Rep. John Kline (R-MN) wants to start the whole healthcare reform debate all over again. He whines in Roll Call that the Democrats have "no intention of bipartisanship." Kline apparently resides in an alternate universe. He has been given his talking points and is going to stick to them, damn reality.
Obama has reached out on several occasions and the Republican reply has been death panels, birthers, tenthers, rudely interrupting his State of the Union to call him a liar, Obama is a nazi, Obama is a socialist and portrayed Obama as Heath Ledger's The Joker from the latest Batman movie. They have all but spit in his face. Yet, Kline has the temerity to call for a "do over."
Elections have consequences and now that the Republicans are losing, they want to start all over. How is this different than any of the obstructionist crap they've pulled before?
You can read his whining and lies after the break...
Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) joined seven of his colleagues and signed a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid urging him to bring a public option to a vote using reconciliation. This always was the only way we were going to pass meaningful healthcare reform out of the US Senate. Hopefully, Reid will follow the lead of the real leaders of the Senate.
"Minnesotans aren't content to wait and see when it comes to fixing our broken health care system," said Sen. Franken. "They're concerned about rising costs and losing coverage. A strong public option is one of the best ways to bring down costs, hold insurance companies accountable, and protect health care coverage for Minnesotans."
(Franken email press release)
Senators Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), John Kerry (D-Mass.), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) also signed the letter.
Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) and I sat down at a coffee shop near his congressional office in Minneapolis to talk. I wanted to find out his take on healthcare reform, what's coming up in Congress and see "the goatee" for myself.
"I started it over August Recess last year," Keith said. "You know, just didn't shave for a couple of days. Then shaved my cheeks. Nobody said anything about it, nobody said 'it's gotta go' so I've kept it." Including his wife, Kim.
After getting the discussion of facial hair out of the way, we got to the biggest question on everybody's mind regarding Congress: healthcare reform.
"You can't arouse people's imaginations for a year straight and then not do something," Keith explained. "I think we're going to do something. I think we're going to use reconciliation."
"Look, social security and medicare were smaller at first," he continued. "They expanded it after they passed it."
After the fold, there's more about healthcare reform, plus the climate change bill, his views on the progressive movement, stimulus and a mid-flight impromptu birthday party featuring then-President George W. Bush and Karl Rove.
Like most of us, Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) is concerned about the White House's lack of leadership on healthcare reform. Frankly, I'm irate and if Al got mad, that'd be fine by me. Sam Stein of Huffington Post wrote this fact-based upon post based upon anonymous sources:
Shortly after Barack Obama addressed a Senate Democratic caucus meeting and urged them to push health care reform forward, one of the chamber's most progressive members took the president's closest adviser aside and asked him why the White House wasn't doing more to help.
Sens. Al Franken (D-Minn.) put pointed health-care-related questions to senior adviser David Axelrod following Obama's speech, multiple sources tell the Huffington Post. He was echoed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-V.T.) The gist of their concern was that the administration has not shown enough leadership to get legislation passed through Congress in the wake of the party's defeat in the Massachusetts Senate election. Franken insisted that "he really needed to know if the White House was going to lead," according to one Democratic aide.
Okay, this sound reasonable. Al's concerned, that's good. He stated those concerns to Axelrod ... all good.
Al Franken lays into David Axelrod over health care bill
Being good regurgitators of Republican talking points, Manu Raju and Andy Barr (no relation to the Good Andy Barr who worked for Franken) push the "Angry Al" meme that all Republicans love to push.
Here are the breathless details from their anonymous sources (... maybe just taken from Sam Stein?):
Sen. Al Franken ripped into White House senior adviser David Axelrod this week during a tense, closed-door session with Senate Democrats.
Five sources who were in the room tell POLITICO that Franken criticized Axelrod for the administration's failure to provide clarity or direction on health care and the other big bills it wants Congress to enact.
The sources said Franken was the most outspoken senator in the meeting, which followed President Barack Obama's question-and-answer session with Senate Democrats at the Newseum on Wednesday. But they also said the Minnesotan wasn't the only angry Democrat in the room.
"There was a lot of frustration in there," said a Democratic senator who declined to be identified.
They use words and phrases like "ripped into", "tense", "angry", "most outspoken", "appeared to trigger Franken's anger" to describe Franken.
Politico already has low journalistic standards, but the last three paragraphs of the post really shows what kind Republican stenographers Raju and Barr truly are:
Franken - a comedian turned liberal talk show host - vowed to keep a relatively low profile when he arrived in the Senate over the summer after a protracted legal battle with former GOP Sen. Norm Coleman. But he has developed a reputation among his colleagues as one of the more aggressive personalities on the Hill.
Last November, after Tennessee Republican Sens. Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander authored an op-ed in a local paper defending their opposition to a Franken amendment, Franken confronted both men on the floor - and grew particularly irritated with Corker.
He lashed out at Corker and a staff member in a follow-up meeting about the matter, several people said. Franken also clashed with South Dakota Sen. John Thune, No. 4 in GOP leadership, last month in a scathing speech during the health care debate, and staffers have reported other run-ins.
While it is unfortunate a Republican won Ted Kennedy's senate seat yesterday, it doesn't really matter that much. This defeat doesn't mean the death of healthcare reform. Our problem isn't that we lost our 60 vote super majority. The truth is we never really had it.
Ben Nelson, Mary Landreiux, Blanche Lincoln and Joe Lieberman were never on our side. They've been bought and paid for by their corporate donors.
America's real problem is that in a time of our greatest need, in the time of our greatest opportunity to pass meaningful healthcare reform, we have Harry Reid. As Senate Majority Leader, he has been spineless and passive.
If Reid wanted to, if he had a spine, if he really believed in healthcare reform, he could simply use reconciliation to pass the bill. The fact is that real healthcare reform has always been something Reid could deliver. The fact is that he is unable.
We all know that Minnesota's own UnitedHealth Group has made billions in profits by denying people healthcare and paid it's former CEO Bill McGuire over a billion in compensation. But now the numbers are coming out about how much they and their allies spent opposing healthcare reform. It's staggering.
That money, between $10 million and $20 million, came from Aetna, Cigna, Humana, Kaiser Foundation Health Plans, UnitedHealth Group and Wellpoint, according to two health care lobbyists familiar with the transactions. The companies are all members of the powerful trade group America's Health Insurance Plans.
The funds were solicited by AHIP and funneled to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to help underwrite tens of millions of dollars of television ads by two business coalitions set up and subsidized by the chamber. Each insurer kicked in at least $1 million and some gave multimillion-dollar donations.
"There's no question that AHIP has quietly solicited monies from their members which were funneled over to the chamber for their ads," said a source. The total donated by the health insurers, according to one estimate, was as much as one-quarter of the chamber's total health care advertising budget....
The U.S. Chamber has spent approximately $70 million to $100 million on the advertising effort, according to lobbying sources. It's unclear whether the business lobby group went to AHIP with a request to help raise funds for its ad drives, or whether AHIP approached the chamber with an offer to hit up its member companiesThe U.S. Chamber has spent approximately $70 million to $100 million on the advertising effort, according to lobbying sources. It's unclear whether the business lobby group went to AHIP with a request to help raise funds for its ad drives, or whether AHIP approached the chamber with an offer to hit up its member companies
(National Journal, h/t Daily Kos)
While most of the focus for progressive health care reform fell on the now seemingly doomed Public Option, let us not furrow our brows in defeatism and relegate H.C.R to some errant Ask.com Most Overrated Topics Of 2009 list just yet. As a faithfully progressive Christian, I believe the federal budget should be seen as a moral document, and equality in healthcare access for our citizenry as a social imperative. The Senate HCR bill, while turning its bluedog back on the Public Option still calls for many groundbreaking changes to improve healthcare affordability and access to Americans, including:
consumer protections (such as prohibition of rate inflations based on pre-existing condition, gender and age)
more affordable coverage for workers coverage expansion (including expansion of Medicaid and aids/incentives for small-employer coverage)
more affordable coverage for seniors, particularly on prescription drugs
private healthcare cost containments
Don't those seem like progressive issues worth fighting for?
So, skip the wake and stay alert. View the AFL-CIO compiled breakdown of the comparisons between the House and Senate bills. And you can lobby Congress this Wednesday, January 13, by taking part in the AFL-CIO sponsored Call-In Day to help continue the fight for real H.C.R. reform. Call toll-free 1-877-3-AFL-CIO (1-877-323-5246) and urge your representative to vote for health reform that does not tax health care benefits, requires employers to pay their fair share, and reduces costs to individuals. And you can still ask for that Public Option, too. Sick, but not yet dead.
"I saw the best hockey game," Franni Franken began. Franni is Sen. Al Franken's wife. "It was the annual charity game between the Secret Service and the FBI. The rink (the Washington Capitals practice rink) was packed and boy was it a lot of fun."
The Secret Service won in a shoot out. Apparently, the SS has won 10 of the last 11.
"How do you root against one of the sides?" I asked. "Isn't that a little dangerous?"
"I was kinda rooting for the FBI because they were the underdogs, but there were some Secret Service families right next to me," she explained. "There was a woman playing for the Secret Service, too. She could dish it out as much as she could take it. What a game."
"So aside from healthcare reform, what's been going on?" I asked.
"We got 22 inches of snow at Christmas just as we were reaching the final stages of healthcare reform in the Senate," she replied. It hit on December 19th and 20th. "I drove Al all around in our Ford Escape hybrid with all wheel drive. We had late night votes and early morning votes."
"Some Senators slept in their offices," she continued. "A few walked." These were obviously not Senators from southern states. "Others were picked up in huge SUVs that could get through the snow."
The problem with the DC area is they occasionally get dumped on, but only have a few snow plows. I mean that literally not figuratively. While it's not going to bother someone like Franni who grew up in Maine and lived in NY and MN, DC denizens can't handle any snow. They raid the stores for toilet paper, bread and milk then hunker down for sometimes weeks until it's safe again.
And 22 inches is a LOT of snow.
"But it's manageable," replied Franni. "Sometimes inconvenient, but we got by. Like, for example, there was no garbage pickup. That was really inconvenient. And stinky."
"Here's another example," she continued. "I have everything for the Escape. Scrapers, deicers, you name it. But I hadn't gotten a shovel, yet."
"So you know what I did? I shoveled the walk with a cookie sheet. It worked beautifully."
As you may have noticed, I haven't written much lately. Normally and just going by past history, I really hate Teh XMas Season. I often get a case of ennui and angst this time of year and don't want to do anything. Strangely, the season doesn't seem to the problem this year. While the peanut isn't really old enough (15 months Wednesday) to understand XMas, becoming a father has changed my attitude.
Instead it seems that healthcare reform, the effects of unallotment and fears about the 2010 election have supplanted it.
In a time of America's desparate need for leadership combined with an unprecedented opportunity to fix how America does healthcare, America was given Sen. Harry Reid. Sen. Wetnoodle did his utmost, not just to grasp defeat from the jaws of possible victory, but to clasp that misbegotten, foul-smelling wretch to his chest in a loving embrace. Millions will be insured now which is good, but Congress protected the insurance industry when we had the chance to stop their evil ways. I kinda feel like Charlie Brown agreeing to try and kick the football again.
Tim Pawlenty is willing to stomp all over Minnesota's young, poor, elderly, disabled and mentall ill to further his presidential ambitions. Aw heck, he's willing to make all of us suffer but especially those least able to adapt to the changes. Sen. Linda Berglin (DFL-Mpls) described it best with her analogy that Pawlenty's idea of a diet plan was amputation. The real effects on real people's lives is going to be horrific.
"I still have a lot of hope that Sen. Reid will get healthcare reform passed," Franni Franken told me. Franni is Sen. Al Franken's wife and was his campaign's secret weapon. I had mentioned that I am pretty worried about healthcare reform. "Al has a lot of faith that Sen. Reid will get it done. So do I."
"I'm not naive, but I haven't given in to cynicism," she continued. Franni reminded me of the aid her family received after her father died suddenly when she was young and how government aid helped get her entire family through college. "I still firmly believe that government can do great things."
I saw Franni explaining how to make Aunti Carla's pumpkin cornbread on TPT's Almanac (recipe here) and asked about her comment that she and Al would read the healthcare reform bill during the Thanksgiving break.
"Al read it all and I read parts," she replied. "I was particularly interested in eligibility issues relating to mental health issues."
And how was Thanksgiving?
"Oh, it was great," Franni answered. "Dinner took four and a half hours. We had a whole lot of courses and talked and talked. And Al has to have his eating time, homework time and football time. So, it was a great day."
I sat in on a conference call with firedoglake contributor Jon Walker yesterday. I learned quite a bit I didn't know. I haven't been paying quite as close attention once it passed the House. Furthermore, I'm now confident that Senators Klobuchar and Franken will vote for a public option if it's in the bill so from a MN angle, this isn't really a story for MPP.
However.
What does pass could have a huge impact on our lives here in Minnesota.
If you have specific questions about what's going on, please say something in the comments and I will get an answer for you.
For those of you following the healthcare reform efforts in Congress, we are getting really close. The problem now is getting past the Republican filibuster in the Senate and four Democrats who have indicated they might or would stand with the Republicans and with the insurance companies and against us.
Now that the sausage-making process is in the Senate and our Senators, Franken and Klobuchar, are on board, I usually can only watch with a mix of powerlessness, fear and disgust. But SEIU has created a way to make a difference.
The Senate is introduced its health care reform bill yesterday, and only four fricking members of the Democratic Senator caucus are standing in the way of passage. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, and Mary Landrieu of Louisiana are the only four remaining "Democratic" Senators who have not ruled out joining with a Republican filibuster of health care reform.
What the #%@*!?!
What's worse, these four don't really give a rat's a$$ what you think, even though their vote affects you. Unless you are a resident of Arkansas, Connecticut, Louisiana or Nebraska, as far as they are concerned, you might as well live on Pluto.
Fortunately, Open Left is teaming up with SEIU to do something about it. Even if you do not live in Arkansas, Connecticut, Louisiana or Nebraska, SEIU has developed activist tools that allow you to contact voters in those four states, and tell those voters to tell their Senators to get on board with health care reform. Fight back and make a difference--sign up and tell one, or all four, of these "Democratic" Senators to pass health care reform with a public option:
Looking at this little boy, who could deny him his best chance for health and wellness? In our current system of healthcare, the HMOs could and have. As a slightly oversized baby at birth, he is just one highly visible and glaring example of millions of Americans whose " pre-existing " health conditions have left them un-or under-insured. Every day Americans, primarily those with disabilities, are denied access to medical care by administrators consulting actuarial tables and citing moneymaking HMO contract language. Big babies denied. Small babies denied. Kids with autism, people of all ages suffering diabetes, the mentally ill, elderly arthritis sufferers. All denied.
Soon, there will be a new story in the land.
One of the greatest changes in policy to ever affect the now 1 in 7 Americans with disabilities ( as the Institute of Medicine reports, a growing part of the population , and one that is disproportionately afflicted with poverty) is the healthcare reform bill now on its way to the Senate, specifically its call to the end of insurance denials due to pre-exisitng conditions. Once through congress and implemented to law, The Affordable Healthcare for Americans Act could be there most profoundly progressive piece of legislation since the New Deal and ADA to ever to positively affect the lives of the disabled.
I'll be short, I know you have a lot of work to do.
Later today you will be voting on H.R. 3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act. Your college from Michigan, John Dingell, made a very compelling case to vote yes on the bill. Since 1957 Representative Dingell has worked tirelessly to provide quality healthcare coverage to all Americans. This is as important a bill as you will ever vote on. Reforming the healthcare system in America to provide care to all has been a core Democratic Party priority since President Harry Truman proposed universal health insurance nearly 64 years ago. But you both remain publicly undecided on this bill.
You are both great Democrats. You do Minnesota proud. You've got some concerns, some good, some bad. But this is the bill before you. It's a good bill. And today you have one of the biggest choices of your career to make. You will take a vote that will go down in history.
I have confidence that you'll do the right thing. Don't let Minnesota down.
Yesterday Organizing for America, the political arm of President Obama, organized a national day of action to call Congress in favor of healthcare reform. They set a goal of making 100,000 calls to Congress for the President's Plan for Healthcare Reform which includes a public health insurance option. Well after a day of calling Congress they tallied up the results and it turns out 315,023 called Congress for healthcare reform. And news reports said that addition to these calls being for the President's Plan (which as I mentioned includes the public option) 4 out of 5 directly mentioned the public option in their calls.
This is without a doubt one of if not the biggest outpouring of support for real healthcare reform ever. And already it is paying off. Senate Democrats have announced that they will strip health insurers of their antitrust exemption in the healthcare bill and House Democrats are 8 votes away from moving forward with the strongest possible public option. And this is just the start, it will be hard but we are making huge progress. But we can't let down our guard.
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.
Now over 329,046 Americans and counting have called Congress. Don't let up. If you havn't made your calls yet what are you waiting for? The healthcare crises to get worse?
Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) and I sat down at a coffee shop near his congressional office in Minneapolis to talk. I wanted to find out his take on healthcare reform, what's coming up in Congress and see "the goatee" for myself.
"I still have a lot of hope that Sen. Reid will get healthcare reform passed," Franni Franken told me. Franni is Sen. Al Franken's wife and was his campaign's secret weapon. I had mentioned that I am pretty worried about healthcare reform. "Al has a lot of faith that Sen. Reid will get it done. So do I."
