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Harry Reid and Barack Obama have their 60 votes to close debate on the Lieberman and Nelson driven, final form of the Senate Health Care "reform" bill. Despite Bernie Sanders’ ambiguous television announcement that he would not vote for the bill in the form it has taken, he, too was able to find his way to support it.
Perhaps this is why his earlier threat to withhold support made absolutely no waves outside the blogosphere:
Turn off MSNBC. Tune out Howard Dean and Keith Olbermann. The White House has its liberal wing in hand on health care, says White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel.
“There are no liberals left to get” in the Senate, Emanuel said in an interview, shrugging off some noise from the likes of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) that a few liberals might bolt over the compromises made with conservative Democrats.
Although it was unclear at the time, it does seem his comments referred to cloture after all. Given how things turned out, though, it seems Rahm knew what he was talking about in dismissing them. The only official follow-up on the filibuster threat I could get from Sanders’ office at the time was:
The senator is working to improve the bill to make it something he can vote for. We have not seen the final package and he hopes it will be something he can support and he’s in frequent contact with the leadership and White House to make this a better bill.
It’s certainly nice that Bernie felt he was working with the White House. On the other hand, it doesn’t sound like Rahm Emanuel was too concerned about his working relationship with Bernie.
Sanders did extract a notable price for his acquiescence. Sure, it wasn’t quite the scale of what Ben Nelson got, but it was a guarantee of fairly robust support in the bill for Community Health Centers – a big priority for the Senator from the outset of the process. Also included was an additional $250 million in Medicare dollars from the federal government for Vermont over the next 6 years. Breaking out to roughly $42 million a year, that could translate to significant assistance in closing the anticipated $90-$110 million state budget hole anticipated for 2010.
And as usual, the greater progressive community offers Sanders nothing but praise. No one is troubled by the fact that he named his price, rather all are impressed that it’s such a good one.
But what was the real trade-off?
Now, one has to be a veteran of Vermont political conflicts of the 90′s (including the struggle between the Democrats and the Bernie-inspired Progressive Party) to fully appreciate the real irony of this whole business; that the other Vermonter, Howard Dean – who has become the most clear-spoken voice on the real dangers of this bill – has way out-progressived Bernie Sanders. Vermonters will appreciate just how much of a shocker that is, given the bad blood between the two last decade (with Sanders coming from the left and Dean from the right).
But despite Dean’s clear-spoken criticism of what the Senate health reform effort had become, Bernie decided it was good enough. At least for now. But there are two more votes to go – one for the bill’s passage (a certainty after the filibuster-clearing cloture vote), but another vote on the conference report (assuming there is a conference report, and that the Senate bill isn’t "ping-ponged" straight back to the House). Given the full support of the White House behind the Lieberman/Nelson bill, it’s hardly a revelation to suggest that the "we’ll fix it in conference" crowd is going to be disappointed.
Which means that there may yet be one more opportunity to stand in the way of this very scary bill.
Readers of this site hardly need another recitation of exactly what makes this bill worse than nothing. The lack of regulation, of cost control, an uninhibited insurance and pharmaceutical industry with a direct, legally-enforcable line to every American’s bank account; these are not theoretical concerns from high minded liberal elite, as the administration’s allies are trying to pass them off as. These are practical realities that will hit everyone and will hand control of our government right back to the Republicans in the quite understandable political backlash.
PUBLIC OPTION Would you favor or oppose creating a public health insurance option administered by the federal government that would compete with plans offered by private health insurance companies? (Wording of CNN poll) FAVOR OPPOSE NOT SURE ALL 59% 31% 10% Men 54% 36% 10% Women 64% 26% 10% Democrats 88% 9% 3% Republicans 24% 64% 12% Independents 57% 29% 14% Other 56% 31% 13% White 54% 39% 7% Black 77% 7% 16% Latino 68% 13% 19% Other 71% 12% 17% 18-29 72% 21% 7% 30-44 51% 37% 12% 45-59 67% 23% 10% 60+ 49% 42% 9% Northeast 73% 17% 10% South 45% 43% 12% Midwest 62% 29% 9% West 61% 31% 8%
Men prefer the public option, women prefer the public option, independents prefer the public option.
And look at Democrats. 88 freaking percent.
The public option is not a fringe position. It’s not even the "liberal" or "progressive" position.
It is the mainstream, Democratic Party position. It is practically a consensus.
Nelson, Lieberman, Landreau, Lincoln – it is they who are on the fringe. And they have been joined there by Reid and Obama (or were they always there?).
Who are the real Democrats here?
The numbers don’t lie. Senator Sanders, there is still another opportunity to show us all you’re at least as progressive as the Democrats…
70 Comments
Odum, an interesting take on Sanders and on Dean. Could you give us more info on the Dean “coming from the right approach” in old times that you hint at but don’t document?
Dean was a moderate, which by Vermont standards made him a conservative. He was, arguable, the catalyst that created the “Progressive Party,” which came into its own largely as a reaction to him. There are a lot of lingering bad feelings among the liberal community in Vermont, and some progressive Dems still haven’t warmed up to the “new” Howard.
I remember when I first went to work for the Vermont Democratic Party in the late 90′s after working as an organizer on Bernie’s re-election campaign. When I ran into a then (and still) person high up in bernie’s staff, his comment to be was “So… you’re working for Howard Dean now?” It was meant to make me feel like a sell-out.
This article is from the International Socialist Review, so they’ve got a vested ideological interest in painting him as negatively as possible. Take the actual content with a whopping grain of salt. But it seems to be the most comprehensive one-stop shop for a compilation of liberal complaints about Dean while he was Governor. The endnotes compiled at the bottom as reference are quite thorough. It should give you a good idea.
And don’t misunderstand. As far as Dean’s relationship with liberals, I’m just reporting. I’ve always liked the Governor – even when his policies would drive be bananas back in the days when the state’s leading liberal columnist derisively referred to him as “King Howard” and “Ho-ho.” He’s a good guy.
It seems to me that governors are almost always more moderate (unless they are in Texas, anyway, where moderation to them is batshit crazy to the rest of us). When you have to govern a state, you have to end up a little more centrist and pragmatic. I think it’s the same for presidents, so if Obama had to pull a little to center from where he campaigned, I would have been okay with it. Driving across the center median to drive on the other side was a little too much to swallow, though.
People change with time, too. Time in the Senate has made Bernie more conservative and time out of the governorship has made Dean more progressive, apparently. I was thinking it was a tragedy that Dean wasn’t given HHS, but now I’m glad he’s not a coopted insider. Poor Bernie needs to get a backbone and break his chains.
Thanks for an interesting diary. Dean was dishonest and overselling the public option (conflating it with Medicare for All, for instance) until it disappeared. Then he became quite good in denouncing the whole bill. Sanders I felt would fold because there have been lots of opportunities for progressives in Congress to stand up to Obama already and it just hasn’t happened. I have to say that this was always their strategy. Work with the Blue Dogs and conservative Senator, expect the mainline Democrats to go along, and peel off liberals as needed. As we have seen, it has worked so far and looks like it will produce a bill.
The only upside I can see to this whole process is that it has shown a bright light on just how few real progressives there are in Congress, as in almost none, and certainly none who will stand in the way of anything. I mean even Sanders’ hold on Bernanke’s nomination is only credible, not because of him, but because of the Republicans who put their own holds on the nomination.
This diary is kind of a response to yours.
our leafy neighborhood diaper shitters, hand wringers, and political pathetics NEVER fight for anything, so … rahm SHOULD expect our leafy neighborhood diaper shitters to fold like snot paper.
I think I prefer the REAL sell outs, like Schumer and Dodd.
rmm.
No more trusting ‘progressive democrats’ in Congress to protect us from big insurers and phrma…
It is time for all progressives to get behind the “Arizona Health Care Freedom Act” — http://www.azhealthcarefreedom.com
no mandates… we need to act to protect our rights
You need to move to a better neighborhood.
“There are no liberals left to get” in the Senate, Emanuel said in an interview,
Is Rahm a creepy MF, or is it just me?
The senator in Bernie trumps the socialist. Too bad.
Good Points made in this thread. My interpretations:
We live no less a Quantum Existence in Congress than in the Congressional Parking Lot (if one exists that is ;-) )
Alliances pop-in and pop-out of existence, as do bed-fellows.
The Liberal Wing of America can now, without qualm, leverage with the tea-baggers. Such as joining them to politically work against ANY candidate who refuses to join in removing the insurance mandate. This kind of Quantum maneuver can upset the political stranglehold the corporations have welded into our political infrastructure.
With the power of the internet we can do serious battle with the MIC/HCC (Health Care Complex). Collectively we can overwhelm the Bribery System with the Scare the Politicians Shitless System. (SPSS).
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Axelrod made the talking heads circuit this morning saying the Obama Administration took on the insurance companies and won, because the insurance companies HATE this bill and Joe Scarborough of all people calls Axelrod’s bluff by pointing out that insurance stocks hit a 52-year high on Friday.
Whether talking about Obama’s War or HCR, the current administration lies as shamelessly as it’s predecessor.
There is a popular assumption that McCain would have been worse. I doubt he would have been better but I no longer believe he COULD have been worse. I suppose there is some small consolation in the fact that Palin is not in line for the presidency.
yeah i lived in vermont under dean too. you misrepresent him though. VHAP would not have been passed without him. That VHAP program provided me the only regular access to health care ive had in my entire adult life, while i was still there. dean signed one of the first civil union laws of any state in the country and it was because of the TAKE BACK VERMONT sentiment among independents that we got that douchebag douglass. But this thread was about sanders, and how not even he, can be counted on the stand up for the people.
Does the Lieberman-Nelson bill allow the insurers to charge more for people with pre-existing conditions?
One way to look at this is that Sanders has expanded a “public option” — many more community clinics — and extracted more funding and encouraged more providers for them. It’s not a public insurance option; it’s a public care option that doesn’t need the private insurers —
If other liberal Senators had extracted as much as Sanders did for his vote, we’d be much better off.
Bush Administration is to Clear Skies Initiative
AS THE
Obama Administration is to Health Care Reform.
To be fair, we can’t really call the 60-vote filibuster a democracy-crushing rule that needs to be repealed and then complain that Bernie Sanders is not going to hold HCR hostage, following exactly what everyone is saying is the correct process. Vote for cloture and then vote against the bill.
If Democrats are determined to pass awful legislation they’ll pay the electoral price. It sucks, but stopping a bad bill using questionable tactics is not the way to influence the process. It might lead to a single victory (unclear in this case), but it will continue to foster a broken, anti-democratic Senate structure of rules.
Wasn’t yesterday lovely clearish? I could see your ‘hood from my porch.
Thought of you.
Jeffrey Feldman discusses that quote at length in this HuffPo post: Year of the Rahm: Get ‘Em, Then Gut ‘Em
So we got suckered into supporting the bill when it was in a form Rahm had no intention of passing. He took our support for granted, kicked us to the curb, and now some of us are saying, ‘That’s ok, we’ll catch a bus or something later on. Thanks for the ride, Rahm!’
We gotta quit believing these guys actually have our interests at heart. Our faith in their false words is powering our own betrayal, a fact they seem to appreciate only too well.
Are we progressives organic, free range, natural-born suckers for pretty words, or what?
Yep.
You have to go to War with the Government you have, not the Government you would like to have.
Who in our government changes direction because something is logically or philosophically inconsistent?
No one in real politics is impressed with the Good Guy in the White Hat, who after shooting the gun out of the guy in the Black Hat’s hand, then holsters his own gun and goes into a fist fight. That’s for kiddies on a Saturday afternoon.
Hi Rat. You’re such a nice, positive guy. Well, and Bob’s a love, too. Do you ever read the Seminal? (hint, hint)
What does Hollywood have to say about Obamas love affair with fascism? Will they admit their gigantic miscalculation..I have, I’m a fuckin’ idiot.
I can’t emphasize enough how strongly I feel about this: people who want a public option, people who want an end to foreign wars fought for no discernible purpose and with no end in sight, people who want to punish the Banskters and diminish their unholy influence on the economy and politics . . . these people ARE NOT “LIBERALS”, NOT “LEFTISTS” AND NOT “PROGRESSIVES”. THEY ARE MODERATE MAINSTREAM AMERICANS.
And I think it ill serves people like us to adopt those labels, which are after all so twentieth century. People like us are mainstream, or if you like(and my preferred term) Real Americans. If Jane, Digby et al started talking about what Real Americans want instead of what “liberals” or “progressives” want, I think this would do the national dialogue on these matters an immense service. Because, after all, we’re not the fringe, we’re the majority.
I think the point is that we are all sick of these assholes saying one thing and doing another. It’s not a trivial matter. This is going to be a disaster of epic proportions.
Hollywood is like everywhere else. Lottsa players.
I don’t think anyone is alone in their miscalculations. Judging much?
(((demi.)))
I lurk a bit at The Seminal, post an occasional comment but don’t write diaries because y’know, I am quite shallow.
I guess you’re not a shrinking violet. With the bolding and yelling and all.
Right. Like the ocean.
I meant, did you read mine?
Washington Post, 12/19/09 Health Care Debate
“Better,SAFER and Cheaper”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/18/AR2009121803890.html
Note the part which says that Congress ALREADY is aware of this
“Better,SAFER and Cheaper” way.
Didn’t see it, I’ll go look.
I don’t know Vermont politics by any means but I thank you for Dean and Sanders, disappointing as it is that Bernie is not a firm “No!” on this bill.
Did you see the link to Jim Moss’ diary:
http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/19690
Talk about a smile!
Why is there a pic of the anti-crist on my screen..Ben Stein..BS, after all it is Christmas.
I keep getting pop-ups for some stupid car. Yeah. That’s what’s gonna make me go out and buy a new Nissan. Not.
You are correct that we are the Mainstream in reality.
HOWEVER, it is the purpose of the “MAINSTREAM” media to cast us as outsiders, as fringe. That is what they are literally paid to do.
One needs only to tally the number of Proprietary Drug commercials over the course of 24 hours on the “main stream” channels and outlets to know without any doubt, on which side the Mainstream Media’s Bread is Buttered.
Not to distract to another topic, but it also it is in the MSM’s pecuniary interest to promote the fact that Osama is still alive. It would be easy for the MSM to challenge Osama to PROVE to the world he isn’t dead by a date related video of him being put out for distribution.
The MSM IS our Disinformation Curtain. The Iron Curtain has fallen, but our corporate MSM Curtain is more powerful than ever. It simply is being put to specific use in service of the U.S. Health Care Industrial Complex.
WE ARE THE MAJORITY!
Actually, my handle comes from a famous nineteenth century statistical mechanics problem. I very seldom use caps, in fact, this is the first time in many months. But I really do feel strongly that by using terms like “progressive” or “liberal” people like us play into the marginalization by label game, that is, a common tactic is to use terms like “leftist” not only as a sneer, but as a way of denoting a marginal fringe group. Saying that “leftists” want a public option seems to indicate that this is minority position. Saying that Real Americans want a public option, otoh, connotes a majority position, and one of strength.
Sad to say, these things matter in the national discourse.
Only when the left is feared will the likes of Obama and Rahm listen.
For those who may not have seen this here is a diagnosis and a prescription of the problem.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/12/16/815429/-No-One-Is-Going-To-Save-You-Fools
Everytime I see a so called progressive elected official on tv talking about what they will and wont accept I know it is bllsht. Sanders, Weiner, Brown, all want the street cred of being progressives but NONE of them have the guts to defy Rahm when it counts. Pelosi and the house progressives willingly bow down and accept what comes there way so I dont even hope that they will stop this bill. The only people left to defy Rahm and Obama is us, we have to make it real clear to them in 2010 and 2012 that we wont be disrespected by people we sent to represent us. Allowing the dems to lose is the only way we are going to get the respect that even the fringe on the right gets. The democratic party has to be completely broken before we can fix it. If the dems are not going to do what we voted them in to do we might as well stay home in 2010 and 2012. I cant wait to watch Obama’s concession speech.
Bernie, the ball is in your court. Please grab it and hold onto it until they agree to play fair and accede to the people’s wishes instead of taking the money and screwing us.
I’m not “representing” Dean at all, except to say that he was a relative centrist (which is demonstrably true) and that I always liked him – even back then, when lots of liberals were perpetually pissed off at him.
I’m representing the dynamic that existed between Bernie and the progressives/Progressives and the liberal Dems at the time. If you missed that dynamic, I’m not sure what Vermont you were living in, honestly.
we might as well stay home in 2010 and 2012.
Markos was saying on MTP today that his polling shows well over 80% of repubs plan to vote in 2010 – while just over 50% of dem’s plan to do so.
We’re toast.
So, a public option to create competition is the true bipartisan legislation.
Washington, wake up. Mainstream = multi-partisan.
Yes. My understanding is up to 3x more.
It’s a terrible shame to see Bernie eclipsed in his representation of what people really want by Howard Dean, of all people. I never would have expected to see Senator Sanders succumb to the Senate process, procedure, and bribery that appears to have secured his vote for this awful Senate bill.
Well-played, Senator Sanders. I guess progressives don’t even get one representative in our Upper House.
This tells you everything you will ever need to know about Rahm.. he doesn’t give a single hoot about you or me, just about his banker…
Here’s what I don’t understand about you people. You, who post comments on this site and almost certainly see the truth everyday, continue to place your hopes in the good will of one or two key persons who appear to wield the power to stop things from going the way they are going and have been going for decades. These types of figures never fail to disappoint. You can’t repair the system. It’s flawed. It’s as if the system has driven you off a bridge and you’re sitting in your car, sinking in a river, but you’ve convinced yourselves that if you keep turning the key in the ignition, you’ll somehow be able to drive out. It’s time to put down your 1787 car manual and break the damned window. Otherwise, the agenda of the people’s president is going to give you 4 years of Sara- at which time you’ll speak nostalgically of those 4 years under Wallstreet.
can you explain what that means?
im more into right now. im not really into personal relationships or “dynamics” between politicians and their fans. whats bernie doing NOW?
Your post is the truth!
Unless progressives sit home on election day, this will happen over and over!
Progressives need to start following true with their threats and not run to back a corporate democrat soon as their guy gets knocked out of a race.
I will not vote democratic again till there is a true progressive available to vote for and if he/she is defeated in the primary I will sit home till the next election.
i dont really think merely sitting at home on election day is going to help much.
Thank you.
We need time to find out what is really in the Lieberman-Nelson bill.
After nearly a year of hearing that we needed to be patient as the different versions of the bill wormed their way through the various committees, now we’re told that there’s a rush to pass this voluminous legislation practically sight unseen.
I totally disagree!
If the party knows they can count on your vote then the party knows their doing everything rite!
Watch how the tea baggers do business and watch them eventually get a extreme right winger past the primaries within the next 12 yrs.
What the fuck good does Sanders capitulation do for those of us outside his small state?
Man, I hope someone calls in to ream Sanders on this when he appears on Thom Hartmann’s program. Selling us out for $250 million and some Community Health Centers? WTF? Bernie “Socialist” Sanders?
Shame, Bernie; shame.
What those poll numbers really show is this fact most of us already knew: Corporate money speaks louder than citizen votes.
Much louder.
Community health centers don’t have the resources (and still won’t with this bill) to provide top notch care. It’s not a public option. I hope progressive members of Congress will vote against this bad bill, even if they decide to vote for cloture. How can a progressive support a bill that allows states to ban funding for abortion? How can we support a bill that forces people to buy overpriced junk insurance? Am I some kind of leftist radical for being very concerned about how this bill will affect working familes?
I would never advise NOT voting. I would advise progressives getting together on a candidate, and writing in the name on the ballot.
The message is:
I’m a Liberal.
I vote.
F**k you to Both Parties.
When those numbers get large enough, they will mean something.
(As in “The rubes are catching onto the 2-party scam.”)
I suggest the 2010 election is the best place to test the system. We could lose Democrats but force a more serious progressive agenda in Obama’s last 2 years.
Usually I depend on Sen. Sherrod Brown to do the right thing. When he fails, my fall-back is Bernie Sanders. Now…I guess there’s no one.
I understand reasonable people can differ about this, but to me it feels like a very oppressive law. Not at all like Social Security or Medicare.
leave Bernie alone. He’s fought as hard as he could for months. HE TRIED TO INCLUDE A SINGLE PAYER AMENDMENT. He’s introduced the “too big to fail, too big to exist act”, he tried to cap credit card rates at 12%, only a handful of democrats supported that. You guys are starting to sound like the teabaggers.
Teabaggers? Really?
We should all STFU then, that’s your plan?
Give it a try. Let me know how it turns out.
Fighting the good fight even if you lose is noble. The point here is that Sanders had a chance to stop something bad, to really make a difference and he punted. There is nothing laudatory in that.
The point to be made is that once Holy Joe, Coat Hanger Ben, and the rest of the blue dogs took the radical step of threatening to vote against a procedural vote, then all bets should have been off for the rest of the Democratic Senators. That none of the “liberal” Democrats in the Senate really stepped up to plate is telling and Bernie reportedly selling out for a few dollars for Vermont is pretty sad, but understandable considering Bernie’s job isn’t really to save the Democratic party from themselves.
Yes, teabaggers. I never said anything about not speaking out, what I said is its a mistake to criticize Bernie Sanders. I used the term teabaggers because you’re all jumping to conclusions without knowing the first thing about Bernie Sanders. You should go on youtube and watch his floor speeches, you should listen to him on the Thom Hartann program every friday for a full hour.
My plan isn’t to ‘STFU’. My plan is to criticize the corporate democrats, not the true progressive ones. And this is exactly what Fire Dog Lake is great at, so now why are we trying to get rid of one of the only true progressive in the Senate? Let’s make the plan to get more people like him, ’cause if we did he would have some support when he tried to break up the banks, he’d have some support in capping credit card rates at 12% and his medicare for all amendment would have passed.
If any of you think he’s happy about voting for this bill, you’re wrong.
All I’m saying is don’t be like the teabaggers and criticize mindlessly.
I think odum DOES know the first two three or forty things about Bernie.
Yes, I listen to Thom and Bernie every Friday.
Until now.
Bernie has now shown he is like the rest of them and his vote on the health care was for sale. I no longer care what he says about anything. There are no progressives in the Senate.Thankfully there are a few in the House.
Turned out he was just another politician.
Well wimpy, people like you are proving my point and this is a real frustrating situation. I’m as much against this health care bill as you are, but it is insane for us to let this ONE incident shape who Bernie Sanders is. He’s the one who introduced the single-payer amendment in the first place! He has no ‘special interests’ except for We the People and he’s proved that time and time again.
I admire your guys’ frustration and all I’m saying is we shouldn’t spend our time bashing someone who has all the same principles as us. He is not a conservative, he is not a moderate, he is not a corporate democrat, he is the only true representative of We the People left in the Senate, and we need more like him.
I mean have you at least seen how frustrated and angry he is with this whole thing? You can tell he’s struggling with this decision.
Here is the horrible truth: We could have gotten this bill out of the senate even if we had 60 Ben Nelsons. So . . . why do we need Bernie Sanders again? Oh yeh, he’s getting some wonderful things for Vermont. No one is truly against something unless they are willing to do whatever they can to change it. There are apparently no senators that are truly against this piece of …of …of … legislation. Its been a helluva year for us naive bloggers. First we find out Obama is a corporatist, then we find out there aren’t enough liberals in congress to effect real change, then we find out there are no liberals in congres. So, now we know the rules of the game. Time to start throwing some wrenches into the works.
perfect example.. “why do we need Bernie Sanders again? Oh yeh, he’s getting some wonderful things for Vermont.”
What the hell are you talking about cbsunglass. He introduced an amendment for single payer health care. He introduced a bill that would cap credit card rates at 12%. He introduced a bill to break up the banks just like the UK is doing it. That’s not for Vermont, that’s for our country. You are a perfect example of someone that doesn’t know a damn thing about Bernie Sanders and you’re all making assumptions about him because of this one action and you’re wrong and it makes you sound as retarded as the teabaggers, which I know you’re all smarter than that.