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Monday, October 05, 2009
Is There Water in Those High Clouds?
At last, signs that the "public option" is far from dead and that President Obama is beginning to work behind the scenes to match his leverage to his election race rhetoric.
Jane Hamsher, however, remains skeptical.
Jane Hamsher, however, remains skeptical.
Labels: Barack Obama, health care, Jane Hamsher
Friday, October 02, 2009
Harry Reid Blows Hot
Noted frail reed Sen. Harry Reid, our least favorite Democratic Senate Majority Leader since the last Democratic Senate Majority Leader, put it on the record yesterday that there will be a public option in the final health insurance reform bill that goes to the president's desk.Reid will be on the reconciliation committee, to meld House and Senate versions of reform. That much is a cinch. So he would be in a position to deliver on that promise. Not that we believe him in the first place, and not that we have any actual hope that the reconciled bill will contain any public option that isn't (a) "triggered" (something Congressional Democrats can later renege on, which they are so good at) or (b) so weak and watered down as to be meaningless (something else Congressional Democrats have shown past talents at accomplishing).
Jane Hamsher's take on the back-stage maneuvering is, once again, invaluable.
Labels: Harry Reid, health care, Jane Hamsher
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Never Go in a Room Alone With Rahm Emanuel
Jane Hamsher sez that Richard Trumka, the new president of the AFL-CIO and heretofore a strong advocate for the public option, has been summoned to the White House today for a conference with that prick Rahm Emanuel, which means, according to Hamsher, that Trumka will cave to the Profane Blowtorch.For the long-term health of a recently reborn Democratic Party, here's the crux for Hamsher, and for us:
"...I defy anyone to find me one single example of the White House twisting one arm for a public option. Just one. But when Rahm and Trumka meet today, it will be after a month of very serious threats to the AFL-CIO carried out at the highest levels. It's the kind of 'arm twisting' that only the executive branch is capable of, and it has been done to crush support for a public option, not opposition."
We didn't vote for Rahm Emanuel to be the head of government.
Labels: health care, Jane Hamsher, Rahm Emanuel, Richard Trumka
Monday, September 28, 2009
History of Blue-Dog Barking on Health Insurance Reform
By the only writer we trust on the awful sausage-making in Congress.
Labels: health care, Jane Hamsher
