Reid Promises Separate Public Option Vote In Next Few Months

[laughingliberal]

Hoping to assuage progressive Democrats who remain disappointed with the content of the health care reform bill, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) committed on Friday to holding a separate vote on a public option in the coming months.

In a letter to two of his more progressive colleagues in the Senate -- Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Bernie Sanders of Vermont -- the Nevada Democrat implicitly apologized for his inability to get a government-run insurance plan into the final piece of health care legislation and promised to keep working to get the policy into law.

As you know, I am a strong supporter of a public option, and I included the HELP Committee's public option in the bill I brought to the senate floor last year. I was disappointed when it became clear that we did not have the votes to keep it.

Nevertheless, like you, I remain committed to pursuing the public option. While I believe that the legislation we are considering does much to provide affordable coverage to millions of Americans and curb insurance company abuses, I also believe that the public option would provide additional competition to make insurance even more affordable. As we have discussed, I will work to ensure that we are able to vote on the public option in the coming months.<snip>


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/19/reid-promises-separate-pu_n_506272.html

[nosmokes]

1. Anyone who believes that lying scoundrel, I have some AZ beach prop 4sale

cheap.

[laughingliberal]

2. Reid is my Senator

and I believe he will do everything he can. He tried every which way to get a Public Option into the Senate bill. His last ditch effort was scuttled when Rahm showed up at his office and demanded that he cave to Lieberman. I distinctly remember him saying he'd been ordered by the White House to do so and he was not inclined to do that.

I have not always found him as liberal as I would like but he's heads and shoulders above the asshat Blue Dogs. And he was none too happy about being held to the deals the White House cut with industry.

[nosmokes]

9. Harry Reid is a spineless twit that can't pass gas w/o soiling his panties so

he don't pass nuttin. If standing head and shoulders above the blue dogs is the best that can be said for the leader, I rest my case that the Democrats are completely ineffectual and no longer represent anyone's views who are left of center and nothing more than corporate hacks that stand in the fucking way of liberal reform and block any sort of real progressive move forward at every opportunity.

edit for typo

[Lasher]

3. Uh huh.

One thing I have learned about times like this is, later never comes. Reid is just trying to get us to shut up and go along.

[0rganism]

4. IOW: how much will insurance megacorps pay me to kill it in committee?

The time to take a firm stand has passed.

[laughingliberal]

8. The hospital industry will be paying off their pet Senators, too

But Reid is not one of them. It's very likely the same asshat Blue Dogs and the White House will work against him, again. But I respect him for continuing to try to find ways around them.

[TheCowsCameHome]

5. I'll believe it when I see it. Sorry.

Put it on the list of things you wish for, but never receive.

[Dinger]

6. NEVER Gonna Happen Now

You can take THAT to the bank. reid blows.

[laughingliberal]

7. Perhaps it won't happen but it's not because Reid blows

I know Harry Reid wants a public option. The public option was killed by the White House working through Lieberman. The same forces may very well keep him from being able to bring it to the floor again. But Harry takes heat for this that really wasn't his doing. We have a lot of Senators who blow a lot worse than he does. I wish he had not been leader of the Senate because he would be doing better here if he had been able to fight for the public option and not having to be responsible for rounding up votes in the Senate. The compromises that were made to get the votes of the Blue Dogs did not help him here. Then again, we have a history of destroying the Senate leaders of our party.

The article did say he is looking for legislation he could attach it to that would pass under reconciliation.

[jtuck004]

10. And Obama won't sign a bill without it. Fool me once...

Once we pass the current bill you funnel 25 million people x an average of 12,000 a year premium = three hundred billion dollars to an industry that only makes 220 billion today. With no competition. You think you've seen a fight now that the Supreme Court has said they have a right to free speech? You think this is hard?

You ain't seen nothin' yet.

But what really baffles me is why we are not spending this (and a lot more) to resolve unemployment. What a colossal waste of time we don't have.