Independent Progressive to run...

against him and win. When Americans realize how he betrayed them to the Insurance companies they are going to want his head. He has actually spent a year destroying the PO while pretending to negotiate a HCR bill for the people!

What a monster! How many Americans will die because of his greed?

[Maru Kitteh]

9. Well, for once the shithead Nelson wasn't *my* shithead Nelson.