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Short Debbie Wasserman-Schultz: "Gosh, a majority of us would like to do this public option thing, and we’re supporting a process in which majority rules, but darn it, we can’t figure out how something that could reduce federal deficits by $25 to $120 billion over ten years could possibly be relevant to budget reconciliation."
I can only assume that Ms. W-S’s closest friend is being held somewhere by interrogators advised by John Yoo. Otherwise I cannot account for her.
Bonus tutorial: Senator Harkin explains that reconciliation has been used repeatedly to introduce or expand public health insurance programs. Huh.
On the other hand, Senator Harkin apparently believes that amending the unpopular Senate bill by including the persistently popular public option would doom the bill, because, you know, that’s how the Senate thinks.
So he argues on the Ed Show that the public option can’t be included in this reconciliation, since it doesn’t have the votes, because, you know, Senators like Harkin who support it won’t insist on it or vote for it. Oh.
61 Comments
I couldn’t believe it when she said that, scarecrow.
When these electeds come on the program, it’s as if Lawrence has forgotten anything he ever knew about how Congress works.
Harkin is the saddest of all. he was a great friend of Paul Wellstone. Take a look at all the money he is taking from the insurance industry and then you know why he is not supporting the public option. How sad, when such a person as what he used to be, is for sale.
They are scared shitless that there’ll be a vote, and they’ll have to let their constituents know their that their first priority is to their sponsors.
how can you not be done with the Democratic political Machine-its evil
he was never that “person he used to be” you just have access to more information and the dems big majorities are exposing them for what they are. the other side of the corporate coin
Have you registered Green, Socialist, Libertarian, yet?
I don’t think it’s that. I think that without Teddy, the last of the great lions, he feels alone. Remember, Harkin’s not a young man — and he’s being worn down by people like Rahm. Would you or I last as long as he has?
Debbie Wasserman-Schultz flip-flops and feigns stupidity in an effort to tow the party line and Tom Harkin turns out to be a mealy-mouthed fraud.
Go figure.
The Republicans love their Greenies.
I thought Kelly’s reply to you the other night might have substantively demonstrated that your claims are about as wrong as they can be.
You remind me of the way many racist sling sweeping slurs when you do that, PW.
Shame on you.
One of Debbie’s BFFs is Ileana Ros-Lehtinen a GOP wingnut from her state of Florida.
It’s a Paulite.
“But it’s just so hard to do the right thing and vote the way we promised!”
Idjits.
What is the matter with these folks? Do they not get that Americans gave them two elections to get their shit together? Apparently they feel that they were given a majority to use their numbers/majority to extort ever-larger contributions from their corporate lobbyist money suppliers, not to do the people’s business.
Glenn Greenwald told us about how Dems lie to the Dem Base daily and probably laugh about it.
First Dems told us we needed 60 votes to pass the Public Option in the Senate, if we only needed 50 votes the public option would pass.
Wigman you are 100% correct House Dems and Senate Dems are scared Shitless they will have vote yes or no for the public option.
See most of these so call Dem sell outs had plan to build a career around lying to the american people.
Guess who laughing now!!! the Progressive Dem Base.
i have not, but will soon
Feels great. I highly recommend it. (All while supporting true progressive Dems when they come along).
Why are progressives in the House and Senate voting for Obama HCR scam?
Blanche Lincoln is a Blue Dog, so call lying Progressives need to realize that lying Progressives can also be primaried.
You mean this comment:
http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/32467#comment-151565
I’ve lived 2 blocks from Claire for 10 years now. She’s as real as they come.
It’s been obvious to me for a long time that most of the officeholders in both Chambers of Commerce er sorry chambers of Congress who claim that they want the public plan alternative really never did, and just don’t want their constituencies to know this. The Congress has trillions of dollars for bankers and nothing for the public if it means corporate profits are threatened. The White House too. The national government as it is currently populated at the highest levels is a non-functioning disgrace. With the corrupt two-party edifice and the lobbyists and special interests the US is ungovernable from the standpoint wherein the government is supposed to represent the public interest.
I second these emotions Kelly and ES. Party loyalty is not the answer. primary the bad apples. When Obama gave ho OFA to the DLC he tied his options up.
Heya Kelly, That’s the one!
Would love to meet her someday.
a little epu but this is great stuff by bluegirl ovre at they gave us a republic
can’t beat that for effective framing of our position
Here we sit, under a post and in reply to a comment about a bunch of sold out Dems… and all we hear about other left parties is a very nit-picky problem, tiny in comparison, resembling our own.
We left progressive green civil libertarians have got to quit what PW is doing, imo.
DWS is just another corp tool. Been waiting for her to reveal her inner self.
So we are supposed to go out and make sure people like these two are reelected to office? Just because they are democrats, really? If these group of dems are not willing to vote for a public option now they never will. If they are not willing to stop funding wars now they never will. If they are not willing to force thru a massive jobs bill now they nver will. The best thing that could happen to the progressive movement in the long run is a lot of these dems losing their offices. Sure there will be some short term pain but the dems have to be made to understand that if they dont do what we elected them to do we will find someone who will. Staying home in 2010 and 2012.
She’s a hoot. I should get an on-camera interview with her and put a bit of this “Greens are useful idiots for the Republicans” thing to rest.
BTW, OFA put on a “how to make sure Andy Romanoff gets fucked up in the primary caucus so Michael Bennet wins” show tonight here in Denver.
I left after about 20 minutes. Goons.
OT for gallows humor. The local NYC news is reporting that someone ‘accidently’ dropped into a cesspool. Don’t ask me for details as I purposely refuse to go beyond the headline.
watertiger is upstairs!
Late Night: How Do You Say “Bitchslap” in Dutch?
I agree, generally – aside from grassroots primary attempts (like what is hopefully going to take out Blanche Lincoln this year) I am now looking at 2010 and 2012 in all likelihood as the years I will refuse to vote for any Democratic candidate or vote at all if there is no alternative. I am normally a primary voter too, I’ve never missed an election. I caucused for Obama. What a f—ing fool I was for it. 2010 = Democrats can run on the Got No Base Since We Pissed ‘Em Off platform.
PS; This interview by Ed is an example of why I quit watching his show. Two months ago Harkin was on Ed’s show talking like he was a public option warrior but unfortunatly just not enough votes. Now that only 51 votes are needed he wont give his. And Ed lets him get away with that shit! He practically begged the man to say he was for the public option, where are the hard tough questions when the dems are the ones blocking? Ranting about Lamar and the republicans is a diversion that all the MSNBC folks have gotten quite good at.
Oh no… sounds dreadful. I hope the cocktail weenies were good…)
Off to make some supper.
Dang, what a shitty way to go.
Don’t forget the two or three day stint claiming that a reconciled bill would be the possession of Max Baucus’ Senate Finance Committee, which would strip it of any value.
Time for a third party, folks. You know, it is the age of the internets.
certainly agree, i think dennis Kucinich is a hero
OMG. As a kid, my greatest fear was outhouses.
ed is Mr. No follow-up (well behind Gregory). Dylan Ratigan on MSNBC is by far the most informed and penetrating interogator http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8R8baHPr2E
check out his interrogation of wasserman
Let’s not forget that what makes Congress determined to oppose a PO is the direct threat it poses to private sector profit; logic, savings, public health needs or anything else be damned. That is their bottom line and that bottom line has only been strengthened by the recent SCOTUS decision.
This Senate bill is touted to the public as an imperfect though on the whole worthy reform whereas in fact it is actually a scheme to assure a large return for anyone investing in private insurance stock. Congress is dead set on seeing this effort through and are perfectly willing to sacrifice the public’s health and economic welfare in the bargain.
We should not get lost in procedural minutia and instead see the problem as it is. Namely, the determined pillaging of the public by the government for private gain. And Providencede may have sent the challenge to Lincoln as a shot across the bow to those bent on this project.
We should continue to challenge others like Reid, Landrieau and Nelson knowing that it will take a monumental effort to force an unwilling Congress to act counter to private profit.
I like her and believe she is trying to smooth the way for whatever Obama wants to announce on Wed. — and Pelosi has said that on Wed Obama comes out for less than there is in either the Senate or House Bill – not that I expected anything more from Obama as he gives the finger to the base.
Our single payer became the public option, then no public option, to last weeks “concepts”per Da bunch of ideas that the president tried to explain last week, and Debbie now says its dead.
On jobs we wanted a a second stimulus – which was cut to $165 billion of extended unemployment benefits and aid to states and locales, then cut to $15 billion of tax breaks for businesses that make new hires.
The base felt that financial regulation needed real increases in capital requirements, heavy regulation/banning/trade only on an exchange rules for derivatives/swaps – we got nothing.
The base wanted excise taxes and no tax deduction for excessive Wall Street compensation – and we got GM salary control that we waived.
We wanted a consumer protection agency, and we are getting a minor department in the Federal Reserve with an even more minor rearrangement of oversight authority between some seats in that department.
We wanted a resurrection of the Glass-Steagall Act with non-bank financial institutions also regulated and controlled — and we got nothing.
We wanted to get a handle on global warming with a carbon tax, and that became a cap-and-trade carbon auction, then large polluters had exemptions and offsets if not exempt, and now Obama has the Senate doing carbon permits – or something – by industry so each industry can be milked for contributions.
Hard to see the base getting anything from Obama on Wednesday.
Isn’t it ultimately up to Reid to put the PO up for a vote. While we need to pressure the Senate, we can’t let up on Reid. They all need to understand that the base will vanish if the PO or Medicare buy-in is not part of the bill.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) Interview on CNN’s “State of the Union with Candy Crowley from February 28, 2010 said that:
“A year later, we’re closer to what Republicans were suggesting at that time, an exchange and not a public option…There is no public option on the table now.”
I don’t trust a word out of Obama’s mouth and the Democrats like Pelosi make me ill. Anyone listen to Pelosi’s lies yesterday regarding the exchange idea?
The exchanges have always been supported by Rahm and Ezekiel Emanuel and the “public option” was always defined in vague terms. Pelosi and the other “public option Dems” never defined in precise terms what the public option would be or not be.
Medicare for all is not something the Dems or the Obama White House offered at any time and still do not want.
Ezekiel Emanuel’s book on how to reform healthcare was heavy on the exchanges idea and Rahm Emanuel also pushed this idea. I cannot believe the deceit I heard from Nancy Pelosi who argued that the exchanges were ideas adopted from the Republicans,” when the Dems have been touting this all along as well.
Progressive need to stop playing by the rules, because there are no rules.
Obama lied to the Progressive Democratic base to get elected. What Obama done needs to be standard practice for Progressives running for congress.
Progressives need to act like Blue Dogs, Tea Party Candidates, Moderate Republicans, etc. get elected to congress and than vote and write policies like a Progressive the opposite of what Obama is doing.
Ben Nelson, Blanche Lincoln, Barack Obama, Harkin, practice the Art Of lying to the Dem Base daily for personal gain.
The MSM was ignoring the left anger at this White House and the Senate Dems, until the Blanche Lincoln episode came to light.
This action by the DEMOCRATIC BASE change everything, RAISING 500K in seven hours get everybody attention.
Dems now have a huge PROBLEM! SEE Running as a Republican is not an option for Dems, NO DEMS are going to win without the Dem Base voting for them in November, vote for this health care plan, will probably result in your political career coming to quick ending.
All Dems Know if they pass the Health Care Scam written by Insurance Companies, Max Baucus, and Obama, they will be attack from their Party’s Base.
Now the search is on within the DEm Party in Washington to find a lot of Dems to kill health care reform.
Raising 540K in seven hours from the people that vote scares Dems in Congress shitless.
also stop calling people “blue dogs”
call them dixiecrats again
Ah, Jesu Christo (Don’t fuck with the Jesus.), kill the POS bill so we can vote these useless leeches out and we’ll never have to listen to their idiotic bullshit again!
Perfect!
No public option, no mandate.
November.
Well,I you couldn’t see this coming,I guess you will never see.
And please note folks,they are using the Corporate libruls,Ed Shultz,Rachel Maddow & Lawerence o’Donnel to pawn us.
Wakeup people,it’s time to get in the streets.They sent our jobs away,take our houses away with their lying cheating schemes on Wall street,rob us with something called a bailout and we set comatose.
We are once again going to be screwed and we aren’t even fighting to save our children’s future.
Worst. Congress. Ever.
Here is what Debbie Wasserman-Schultz really meant to say as to why we can’t have a public option:
“Because.”
Here is what Tom Harkin really meant to say as to why we can’t have a public option:
“Because.”
The major difference between the two wings of the Republicrat party is that one is unabashedly sociopathic while the other is [fill in the blank].
That said, watching Harkin cave on the Ed Show today was really painful. Ed could have (should have?) slammed him hard on toeing the corporatist line, but I guess it was out of pity for a friend that he didn’t.
Calling it a “Public Option” when it was a foregone conclusion that it never had a chance has to rank as one of the great sucker plays in recent political history.
Send in teh clowns.
Remember, this is the same W-S who a few years back refused, as chair of the FL-DCCC, to support Democrats running against GOP incumbents. Her membership in the League of Incumbents is what matters more to her than anything.
yeah. the same old same old from msnbc-cartoons. Why don’t they show a few citizens as guests instead? too predictable the likes of Wasserman, Harkin. very sickening.
single payer/public option is the way-
oh-chris mathews-hypocrite/schizo stuff with Dean on PO- yet he “understood Bunning.” YUCK!
The end result here has been more insidious lies and manipulation of the American people. The public option was first used by Obama to get elected, and then used by him and the Democrats to get people on board and in favor of health care reform. It would have hepled if Obama had included a robust public plan in his health care bill. It could have been a different story in Congress now. The only truth is that the entire debate has been one big charade on the American people.
Harkin up for reelection in 2010? If so a tagline for a primary challenger might be “Harkin the Whore”.
Debbie need to get her meds adjusted.
What is wrong with the Democrats? This is so lame. From Obama on down these douche bags have let not only their own party down, but the American people as a whole.
You will get a very nice speech…Subsequent action? Some chance if Big Business is behind it otherwise not much chance.
The public option would never reduce the deficit. That notion is fiction.
When the electoral college is abolished, I may.
When these groups/parties you mention begin to field competitive candidates in mid-terms I may be even more likely to do that. In the meanrtime I want the ability to vote in Democratic primaries.
Here’s an interview that Cenk Uyger/Young Turks did with Debbie Wasserman-Schultz where he tore her apart from making these kinds of statements.
I saw that Sen, Harkin interview last night and wanted to rip my TV out of the wall I was so angry. Ed went pretty easy on Harkin for being such a spineless, wavering coward.
I’m done with it! I’m done with it! I recant! Uncle!
And all future generations. They act as if Saddam came back to torture their children in front of them unless they agree to do what’s unfair and unreasonable.