The fit hits the shan: Reid to announce public-option plan; Update: Where’s the beef?
Capitol Hill awaits a 3:15pm Eastern press conference from Harry Reid, who is reportedly set to announce his public-option plan amid uncertainty over Democrat support:
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid this afternoon will announce his decision to include a government-run health care plan, or “public option,” in the health care bill he brings to the floor, CBS News has learned.
Reid is scheduled to discuss his plans for the bill at a 3:15 p.m. ET press conference on Capitol Hill. He is expected to say he will go forward with a public option that will allow states to opt out of the program. However, he is also expected to say it is unclear whether or not he has 60 votes to move forward with the plan.
The bill will be sent to the Congressional Budget Office later today to get a cost estimate for it.
Reid has been under considerable pressure from liberal activists and legislators to include a public option in the bill.
Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) told reporters Monday that he thinks it will be hard for Reid to get 60 votes for a public option plan in which states can opt out, the Associated Press reports. At least four key senators seem opposed, Nelson said while traveling with President Obama on Air Force One to Florida.
Democrat Sen. Blanche Lincoln is “non-committal.”
Philip Klein: “The big question is whether the handful of Democrats who oppose the government plan in some form would support a Republican filibuster, or provide the 60 votes Reid needs to bring a vote to the floor, and then vote against the final bill, which would then only need a simple majority to pass.”
***
3:21pm Eastern. Reid announces “public option” with state “opt-out” provision until 2014.
Reid says he will send to CBO in next few hours “a number of…anyway, proposals.”
“Public option has been talked about a lot. It’s something I believe in…I think it’s important that the matter we work on in the Senate have a public option.”
Reid talked to Snowe, who is opposed to any kind of public option. “We’ll have to move forward and hope she sees the wisdom of public option.” Reid describes Snowe as “frightened.”
Asked to explain how exactly state opt-out would work, Reid provides no specifics.
Reid says “there will be a co-op in this bill.”
Reid whines about lack of “moderate” Republicans. “I can count them on two fingers.”
NRSC responds:
As Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) prepares to announce he’s ignoring concerns from moderate Senate Democrats and the Obama White House, and moving forward with a government-run health care option at this afternoon’s press conference, please consider the National Republican Senatorial Committee’s (NRSC) statement regarding this latest example of heavy-handed partisanship:
“A primary reason Harry Reid is one of the most endangered incumbents facing re-election in either party next year is due to the fact that he is viewed by many of his constituents as a partisan bully. His decision to write a health care bill behind closed doors, bow to pressure from the far left, and ram this bill through the Senate will only further cement that negative image.
“It also reaffirms the importance of restoring checks-and-balances in Washington next year. As Democrats prepare to run up the national credit card even higher, it’s clear they didn’t learn a thing from the failed stimulus boondoggle. They are attempting to spend their way out of our nation’s economic crisis with little thought or regard to the debt being passed on to future generations.
“One thing is clear though – Harry Reid and his Democrat colleagues who decide to bow to pressure from the left and continue to rubber-stamp this liberal, partisan agenda of Washington-run health care and reckless government spending will be held accountable by voters next November.” – Brian Walsh, NRSC Communications Director
Where’s the beef? Legal Insurrection: Harry Reid: “I Have Nothing to Announce, So Pay Attention.”
In other words, Reid has nothing. Not enough votes for cloture at this point. No cost estimates. Only a hope and a prayer that the CBO score will be favorable, and allow him to move a bill to the floor.
***
Political thesaurus watch:
A government-sponsored “public option” for health care lives, though it may be more attractive to skeptics if it goes by a different moniker, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Monday.
In an appearance at a Florida senior center, the Democratic leader referred to the so-called public option as “the consumer option.” Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., appeared by Pelosi’s side and used the term “competitive option.”
Both suggested new terminology might get them past any lingering doubts among the public—or consumers or competitors.
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Categories: Harry Reid, Health care
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Bring it on! You poinyoin!
First!
Anyway if they do this they will get their heads handed to them in the midterms.
What part of Sovereign States do you not understand, Harry? They don’t need no stinkin opt out!
Sorry, but that would be me.
Reese Bobby #13: ” If you ain’t first, you’re last!”
Additional confirmation that Harry is not the sharpest tool in the tool shed.
SWEET!
They just won’t say Uncle, will they?
If they ram this down our throats, we are going to stick it up their a$$ come 2010,2012.
Will Nancy be there? Cue The Police:
“Don’t stand so, don’t stand so, don’t stand so close to me…”
I am watching Dingy Harry now and he does not look well. This may be his swansong.
An “opt out” would be wasted on my state.
Illinois is infested with greedy bastages.
Time to sit back and relax while we watch Obama’s baby go up in a ball of flames.
RWR
http://www.rightwingrocker.com
Euphemism alert!! Pelocchio is calling it the “competitive”option”.
Oh yeah, that changes everything.
that pic of Harry makes him look like he smelled an onion fart.
Keep close tabs on who supports this pile of goat dung, Reid, then contribute all you can to whoever runs against them. These leftist Democrats must be thrown out before they completely destroy the nation.
The Robert Reich Video – The Truth about Public Option, explains that the public option will lower prices because it “will have the scale and authority to negotiate lower prices from health care providers…It needs to be big and national to do that.”
If being big and national is the key to lowering health care costs, then private insurance companies should be allowed to sell health insurance across state lines!!!
Why should the Federal government be given an advantage that they specifically prohibit private insurance companies from using?
Defeat the public option! Let private companies sell health insurance across state lines!
“One finger from each hand…that is”
(anyway you look at it…you’re screwed!)
We need to send a clear message to the Blue Dogs that if they sign on to this that there will be personal repercussions to them if it goes wrong.
We need to make it plain to them that if more people start to die from cancer or other diseases because they can’t get the treatment they need that they will need to count them selves lucky if we put them in jail.
Conservatives need to start going Gault. Stop spending money that you absolutely don’t need to.
Bill Nelson is a skunk. Had the RNC been doing its job in 2006 he would not have been reelected. Yet, in a state full of seniors, he is about to sell everyone down the river.
So let me get this straight…taxpayer funded healthcare is now referred to as a ‘consumer option’…one where freeloaders consume tax dollars.
Makes perfect sense to me. Way to go, Pelocchio!
*Look for the “competitive option” in 435 house races next year and “opt” as many out of a job as possible; Medicare is insolvent, the economic collapse is near, and these rat bastards still continue to take us over a cliff; After you, Harry!
The State of AZ has already opted-out. The issue will be on the ballot in 2010 to NOT participate in the whole mess.
Harry and crew just doesn’t get it—this is not a Federal issue it is a STATE issue-just ask Texas!! They are doing just fine thank you and this will totally screw up their Health Care system.
I am waiting with bated breath for the CBO numbers—bet it is not even close to $900,million!!!
I guess Reid doesn’t care if some democrats will vote against it, he’s got the RINOs who will. He should be able to get Newt to twist some arms too.
They DON’T GET IT! If the public ‘option’ will be allowed to fail, then fine. But it WON’T BE allowed to fail. If they have cost over-runs, no American citizen will be able to ‘opt out’ of paying the claims through taxes.
The problem is the CLAIMS. The problem is creating a system that is unsustainable and unaffordable (like Medicare and Medicaid) and giving future generations the bill (like Medicare and Medicaid).
George Washington never envisioned a government that would force all Americans to pay for all other Americans’ medical bills.
It’s not the ‘opting in’ that’s the problem. . . it’s NOT BEING ABLE TO OPT OUT OF PAYING FOR CLAIMS! (like Medicaid and Medicare).
If they do come up with a ‘guarantee issue’ plan, I (as a medical insurance agent for 15 years) will recommend EVERY CLIENT of mine to pay the penalty and not to buy ‘insurance’ until they need it.
Ready – Aim – Shoot Self in Foot!
Good job Harry. If you get your public option, you will also be joining Tom Daschle.
Sounds good to me…hope he takes a couple dozen friends with him.
Re Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Nancy Pelosi:
Both suggested new terminology might get them past any lingering doubts among the
public—or consumers or competitorsMORONS.That’s what they must think we are.
Well yes, you do have that part right, BUT, since we’ve removed the word “public”, you are suppose to notice that the “public” is paying for it.
See how that works?
Aim higher.
There has to be a public option. If no public option there is no reason for government involvement.
I wish they’d quit calling it insurance reform though. Its not reforming private insurance. Its killing private insurance.
…and bury 6 feet lower.
The best part of this press release by Reid was his insistance that the Republicans refused to work with him. After sitting in a room of only Democrats, slamming everyone not yielding to his will, there was Reid, claiming that he was stuck with having to do this all by himself.
I suspect he already knows this is DOA.
I recommend that abandoned coal pit in Butte Montana, it’s already poisoned!
“And I stormed out and slammed the door! Of course, it was that fourteenth century Bavarian cathedral door, so I had to get two of the servants to help me, but what it lacked in spontaneity it made up for in resonance.”
- Dr. Niles Crane
Why is Rahm Emanuel in with the with the senators?
aaaahhhhh “the blow-my-brains-out option”, “the what-the-h*ll? option”, “the Kibbles’n Bits option”.
The Dems are strangling on their own spume.
So, we’re going to cobble this 1000 page monstrosity together in closed Democratic Caucus and give you three days to read it all. We’re also putting on the fast track so you won’t get a chance to ask questions or raise objections.
Wait! Why aren’t any of you helping us out here?
Shhhh…you weren’t supposed to see the Obama advisor in the picture. Remember, Obama said that he wasn’t for a public option. So take his word for it.
/sarc
Reich is not very bright. They did the same thing with the Postal Service with heavy government subsidies and Congressional barriers to competition and it still loses tens of billions every year.
The Feds can’t even manage the H1N1 flu vaccine and they’re still trying to make reasonable people buy into this national healthcare nonsense.
The “call-it-anything-but-what-it-is” option.
Yes, but a skunk smart enough to get a free ride on the space shuttle.
In other words, whether or not they’ve got the votes to pass Obamacare with or without the public option, it is time to tweak their nutroot socialist base for some more campaign contributions for the upcoming election season.
Bottomline, can’t get much out of their nutroots after Obamacare votes fail.
This whole idea of “health insurance” is completely unconstitutional. What next, when this is implemented? A food insurance bill? We’ve come to the point when the government has decided that the Constitution, that they swore to uphold and defend, is dead. We will wake up, one day, and find ourselves in a totalitarian government, and wondered what happened.
But its for the children….
What? The National Debt?
Reid says the public option will ensure competition and a level playing field. For the love of God, remove the state restriction and let 1306 insurance companies compete in the free market across state lines, and keep government the hell out of it!!!!
What is it with these socialist nitwits that they dont even understand the working of the free market??? Man, they sicken me.
I am scared too.
Okay…don’t give it to us straight. Use vague language (as usual) to confuse unenlighted voters. Yeah, that’s the ticket!
If you can’t tell the truth about the bill, I am sure it’s rigged to be good for thee, but not for me! Status quo?
Please explain, or glorious Princess Nan, who taught you that the government is a “competitor” for businesses? Government doesn’t, or at least hasn’t in the past, earned a dime. How has that dynamic changed?
And I am a little confused (not really). If an insurance company lowers it’s rates, and a citizen is insured through another company, but YOUR rules state that if you drop your current insurer you are not allowed to buy from anyone but the government, how is:
a) a citizen going to benefit from lower rates at another company, if they can’t buy it, and
b) any private insurance company going to be compelled to get new customers by lowering their rates?
Oh, I see…unfair competition for policy holders is still competition.
2010 – Up or Out…any official voting for this monstrosity MUST be voted out, starting next year!
You Lie
Same old same old. “No one wants what we’re offering but if we just make it sound nicer they’ll change their minds.”
Always fiddling with the packaging, looking for a way to make it seem like their ideas aren’t really stupid and destructive. Always acting as if the only problem is PR, not substance.
His waaaaaaaaaarrrr is looooooooost.
One good thing to come from this fiasco (Pres. Obama’s term, that is) is that a new generation of voters who don’t remember Jimmeh Cottah are finding out what the Demoncrats are REALLY about. It may take a few years for them to recover from this self-inflicted damage.
My option will be to help send Dingy Harry back to Searchlight, Nevada and fence him in.
The socialists WILL get their plan in – just not in the front door. They will make an innocuous bill, but put a trigger mechanism in. Of course, in the interest of bipartisanship, McCain will go along because there is nothing in the bill (now) that is damaging (never mind there is nothing good in the bill). Others will go along too for same reason.
The moon will come up (after 2012) and low and behold, we will have the government running health care.
Never mind that the government has never run anything well. (I challenge anybody to name a single thing which the government does well. As far as I can tell, the least efficient private enterprise operates better than government at any level).
How about the “happy joy option”, or the “fuzzy bunny option”? No one would oppose bills with such names.
“The nasty Republicans are against fuzzy bunnies”!
Fuzzy bunnies are particularly good with mashed potatoes and gravy, perhaps some mint sauce. I’ll have to check with Chappy.
Dang, AN.
I just got up and already hungry for lunch. I wonder if I still have any fuzzy bunny in the fridge?
NO, NO!! Don’t tell me, I’m keen to guess. Now let me see, hmmm… uh… could it be…uhhh…McCain… and uh… Graham?
Your post inspired me to go pull one of my favorite cookbooks from college and check out the fuzzy bunny recipe we made from that my junior year.
“Lapin crépu sauté à la moutarde et au romarin”
The cookbook suggested a dry white to serve with it. I would go with a Pinot Noir, preferably one from Oregon or Burgundy.
Those who partake of the Surf & Turf, who lean towards the Surf side of things, may I suggest the “Sea Kittens”? They’re particularly rich and tender this time of year.
Sea Kittens and Fuzzy Bunnies deserves a rich and robust lager.
you mean spirited republicans, and you too chappie. don’t you know our eating meat is what is causing this global warming which has produced the coldest october on record in most of the states. even died in the wool kool-aid drinkers should question the entire premise of MAN MADE GLOBAL WARMING, but our smartest humans in the colleges doing research judge intended results rather than actual results on their experiments. after all, why judge what actually happens when judging intended results is so much more p.c.
From today:
Sorry, chap. I don’t for one minute think the AP is neutral on the issue.
Those loony statisticians with their blind data are in the tank too?
It has been known for sometime that the devices for reading temperatures have been placed in rather interesting places, like rooftops, parking lots, and next to AC units. Much of the data is tainted.
From chapoutier’s link:
So in other words, the temperature apparently rose between 1880 and 2009, and between 1979 and 2009. That doesn’t mean temperatures haven’t flatlined or come down slightly since 1998. In fact, they have. And it’s not something that the much-vaunted computer models were able to predict.