Under Pressure

Posted on 09/05/2009 at 12:23 pm by admin

by Lee Stranahan

Talking Points Memo reports…

Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) told Greg Sargent that Obama outright asked the participants how far they’re willing to compromise on the public option.

All in all it appears very much as if the President is feeling out how willing the House will be to support a bill that falls short of their earlier demands for a Medicare-like public option available to all consumers without any triggers. As I reported earlier today, Obama’s set to meet with progressive House leaders Tuesday ahead of his big health care speech before Congress. That’s shaping up to be an extremely crucial meeting.

The White House is in a box – any bill that would pass the Senate won’t pass the House and vice versa. All the reporting I’ve read indicates that they were planning to kill or cripple the Public Option. If you’re trying to parse that out, it’s important to note that I haven’t seen ANY reporting that indicates otherwise.

We heave a chance to snatch victory from the hands of defeat and make no mistake, the Public Option was headed for defeat. The ‘trigger’ still seems to be on the table. The House push back is crucial but so is pressure from Obama’s base. The President needs to know clearly that his supporters have a line in the sand, as well

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  • http://tarackian.deviantart.com J M Ashby

    I think they should go with the bill in the house that includes the public option and get the house to pass it, and then ram it down the throats of the senate.If the senate votes against it, then use that opporunity to make the senate look bad and force them to vote yes.As far as Im concerned the entire problem in this whole process has been the utterly incompetent and worthless senate. Not the house nor the president.

  • roxsteady

    Exactly, but, I agree that if Obama abondons the public option or allows the Blue Dogs and Snowe to add a trigger then, he and those Dems are finished! I assume they are monitoring the blogs and took note of what Keith Olbermann said on Thursday night which was, that if they cave on the public option, Progressive supporters and Liberals will begin looking for a challenger to Obama in 2012. He didn’t run on this watered down garbage the Senate is trying to push so, he should go down swinging for the fences. He has to know that we’re willing to fight so he should be as well. I’m sure they’re beginning to feel the heat from us already with their sinking polling numbers. They have to know that it is us bringing down their numbers. Now, what the hell are they going to do about it?

  • roxsteady

    The time for entertaining the crazies has long past. These people are never going to go along with any thing proposed under him and it’s time he faced that. As for the Blue Dogs, while many like the Scarborough and Tweetie keep saying that it’s the Blue Dogs who helped us to the majority, they miss the point that we’re a majority because the country wanted a Democratic Congress and Senate, not a Democrat in name only! We didn’t join the Blue Dog party, they joined the DEMOCRATIC PARTY and clearly know what Obama ran on and it wasn’t their bullshit platform!

  • roxsteady

    What I don’t get is how the Blue Dogs don’t get that they’ll be marginalized whether they vote for the public option or not. They’ve already shown us who they’re concerned about. Do they really think they’ll have an easier time of it if they vote against their president and party? These idiots are clueless. I can’t wait to see what happens to all of them. That bitch Blanche Lincoln should be the first to go!

  • Eric

    Agreed – do whatever it takes to get the damn bill out of the Senate Finance committee, and dump it in conference. Ram the House bill through. (…and that’s the extent of my procedural knowledge…)It looks like it time to fire up the email machine again…What I want to know is – what was Raul Grijalva’s response when Obama asked him that question.

  • Jan

    Read Matt Taibi’s new article in Rolling Stone. All this posturing by Obama is bullshit.This thing is over. Not getting a public option is bad, but the proposed mandates are imho just as bad.Individual mandates-forcing us to buy ins or get hit with a big old tax penalty. That’s in all the bills I believe.Employer mandates- ONLY if you have a $500,000 payroll. Thank the Dogs for that. 15-20 such companies in the country. All other businesses-no mandate. So they are free to offer crappy insurance or none. No penalty and no public option to fall back on.This is just the tip of this 1000 page iceberg.

  • http://annette-justmylittlepieceoftheworld.blogspot.com/ Annette

    But Lee, why didn’t you go to Greg’s post and show the rest of the quote.. TPM didn’t show it but Greg did.. here it is… You love to cherry pick this stuff.. and you didn’t even bother to put Greg’s reporting in…

    In another newsworthy tidbit, Grijalva says Obama signaled that discussions about the public option would continue even after his big speech before a joint session of Congress next week. That may be an indication that Obama won’t be mentioning the public option in his speech, but doesn’t want liberals to despair at that prospect.Said Grijalva: “I didn’t come away from this discussion feeling that we were dead.”

    Emphasis is mine..however I think it shows that the President has NOT given up as you all seem to think he has.. I have been saying this all along yet you are all ready to throw him away with the bath water.. That’s why I have basically stopped coming here.. Most of you are so down and out and ready to give up it is really disheartening to even try to post or read this crap. I am so sick of the rants Lee gets on.. and Terri is about the most critical of everyone except herself I have ever seen.Bob has more patience than I would ever have..

  • http://annette-justmylittlepieceoftheworld.blogspot.com/ Annette

    Another thing.. How many of you listened to Al Franken’s video? How proud of him were you? Did you really listen?Did you hear him talk about Switzerland? Did you hear what he said about the insurance companies in Switzerland and how they are regulated and what they do in their country to provide Health Care.. They have NO PUBLIC OPTION, and they have mandates, and they have NO SINGLE PAYER.All they have is a strong regulation.. listen to it again and pay very close attention just about 1 minute in to a little over 1:30 in and listen to what he says… NO PUBLIC OPTION.

  • Stranahan

    Annette,I don’t know how I can be any more clear – I was never ‘throwing the baby out’. I have called fore pushback, which obviously means I don’t think it’s over. Your idea of ‘defeatism’ seems to be reading the newsThere’s no question that President Obama was on a road to selling out the Public Option. That’s what every single report from every single source says. There’s not a single report that contradicts it.If everyone had the same head-in-the-sand attitude that you have, the Public Option would be dead.The ONLY THING that has kept it alive is push back from the House and from progressives who weren’t willing to lay down and die for the President.As for your Franken quote – it sounds you’re fine with no Public Option. Is that correct? For many of us, it’s a line in the sand.

  • Stranahan

    Just to be extra-clear…It should be obvious that I don’t agree with what Jan said, either. I don’t think it’s over because…it’s not over.The Rolling Stone article is correct about what was happening but the White House has been forced by the House to realize that they can’t pass a bill without a strong Public Option, either…So – the battle now, today – is MORE progressive grassroots pushback.

  • eve

    Politico has article:What Obama will say in his address5) Obama will try to reassure the left about his commitment to a public option, or governmentinsurance plan.http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0909/26794.html

  • Stranahan

    Push back works. He has to reassure us because lots of us spoke up to say something more substantive then ‘I trust you!!!!’

  • Jan

    is MORE progressive grassroots pushback.We’ve been doing that for months. No one except the Progressive Caucus has listened. Hopefully when they meet with Obama on Tues. they don’t cave like a cheap tent. They alone will keep the po alive and kicking.Politically I think it would be horrifying for the dems if they passed a bill with mandates and no public option. I think it would be suicide for them in 2010. No one likes being forced to buy something they don’t want or can’t afford with a penalty hanging over their head.It honestly terrifies me.

  • http://annette-justmylittlepieceoftheworld.blogspot.com/ Annette

    You need to know me a little better before you say or try to read what I am about.. have you ever once checked my blog.. I would bet you haven’t .. I have read what you write…here and on Twitter.. and you are constantly putting the President down.. you are the face of defeatism.. I don’t have my head in the sand.. but I am not giving up on the President either.. and the Franken quote is exactly what he said on the YouTube that everyone has been saying was the best thing all week.. He was holding up Switzerland as the model system..I was just saying that if everyone thinks Al Franken is who we should be listening too, then maybe we better listen close to what he is saying.. I didn’t say I agreed with it..You have been pushing for Single Payer.. now you want Public Option.. in the quote I put up from Greg Sargent’s blog.. the President is still supporting a Public Option.. Nowhere is there any reporting on that.. and you can’t show me anywhere that anyone has a quote directly from a named person that says the president has given up on the Public Option.. NO WHERE.

  • http://twitter.com/Cody_K Cody

    But Lee, why didn’t you go to Greg’s post and show the rest of the quote.. TPM didn’t show it but Greg did.. here it is… You love to cherry pick this stuff.. and you didn’t even bother to put Greg’s reporting in…

    Heh heh heh.. I couldn’t have said it better, Annette.

  • http://twitter.com/Cody_K Cody
  • http://www.bobcesca.com Bob_Cesca

    Lee wrote:

    Push back works. He has to reassure us because lots of us spoke up to say something more substantive then ‘I trust you!!!!’

    Then why don’t you go back to blogging about the benefits of the public option? If you want to push back — THEN PUSH BACK, LEE. Instead, you’re spending all your time rumor-mongering and winding people up about what the White House *might* or *might not* be doing.If you support the public option and want the White House to agree with you, then tell them. Don’t just bitch about this rumor or that anonymous Politico item.And if you think for a second that anyone here is blindly shouting “I trust you” then you’re outstandingly wrong.

  • http://www.bobcesca.com Bob_Cesca

    Jan wrote:

    This thing is over.

    No it’s not. But I can understand how you might think this based on some of the stuff you’ve been reading.I’ve been trying to underscore for almost a year now that we should take everything with the phrase “Obama should [blank]” with a giant grain of salt.Cheer up, Jan. There’s lots of work to do if we want government to do the things we need. Taking our shit and going home won’t achieve anything.

  • http://www.bobcesca.com Bob_Cesca

    Lee also wrote:

    The ONLY THING that has kept it alive is push back from the House and from progressives who weren’t willing to lay down and die for the President.

    “Lay down and die for the president?” That’s ridiculously melodramatic, Lee.Anyway, it should be said that the progressives who deserve credit for push-back are the ones who mobilized and made calls and donated money to the cause. Not the ones who perpetually bitched and whined about the president “selling them out.”If the public option survives it’s the *proactive* progressives who deserve credit. Mobilizing, promoting the policy and doing the legwork is hard. Sitting on the sidelines and crabbing about the boss is easy.

  • http://annette-justmylittlepieceoftheworld.blogspot.com/ Annette

    Thank you Bob.

  • http://annette-justmylittlepieceoftheworld.blogspot.com/ Annette

    Thank You Cody… I just put up a new post and used that exact thing to show the President’s continued support for the Public Option. And MINE…Contrary to what Lee seems to think.

  • http://twitter.com/Cody_K Cody

    Love how you’re conveniently riding the fence, Lee.If it fails… you get to say you and all the poopoopers and naysayers were “right” all along. The writing was on the wall and the rest of us were delusional for just not being able to see it.If it passes with public option… you get to take credit for all your “Push Back”.I’ll say it again… you know how much time I spend in Twitter. You can claim a video here and there was push back. But the bulk of what I see you talking about, and all the anonymous source articles you posted… was about backing up your speculation of Obama having already “sold us out” long ago.Bob can see it. Annette can see it. Karoli can see it. Bethany can see it. And I see it. As do countless other commenters here, at HuffPo, and on Twitter.When it comes to delusion on what “push back” really is… maybe it’s you.

  • ceu

    All the reporting I’ve read indicates that they were planning to kill or cripple the Public Option. No, all the RUMORS you’ve read….Last poll I hear quoted (Sat morning) was that 82% of Americans feel HCR is needed and most want a public option or single payer. That’s an unheard of majority of Americans that are going to be mighty pissed off at the Congresscritters. Many seem to put their reelction ahead of doing what is right, yet don’t realize that their reelections are very much in jeopardy if they do what’s wrong.

  • DP23

    Most of you are so down and out and ready to give up it is really disheartening to even try to post or read this crap. I am so sick of the rants Lee gets on.. and Terri is about the most critical of everyone except herself I have ever seen.Ding ding ding! Thank you, Annette. Stranahan and his pet cheerleader Terri (who seems to have issues not with policy but with who she is going to swoon over this week at the expense of another who probably hated the crazy to begin with) need to find a blog of their own so this one doesn’t need 3 shifts of addressing Lee’s brazen usurping of your blog and constant requests to Terri to stop posting the words of others w/o attribution.Excellent comments, Annette (and Cody and Chris and Bob–oh and Bob, do you feel like you have to beat your head on the keyboard repeatedly every time Lee posts here like some of your readers do? It is no longer “agreeing to disagree”, it’s more like he is using your forum to bicker with you. If he is no longer with the program why does he still have the key to what has lately come to out-posting you with a touch or more of disrespect?)

  • Kemstone

    I honestly don’t know what’s going on in Obama’s mind with regard to the public option, but I just don’t understand why everyone is getting on Lee’s case for perceiving, based on what we’ve all been seeing and reading, that the president is prepared to abandon it.I’m only asking a question here because I haven’t heard Bob or anyone else explain it clearly: why is it counter-productive to pressure the president from the left? How is it defeatism to hold the president’s feet to the fire in the same way we’ve been shining the spotlight on Max Baucus and the rest of the Blue Dogs?If I’m being naive about this, tell me why, but it seems to me that if the president is confronted with the reality that caving in on the public option will destroy his credibility with regard to his base, he will be much less likely to cave in. I’m quite willing to change my mind on this but I need some convincing.