Why are Progressives like Feingold supporting the Senate bill?

[berni_mccoy]

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/73139-feingold-blasts-white-houses-lack-of-support-for-public-option

A leading Senate proponent of the public option blasted the White House for a "lack of support" for the provision's inclusion in health reform legislation.

Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) said he would vote in favor of the Senate's healthcare bill, but not without taking a terse shot at the White House.

I find this disturbing. Why have the Senate progressives gone silent and now apparently giving up on the people and the Public Option?

What happened to Bernie Sanders who said he would filibuster if there was no PO? Why has Pelosi backed down and will the House progressive's vote for it?

Something doesn't add up here.

[tekisui]

1. I don't know. Someone got to them or there is some top-secret plan.

[SIMPLYB1980]

3. LOL!

:rofl:

[PeaceNikki]

2. Maybe you could read his statement instead of asking DU?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/20/feingold-obama-responsibl_n_398658.html

I've been fighting all year for a strong public option to compete with the insurance industry and bring health care spending down. I continued that fight during recent negotiations, and I refused to sign onto a deal to drop the public option from the Senate bill. Unfortunately, the lack of support from the administration made keeping the public option in the bill an uphill struggle. Removing the public option from the Senate bill is the wrong move, and eliminates $25 billion in savings. I will be urging members of the House and Senate who draft the final bill to make sure this essential provision is included.

But while the loss of the public option is a bitter pill to swallow, on balance, the bill still delivers meaningful reform, and the cost of inaction is simply too high. This bill significantly expands coverage and helps protect Wisconsinites from high costs and insurance company abuses, such as denying or restricting coverage based on pre-existing conditions. The bill also improves a flawed Medicare formula that denies Wisconsin fair reimbursement rates, encourages the kind of low-cost, high-value care practiced in our state, increases access to home and community-based long-term care, and reduces federal budget deficits by $132 billion over the next decade.

[berni_mccoy]

5. Yeah, he's blaming Obama. But that doesn't explain it. He's also hiding behind the 60-vote issue

when we all know they don't need 60 votes.

[PeaceNikki]

6. Read the SECOND paragraph.

[berni_mccoy]

8. No one believes this is better. Forced purchase of private insurance without a PO

and not even PEC for adults until 2014... that is just plain wrong and worse than the status quo. That's not even getting into the issues of Women's Health.

[PeaceNikki]

10. Well he explained pretty clearly why he "supports" it. Hence answering your question.

Whether you BELIEVE him or not is a whole nother matter.

[berni_mccoy]

11. Yeah, it's just not believable.

[stray cat]

18. You sound like the GOP claiming no one they talk to wants a public option

maybe like them you need to get out more

[freddie mertz]

12. Reads like something they give a hostage to read on a videotape.

Every one of them has given up because they don't want to be held responsible for "stopping health care."

In the process, they too have abandoned their promises tot heir constituents.

It's an ugly spectacle.

[PeaceNikki]

13. Russ is my Senator.

And, call me foolish... I trust him. He's a good man and a great Senator.

[freddie mertz]

17. I do not disagree. Probably the best of all the Senators.

But I bet he is feeling the heat on this one, and taking a dive for the captain of the ship.

[Arkana]

4. The Illuminati have kidnapped their families.

[berni_mccoy]

7. I think you got it backwards. It would be the Catholic Church who has been meddling with the bill

not the Illuminati. If it were the Illuminati who were pulling the strings, then the Senate would be passing Medicare for All.

[glinda]

21. CIA is drugging their water.

[jwirr]

9. IMHO I think they are doing it so that President Obama is not weakened

by a failure like happened with Bill & Hillary when their attempt to get health care through bombed. There is a lot of work to be accomplished yet and if the repugs think they can win this way it will be impossible to get anything else done. We have 3 years yet to get something right. That is why I think they are giving him a pass this time. Also some people will be helped by this bill.

[walldude]

16. Then they are blind fools..

Clintons were able to blame not passing their bill on Republicans. Problem here is while it might be for different reasons the Democratic base doesn't like this bill either. If it passes they may make a few dozen people happy while pissing off an entire nation. There are ways around all this but it would take a spine to stand up to the corporations and to the Republicans.

[jwirr]

22. But it has to be Obama's spine. Otherwise he gets the blame not matter

what he does.

[laughingliberal]

19. I tend to agree. I believe it is all about avoiding a repeat of '94

The legislators are not stupid. They know failing to get HCR done cost them the mditerm elections. And it would make it difficult to move anything else forward as Obama would be, effectively, a lame duck. My problem with the whole strategy is that it was the conservative Dems who lost in '94 and I believe it would have been again. So, why were they, who stood to lose the most, catered to while the bill that would have been good for all of us was negotiated away at the hands of the tyrants? I'm of the opinion that Russ was dead on when he said this was the bill Obama wanted all along and it pisses me off to have been duped like this. Bottom line: Obama's presidency goes down in flames if they fail to pass a bill. The progressive caucuses have been cowed into supporting it for that reason. The Blue Dogs don't seem to care. They were just as comfortable with Bush as they are with Obama. I just hope to hell the progressives have extracted some sort of promise for future consideration for not throwing this pile out the window and Obama with it.

All that said, I think they will pass it. I think the public will hate it. I think it may come to be known as the Obama mistake as '93 is now known as the Clinton mistake. Guess they were smart enough to have the worst of it taking effect after the 2012 election.

[jwirr]

23. I agree because those of us who are caught in the insurance trap

already are getting jerked around. My daughter and I have both been "traded" to other plans because the one we chose doesn't want us anymore. I do not trust the insurance companies at all.

[eridani]

14. Armtwisting? n/t

[stray cat]

15. Undoubtedly because they are all unethical corporate apologists and secrete republicans of course

:sarcasm: It sure can't be because they think it is better for their constituents than the current state of things

[burning rain]

20. They know that nothing progressive can pass the Senate given the 60-vote threshold,...

and that moderate mush is the best that can be hoped for.

[amborin]

24. Good discussion on Friday's "Bill Moyers" "Party Line Mindset"

[SeattleGirl]

25. Perhaps he has read the entire bill?

:shrug: