TPMDC
Carper: With Blessing From Leadership, We Will File A Public Option Amendment
Brian Beutler | December 1, 2009, 4:25PM
Sen. Thomas Carper (D-DE)
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On the Saturday before Thanksgiving recess, the Senate agreed to debate a health care bill, which includes a public option with a state opt-out clause, and Democratic leaders were in early discussions with moderates--who have made their objections to the opt-out perfectly clear--on an alternative proposed by Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE). With the Senate back in session, it seems those negotiations are continuing.
Carper will soon be meeting with conservative Democrats to discuss the progress of the alternative. "[Senator Carper] got something set for tomorrow night," Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) told me. "we'll know more then, hopefully."
Carper demurred on the exact date and time of the meeting, but indicated that discussions continue apace, and that he will move ahead with an amendment once leadership gives him the high sign. "I'm not sure that there's a meeting tomorrow--I lose track of these things," Carper said in response to a question from TPMDC. "We'll certainly file an amendment--if encouraged by our leadership."
"I think--at the end--the reason why we're going through this effort is to try to find a way to get to 60," Carper said.
Carper's idea is modeled in some ways after Sen. Olympia Snowe's "trigger" proposal. It would implement the public option in states that fail to meet pre-determined affordability standards--and, according to Carper, could even be written to allow states that do meet the federal standard opt-in if that's what their governments choose.
The compromise will have to be sold to liberal Democrats, who think the public option has been watered down too much already.
"I have continually felt that all the choices--private and public--ought to be available from day one," Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) told me. "I have made it clear to Senator Schumer, Senator Carper, and others that I am open to a variety of approaches, but to me what this has always been about, is making sure that at the end of the day there's a way to hold insurance companies accountable."
After a brief interview with Wyden, I ran into Schumer and Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) on their way into a private meeting on the first floor of the Capitol. Before walking in, Brown told me that the public option was not discussed at the weekly Democratic caucus lunch today, but suggested it might come up in their tête-à-tête. Thirty minutes later, neither senator would comment on their discussion.
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Kevin Sutton
December 1, 2009 4:34 PM
The problem with compromises is that everytime they give on something, Democratic leadership doesn't get back on something else, nor is any compromise walked back in case of waffling. Carper's efforts seem decent, but it's all one-way, and in the context of no leadership pressure for a better bill.
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mans_best_friend
December 1, 2009 5:00 PM in reply to Kevin Sutton
"The problem with compromises is that everytime they give on something, Democratic leadership doesn't get back on something else..."
What they're getting back is votes. A couple of months ago they didn't even have 50 votes. Now they're close to 60. This is an exercise in prioritizing. You give up the things that are least important in order to attract votes, maintaining the things that are most important.
There's no question that the bill would have been better without all the compromises, but that's the way it always works. This has the potential to be a major change initiative like Social Security and Medicare. But if you look at the history of those two initiatives, they were both heavily compromised from their initial form in order to pass. As first passed they were nothing like what we see today. They were enhanced and modified over a period of years. Big changes rarely happen in one fell swoop - they take time. I expect that's what we'll see in health care reform. If this fails it will be the end of health care reform for a generation. But if it succeeds, it's a starting point from which to build.
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ericf
December 1, 2009 5:34 PM in reply to mans_best_friend
I agree. If we get something, anything, passed, we can build on it. That's probably why conservatives want no bill at all, however much compromised. If there's no bill, it will be a decade at least before there's another try, and it will be just as hard a fight as this time.
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condew
December 1, 2009 10:39 PM in reply to ericf
No. Once the insurance companies have all they want, the Democratic wusses will not touch health care again for a generation or more.
This is not a foundation, it's a permanent sell-out.
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mcc
December 1, 2009 4:38 PM
Carper seems to have a new "compromise" every week and they have all been absolute disasters, confusing messes that cost real money but don't seem to solve any identifiable problem. Hopefully this is just a simple Snowe trigger and not another one of Carper's "regional coop" type plans, because everything I've seen him propose yet is actually worse than the trigger-- in some cases worse than nothing.
Replacing the opt-out with a trigger+opt-in might not be so bad, although it's hard to swallow after all the other compromises. One wonders, for example, if we'd just gone with a trigger from the beginning would we have had to give up medicare rates?
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Indie Pro
December 1, 2009 5:24 PM
From Crooksandliars:
You know, it really is depressing - and infuriating - to see how little will actually be accomplished with this so-called health care "reform."
http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/mr-president-explain-us-why-we-should
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Tanjaoui
December 1, 2009 6:05 PM
Seriously, this whole public option thing has become some weird kind of liberal talisman. You could post it over the door of a waste recycling plant and folks would waltz right in. I've written to Sanders asking him to work to trade the eviscerated public option for a repeal of McCarran-Ferguson and adoption of the Kucinich Amendment. If he can't get some significant progressive policy in exchange for the PO, I urged him to filibuster the bill.
Comparisons to initial Social Security and Medicare legislation really flatter Reid's bill.
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condew
December 1, 2009 10:44 PM in reply to Tanjaoui
It's bait and switch. While we're all paying attention to the public option, they are hollowing out the rest of the bill. "No pre-existing conditions" is now a joke, because they can charge any premium they like. The public option was the only attempt to control costs, and once they hobble it and tie it to a trigger that will never happen, it will be a bill that is purely a give-away to insurance.
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dougom
December 1, 2009 8:12 PM
The Democratic leaders are absolutely trying to lay the groundwork for a switch with liberals. Last night on "Countdown," Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse--who has up until last night been a very vocal proponent of a "strong public option"--suddenly switched gears and talked about how the differences between "opt out", "opt in", and "triggers" are just "semantics." It's clear they're going to ram through a bill with some weak-kneed public option tied to a "trigger", which as we all know, will never be triggered.
We've been screwed, folks. I don't know about anyone else, but I've come to the conclusion that this bill is an abomination that should not be passed. We've lost again. Time to lick our wounds, dump losers like Landrieu, and try again.
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condew
December 1, 2009 10:37 PM in reply to dougom
I agree.
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runfastandwin
December 2, 2009 4:14 AM in reply to dougom
Maybe but I don't think we can afford to wait another 20 years. I know I can't.
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Zoey
December 1, 2009 10:26 PM
Every time I see the Democrats retreat I cannot help but remembering this quote from Star Trek First Contact:
"I will not sacrifice the Enterprise. We've made too many compromises already; too many retreats. They invade our space and we fall back. They assimilate entire worlds and we fall back. Not again. The line must be drawn here! This far, no further! And *I* will make them pay for what they've done."
OH, I know that he was answered by Lily: "Jean Luc, blow up the damn ship!" but I think it's too bad no one in Congress cares about the country as much as Picard cared about the Enterprise.
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Zoey
December 1, 2009 10:28 PM
I also take issue with the statement: "The compromise will have to be sold to liberal Democrats, who think the public option has been watered down too much already." They lost the liberal Democrats months ago and it goes to show how far to the right this dialogue has moved when the policy favored by the liberal Democrats, Medicare for Everybody, was taken off the table and it's proponents arrested.
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artgurrl
December 2, 2009 2:38 AM
If at the end of the day this bill is only about holding insurance corporations accountable then this isn't a health care reform bill, this is a health insurance reform bill. Will the Democrats ever get a spine? Will they ever learn who put them into office in the first place and stop sacrificing their electorate for some scraps of cash from the corporate lobbyists? When will the Dems stop looking like the GOP?
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runfastandwin
December 2, 2009 4:15 AM
Whatever "trigger" they come up with, it's been pulled years ago. So we got that going for us at least.
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DownriverDem
December 2, 2009 8:39 AM
A 'trigger" will just doom the Dems in 2010 and 2012. The young voters who worked hard to get Obama elected will just sit on their hands. All insurance companies will do is make sure they do just enough to keep the "trigger" from happening. Folks will still be hurting big time health care wise.
Thanks alot Sen. Carper. You just insured that the Dems will lose more seats in the House and Senate. You must not be up for re-election this time.
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wbgonne
December 2, 2009 8:58 AM
Once they abandon the public option this bill can be re-named No Health Insurance Company Left Behind. Then it will get 60 votes.
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