BREAKING: Robert Gibbs Will Announce If Secret Deal Was Cut To Kill Public Option - Adam Green

[WillyT]

BREAKING: Robert Gibbs will announce if secret deal was cut to kill public option
by: AdamGreen
Tue Mar 16, 2010 at 12:28

<snip>

After boldly pressuring Joe Lieberman for opposing health care reform with a public option yesterday, Obama is on a roll.

Today, he boldly endorsed Sunshine Week:

"As Sunshine Week begins, I want to applaud everyone who has worked to increase transparency in government and recommit my administration to be the most open and transparent ever, an effort that will strengthen our democracy and ensure the public’s trust in their government. We came to Washington to change the way business was done, and part of that was making ourselves accountable to the American people by opening up our government."

Recommitting to transparency has obvious implications for the public option.

This means that Robert Gibbs will have a very exciting "yes" or "no" answer at today's 1:30pm press conference about whether the secret deal to kill the public option reported in the New York Times is true:

Not to worry, Jim Messina, the deputy White House chief of staff, told the hospital lobbyists, according to White House officials and lobbyists briefed on the call. The White House was standing behind the deal...

Several hospital lobbyists involved in the White House deals said it was understood as a condition of their support that the final legislation would not include a government-run health plan paying Medicare rates — generally 80 percent of private sector rates — or controlled by the secretary of health and human services.

“We have an agreement with the White House that I’m very confident will be seen all the way through conference,” one of the industry lobbyists, Chip Kahn, director of the Federation of American Hospitals, told a Capitol Hill newsletter.

I know that everyone from Russ Feingold to Joe Lieberman implied that Obama said one thing in public but then did the exact opposite on the public option. But he will deserve great credit today when this fresh breath of transparency lets the American people know about what actually happened.

UPDATE: Nevermind. Turns out it was just an empty press release. No transparency to see here.

<snip>

Link: http://www.openleft.com/diary/17845/breaking-robert-gibbs-will-announce-if-secret-deal-was-cut-to-kill-public-option

Methinks Mr. Green is being sarcastic.

:shrug:

[no limit]

1. To many here these deals don't matter as long as a democrat is making them

[WillyT]

3. Yep, And... "He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind."

Thinking about getting my nails done next November.

:shrug:

[FiveGoodMen]

16. If only, "the fool be servant to the wise at heart" !

Like the comment about the nails.

:fistbump:

[mdmc]

2. the more things change

the more they stay the same..

[SlingBlade]

4. This Bill is a Death Sentence to Millions with Pre-Existing

Cancer's who will never live long enough to see the so called "Good Parts" of this Corporate Welfare Bill come to fruition.
Thanks Democrats ya just moved into the big league with your brother republicans

[rhett o rick]

7. Last time I read the Senate bill it had the pre-conditions starting immediately.

Tell me if you know different.

[Generator]

8. 90 days after passage for children

Don't know the age. Four years after passage for adults.

Also, penalty is $100 a day if they deny you. I find that funny. $100 a day penalty. That's what it costs to get a band aid. Hey, let's see $100k for treatment versus the fine. Which is less? Since it's about their profit, first, last and always-I bet they pay the fine. And where is the enforcement? They gotta be forced to pay the fine. Unlike premiums it won't come directly out of their wages with no hope of return.

[closeupready]

9. You have got to be kidding me - that's $36,500 per year. Does Congress really

think that insurance companies won't rather pay the $36,500 rather than the $100,000 in treatment costs? GMAFB.

[sabrina 1]

24. Shhhh, you weren't supposed to notice that!

You were supposed to say: 'They will be fined if they don't comply' and just leave it at that!

[Political Heretic]

25. .

Wrong place.

[jbnow]

10. No. Both bills had it immediately for children but for adults

it didn't start until the exchange did (which was 1 year earlier in House). Both have a national temporary high risk pool for adults with preexisting conditions to be in effect until the exchange started. The Senate has language about premiums at standard rates and limiting out of pocket expenses but I don't really understand how they do that.

Obama had wanted it immediately, he brought that up a couple of times.

As far as this deal...well I believe there was one made about not using medicare based rates.

[Bluebear]

14. "For the children". Adults have to wait years.

[no limit]

15. One of the problems is they can charge 300% more for pre-existing conditions

so if you are living paycheck to paycheck and can't afford insurance you wont be able to either after this bill passes.

[rhett o rick]

17. Please dont think I like this bill. I just want to be accurate. nm

[rhett o rick]

22. I stand corrected. nm

[Political Heretic]

26. It's going to be crucial that we have muckrakers AFTER HCR passes

Assuming it passes...

If there's to be any hope for more substantive health care in the future - we can't all just pack up and go home. We're going to have to continue to dig, research and document all the ways in which insurance industry exploits this stuff to their benefit at ordinary american family's expense.

If we can show people, who are so convinced that this is going to be a revolutionary positive change in health care the likes of which has not been seen since Medicare as passed, that they were had - maybe they won't be so quick to cave on single payer in the future.

Get Evernote and start documenting everything

[skeptical cynic]

5. A politician is like a tapeworm, a tick, a flea, or any other parasite

It's unfair to expect them to be more than their nature allows.

[WillyT]

6. Yes... And It's Ironic That Prostitution Is Mostly Illegal, While There Exists A Congress...

authorized to make laws.

:shrug:

[skeptical cynic]

13. Yes, but those laws are only for the little people

[berni_mccoy]

11. Dumb.

[Generator]

12. Well it's up on the huff post that Obama killed public option personally

Not sure it's worth discussing here. Since no backstabbing that Obama does is ever bad enough for the faithful.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/miles-mogulescu/ny-times-reporter-confirm_b_500999.html

This should be big news. Even while President Obama was saying that he thought a public option was a good idea and encouraging supporters to believe his healthcare plan would include one, he had promised for-profit hospital lobbyists that there would be no public option in the final bill.~

More deeply, there are serious questions about the extent to which Obama, with the help of Rahm Emanuel, used a K Street strategy to pursue health care reform. The strategy seems to have been to make backroom deals to protect the interests of the likes of the drug industry and the for-profit hospital industry in exchange for campaign cash, even if this meant reversing campaign promises to include a public option to put competitive pressure on private insurance premiums, and to allow Medicare to negotiate for lower drug prices and Americans to buy cheaper drugs from Canada. The result is a health care bill that is generally unpopular with voters. Questions need to be asked, too, about the extent to which the White House is following a similar K Street strategy with Wall Street financiers when it comes to shaping financial reform and new regulations to reign in the banks who brought the economy to its knees.

[Bluebear]

18. Here it is, and you are right. The "message discipline" brigade is out in force

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7930459

[Echo In Light]

19. Thanks for posting

[glitch]

21. Cheering a thrown game.

It's weird to watch.

[Individualist]

23. They're desperate to see this POS bill passed because after November

DLC is toast.

[laughingliberal]

20. K & R nt