Feeling Bullish

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I thought this speech was brilliant in so many ways.

He avoided drawing hard lines in the sand on most of the specific policy proposals he personally favors.

But he drew several lines in the sand on the principles at stake here.

Either you're for participating in the creation and passage of a critically important but imperfect healthcare and health insurance reform bill or you're against it.

Either you're for working with the President to fix problems or you're against it.

He's putting his Presidency on the line.

Because if we can't fix healthcare, with all the general agreement there is on what the problems are, we're not going to be able to fix anything at all.

Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska, corporate Democrat enemy number one of liberal progressives for his role watering down healthcare reform in the upper chamber, who stood steadfast against the public option in the face of hundreds of thousands of dollars of ads, said after the speech that it was a "game changer."

He's on board and will work with the President to pass the best bill they can.

Who else we got?

Max Baucus of Montana?

Olympia Snow of Maine?

Susan Collins of Maine?

Mary Landrieu of Louisiana?

George Voinovich of Ohio?

The New Guy of Florida?

What are you all going to do? Who you with? What side are you on?

--

Senator Landrieu's statement after the speech:

“President Obama’s speech tonight was very much needed to keep Congress on track to find a solution for the health care challenges facing our country. It was a sincere and heartfelt effort to unify Democrats and reach out to Republicans to forge common ground and build a broader coalition. Moving this debate forward will take principled compromise and an approach that draws from the very best ideas – regardless of political party.

“The President rightfully focused on the need to lower health care costs for families, businesses and the government. If Congress does not find the resolve to pass health care legislation, people will not be able to afford the insurance they like or get the quality coverage they need, and the federal government will not be able to balance its budget.

“Skyrocketing health insurance premiums and unstable costs have hurt even our most successful small businesses and stifled job growth at a time when our economy needs a jolt. Insurance reform and the new insurance exchanges that the President highlighted are excellent solutions to giving consumers and small businesses greater choice, and with it, competitive prices in a market-based approach.

“The coming weeks and months will produce a spirited debate. But as the President said, the time is now for improving health care. Our current system is unsustainable and is costing our nation more than $2 trillion a year. Louisiana and all of America simply cannot afford the status quo.”

This sounds like she's is ready and willing to vote for healthcare reform even if it includes a public option triggered four years from now with the launch of an insurance exchange and I hope that my interpretation of her position is correct.

It is shameful she hasn't been a strong advocate for healthcare reform. I don't think it's politically risky to contrast oneself with David Vitter's position. I think there is way less downside risk if one is a fierce supporter of healthcare reform but a lot of potential benefit. Conversely, hanging back until the last minute before ultimately voting for healthcare reform, which is what I expect the Senator to do, would seem to be to carry all of the downside risk without any of the potential benefits.

It was cowardly, especially given that she's not even up for reelection for another five years.

--

Congressman Cao told the Times-Picayune he was "relieved" by Obama's assertion that there would be no funding for abortion in the healthcare reform bill.

That's important. At a forum last week in New Orleans East broadcast by WBOK, Cao insisted that there was federal funding for abortion in the bill over the objections of the crowd.

As a result, Tracie Washington posed a hypothetical question to the Congressman, which he clearly answered. Even though the abortion myth has been debunked by nonpartisan fact checkers for weeks prior to the President's speech last night, Washington wondered whether Cao would support the bill if it had everything he wanted but didn't include additional specific language pertaining to abortion.

She asked if abortion was a deal-breaker.

And Cao said yes.

So Congressman Cao's statement to the Times-Picayune is very encouraging. I would strongly urge him to become that rare Republican advocate for healthcare reform from here on out. I don't expect that but I would applaud him loudly if that's what he ends up doing.

Civil Discourse

I went to the OFA press conference in support of healthcare reform outside Mary Landrieu's office earlier today.

We were rudely received by a phalanx of tea-baggers from the 'Baton Rouge Tea Party,' who I guess represent Mary Landrieu's base now (and I'm only sort of kidding).

I have got to say, these people are out of their effing minds.

Even liberal-ole-me will concede that there are some occasionally reasonable conservatives out in the world (sometimes they'll leave comments on this blog) but the folks that came out to protest this press conference were for the most part, well, crazy.

There's nothing quite like having a middle-aged woman scream in your face that you're a socialist communist at ten in the morning.

"You guys don't care about freedom."

"Barack Obama is taking our way of life."

They shouted over speeches by OFA's Steven Walker and Rep. Karen Carter Peterson, which I guess is fair game.

But when they continued heckling a volunteer speaker who offered a personal story of breast cancer survival and the difficulty of obtaining insurance as a carrier of Crohn's disease, well, I was disgusted.

Then, of course, there was the middle-aged white woman who deemed it appropriate to inform a couple of African American volunteers from SEIU that they were "lucky to be here."

But my favorite teabagger comment came from a woman standing right behind me who said:

"My brother pays $1,000 a month for health insurance and he doesn't complain."

I've been chuckling at that one all day long.

I have to also admit that I was a little bit humbled by the conduct of the progressive press conference attendees who exhibited near excessive patience with some of the protesters, sticking around to answer their questions and to try to engage them in a reasonable discourse.

I certainly will not talk to anyone that screams in my face that I'm a communist socialist or a freedom-hater or whatever because I want universal healthcare.

One older African American woman was walking away from a heated discussion with one of these people and smiled at me.

"How can you not forgive them? They're crazy."

I laughed. That's probably the right attitude.

Waterloo

Talking Points Memo published the following reader comment earlier today:

Just to mention something that is obvious, but hopefully not overlooked, i.e., if this country cannot pass a bill which insures that every citizen has access to medical care, which every developed country has managed to do (and got done many many years ago), there is something very fundamentally and structurally wrong with this country.

Such an event, in my mind, would confirm that we live with a completely corrupt and dysfunctional form of government. Forty nine states, each with bicameral legislative bodies, some of which have distinguished themselves recently with unabashed levels of incompetency and cluelessness. Then, graft a federal government over that, which is also bicameral, the non-representative portion of it being filled with officials who are certifiable morons and/or who are bought and sold like whores by wealthy contributors.

Talk about a Waterloo.

This is a defining moment in our history. Do we fulfill our supposed status as a "shining city on a hill" or continue our long slow decline into a second rate oligarchy?

I am not one prone to hyperbole.

I believe this to the depths of my soul.

This is pretty much how I feel about healthcare reform as I filter of my analysis of the issue through the lens of the history of progressive movements in the United States. The most compelling reason for to vote for Democrats, donate to Democrats, and work for Democrats is that the Party represented the best shot for the implementation of progressive policy, however incremental those policies have to be sometimes.

Universal healthcare has probably been the most sturdy plank in the Democratic Party's domestic agenda for the last 60 years. The creation of Medicare and Medicaid represent two of the most substantive and important achievements of the Great Society coalition.

After decades in the wilderness, a new coalition has been forged, one that voted in record numbers, not just to repudiate the neoconservative dogma of the last decade, but to affirm a domestic policy agenda that centered on a repeal of the Bush tax cuts for the rich and universal healthcare coverage for the working and middle class.

It actually happened.

Democrats control the House of Representatives by a comfortable margin.

They hold a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, the first in decades.

And there's an immensely popular and powerful leader in the executive branch that is actively working to keep the campaign promises he made and which the American people voted for.

If real healthcare reform fails - and Republicans certainly realize this - the Big Bang enthusiasm that so many people feel for this so-called new era will disappear into a black hole.

What compelling reason will I have to vote Democrat ever again if they can't deliver on the most fundamental policy promise they've made to their base constituents for the last six decades?

If Democrats can't deliver on their signature issue, what hope is there that they'll be able to do anything worthwhile on issues where there is less historical consensus?

The Blue Dog wing of the Party, in my mind, is doing everything they can to ensure they sink their own ship. If they effectively neuter or kill healthcare reform, I don't see how the Democratic Party will be very popular heading into 2010 and 2012. Given that Blue Dogs come from districts less likely to vote for Democratic candidates under favorable national conditions, how the hell do they expect to get reelected over Republicans in national conditions unfavorable to Democrats? It's not as if Blue Dogs were ascendant in the Party from 2000-2004.

Meanwhile, the Republican opposition smells blood. The 'waterloo' comment by Senator DeMint is a fairly candid way of stating the Party position.

They don't care about healthcare coverage or healthcare reform. They don't have an alternative plan because they believe that if you don't have insurance or if you have bad insurance - it's your own fault. For them, this is only about political victory.

Observe Dick Polman's discussion of GOP flack Michael Steele's latest:

Q: "Is it morally acceptable for 30 to 40 million Americans to be without health insurance?"
Steele: "I don't know if that's the consideration for politicians versus a pastor."

Q: "Do Republicans support an individual requirement to get coverage?"
Looking flummoxed, the chairman clearly had no idea what the question was about, despite the fact that this issue - whether Americans should be required to sign up for coverage as part of health care reform - was debated extensively during the 2008 campaign. Steele: "As an individual requirement? What do you mean by 'an individual requirement'? To require individuals to get health coverage? Again, that is one of those areas where there's, there's, different opinions by some in the House and the Senate on this...Look, I don't do policy."

(Translation: He does slogans, not substance.)

And then there was the piece de resistance...

Q: "Why didn't the Republicans, when they held both houses and the White House, do something substantial to address the health care issue?"
Steele: “Well, I think that, you know, there were efforts along the way."

He cited the GOP Congress' passage of the expensive Medicare prescription drug law, but then, apparently remembering that the conservatives in his party actually hate this law, he quickly added, "There's always been a debate about that particular piece of legislation." And then he took a second stab at the core question, about why the ruling Republicans did so little to address health care during the Bush years, why in essence they didn't do policy.

Steele again: "The other reality is, you know, the will to do it...There has been just a general lack of focus on this issue, by many."

Bingo.

This disgusting approach to civic life seems to be winning some momentum in the healthcare debate right now.

I sense that the White House understands the stakes.

I hope Senator Mary Landrieu does too.

TODAY! Wednesday the 22nd, there will be a rally at 10:00 AM outside Mary Landrieu's office at the Hale Boggs Federal Building.

500 Poydras St.

Karen Carter Peterson will speak.

I will be there.

Quick Hits

I'm back in New Orleans after some R&R with friends and family in Philadelphia.

My glasses fogged up for ten minutes after I exited baggage claim into the night.

-

1. Mitch Landrieu says he's not running for Mayor.

Interesting but not all-together unsurprising. He said in a recent WBOK interview that he was going to give it some thought at the end of the legislative session. There was significant downside to running for Mayor. If he lost again this time - that might be the end of the road for him politically. It's not as if the last race was a particularly good experience. Plus being Mayor of New Orleans has got to be one of the most impossible jobs in the country right now.

This does, however, give us an opportunity to start thinking more seriously about rumors he was angling for a federal appointment of some sort.

2. Revenge vandalism at Mark Lewis' house.

Really, really, really hard to believe this wasn't a coordinated hit. Very typical move from the intimidation playbook - only it's too late in the game. Very familiar to stuff corrupt union boss Johnny Doc used to have the boys do up in Philly.

That the incident occurred the day before Lewis held a press conference insinuating the Nagin administration had deliberately deleted certain potentially incriminating emails indicates that the directive came from someone who knew the publication of Lewis' findings was imminent.

The only things that give me the slightest pause are the disclosures that political consultant Cheron Brylski dealt with the same tactic in January and that Christopher Reeves' office was burglarized this past Sunday. Seems they caught the burglerer - that one could be a coincidence - but the Brylski thing can't possibly be...

I wonder if the vandalism occurred at Ms. Brylski's place in January had less to do with her being Lewis' PR consultant and more to do with one of Ms. Brylski's other numerous high-profile clients.

Freshman year in college, we "pennied" the door of our RA to punish him for... I dunno, telling us to be quiet or something. Essentially you can squeeze pennies into the small crack between the door and the frame. This prevents the door from opening, locking the person inside.

3. Mary Landrieu seems to have indicated she's considering filibustering the public option with Senate Rumpublicans. That would be, I think, unforgiveable. I don't want to throw her under the bus yet because I think that statement needs some clarification. I'd like to see it in context.

A local MoveOn member is organizing a protest of her office for tomorrow (Thursday June 9th) at noon. Mary Landrieu's office is at 550 Poydras St.

In other public option news, conservative Senator Blanche Lincoln (D - AR) seems to be moving in a favorable direction.

Why I still write to my French ex-girlfriend

Mary Landrieu seems to be shrinking away from engaging constituents critical of her hypocritical stance against the public option.

Call her up mmkay?

Washington D.C.: (202) 224-5824
New Orleans: (504) 589-2427
Baton Rouge: (225) 389-0395
Shreveport: (318) 676-3085
Lake Charles: (337) 436-6650

Senator Kay Hagan of North Carolina, another conservative Democrat, has come out in favor of public option after initially expressing skepticism. Senator Landrieu should get on board with her colleagues and with the overwhelming consensus of Americans that favor a public plan.

Or she could continue to side with incestuous lobbyist gangsters instead of the people of Louisiana.

Option = Competition

TPM had an interesting piece a few days ago on how the private insurance industry behaves like a monopoly in practical regional settings.

Landrieu, Small Businesses, and Public Option

One of the main selling point on the public option plan as part of healthcare reform is that it will help alleviate the burden of health insurance costs on small businesses and start-ups. One of the main reasons innovative people with good ideas avoid striking out on their own to build a small business from scratch is because of the risks associated with abandoning one's health insurance.

So it will be very interesting to see how Senator Mary Landrieu, the Chair of the Senate Small Business Committee, explains her sell-out on the public option plan to a room full of small business owners and entrepreneurs. She's holding a small business outreach conference tomorrow morning at UNO.

Got this presser today:

Louisianans for Real Healthcare Reform is encouraging small business owners and all others upset with Senator Landrieu area to come to the event and confront her on why she is opposed to a public option as a part of healthcare reform that will lower her constituents’ healthcare costs and increase their choices.

Note: Senator Landrieu has already canceled previous events in New Orleans after seeing the frustration her constituents have with her over this issue. Louisianans for Real Healthcare Reform urges Senator Landrieu to not back out this time and have the courage to face her constituents and explain her opposition to providing them more affordable healthcare.

WHO: Senator Landrieu and small business owners upset with her

WHEN: Tuesday, June 30th, 2009

9:00 a.m-11:45 a.m.

WHERE: UNO Research and Technology Park

2045 Lakeshore Dr., New Orleans, La

I'd highly recommend attending. You can register for the event on site from 8-845AM.

Also some folks have decided that they don't believe this New York Times poll gauging popular support for the public option plan. I'd advise them to check out other polls on the issue that appear to confirm an overwhelming consensus for such a policy.

A Classic Case

Yesterday, TPM flagged a refreshingly candid quote from Senator Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia:

On Thursday, Rockefeller admitted he expects little bipartisan support.

"There is a very small chance any Republicans will vote for this health-care plan. They were against Medicare and Medicaid [created in the 1960s]. They voted against children's health insurance.

"We have a moral choice. This is a classic case of the good guys versus the bad guys. I know it is not political for me to say that," Rockefeller added.

"But do you want to be non-partisan and get nothing? Or do you want to be partisan and end up with a good health- care plan? That is the choice."

I don't generally like when politicians use good v. bad arguments in attempts to sway public opinion on matters of policy but this strikes me as a pretty damn accurate assessment of what the political dynamics of healthcare reform really are.

The Republican Party has opposed every important link in our social safety net dating back to the New Deal. Arguably, today's GOP establishment is even more ideologically rigid than that which opposed Social Security in the '30s and Medicare and Medicaid in the '60s. They don't believe in helping working people and instead focus their efforts on making life easier for folks that are already extremely wealthy. That is the fundamental choice that their policy positions reflect even though many self-identified GOP voters are more flexible about support for programs that will reduce costs and alleviate suffering for their fellow Americans.

Here's where we are:

On one side is the moral imperative and the will of the overwhelming majority of the American people. I personally agree that we do have a moral imperative to provide affordable quality healthcare to all Americans by creating a public option plan. This, again, is supported by 72% of Americans and even 50% of Republicans.


On the other side you have the Republican establishment, lobbyists, their clients, and their lapdogs in the Democratic Party.

NPR took a photograph of the crowd at a recent Congressional hearing on healthcare and has started to identify the lobbyists currently buying access to our Senators.

Senator Landrieu still seems to be confused as to whether health insurance is a luxury or a fundamental right. She still seems unsure as to whether we should have a substantive healthcare reform bill or one that placates a GOP establishment that has been routinely punished by voters for past opposition to important expansions of the social safety net.

Does she stand with the President, her Party, and the overwhelming majority of the American people or does she stand with the insurance lobby and the restless rump of the GOP?

What side of history does she want to be on?

This is how little people like you and I can lobby the Senator:

Washington D.C.: (202) 224-5824
New Orleans: (504) 589-2427
Baton Rouge: (225) 389-0395
Shreveport: (318) 676-3085
Lake Charles: (337) 436-6650

Already Naming Drinks After Him

A brief preview of the guy that will take Mary Landrieu's Senate seat once she's successfully alienated her supporters.

Take this form from diagnostics over to the bakesale

This morning, I noticed a message on facebook from a friend of mine:

Nacho Mama's own Ms. S- has recently been diagnosed with cancer and needs our help. And you can help too by drinking wonderful adult beverages at Nacho Mama's Uptown tomorrow @ 9pm, $20 gets 4 drinks (house margaritas, draft beer, or well drinks). DJ Slice will be spinnin' away, plus snacks and prizes!

As if fighting cancer isn't tough enough... What a drag. (Not that I don't love DJ Slice)

What breaks my heart about this is that we all know how commonplace this stuff is. We all know people from our lives that bust their butts at work but don't have insurance or sufficient insurance. We all know people from our lives that have gotten sick and have been forced into fundraising for the life-saving care they need. It's called bullsh*t and someone as sweet as Ms S shouldn't have to go through any more of it than she already does. She's worked her whole life and she shouldn't now have to fight for funding for her treatment. She's got enough of a fight on her hands as it is.

I wrote about it yesterday but over the weekend a poll was released confirming that a truly overwhelming majority of Americans now supports substantive healthcare reform and increasing the availability of affordable healthcare. People don't just support the principle, they support the specific policy cure - a government administered public option plan that would compete to lower costs with the existing private insurance industry.

This isn't just Democrats and Independents. Even a majority of Republicans now believe that a public option is the only way to substantially reduce the cost of health insurance. It's not a partisan issue. We're all heartbroken when we have to donate toward someone's life-saving surgery or critical prescription drugs. We want to take care of each other.

In short, we have a national consensus for a public option plan.

Yet, for some reason, the US Senate appears poised to seriously dilute the healthcare reform we need. Our own Senators, David Vitter and Mary Landrieu, have voiced opposition to the public option. This, even though 1 out of 5 Louisianians lack basic health insurance.

In the case of Mary Landrieu, her stated opposition to the public option is an especially tough pill to swallow. She campaigned on a platform favoring healthcare reform. She even specifically pledged to support public option, a promise she has now admitted she's planning to break.

Given the truly staggering bipartisan consensus for the public option, critics - including this one - have questioned whether Senator Landrieu's broken promise can be traced to the $1.6 million she's taken from private healthcare interests and the ties between some of her former staffers and the private insurance lobby.

Landrieu's office has responded that the good Senator doesn't make policy decisions based on campaign donations.

To that I say put your money where your mouth is.

Give back the money you've taken from the private healthcare industry over the years so that the voters of Louisiana can be sure that your stand against working families and the astounding national bipartisan consensus for the public option is derived from a pure conscience.

See also the Daily Kingfish:

NEW ORLEANS, LA.- June 22, 2009 - Today, Louisianans for Real Healthcare Reform called on Louisiana's two senators to return the millions of dollars in campaign donations they have received from the healthcare industry.

Senators Vitter and Landrieu have come under intense criticism for an alleged conflict of interest in their acceptance of millions of dollars in contributions from the health insurance lobby, while at the same time opposing the inclusion of a public option to compete with private health insurance companies as a part of President Obama's plan for healthcare reform.

To remedy this, the group has asked Senator Vitter and Senator Landrieu to return the millions of dollars they have received from the insurance lobby. Zach Hudson, a spokesperson for the group, said that it is the only way for them to maintain credibility if they continue to oppose a public plan.

"Senator Vitter and Senator Landrieu have disappointed the working men and women of Louisiana in their opposition to a public plan that would dramatically lower the cost and increase choice for their constituents' healthcare," he said.

"If it is true what they say, that contributions are not effecting how they vote on healthcare reform, then as an article of faith they should return the money they received from these companies. Only then can they vote with a clear conscience and without any personal or political motivations."

Hudson went on to add that there is still time for the two Senators to change their minds on healthcare reform. "While we obviously have low expectations of Senator Vitter, given his history, Senator Landrieu has a proven track record of fighting and winning for Louisiana's working families. We still have hope that she will continue to stand with them and not with the insurance lobby."

Louisianans for Real Healthcare Reform is a grassroots coalition of activists, bloggers, students, and concerned citizens dedicated to pressuring Louisiana's congressional delegation to support a comprehensive healthcare reform plan that will lower cost and increase choice for the citizens of Louisiana.

We're looking to you, Senator Landrieu, to fight for us and to fight for the passage of real reform including the public option.

Once again, here is how you can get involved:

1. Call Mary Landrieu's offices. Identify yourself as a constituent and tell her you feel betrayed.

Washington D.C.: (202) 224-5824
New Orleans: (504) 589-2427
Baton Rouge: (225) 389-0395
Shreveport: (318) 676-3085
Lake Charles: (337) 436-6650

2. Write a letter to Senators Landrieu and Vitter through the system set up by Dr. Governor Chairman Howard Dean.

3. Sign on to the petition that Change Congress and Karen Gadbois have started.

4. Multiply!!!!! Tell your friends and family to get on board. Hand them your phone and dial up Mary Landrieu for them. Tell them what's going on. Tell them how close we are. We have fallen short too many times on healthcare over the last sixty 60! years to sit idly by and fall short once more. Not when there is such broad-based agreement on what needs to be done. Phone, fax, email, beeper, postal service, telegraph, carrier pigeon, hologram - however you like to send the message - just do it!

Psst: Senator Landrieu

Nate Silver discusses the Times poll I linked to earlier today:

The bottom line is that the health care debate is not really being played out in the court of public opinion. If it were, Congress would pass a robust plan with a public option that was funded by raising taxes on cigarettes, booze, and people making over $250,000, and we'd live happily ever after (or not). Rather, this is a behind-the-scenes fight at the committee level, where certain senators who have ample financial incentives to please the insurance industry have a disproportionate amount of control over the process.

I'm generally not one to carp about special interest money -- seeing politics through that lens is often an overly reductive formulation that serves as a catch-all excuse any time Congress does something you don't like. But on something like the public option, which has broad public support and which would probably reduce -- not increase -- the long-run bill to the taxpayers, it is just about the only way to explain what's going on in Washington.

C'mon, Senator Landrieu. Come on. Your stance on public option is transparent bullsh_t.

NATIONAL CONSENSUS

What's the bad version of a daydream? A nightmare you have while awake... What is that called?

I think it might be called Mary Landrieu's inexplicable sell-out on healthcare.

Look at this new poll.


I mean really. A whopping 72% of Americans are demanding a public option as part of healthcare reform.

Even a majority of Republicans even support a public option and just not by a nose - by an eleven point margin.

Even a question raising the dreaded tax issue still yields incredibly strong majorities in favor of substantive reform including the public option.

Seriously, when was the last time a domestic policy issue yielded such broad national consensus? Has there been such a no-brainer big domestic issue in the last 30 years?

Given that Mary Landrieu wasn't afraid to campaign on her support for the public option and given that public support for such a program remains, without exaggerating, overwhelming, why has she now suddenly sold us down the river?

It's incredibly sad that the only credible answer that I've heard involves the hundreds of thousands of dollars she's accepted from private insurance interests over the years.

We need a champion for real healthcare reform, not an obstacle.

She could clear this all up if she would stop playing politics with our lives and actually be the leader we elected her to be.

We must keep hounding her. Imagine you're arguing with your health insurance company over witheld care or denied reimbursements. So now you should be ready to call daily.

Washington D.C.: (202) 224-5824
New Orleans: (504) 589-2427
Baton Rouge: (225) 389-0395
Shreveport: (318) 676-3085
Lake Charles: (337) 436-6650

Ryan at the Daily Kingfish has also recommended using the emails.

Click here to email both Senator Landrieu and Senator Vitter.

(You know, given these poll results, it would appear that Senator Vitter is voting out of step with the majority consensus of his own party. Perhaps some of the conservative blogs out might care to chide Republican Senators for their opposition to the public option.)

Also, if you have not yet signed this petition, make sure you do now.

Public option supported by overwhelming majority of Americans

This just in from Greg Sargent's blog:

If this one doesn’t stiffen the spines of Dems who are wavering on whether to include a public health insurance option in the reform package, nothing will.

A new poll by a nonpartisan, D.C.-based research group finds truly overwhelming support for the public option. The kicker: The poll was bankrolled partly by previous opponents of health care reform, including one of the nation’s best-known insurance companies.

The poll — which was just released by the Employee Benefit Research Institute, a D.C. policy think tank — finds that a majority (53%) strongly back the availability of a public plan, while another 30% “somewhat” support it. That’s a total of 83% in favor of a public plan — a staggeringly large majority.

Even more interesting, guess who paid for the poll? From the release:

This survey was made possible with support from AARP, American Express, Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, Buck Consultants, Chevron, Deere & Company, IBM, Mercer, National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, Principal Financial Group, Schering-Plough Corp., Shell Oil Company, The Commonwealth Fund, and Towers Perrin.

Not exactly a band of raging lefties. The American Association of Retired Persons and Blue Cross Blue Shield were among the opponents of HillaryCare in the 1990s.

While the news in this poll is not uniformly good for Obama’s plan by any means, the public plan is the main focus of debate right now, and on this, the poll is unequivocal. What’s more, it’s backed up by the new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, which finds that three in four think the public option is important.

Senator Landrieu - WAKE UP!

Mary Landrieu's sell-out on public option touches a nerve

Last week, Senator Landrieu indicated opposition to the public option, perhaps the most critical measure being considered as Congress negotiates healthcare reform. Creating a public option would create an alternative insurance plan that would help cover those traditionally ignored by the private insurance industry and would increase the affordability of insurance across the board by encouraging price competition.

The Senator's aversion to the reform breaks a promise she made on the campaign trail leading to insinuations that she's been compromised by her reliance on campaign donations from and other ties to the private insurance and healthcare industries.

Landrieu's sell-out on healthcare reform has touched a nerve as many progressive bloggers have been hammering away on the issue non stop. Big organizations like Change Congress and Democracy For America have gotten in on the act as well and have launched a two-pronged campaign to pressure the Senator at the local and national levels.

I'm not sure that the Senator has ever really felt heat from her progressive base. She takes really bad votes all the time, on climate change for instance, on which she is not held accountable. I don't think I'm going out on too much of a limb when I make the generalization that many of Landrieu's supporters understand and are willling to accept that there are going to be times where the Senator votes against progressive interests.

For me and many others, it would appear, the issue of affordable and accessible healthcare is not up for negotiation. For instance, this letter from a former full-time Landrieu volunteer was distributed by Change Congress:

"I'm a lifelong resident of Metairie, Louisiana, and I volunteered over 40 hours a week for Senator Landrieu's campaign from February through November last year.

I believed in her. But now I feel very disillusioned.

As a college student, I am currently being covered by my parent’s health insurance, but once I graduate that coverage will stop. In this economic climate, it's going to be hard enough to find a job. Now I'm worried about finding affordable health insurance, too.

If Senator Landrieu votes against the public option, I may not have a choice. Health coverage may not even be a possibility for me. I am very disappointed that not only is she opposing the public option, but giving no explanation as to why.

I hope her contributions from big insurance companies aren't leading her to vote against the interests of her constituents and supporters like me.”

You good friend and mine, Karen Gadbois, has also agreed to work with Change Congress on the issue.

I live in New Orleans and run Squandered Heritage, a non-profit that roots out post-Katrina corruption.

I'm also a breast cancer survivor.

And even though I work full-time -- I'm uninsured.

Just last week, Senator Mary Landrieu announced she is siding with insurance companies by opposing President Obama's plan for a universally available public healthcare option like Medicare. Obama's public option would force the for-profit insurance industry to compete by lowering prices and offering better care. It would also help families like mine get the healthcare we need.

I'm disappointed in Sen. Landrieu. The big health and insurance interests gave her 1.6 million in contributions and now she's siding with them against working families like mine.

But that's not all. Lamar White of the Central Louisiana blog, CenLamar, wrote a really beautiful piece about why the public option matters to him.

The Public Option Is Not A Political Issue; It Is A Human Rights Issue:

I am a 27 year old with cerebral palsy. Fortunately, my disability is very mild, and it does not affect cognition. I have degrees in Religious Studies and English from Rice University, and I’ve spent the past two and a half years working as the special assistant to the Mayor of Alexandria, Louisiana.

Until I was ten years old, I was covered by my family’s private health care plan, Traveler’s Insurance. Because of my disability, I spent much of my childhood either in hospitals or in physical therapy.

--

At ten years old, Traveler’s told my family that I was no longer eligible for coverage.

At ten years old, I was told that, essentially, I was the best I could ever be; as I recall, they specifically refused any additional payments for physical therapy.

I had metal screws and metal plates in my body– things that were implanted as temporary fixes, as a way of guiding and instructing my growth, things that needed to come out.

--

Access to health care should be considered a fundamental human right. And in the richest country in the history of our planet, this access should be unfettered and should include the services of the best professionals in their fields.

More importantly, this fundamental right to access should never be predicated on the whims and desires of a for-profit corporation.

When taking a stand against the public option, you are effectively standing against the poor, the elderly, the infirm, and the disabled. Period.

And most importantly: I know that I am not entirely unique. I know there are, right now, kids just like I used to be, kids filing through the doors of our publicly-subsidized hospitals, kids whose families can only hope that their child will be able to see the doctor who drove up in a Porsche (this, to be sure, is my experience with a certain doctor), kids who are deemed uninsurable, and kids who will never have the opportunities that I had because, fortunately, despite my disability, I belong to a family who believed in exhausting every option.

Mary Landrieu is alienating her core supporters. Her reelection campaign website continues to feature a blogroll including myself, CenLamar, Your Right Hand Thief, and the Daily Kingfish. Three of the four blogs featured on her own reelection campaign website have come out against the Senator's sell-out to healthcare profiteers over the last week. (I'm sure you're not far behind, Oyster.)

And the phone calls have been pouring in. Normally when you call her D.C. office outside of regular business hours, you're invited to leave a voicemail. Yesterday I made an attempt at 5:37 ET and was disconnected after being told that the Senator's voicemail was full and could not accept any new messages.

We must continue to flood her offices with our concerns. Tell your friends. We have got to change her mind on the public option. This is the most important domestic issue for me and nearly everyone I know, democrats, independents, non-voters, and yes, even a few pragmatic republicans. Mary Landrieu promised to deliver substantive healthcare reform and promised to fight for a public option. We must force her to keep those promises to her supporters and to the working families of Louisiana.

Washington D.C.: (202) 224-5824
New Orleans: (504) 589-2427
Baton Rouge: (225) 389-0395
Shreveport: (318) 676-3085
Lake Charles: (337) 436-6650

The cynic in me says that this can't work but you don't have to look far back into history to see evidence to the contrary. Just weeks ago, another moderate Senator, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, was backed down from his own statements against the public option after a flurry of outrage from his constituents. We can do this. Keep making calls. Tell your story.

Senator Landrieu: Who's it gonna be?

Are you looking out for us or are you looking out for them?

I continue to make calls. Won't you join me?

Call her in D.C. at (202)224-5824.
Call her in New Orleans at (504) 589-2427.

Tell Mary Landrieu to do the right thing. Tell her not to betray her constituents and her state. We need a public option as part of healthcare reform. We need her help to fight for it.

The high cost of health insurance hurts me and nearly everyone I know.

I will not have Senator Landrieu sell me out to appease a bunch of special interest lobbyists.

Worse Than Originally Thought

Senator Mary Landrieu's refusal to embrace a public option as an integral piece of any substantive healthcare reform effort has had many of us fuming this week.

Ryan at Kingfish inferred that one reason Senator Landrieu might be so quick to sell out the working families of Louisiana might be that she has become beholden to the insurance interests that gave over $600,000 to her reelection campaign.

But it's actually much worse than that. The Public Campaign Action Fund, a non-partisan non-profit group devoted to strengthening campaign finance laws, has produced a far more depressing account of Mary Landrieu's ties to the private healthcare industry through campaign finance and the incestuous exchange of staffers.

Not good, Senator. Louisianians need serious healthcare reform. A public option is critical for reducing costs. This state has one of the highest percentages of uninsured in the country. It is shameful for the Senator to let her loyalties to sickness profiteers trump her responsibilities to the people of this state.

From the Public Campaign Action Fund:

Sen. Landrieu has depended on the insurance and health care industries to fund her campaigns for public office

• According to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, Sen. Landrieu has raised $1,668,693 from health care and insurance interests throughout her federal political career.
  
  
• Sen. Landrieu has received substantial contributions throught her career from leading health care industries, including HMOs and pharmaceutical companies:

Health Professionals	$600,366
Insurance	$376,731
Hospitals/Nursing Homes	$266,645
Pharmaceuticals/Health Products	$228,446
Health Services/HMOs	$160,005

• Sen. Landrieu has also received $677,014 from registered lobbyists and their political action committees throughout her career.
  
  
• Sen. Landrieu has received large contributions from some of the largest companies and groups in the health care and insurance industries.

Tenet Healthcare	$26,000
American Optometric Association	$25,500
GlaxoSmithKline	$25,000
American Hospital Association	$23,000
Amgen	$21,000
Blue Cross Blue Shield	$20,479

• Sen. Landrieu’s leadership political action committee, Jazz PAC, has received significant contributions from the health care industry throughout her career.

Pharmaceuticals/Health Products	$13,000
Health Professionals	$10,500
Hospitals/Nursing Homes	$6,000

• Jazz PAC has also received $29,000 from registered lobbyists and their political action committees
  .
• According to the Sunlight Foundation’s Political Party Time website, a number of health care lobbyists hosted a $2000/$1000 fundraising reception for Sen. Landrieu on July 28, 2008. The lobbyist hosts (and clients) included: Nicole Venable of McAllister & Quinn (Novartis, SERMO), and numerous lobbyists from the Chamber of Commerce.

Former staffers for Sen. Landrieu have made lucrative careers as lobbyists for the health care industry and other major business interests

• Donna Denison, a former staffer for Sen. Landrieu, is vice president with lobbying firm Cassidy & Associates. The firm’s first quarter 2009 clients (and fees) include: BJC Healthcare ($60,000), Fairview Hospital and Healthcare Services ($80,000), and Memorial Healthcare System ($70,000).
  
  
• Jeffrey Wiener, a former legislative assistant for Sen. Landrieu, is a lobbyist with Fabiani & Company. The firm’s first quarter 2009 clients (and fees) include: Alnylam Pharmaceuticals ($50,000), Lundbeck Research ($100,000), and Trius Therapeutics ($60,000).
  
  
• Jason Mathews, Sen. Landrieu’s former chief of staff, is director of congressional affairs with the Chamber of Commerce.

She has got to hear from us.

Call her in D.C. at (202)224-5824.
Call her in New Orleans at (504) 589-2427.

Seriously Mary

SO MAD AT YOU RIGHT NOW!!!

Ryan at the Daily Kingfish has helpfully pointed out why you may be so quick to betray your supporters and the working families of Louisiana on lowering health insurance costs.

You have taken north of $600,000 from the insurance industry and you have broken an explicit campaign promise when you supported a pledge calling for a public option to lower costs.

I feel totally betrayed. You represent me not them.

Chris Bowers at Open Left is insinuating that you're a bigger obstacle to affordable healthcare than Rush Limbaugh.

You know what? As of now, it appears he's right.

Surely, a lot of progressives from other states are making calls to Mary's office about this but she needs to hear it from her constituents.

I'm going to call again tomorrow. This is unacceptable.

I am calling her in D.C. at (202)224-5824.

I am calling her in New Orleans at (504) 589-2427.

Intolerable

Mary Landrieu says she's against a public health insurance option.

This makes me FURIOUS. I am calling her now.

I am calling her in D.C. at (202)224-5824.

I am calling her in New Orleans at (504) 589-2427.

Look, I have come to accept that Mary Landrieu is always going to vote more conservative than I'd like. The reason I supported her was that I thought that at the very least, when there were really important lines in the sand to be drawn, she would vote for the interests of working people. I have not appreciated many of her votes so far since reelection but I still held out hope that on the big issues she'd be there.

I have voted for her and volunteered for her based on that. If she is anything other than an enthusiastic champion of lowered health insurance costs, she'll never have me as a phone banker again!

To play cowardly politics with healthcare is intolerable. It is a tipping point issue for me and I find any waffling on it to be unacceptable.

If we make it known how important this is to us, she may change her mind. She needs to hear from us before she takes an unequivocal position.

Her staffers are totally nice though so don't be too angry with them.

Another Year, Another Deadline

Last year around this time, I was blogging quite a bit about a poorly conceived policy that proposed to evict residents of FEMA trailers.

Councilor Stacy Head was out front pushing these evictions even though the continued use and sometimes abuse of formaldehyde-laden FEMA trailers had almost everything to do with the lack of affordable housing and almost nothing to do with people being too lazy to fix their homes. A decent compromise was reached when Cynthia Hedge-Morrell proposed a compromise that exempted the more heavily storm-damaged Districts D and E from that deadline.

FEMA ultimately extended that deadline as well - to the end of February and then again to May 1st. That's this May 1st. But as the article behind that link indicated way back in February, it was already likely that the enforcement of the May 1st deadline would result in evictions of a few thousand of our neighbors.

May 1st is now just a week or so away.

The truth is that people need to get out of these trailers. Many of them have dangerous levels of formaldehyde. But a cancerous trailer is better than the street.

FEMA caseworkers were put out there to inform people of the upcoming deadline but I'm not sure what kind of actual assistance they were able to provide.

I'm not an expert on these programs but I think that if you opted into the trailer program, it means you weren't involved with DHAP (Disaster Housing Assistance Program) or with other housing choice vouchers to get an apartment. The waiting list for Section 8 assistance is endless, and there's no cutting the line.

If I were to venture an educated guess, I'd say that the vast majority of people still inhabiting FEMA trailers are not just being lazy about home renovations or finding their own alternative housing. Rather, I imagine a huge percentage of current trailer inhabitants are senior citizens on fixed incomes. Another chunk of people have been victims of contractor fraud and waiting on litigation or otherwise do not have money to get their house up to livable standards.

Now, ideally, none of this would matter. The city would have a decent enough affordable housing supply that the thousand or so senior citizens could be given rental vouchers or whatever else and that would be the end of those awful trailers. But HANO only today announced a plan to begin renovations that should have been immediate priorities three years ago.

The rental market isn't nearly as bad as it was twelve months ago, but that doesn't indicate that a significant amount of affordable or subsidized housing has suddenly become available. Especially when we're talking about folks living purely off of their social security checks or families struggling with medical issues, etc.

FEMA will likely have to extend it's deadline once again as a result. Unless it's suddenly acceptable to throw senior citizens onto the streets. I hope that's not the case.

Senator Landrieu and Congressman Cao need to step up and make sure that nobody falls through the cracks.

What is SO objectionable about healthcare reform?

Mary Landrieu, Charlies Melancon, and Anh Cao are mulling over President Obama's budget proposal, which promises to make significant down payment on healthcare reform and sets up a program to control harmful pollution and spur the development of renewable resource technology.

I love this budget proposal. I think it is exactly what the country needs right now.

I need affordable health care options. So do tens of millions of my American neighbors. And our country needs to get off of foreign oil. Our industries and businesses are going to need to adjust to environmental realities.


This is a prudent and moderate proposal that will help this country emerge from this crisis with a stronger social safety net and a robust new green jobs sector.

This budget puts mechanisms in place to do these things. But our Representatives are still sticking their fingers up into the wind.

And guess what?

The people of this nation are in favor of it and this new President's agenda by huge margins.

But they really need to hear it from us. The conservative talk radio crowd makes phone calls and sends letters. We need to our voices to be heard over theirs.


Call 'em up in D.C.

Rep. Melancon: (202) 225-4031

Rep. Cao: (202) 225-6636

Sen. Landrieu: (202)224-5824