Call me idealistic, but I really hope this diarist misheard what Sen. Amy Klobuchar said -- although she's apparently in favor of using reconciliation to pass the public option, she's not signing the Bennett letter and thus committing to doing so.
Sigh.
Do we need more proof that it's what big majorities of Minnesotans and Americans nationwide want from the health care reform effort? From the Research 2000/PCCC poll linked above:
QUESTION: Would you favor or oppose the national government offering everyone the choice of buying into a government administered health insurance plan -- something like the Medicare coverage that people 65 and older get -- that would compete with private health insurance plans?
FAVOR
OPPOSE
NOT SURE
ALL
62%
33%
5%
...
QUESTION: Would you be more or less likely to vote for Amy Klobuchar in the future if she led the charge in the U.S. Senate to add a public health insurance option that competes head-to-head with private insurance into law, or would it have no real effect on your vote?
MORE
LESS
NO EFFECT
ALL
39%
9%
52%
...
QUESTION: Which do you think should be a higher priority for congressional Democrats right now -- working in a bipartisan way with Republicans in Congress or fighting for policies that will benefit working families, even if those policies can only be passed with Democratic votes?
PROMISES
GOP
NOT SURE
ALL
51%
39%
10%
Call Sen. Klobuchar's Washington office right now and let her staff know -- respectfully, of course -- how you feel about it. Make sure to tell them Senator Klobuchar should be leading the charge, not waiting for others to lead and then following along, and should sign the Bennett Letter and fight hard for the public-option-through-reconciliation effort.
Adam Green from Bold Progressives reports that Senator Amy Klobuchar has still not signed on with other Senators asking Majority Leader Harry Reid to bring back the Public Option through Reconciliation.
The measure that was started by Senator Michael Bennett of Colorado has been gaining a lot of momentum. Thank you Sen. Al Franken for signing on to it, however Sen. Amy Klobuchar has been a little slower to go after what most Minnesotan's want. A good health care reform bill with a public option. Let's all call Senator Klobuchar's office over the next few days and ask her to support Senator Bennett's letter asking Majority Leader Harry Reid to bring back the vote for the Public Option in the health care reform bill. Amy's toll free number at her Washington office is 1-888-224-9043.
We've been talking about Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) and how little she's done for the people in her district. Compare and contrast with Senators Al Franken (D-MN), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Representatives Jim Oberstar (D-MN) and Tim Walz (D-MN). The email announcement came out on Friday, but I figured why bury this on a late Friday afternoon news dump when nobody's paying attention?
Today [last Friday] U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken and Representatives Jim Oberstar and Tim Walz announced that Minnesota will receive $18.7 million to create jobs and train unemployed workers in industries that are being transformed by technology and innovation. The grants are funded through the Department of Labor (DOL) Employment and Training Administration (ETA) and made available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Recovery Act).
When you consider that obstructionist conservatives like Bachmann and Rep. John Kline (R-MN) incessantly talk about eliminating pork, I wonder what they'd say about this grant to help the people suffering the most from the Republican economic policies of the Bush era?
Twenty-five "Minnesotans for Peace" (including myself) are setting off today for Washington D.C. where we plan to exercise our First Amendment right to "Peaceable Assembly" (before the Supreme Court and the corporations take that right away). We will also exercise our throwing arms a little, too, as we deliver our message in less conventional ways along with other Creative Voices for Non-Violence. We may even take a cue from Muntazer al-Zaidi and throw our peace shoes at the White House!
Of course we'll also be busy with more conventional meetings with our elected congresspersons and Minnesota Senators Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken, pleading with them to take more active roles. (It does not appear that Congress has even declared war, as the Constitution requires.) We'll each be carrying tombstones with the names of Minnesotans killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. We've dripped red paint to look like blood and hand-stenciled our group t-shirts. We also sent the following letter to President Obama last week asking for a meeting with him as there is only so much one can say on a shoe and under international law, it's incumbent on all citizens to do what they can to stop torture and other war crimes. At the very least, we will try to be near where Obama gives his State of the Union speech so we can represent the views of the majority of average citizens who want the wars and the war crimes to end.
January 15, 2010
President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington, D.C. 20500
Dear President Obama:
On January 26 and 27, over 20 Minnesotans will be traveling to Washington D.C. to participate in the Peaceable Assembly campaign, a national campaign to demand alternatives to U.S. militarism.
We are requesting a meeting with you or a designated staff person as we vigil at the White House on Tuesday, January 26 between 10:30 a.m.-1:00 p.m. We ask that you or your designate contact us to arrange this meeting. As citizens, we have the right to speak to our elected officials, including those making these decisions at the highest level.
Your request to spend a record $708 billion for Defense Department funds next year, as well as another $33 billion for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, is unconscionable and unacceptable. We call on your administration to 1) cut off funding for the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan and 2) carry out a prompt end to U.S. combat engagement, and an orderly, prompt withdrawal of all U.S. forces and bases from these countries. -Peace and security in the region will not be gained through a military solution. Former Minnesotan Greg Mortenson, author of Three Cups of Tea, reports that $1,000,000 (the cost to put one U.S. soldier in Afghanistan for a year) would fund the opening of 20 to 30 schools providing education for thousands of Afghani students.
Please meet with us while we are in Washington in order to explain your exit strategy, which must include a plan to provide aid and reconstruction of these countries. Your request to spend nearly $1 trillion on war, death, and destruction is not going to bring peace and prosperity to anyone - in the United States or abroad.
We are suffering through the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, and spending those funds on war will further damage our economy. It's outrageous to waste so much of our national wealth on war when so many other needs are pressing.
Thank you for your prompt response. You may contact our delegation through: Marie & John Braun (address and contact info) Minneapolis, MN 55412.
Sincerely,
Marie Braun Mary Percich Coleen Rowley
John Braun Angelo Percich Delia Jurek
Diane Haugesag John Schmid Rebecca Kramer
George Pridmore Mickey Patterson Steve Clemens
Ward Brennen Vicki Andrews Joe Palen
Maxine McNamara Mel Thorson Bill Habedank
Grace Kamrath Sue Ann Martinson Audrey Wesley
Duane Kamrath Ann Turner Robert Palmer
We've witnessed how easy it was to start the wars and how very difficult it is to end them. Heaven only knows how many meetings with elected leaders, these last eight years, how many millions of letters, postcards and e-mails have been sent! We've worn out our shoes marching for peace! We've stood in summer and winter with banners and signs over highways and on bridges. We've even snowblogged for peace. We supported political campaigns promising hope and change and we even voted thinking it might help. There's probably a creative limit to what one can do with old shoes and snow, and we, the people, are not so foolish as to believe that we can compete with the big money of the profit-driven military industrial complex or other special interests for war but we remember these words of (former Minnesota cub reporter) Molly Ivins and we must try.
"We are the people who run this country. We are the deciders. And every single day, every single one of us needs to step outside and take some action to help stop this war. Raise hell. Think of something to make the ridiculous look ridiculous... We need people in the streets, banging pots and pans and demanding, "Stop it now!"
The news that Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) will retire at the end of the current cycle rather than seek reelection is being shouted from the rooftops in Washington D.C.'s pundit class -- but does it have any real effects on Minnesota?
Well, maybe. Minnesota shares not only a border, but a small metropolitan area (Fargo-Moorhead) with North Dakota. Political ads that air in one town also appear in the other, so a competitive race on one side of the border could affect turnout on the other -- as could effective field work by any of the four state parties involved.
On policy matters, the move means that Al Franken, who is currently at the bottom of the Indian Affairs Committee seniority heap, will move up. After Dorgan, Hawaii's Daniel Inouye is next in line, but he already chairs two other committees. Next is North Dakota's other Senator, Kent Conrad, but Conrad also chairs the influential Budget committee. Next? Hawaii's other Senator, Daniel Akaka, who also chairs the Veteran's Affairs Committee. Only when you reach South Dakota's Tim Johnson do you find a Democrat who's not already chairing another committee.
So unless something drastic happens in the U.S. Senate (which is not likely to happen in the 2010 cycle), Franken will find himself at least one rung further up the ladder on this committee.
The same goes for Amy Klobuchar and the Commerce Committee, where several senior Democrats stand between Dorgan's current seniority and where Minnesota's senior senator now sits.
However, in an institution where seniority is next to godliness (paging Joe Lieberman), this could be seen as a decent thing for Minnesota as long as the Democratic caucus maintains a strong majority.
Beyond that headline, the utility of Rasmussen's latest approval poll on Minnesota's Senators and resident Insane Untruthteller is somewhat limited.
A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in the state shows that 58% of likely voters at least somewhat approve of the job Klobuchar is doing while 38% disapprove. But 36% strongly approve of her Senate performance, compared to 21% who strongly disapprove.
Fifty percent (50%) of the state's voters approve of the job performance of Franken who took office in July after months of legal wrangling over the election results with his Republican predecessor Norm Coleman. Twenty-four percent (24%) strongly approve of the job he is doing.
Forty-five percent (45%) disapprove of how Franken is doing, with 29% who strongly disapprove.
Minnesota voters give similar marks to Bachmann, who represents the 6th congressional district in the southeastern section of the state.
Wait a minute, what? We're polling all of Minnesota to get approval ratings for Michele Bachmann now? Since when do the other seven congressional districts have a say in rating how she's doing?
In mid-September, 56% of Minnesota voters said Klobuchar was doing a good or excellent job, and just 19% rated her performance as poor. Franken was seen as doing a good or excellent job by 41% of Minnesota voters, while 31% said he was performing poorly.
Since Klobuchar and Franken are Democrats and Bachmann is a Republican, the partisan divide among Minnesota voters is predictable.
So by Rasmussen's scale, this represents a marked improvement for Franken. Rasmussen uses a weird "intensity" scale -- comparing "strong approval" to "strong disapproval" -- and manages to give themselves some extra numbers to report. But one general takeaway from this is to remember how many poll respondents don't necessarily know anything about what these elected officials are actually doing. All we know is that the poll hit whatever Rasmussen considers "likely voters" -- that could mean the respondent said yes, I voted in the past three congressional elections. It doesn't necessarily mean they have any direct knowledge of what's going on in the Senate right now, so using likely voters as a polling sample for approval polls seems like a slightly apples-to-oranges comparison.
I'd like to think MPP is having a positive effect on Franken's numbers, detailing the positive and impactful initiatives on which he's worked so far...but I doubt Rasmussen is going to start adding a crosstab like "Do you regularly read MN Progressive Project?"
Today Organizing for America, the political arm of President Obama, set a goal of making 100,000 calls to Congress for the President's Plan for Healthcare Reform. That includes a public health insurance option. Well it's only 3:54 CT right now and already 171,215 have called their members of Congress.
This is unprecedented. More than any "tea party" or protests or ads this is what members of Congress will look at when they are thinking about how to vote on a public option and how to vote on healthcare reform. If you haven't yet, call both of your Senators as well as your representative. If they are already strongly behind healthcare reform and a public option thank them for it (for example, when you call Franken). If they still need a little nudging tell your personal story about why healthcare is important to you and urge them to back real healthcare reform that includes a strong public option.
That will give you the numbers for our representatives in Congress and will let you report how the calls went so calls can be tracked.
And let us know in the comments if you've made a call. Anyone called one of our "moderates" like Rep. Peterson to see where he is standing now? Let us know.
Amy Klobuchar is going to have a big role in the debate over the jobs / climate / national security bill that Congress is working on right now. As a member of three committees with jurisdiction over this legislation (Environment and Public Works, Agriculture and Commerce, Science and Transportation) as well as one of the crafters of the Senate legislation she is uniquely poised to stand up for strong legislation that does three main things: prevents catastrophic climate change, creates good jobs and reduces imports of oil.
She'll definitely vote yes on this legislation, but she wants some concessions. On the Renewable Electricity Standard that's good news but we need to push pressure on her to make sure she doesn't give away too much to the coal industry as well as other polluters. Keep reading for more about her position on this important issue.
(Welcome its_oshea, who's going to be taking over the Mud Soup entries! Volunteers are welcome -- we usually don't bite. - promoted by Joe Bodell)
I'll be trying to do E's Daily MN Blog round-up, otherwise known as "Mud Soup" going forward. I'll read all the MN news that's fit to type, so you don't have to, then I'll pick out what sticks out and share it here.
The WAMM Troupe, representing Billionaires for Wealth Care, delivered a million dollar check to Amy Klobuchar's office in appreciation of her opposition to the health care public option. Her position greatly benefits the wealthy owners of health insurance companies.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...
Here's an email I received today, verbatim, minus the identity of the sender and the entire subject line. I bet you can fill in the blanks.
Subject: OBAMACARE is F*CKED
From: XXXXXX <XXXXXX@XXXXXXXX.XXX>
To: joe@mnprogressiveproject.com
Look the MAJORITY OF US DO NOT want any kind of obamacare in any way shape or form. Amy Klobashar is constitutionally REQUIRED to do what the majority of us tell her to do in this state. Otherwise it is gov. by the party not by the people. I am in the VA and I have had to deal with MN care due to a kid running a stop sign. Those are the people that should be required by law to pay completely for the increased medical care they caused. Gov. run health care SUCKS, they give you the run around and treat you badly and when you get upset about it they do even more to make your life miserable.
SO DO NOT try to get Amy to over ride THE PEOPLES WISHES. Do not allow any illegals any kind of educational or medical or any other services in the USA. THEY are the ones literally STEALING from EVERY person either born or LEGALLY in this country.
Captain Creative Capitalizer is just itching for a fight, aren't they? Let's go point by point after the break...
(Just to be clear, Franken has already said he supports the public option. - promoted by The Big E)
Now is a great time to tell Sen. Klobuchar that Minnesotan's want the Public Option on Health Care. Call her and call Al Franken and tell them that the Baucus plan for Health Care Reform is wrong and not good for Minnesota.
The Baucus plan gives greater increases to insurance companies, but not better benefits to those who need health care. In addition to making health care more expensive, it will also allow the Federal Government to fine us up to $750.00 for individuals and up to $1500.00 for families if we do not have health insurance. What is the use of fining people who don't have insurance if we cannot afford the options given to us?
Call Senator Amy Klobuchar at: 1-888-224-9043
Call Senator Al Franken at: 202-224-5641
Tell them the Baucus plan is unacceptable and bring us back the Public Option and affordable options.
After an absolutely stunning Health Care Rally speech given by President Obama, I was very disappointed that when Sen. Amy Klobuchar was interviewed by MSNBC's Ed Schultz does she support the Public Option or not, her answer was much too vague.
During his speech Pres. Obama made very clear he wants a public option in the Health Care Reform bill. Yet, when Amy was questioned, her response was centered more about the cost of a public option rather than talking about whether or not she supports it.
We have Sen. Franken all supportive of a public option and not worried about the costs, but we still need Sen. Amy to get on the same page.
Sen. Amy, Minnesota's progressive voters want you to support the public option on the Health Care Reform bill. Use your legislative back bone, and do not compromise with the moderate Democrats or Conservative Republicans.
You are right, we do have a good health care system in Minnesota, but there are still many Minnesotan's who do not have access to that system due to cost issues. Not EVERY system in Minnesota is just like the Mayo clinic. So, please for the benefit of others who cannot get Minnesota Care, please support the public option for Health Care.
Everyone is encouraged to call Amy and tell her, Minnesota supports the public option on Health Care reform, and we want her to also.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) had been unwilling to take a stand on the public option until recently. She recently declared what would have to be in the the bill for her to support a public option -- fixing Medicare payments so that MN clinics, doctors and hospitals gets paid at the same level as other states. But now it appears she may also be open to co-ops.
Fellow Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota appeared open to the use of a trigger but said she needs more information about what Nelson is proposing.
"I'd want to see what those triggers are, what the benchmarks are," Klobuchar told CNN Chief National Correspondent John King. Klobuchar also said that she was concerned about the high costs of health insurance faced by many small businesses and self-employed individuals.
"Certainly it's worth looking at," Klobuchar said of possibly using a trigger to set up a public health insurance option three to five years after any health care reform bill is enacted. "But we have to push competition. We have to do a better job of putting some rules on the insurance companies."
This isn't good. How many more years of massive health insurance industry profits made at our expense do we need? How many more people need to die because their health insurance company denied them needed care? How many more people need to go bankrupt because their insurance sucks? How many more people need to be uninsured before we get real healthcare reform?
So I contacted Amy's office to voice my concerns about co-ops being more expensive than a public option, not covering that many of the uninsured and basically being another gift from the Congress to the insurance companies. Here's her statement:
"With the release of the Finance Committee's outline yesterday, we are just now starting to see some details about a co-op may look like. My biggest interest here is assuring that any plan brings down costs and creates competitive pressure on insurance rates. I also want to even the playing field for Minnesota when it comes to Medicare rates. My support for any plan, including co-ops, is tied to whether it will expand access and bring down costs."
Okay ... this is more comforting. We still all need to keep calling. Help make the decision easier for her.
Call Sen. Klobuchar and urge her to support a strong public option.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar finally got more specific about where she stands on the public option. Up until now she has refused to take a stand either way and has avoided answering any questions. Instead she has repeatedly talked about reducing costs and fixing Medicare. She has finally explained what it will take for her to support a public option.
Klobuchar has taken more of a wait-and-see approach. She said that while she is open to the plan, she would not accept an option that is based on a Medicare payment model, which puts states like Minnesota at a disadvantage.
"[I] am open to a public option, but [we would] need to fix Medicare reimbursements so it works for Minnesota," Klobuchar said. "I have long advocated for opening up the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program that uses the purchasing power of 8 million federal employees to lower premiums, while still providing access to quality care and preventative services."
This is excellent news. We now have specific criteria under which she will support a public option.
Keep up the pressure. Call her and thank her for clarifying her position. Urge her to fight to fix Medicare reimbursements and then support a public option.
