(noon. – promoted by ek hornbeck)
Amy Goodman of Democracy Now, interviews Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), a co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, regarding a Robust Public Option:
AMY GOODMAN: Congress member Grijalva, I also want to ask you about Senate Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus and his close ties to the healthcare industry. […]
REP. RAUL GRIJALVA: I think the product that has come out from his committee and himself, I really believe that it has no legitimacy in this debate. It’s an insider product. It’s there to protect the industry. It is not there to try to look for that middle ground. He is key in holding up deliberations, has been key in trying to work on a consensus, but everything you see in his legislation had to be approved by the industry before it became part of the plan. So I don’t think it’s legitimate.
[…] I consider Senator Baucus’s proposal to be essentially an insider trader move to protect an industry and really doesn’t have validity at all, both political validity or content validity.
Amy Goodman of Democracy Now, interviews Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), a co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, regarding a Robust Public Option:
Selected Points of interest:
AMY GOODMAN: […] Yesterday, the White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Baucus had distributed his healthcare plan to lobbyists on K Street prior to sharing the plan with other members of the committee.
Meanwhile, the watchdog website LittleSis.org has revealed Senator Baucus’s chief health adviser, Elizabeth Fowler, is a former executive for the insurance giant WellPoint.
Fowler has been called the “chief operating officer” of the healthcare reform process.
Baucus’s previous chief health adviser, Michelle Easton, now lobbies for WellPoint.
LittleSis.org also reports that another Senate staffer working on Baucus’s healthcare bill, Cathy Koch, is a former lobbyist for health insurance and pharmaceutical interests, including an insurance industry front group.
Koch worked as the director of global government affairs at the drug company Amgen until early 2007. Before that, she worked at Ernst & Young, where she lobbied on behalf of a number of large insurance and pharmaceutical companies, including Aetna, Blue Cross, Eli Lilly and Pfizer.
Incredible!
Former Industry Lobbyists on the Inside of the Finance Committee — WRITING this critical Health Care Reform Bill, for the Finance Committee! And getting it pre-approved by K-Street, before wrapping it up with a Bow.
How can this be Legal? … Oh wait, nevermind! I forgot, what country I lived in, for a moment.
The N-Dimensional Chess Moves, are already being planned out, about 6 moves in advance:
JUAN GONZALEZ, of Democracy Now: Yet, Congressman, press reports yesterday were suggesting that Democratic congressional leaders will attempt to have the Senate vote first on a healthcare bill, in essence to put pressure on the Progressive Caucus and the left of the Democratic Party —
REP. RAUL GRIJALVA: Yeah.
JUAN GONZALEZ: — to basically —it’s on you whether healthcare reform passes or not, any kind of healthcare reform passes.
REP. RAUL GRIJALVA: Yeah, you can kind of — you can kind of see the winds heading in that direction, […] I think the winds are going to shift, and the progressive members of Congress are going to be seen as the obstructionists. They’re going to try to be labeled at that.
And I’ve said over and over, both to — we have told the administration and our leadership for almost — consistently for a year what we felt were the guiding principles to a public plan. We’ve been consistent. We haven’t backed off.
But, but, what about Bipartisanship?
What about, going along, to get along?
REP. RAUL GRIJALVA: […] we’ve been hearing about consensus and bipartisanship now for almost six months. And I’ve come to the conclusion that we’re not looking for middle ground as much as the opposition wants to delay. And, you know, they even — they first said that they wanted co-ops; now they’re opposed to co-ops. They first said that they thought that all we needed to do was expand Medicare; now they’re opposed to that expansion. So I think sometimes leadership and our president, in an effort to be conciliatory, we make too many concessions. And that’s where we find ourselves right now, in a situation where we’re fighting to keep a public plan […]
And, you know, this political line in the sand that we have drawn is not a gimmick. We feel very strongly about it. We believe that it’s not only good public policy that we’re advocating, it’s good political policy, because our base really needs to see its party and its leadership come through with a commitment that was made in this era of change. And this is one of them. Health reform is the biggie.
And I think the progressives, while there will be an effort to label us, I think we’re going to work hard these next two weeks to build not only the internal support that we need for the public plan, but, more importantly, the external support to also put pressure on our colleagues.
AMY GOODMAN: So you’re saying, Congressman Grijalva, co-chair of the Progressive Caucus, you will not support a bill that does not include the public option?
REP. RAUL GRIJALVA: I cannot, even if — and I don’t, but even if there was a point where I wanted to go back on that word, it is too late. We have been advocating for this. We have been working with people on this, and we’re going to fight it down to the very last day. It’s [public option] got to be part of it.
If it’s not, we’re just showering money upon money upon the same system and the same industry that got us into the mess we’re in right now.
So Progressives get the be the “Bad Guys” once again?
So be it. If that’s what it takes to get Real Change!
We are being told that the Public Option, IF IT MAKES IT into the Final Bill, will only be available to about to 10% of the public, and then only in 2013!!
But, but, Isn’t this really a Defacto Trigger?
You’ll get the Public Option — BUT —
Not until all those pre-existing Conditions have, er, become less “existing” …
and/or … Not Until you’re Unemployed! … (Huh? No relief from the Insurance Treadmill, until I get fired?)
What IF MY EMPLOYER’S Insurance Plan ISN’T Good Enough? What if those weekly Paycheck Deductions, keep on going UP and UP and UP?
Whatever happened to the “No More Job Lock”?
Whatever happened “to Choice”?
Funny the Majority of the People WANT Choice — it’s just Max Baucus’s chief health adviser’s, and her K-street Proof-readers, that Don’t!
Just look at that Huge Chasm of Opinions, that is too DEEP to bridge —
Woooo — Scary!
SurveyUSA Poll — Data Collected: 08/19/2009, before the Big Speech!
Republicans
Democrats
Independents
All Groups favor choice of Public Option — in Mid August!
Too bad, the Real Opposition
has the best Representation, money can buy!
Who is the Opposition?
the Insurance Lobby of course,
and their Media enablers.
Otherwise we would have heard about these
very Newsworthy Polls last month —
Instead we just heard about Townhaller’s over and over again
Ad Nauseaum!
Truly sickening, isn’t it? What passes for Reporting these Days!
(Walter must STILL be rolling over in his grave.)
Well, the Progressive Caucus is STILL “Drawing that Line in the Sand”, and We good Bad Progressives, should too.
IF we Don’t, a few years from now we’ll be hearing a cascade of complaints, similar to those we hear these days, with regards to the Medicare Part D debacle.
I wonder what euphemism will rise up, in the Public’s mind, once a watered-down version of the Public Option gets Rahmmed-thru, JUST TO GET SOMETHING PASSED —
What will be the New Catch Phrase then (Post-PO-Version 3.1), to replace our oh-so-witty “Donut Hole” stalking horse, now?
Hmmmm? How about:
“Option of Last Resort”
“Co-option of the Willing”
“Insurance Trap for the 90%”
???
Come on you Madison Ave types, I’m sure you can sell this thing!
Give it a shot — A Watered-down bill, is better than No Bill at all, right?
Anywhoo, sure was a great speech, last week though, wasn’t it?
Man, I just hate that Joe Wilson guy … grumble, grumble … steam, steam!!
He just makes my skin crawl …
Hmmmm? I wonder if I will be able to see a Doctor about that, after the Teddy Kennedy Baucus Bill, gets passed!?!
Hope it passes soon, this itch, is getting, pretty scratchy …
3 comments
Author
tips for round 2
of wake-the-f-up!
A health insurance reform plan written by and for the insurance industry. I’m suppose to get behind this?
No legislation would be better than what is coming out of the Baucus committee.