Senators Move To Shred Public Option, Fool Progressives While Unions Fight Back

[marmar]

from In These Times:



Senators Move To Shred Public Option, Fool Progressives While Unions Fight Back

Monday
December 7
4:15 pm

By Art Levine


Moderate, conservative and even some liberal Senators moved away Monday from the Senate leadership's already-modest public option to faux "compromise" proposals that would leave private insurance companies in charge of any health reforms.

Jackie Shechner, the communications director for Health Care For America Now, told In These Times, "These proposals would just allow private insurance companies to compete against each other to jack up rates."

As first reported in Politico, most of these bogus alternatives, as denounced by the originator of the public option, Yale Political Science Professor Jacob Hacker, would empower nonprofits to offer additional plans to the public. But as Shechner says, "Just because it's a nonprofit doesn't mean that it's operating for the public good; it just means it doesn't have shareholders."

Union groups, including the AFL-CIO and the Communication Workers of America, are fighting back with a lobbying blitz and ads, focused on the excise tax on high-cost plans along with preserving some form of a public option. Health Care for America Now and Moveon.Org are also sponsoring Tuesday "Cost of Delay" vigils outside the Senate and in swing Senators home states to raise awareness on the need to keep alive a robust public option. .........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/5278/senators_move_to_shred_public_option_while_unions_fight_to_save_it_block_ex/

[chill_wind]

1. I'm trying to get from this who some of the "liberal Senators"

are that are in on this, but all I get is this about Stabinow (the others remain unnamed here):

It's important to understand that it's not just the usual suspects among conservaDems opposed to the public option --Senators Ben Nelson, Blanche Lincoln, indepedent Joe Lieberman, and Mary Landrieu -- who are involved in the new search for a "compromise." As the Wall Street Journal reported Monday:

Senate Democrats appear to closer to reaching agreement on an alternative to a government-run health-insurance plan in health-care overhaul legislation, even as they dealt with disagreement within their party on abortion.

Sen. Debbie Stabenow, (D., Mich.) told reporters Monday that Democrats are "rapidly coming to a conclusion" on language within the bill, including a public-plan alternative. Stabenow, like many other liberal Democrats, has stated that she would prefer that the bill contain a public plan but said "the critical issue is not what we call something" but instead "the end result."

"The words 'public option' does not determine whether the bill is successful," Stabenow said. "If we can do the same thing through another mechanism and get broader support, I'm willing to look at that."

A group of liberal and centrist Democrats met several times in recent days to discuss a public-plan alternative that would be administered by the Office of Personnel Management but controlled by nonprofit entities. Taking the public plan out of the hands of the Department of Health and Human Services would help address centrists' concerns that the government would be taking on too much financial risk.

I wonder who the other ones are.

[chill_wind]

2. kicking.

[Kansas Wyatt]

3. Labor needs to choose very carefully, who gets their money from now on.

They need to send a clear message to the Democratic Party, that if Democratic candidates cannot stand up for working people, then they do not deserve money or help getting votes from labor unions anymore.

[chill_wind]

4. Right about that. And we need the names here. ALL the names.

eom

[saracat]

5. I agree

[StreetKnowledge]

6. No Argument Here.

Then we'll know who the real enemies are.

[NYCGirl]

7. Here are the names:

Perhaps the biggest development in Senate health-care debate over the weekend was the creation of a 10-member group (consisting of five liberals and five centrists) to hammer out a compromise on the public option, NBC’s Ken Strickland reports. The group had several closed- door sessions over the weekend, but most of its members have been uncharacteristically tight-lipped on their negotiations. “I'm not going to get into any details of any type," said Chuck Schumer (D) following a meeting Sunday night. "Nobody in that room, neither me nor any of the others, have signed off on anything." Per Strick, the moderates are Blanche Lincoln, Mary Landrieu, Ben Nelson, Tom Carper, and Mark Pryor. The liberals are Schumer, Jay Rockefeller, Sherrod Brown, Tom Harkin, and Russ Feingold. "We have had a really intense three hours of discussion and we are not there yet by any stretch of the imagination," Schumer said. "But we're finding a good deal of give and take that leads to common ground." This Gang of 10 will again meet later this afternoon.

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/12/07/2144004.aspx

[cali]

8. Cue to throw Russ and Sherrod under the bus.

[chill_wind]

9. Thanks NYCGirl. I just want to know. n/t