An Obama Phone Call, But Senator Rockefeller Makes No Commitments

[andym]

Source: New York Times

The president of the United States was on the line. And what he wanted was the commitment of a vote in favor of the health care legislation now under consideration in the Senate Finance Committee.

But Senator John D. Rockefeller IV, Democrat of West Virginia, said he refused to give any assurances. “I was noncommittal,” Mr. Rockefeller said, describing the call, as he rode the subway back to the Capitol after the Finance Committee proceedings broke for lunch Wednesday.
.....
Mr. Rockefeller has made no secret of his general distaste for the health care legislation. And it certainly did not make him any happier on Tuesday when the finance panel rejected his amendment to add a government-run health insurance plan, or public option, to the bill.
......
He has repeatedly criticized the legislation as offering a huge pay-day for private insurers, and not doing enough to look out for average Americans.

Read more: http://prescriptions.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/30/an-obama-phone-call-but-senator-rockefeller-makes-no-commitments/

---

Looks like Senator Rockefeller may require a strong public option on the Senate floor.

[Liberty Belle]

1. I hope he holds out for the public option.

[Ed76638]

2. Ass legislation should not pass out of committee.

It's as simple as that.

[Stardust]

3. So Obama wants the SFC bill passed even without a PO?

And if it does pass, is he depending on the PO provision in the other bills to work their way into the final bill? If the SFC bill doesn't pass. does that stop the whole process or do the other committees carry on without it? I just can't understand why the damn SFC bill is that fucking important. I read and read about how the bills work their way thru committee, etc. but haven't found an answer to this. Anyone?.

[SpartanDem]

7. It is no more important any other committee

it just thanks to Baucus foot dragging(this bill should in July) i'st getting a lot of attention. Technically the only parts we even need from SFC are the Medicare/Medicaide and tax provisions. I'm sure they are ways to get around them, but I suspect it's a lot easier just have them report the bill.

[truedelphi]

12. Read Obama's lips: No clear information about any of this.

The Teabaggers could get out there all summer nbecause they were clear about what they were protesting. (Even if it happened to be a pack of lies.)

Our side is STILL NOT clear about what the bill is. We still have Party Loyalists whose mantra to us is to just believe in "Tomrorrow, and how everything will be changed around for the better."

But we have a President who is so controlled by the Industrialists while at the same time so much in need of pretending that his agendda is good for the average person.

If he wanted a Public Option, he'd have spent the summer selling it. Working the phones of the WH reaching everyone involved in Congress. Instead he spent the summer capitulating to the Teabaggers.
He even went so far as to assure the RW protesters that "The public option is not the whole package. It is only one tool. And no one knows if it will be in the final bill."

I would be even angrier in typing this out, but now I find myself thinking "Grayson - Moore 2012." Or maybe "Moore - Grayson - 2012."

We progressives don't need the Corportae-controlled stooge when there are true progressives who have the money, energy and passion to run for office and really truly offer us a "change that we can beleive in."

[Iowa]

14. Well said.

[truedelphi]

15. Thanks. Though it is much too

Mis-spelled.

[No Elephants]

21. I don't know. It may be a practical reality. Someone--I think Todd of MSNBC--said there is an old

saying/joke in D. C.:

Q Which two people make up a quorum of both Houses of Congress?

A. The President and the head of the Senate Finance Committee.

I am not sure it was Todd. I just remember hearing it on TV.

Some people are hoping that, in a committee made up of members of both houses, a health care reform bill will be blessed with a public option.

Meanwhile, how great is Rockefeller being on this? I am not in his state, but I emailed him anyway, to encourage him.

[karynnj]

28. He NEEDS it out to get to the next step - merging it with HELP bill

Even after that, it can be amended by the whole Senate. I don't know if the entire process ends if the SFC bill is defeated.

[xchrom]

4. ?

a phone call from the oval for the bill AS IT IS NOW -- with out the 'strong' public option.

ah yes. -- sah-weet.

well maybe sweet isn't the word --

[Left Coast2020]

17. HARRY REID NEEDS TO HAVE HIS FAX MACHINE OVERHEAT

When this goes to the full Senate, the question to ask is will Harry cave in, or will he stand up? Send Harry a ton of faxes. 202-224-7327. If in Reno, 775-686-5757. Reid really needs some heat.

[elleng]

25. Phone call for 'as it is now?'

when was 'now?' and we believe all this crap?

There IS another HOUSE, after all.

[xchrom]

34. gasp! there is? -- who'd a thought.

is it part of the Governments -- or something?

:eyes:

[tomm2thumbs]

5. hang on to your moral standing - it is all you leave the world with when it's all said and done

oh and your abandoned facebook page

[Frank Booth]

6. FUCK!!

I knew from the headline alone that I'd be hoping that Rockefeller wouldn't back down from Obama. Nine months on the job, and I'm already rooting against him. Why the fuck would Obama side with Baucus over Rockefeller??

This feeling of betrayal grows stronger by the day.

:banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead:

[loudsue]

10. The insurance/pharma companies have Obama in their back pocket.

The corporations that own this country are

The Fed
The Insurance/Pharma Industry
Oil
Military
Banking
Voting machines
Media

They're tougher than any president. They own the president, congress, and all of us. They might lose a battle here & there, but they are GOING TO win the war. They fight against one another at times, but they join together to get one job done, and that is to get as much of our taxpayer dollars, or gas dollars, as they possibly can.

Until we have government funded elections and hand counted paper ballots, we can NEVER elect a congress that is not corrupt, and we will remain slaves to these industries that determine our every day lives.

[truedelphi]

13. One reason that Alan Grayson speaks his mind is that he

Has a good deal of money. Although he lost quite a bit in the economic downturn. And losing those millions caused him to start to ask questions about how the financial world really works. Which led him to question why and how the Federal Reserve works the way it does, and he also questions the Fed's right to existence.

I don't think that the Repugs will be able to shut him up. He doesn't need their Industrialist Buddiees' monies the way that an Obama needs the monies. So he can go after the heart and soul of soemthing, and work to defeat it if it is bad, and work to ensure its existence if it is good.

Obama apparently believes in the Fed. Which says a whole lot about him. We are never going to get "Change that we can believe in" from someone who believes in that monster.

[loudsue]

27. Obama does believe in the Fed. You're right about that.

I just wonder if Obama is in it for the money, or for the safety of his life and the lives of his family.... or a little, or a lot, of both.

[truedelphi]

29. A question like that can drive one crazy.

I think on some levels he just aspires to be able to hold an important office in the same manner that Bill Clinton did. I eman, when all is said and done, isn't Republican-lite better than Republican-Nazi-style?

But for those of us who feel that Democracy itself will not survive if our nation is handed over to the Corporateions, we cannot accept this. I don't want Monsanto empowered, I don't want Wall Street empowered. I am drawing a line in the sand for middle incomed America - because study after study has shown that if the middle incomed person doesn't survive, neither does the nation's democracy.

[Doremus]

30. Uh, because he needs it to pass the committee so that they can put the public option in it????????

THINK people.

This sky is falling bullshit is getting old.

A little reading up on how bills become law would be VERY helpful!

[IndianaGreen]

41. More Kool-Aid?

Obama gives powerful drug lobby a seat at healthcare table

The pharmaceutical industry, once condemned by the president as a source of healthcare problems, has become a White House partner.

Reporting from Washington - As a candidate for president, Barack Obama lambasted drug companies and the influence they wielded in Washington. He even ran a television ad targeting the industry's chief lobbyist, former Louisiana congressman Billy Tauzin, and the role Tauzin played in preventing Medicare from negotiating for lower drug prices.

Since the election, Tauzin has morphed into the president's partner. He has been invited to the White House half a dozen times in recent months. There, he says, he eventually secured an agreement that the administration wouldn't try to overturn the very Medicare drug policy that Obama had criticized on the campaign trail.

"The White House blessed it," Tauzin said.

At the same time, Tauzin said the industry he represents was offering political and financial support for the president's healthcare initiative, a remarkable shift considering that drug companies vigorously opposed a national overhaul the last time it was proposed, when Bill Clinton was president.

If a package passes Congress, the pharmaceutical industry has pledged $80 billion in cost savings over 10 years to help pay for it. For his part, Tauzin said he had not only received the White House pledge to forswear Medicare drug price bargaining, but also a separate promise not to pursue another proposal Obama supported during the campaign: importing cheaper drugs from Canada or Europe. Both proposals could cost the industry billions, undermine its ability to develop new cures and, in the case of imports, possibly compromise safety, industry officials contend.

http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-na-healthcare-pharma4-2009aug04,0,3660985.story

[IndianaGreen]

39. I guess it is true that Obama made a secret deal with PhARMA

Internal Memo Confirms Big Giveaways In White House Deal With Big Pharma

A memo obtained by the Huffington Post confirms that the White House and the pharmaceutical lobby secretly agreed to precisely the sort of wide-ranging deal that both parties have been denying over the past week.

The memo, which according to a knowledgeable health care lobbyist was prepared by a person directly involved in the negotiations, lists exactly what the White House gave up, and what it got in return.

It says the White House agreed to oppose any congressional efforts to use the government's leverage to bargain for lower drug prices or import drugs from Canada -- and also agreed not to pursue Medicare rebates or shift some drugs from Medicare Part B to Medicare Part D, which would cost Big Pharma billions in reduced reimbursements.

In exchange, the Pharmaceutical Researchers and Manufacturers Association (PhRMA) agreed to cut $80 billion in projected costs to taxpayers and senior citizens over ten years. Or, as the memo says: "Commitment of up to $80 billion, but not more than $80 billion."



Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/13/internal-memo-confirms-bi_n_258285.html

[andym]

8. One point about this story: there is some ambiguity

The reporter is stating the President wanted "commitment of a vote in favor of the health care legislation now under consideration in the Senate Finance Committee." But depending on how the reporter actually asked the question, it's unclear if Rockefeller thought the topic was the final merged amended bill that will emerge out of the committee and combined with the HELP bill or the actual bill in the committee.

[harmonicon]

9. good for him (nt)

[hvn_nbr_2]

11. A perhaps naive question: Didn't another Senate committe approve a HCR bill...

and, if so, why do we even need to get a bill out of Baucus's committee? Can't the other go to the floor and be dealt with? Maybe we should root for the Finance Committee to reject the lobbyist-written Gang of Six Minus Three Puke Jokers, so the other bill can be the starting point for floor action. Let Baucus and his phony compromise gang go jerk off with each other in the corner while the rest of the Senate deals with the problem.

[t0dd]

19. If we can't get a bill out of the Finance Committee, I have read

it increases the likelihood of reconciliation because, after all, if Democrats cannot get consensus among 13 of its members, how do they expect to get 60 votes for the final bill? I think this is what should happen. Don't even let that abomination of a bill see the light of day.

[saracat]

16. Where are all the apologists for this one? Thank God for Sen. Rockefeller.

Who would have thought we would hasve had to fight one another and the president over a public option?

[orleans]

20. no shit. rather surreal isn't it? n/t

[ProSense]

43. Rockefeller is going to vote for the Finance bill

Rockefeller is not going to be the vote that kills the Finance Committee bill.

People are ridiculous.

ROCKEFELLER SECURES MAJOR VICTORY FOR COAL MINERS AND FIRST RESPONDERS IN SENATE FINANCE BILL

Washington, D.C. -- Senator John D. (Jay) Rockefeller IV, Chairman of the Senate Finance Subcommittee on Health Care, successfully fought and succeeded in having his Excise Tax Amendment (F1 modified) included in the Finance Committee health care reform bill. The amendment is designed to protect coal miners, first responders and other high-risk workers from an excise tax being proposed on high-cost health insurance plans. His amendment will now be part of the final Finance Committee bill, which will merge with the Senate HELP Committee bill to produce a final product for full Senate review.

<...>

Stop salivating.

[dreamnightwind]

18. Disappointing on Obama's part

If this is what it appears to be, Obama may have tipped his hand, and I don't like it one bit.

[nashville_brook]

22. why not call the Conservadems to support something all Dems can vote for?

instead "the white house" is pressuring the only person who's fighting for us.

[pmorlan1]

23. Obama and Baucus on the same page

The president of the United States was on the line. And what he wanted was the commitment of a vote in favor of the health care legislation now under consideration in the Senate Finance Committee.

No wonder Max Baucus has been so smug. He's got Obama in his back pocket or is Max just doing the bidding of Obama? It kind of makes you sick, doesn't it?

[IndianaGreen]

40. They are both in the back pockets of PhRMA

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/13/internal-memo-confirms-bi_n_258285.html

[bejamin wood]

24. I want a Dem primary in 2012

I would would prefer status quo over this nonsense. The idea of legislation should not be more important than its content.

[JNelson6563]

26. Stand firm Senator Rockefeller.

:patriot:

[Zorra]

31. Republicans didn't need to propose alternative legislation, because DINOrats

proposed the perfect republican legislation. And the republicans don't even have to worry about a presidential veto.
:puke:
The legislation is so totally republican: It screws the average American, it ensures enormous, eternally increasing profits for the health insurance industry, and it eliminates any possibility of a beneficial, progressive public health care option now or in the future.

When Obama said, "I am not the first President to take up this cause, but I intend to be the last", I kind of thought he was talking about instituting something like a single payer health care system, and not a corporate sponsored boondoggle that would end any possibility of an effective, humane, progressive public health care option forever.

We've been duped.

[inna]

46. exactly. +1. nt

[Vidar]

32. Good for Rockefeller.

[closeupready]

38. +1

n/t

[Samantha]

33. I have really been impressed by his stepping out and laying it

on the line. He said a number of times, the people of West Virginia really need a public option. So simple, so true. I believe he will stick to his guns and not be fooled by any Trojan Horses.

Sam

[defendandprotect]

35. MEDICARE FOR ALL --

[quakerboy]

36. What happens if it becomes clear that

No bill will ever successfully pass out of the Senate Finance Comittee? Can they just take the HHS bill to the floor? Why do they have to reconcile 2 bills within the Senate?

[truedelphi]

37. There are always ways to get things done

But at this particular point in history we need to take to the streets.

In My notsohumble Opinion!

[ProSense]

42. Oooh a new bogeyman Obama told Rockefeller to vote for the finance bill.

Will he?

This is ridiculous.

[freddie mertz]

44. I hope Rockefeller stands tough and votes AGAINST this horrible bill.

This may be our only chance to stop it.

[joeycola]

45. Thanks Rocky

[inna]

47. his nickname used to be Jello Jay (remember FISA?), but now it's Jay Rock.

suddenly he emerged as one of the Democrats with conscience and guts.