October 06, 2009

10/6: Well, There's Good News And Bad News...

As has so often been the case during the health care debate, liberal bloggers are seeing both good news and bad news today in their hopes of passing a strong bill. On the one hand, lefty bloggers are cautiously optimistic about reports that the Obama admin. is pushing Senate Dems to include "some version" of the public option in the merged Senate bill. The netroots are currently focusing their efforts on ensuring that the final bill includes a "real" or "robust" public option. As Joan McCarter explains: "We've won the battle over making the public option an essential part of healthcare reform. Now we have to win the war over what form that public option takes."

Not everything is turning up roses for liberals, however. Several lefty bloggers are criticizing Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) for helping to kill Sen. John Kerry's (D-MA) amendment to the Finance Committee bill, which would have created a more aggressive health insurance exchange. Jon Walker complains that "in an effort to win Snowe health care reform is being crippled."

What else is happening in the blogosphere?

• Conservative bloggers (Wolf, Geraghty) are excited that Rep. Mike Castle (R-DE) is running for Senate. Other conservative bloggers (Geraghty, McCormack) are excited about FL SEN candidate Marco Rubio's (R) Q3 fundraising numbers.
• Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas wants MT Gov. Brian Schweitzer (D) to challenge Sen. Max Baucus (D) in 2014.
• Power Line's Paul Mirengoff thinks it's "unfortunate" that some conservatives celebrated Chicago's failure to win the 2016 Olympic Games. However, RedState's Erick Erickson refuses to apologize, explaining, "I love America, therefore I must cheer this Obama defeat."

PUBLIC OPTION: Accept No Substitutes

Liberal bloggers are cautiously optimistic about reports that the Obama admin. is pushing Senate Dems to include "some version" of the public option in the merged bill:

• Open Left's Chris Bowers: "Good. If they succeed, and a public option is in the bill sent to the Senate floor, it will be a huge boost to the public option campaign. Getting 60 votes to overcome a filibuster of the entire bill is a lot easier than getting 60 votes to add a public option to the bill via Senate floor amendment. This is because even the Senate Conservadems are loathe to cross President Obama by filibustering health care reform, and Senator [Chuck] Schumer claims there are 54 to 56 votes for a public option in and of itself. Schumer's numbers seem a bit optimistic to me, but they are still hopeful."
• The Washington Monthly's Steve Benen: "All things being equal, this sounds pretty good. At this point, I was more or less expecting Democratic leaders to start lowering expectations, and preparing the party base for a letdown on the public option. Instead, most of the rhetoric seems to be pointing in the other direction [...] But it's still wise to temper one's enthusiasm. For one thing, the distance between here and the finish line is still pretty long. For another, as we recently learned, 'some form of a public option' can mean different things. [Senate Maj. Leader Harry] Reid conceded last week that 'public option' is a 'relative term.' Taken together, put me down for 'cautious optimism.'"

Liberal bloggers are demanding that the final bill not simply include "some version" of the public option, but a "real" or "robust" public option:

• Daily Kos' mcjoan: "We've won the battle over making the public option an essential part of healthcare reform. Now we have to win the war over what form that public option takes. [...] Snowe's trigger isn't a substitute for a public option. Once you scratch the surface, it's obvious that the trigger isn't intended to just phase in a public option, it's intended to kill it by ensuring that the threshold for it's being triggered is never met. [WA Sen. Maria] Cantwell's amendment is good for what it does, but it's not a substitute for a robust public option that can compete against private insurance companies. [...] The House Progressive Block is fully committed to a robust public option, and has the numbers to back that up. Every poll that's been done in the past month -- even after the August temper tantrum townhalls -- show that the majority of American voters support a Medicare-like public option. That even includes [AR Sen.] Blanche Lincoln's constituents. And according to Chuck Schumer, a healthy majority of Senate Democrats are behind it. Winning the war on a robust public option, on real healthcare reform that at least puts us on a path to universal, affordable, comprehensive coverage shouldn't be this hard. There's no need to settle for 'some version' of a public option."
• AMERICAblog's Joe Sudbay: "It's not question of if there will be a public option in the health insurance reform bill, it's a question of whether it's a real public option. [...] Elected Democrats in D.C. often spurred on by their weak-kneed and ineffective political consultants, have an uncanny ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Over the next few weeks, we'll see all kinds of attempts to waffle on the public option and the health insurance reform bill. There will be trial balloons floated with all kinds of gimmicks and schemes. Enough. Democrats have the power. We all worked our asses off in the election so they'd have the power. Now, they have to do the right thing."

SNOWE: Watering Down Legislation Is Her Specialty

Liberal bloggers are criticizing Snowe for helping to kill Kerry's amendment to the Finance Committee bill, which would have created a more aggressive health insurance exchange:

• The Washington Post's Ezra Klein: "There's a good chance that Kerry's amendment will triumph down the line, and the 'prudent purchaser' language included in the House and HELP Committee bills will be in the final legislation. But it's worth keeping an eye on. If [Jon] Kingsdale, the only guy who's actually run one of these exchanges effectively, says this is necessary, then it's necessary."
• Think Progress' Matthew Yglesias: "Olympia Snowe looks set to reprise her roll in hobbling the stimulus bill in exchange for providing the key pivotal vote for it by killing John Kerry's amendment, 'Empowering State Exchanges to be Prudent Purchasers.' [...] Ezra Klein observes that Jon Kingsdale is basically the only person in America's who's run anything like the exchanges envisioned in all the different bills -- he does the job in Massachusetts -- and he views the prudent purchaser rule as absolutely essential. Against that Snowe is pitting, I guess, her intuition that this is too much government involvement."

Firedoglake's Walker thinks Senate Dems should stop trying to win Snowe's vote: "This is not the only time that Snowe has demanded an awful policy change. [...] A worthless trigger instead of a public option, weak, poorly regulated exchanges, the terrible 'free rider' provisions -- these bad policies might all be part of reform legislation in order to win Olympia Snowe. (I think we will be finding out for months what other bad ideas Snowe demanded be part of the bill.) In an effort to win Snowe health care reform is being crippled. Winning her could cost the government hundreds of billions of dollars and regular American families a few thousand a year in higher premiums. Is one Republican vote really worth the high price of Snowe?"

THOUGHT OF THE DAY: The Partisan Construction Of Bipartisanship

NRO's Ramesh Ponnuru:

"I keep reading commentary about the Republicans' terrible failure to work with the Democrats on health care. (The New Republic ran an editorial calling the Republicans' obstructionism a crisis for our political system.) Yet the administration could have had the support of nearly all Republicans and a minority of Democrats, and have had legislation passed today, if it had pursued a different vision of health-care reform: one that extended tax credits to people locked out of employer-based insurance and removed state regulatory obstacles to the emergence of a national market in individually purchased insurance.

If Obama had followed this path, most liberal health-policy experts would have screamed that he had betrayed the cause, since the policies I am describing formed the [John] McCain plan during the last campaign. I don't really fault the Democrats for not violating their own views of sound health-care policy. But neither do I fault the Republicans for not embracing the same health-care policies they rejected in 1994. The parties have incompatible views of where health-care policy should go. If the Democrats want to do something comprehensive, they will basically have to go it alone. Everybody knows this, and everyone should have known it all year."

LEST WE FORGET: Secretary Of The Ulterior Clearly Vying For Better Cabinet Position

From The Onion:

"WASHINGTON -- Following a Monday morning staff meeting, White House sources said it has become clear that Department of the Ulterior head Arthur Killen is jockeying for a higher-ranking cabinet position. 'I thought I'd bring in some gourmet coffee cake today -- no reason, really, I just know how everyone loves a nice coffee cake,' Killen was overheard saying moments after he explained to Rahm Emanuel that he 'had no idea' how a report addressing wasteful spending in the Department of Energy had ended up in the chief of staff's briefcase. 'Where is [current Energy Secretary] Steven [Chu]? Oh, he's out of town today? Boy, he's really been missing a lot of work lately, hasn't he?' White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said it is unlikely Killen will be promoted, as the ulterior secretary's latest actions have once again proved he is ideally suited for his current position."

Posted by Ian Faerstein at October 6, 2009 12:30 PM