Health Care Debate Heating Up-- Who's Going To Get Burned?

Hopefully you've already seen the MoveOn/R.E.M. health care reform video above and even had a chance to think about it. It came to my e-mail box just as a thank you note hit from New York Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney. I was one of the 2,043 netroots activists who donated money to her through the Blue America Standing Up For The Public Option page. We were saying thanks to her for standing firm while other wilted under pressure from the powerful special interests that have shoveled billions in thinly disguised bribes into congressional races. Here's the short, to the point note that Rep. Maloney sent me this morning:

Thank you for your recent contribution to my campaign-- and thank you even more for your work every day to pass real health care reform legislation with a genuine public option.

I have always been a strong supporter of the public option, including being a longtime co-sponsor of single-payer legislation. This year we have a once in a lifetime opportunity to pass real health care reform and I have pledged to fight to the bitter end to make sure a real public option is included. 

However, to be successful, we need you to keep up the fight and make sure your voice is heard. Together, we can make it happen.

Her note came within moments of a press release from Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), also short and sweet:

The centerpiece of this reform is a robust Medicare-like public health insurance plan tied to the Medicare provider system.  Like many of my colleagues in both the House and Senate, I will oppose any health care reform bill that lacks such a plan.  I will also oppose any legislation that seeks to replace a robust public health insurance option with health care cooperatives or which ties the availability of the public option to a trigger mechanism.  In this effort, I stand in solidarity with House progressives, the majority of my friends in organized labor, millions of health care providers, and 72 percent of the American people.

Conyers received 3,197 donations on our page. Like Maloney, he had signed letters to Speaker Nancy Pelosi and then Secretary Kathleen Sebelius explaining that they would oppose Insurance-Industry-backed proposals to deny Americans real health care reform. Not every member of Congress who signed those two letters seems to be holding as firm as Maloney and Conyers. Yesterday we looked at some video of a health care rally at Boston Commons in which Representative Capuano was cheered after extolling holding the line on the public option, and Representative Stephen Lynch was mercilessly booed after he waffled on the public option. Capuano was a signatory to the two letters; Lynch wasn't. Both are probably going to run for Ted Kennedy's former Senate seat. One would have thought Capuano might have understood that the cheers he got yesterday were not because of how handsome or eloquent he is but because of the position he was backing. The 3,103 donors-- as well as Massachusetts voters-- who thought he was going to stick with what he said, may be very disappointed. Today's Roll Call calls into question the willingness of some of the progressives to hold firm, especially Capuano, Sam Farr and Bill Pascrell. This is the kind of wheeling and dealing we expect from principle-less whores like Steny Hoyer who surprised no one-- especially not the Insurance Industry and Medical-Industrial Complex CEOs and lobbyists who helped grease his rise to power-- when he announced today that "he could back a bill to overhaul the U.S. healthcare system without a so-called public option that would create a government-run insurance program."

In order to pass a consumer friendly bill, rather than an Insurance Industry giveaway that destroys the middle class-- and, justifiably, the Democratic Party-- there's got to be a public option. Enough Democrats claim to understand that-- and claim to be willing to stand up to the corrupt Senate and White House-- that faux legislation can be stopped. This morning The Hill did the math:

If Republicans offer the blanket opposition they’ve promised, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) can afford to lose only 38 members of her 256-member caucus and still pass the bill... Voting against a president from your own party is starkly different from defying a Speaker or a committee chairman, and Obama is stepping up his involvement, starting with a speech to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday night.

The Pelosi camp, for its part, sees no reason to be discouraged.

“The Congress will pass and the president will sign this year health insurance reform that will lower costs, retain choice, improve quality and expand coverage,” said Pelosi spokesman Nadeam Elshami.

Pelosi has vowed to include in the bill a government-run insurance plan, commonly called a “public option,” to compete with private insurers.

Many centrist opponents of the bill don’t like the public option, or don’t want to vote on such a controversial plan when it’s unlikely to become law... At least 60 liberal Democrats have pledged to vote against a healthcare bill with no public option, which they view as watered-down reform.

Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) has said dropping the public option completely would lose 100 Democratic votes.

Here's a list of conservative Democrats who have already vowed to join the Republicans in opposing the health care bill. The list comes from The Hill but I have it from a Hose whip that duplicitous California Blue Dog Jane Harman is also on this list, regardless of her dishonest protestations to the contrary.

John Adler (NJ)
Jason Altmire  (Blue Dog-PA)
John Barrow  (Blue Dog-GA)
Dan Boren (Blue Dog-OK)
Rick Boucher  (VA)
Allen Boyd (Blue Dog-FL)
Bobby Bright (Blue Dog-AL)
Travis Childers (Blue Dog-MS)
Jim Costa (Blue Dog-CA)
Henry Cuellar  (Blue Dog-TX)
Parker Griffith (Blue Dog-AL)
Frank Kratovil (Blue Dog-MD)
Betsy Markey (CO)
Jim Matheson Blue Dog-UT)
Charlie Melancon (Blue Dog-LA)
Walt Minnick (Blue Dog-ID)
Earl Pomeroy (Blue Dog-ND)
Heath Shuler (Blue Dog-NC)
Bart Stupak (MI)
John Tanner (Blue Dog-TN)
Gene Taylor (Blue Dog-MS)

And that doesn't count anti-family Blue Dog Mike Ross (AR). And then there's Joe Lieberman (I-CT) over in the Senate, who is one of the most richly bribed members of Congress-- $2,395,369 from the Medical Industrial Complex and another $1,033,402 from the Insurance Industry, not counting the money they funneled into the Lieberman household through his wife, a crooked lobbyist-- and who adamantly opposes health care reform. Watch him regurgitating Republican talking points written by the Insurance Industry this morning:




UPDATE: Mike Capuano Says He's Still Onboard

Here's the exact quote: "I have been and will continue to support a robust public plan. I have signed two letters organized by the Congressional Progressive Caucus articulating my unwavering support for a public plan. My position has not and will not change, and I will continue to fight for a public plan." We'll keep a close eye on developments here. [FURTHER UPDATE: Just got off the phone with Mike; the guy is awesome and he got a bum rap from the press yesterday.]