Mary Landrieu Admits Public Option Was All Just Senate Kabuki

[Hissyspit]

http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2009/12/17/mary-landrieu-admits-public-option-was-all-just-senate-kabuki

Mary Landrieu Admits Public Option Was All Just Senate Kabuki

By: Jane Hamsher Thursday December 17, 2009 9:14 am

I took the time to transcribe the exchange between Mary Landrieu and Howard Dean last night on Hardball because I wanted to be absolutely sure of what Landrieu says and place it in context.

It’s a patent absurdity to claim, as she does, that the President didn’t campaign on a public option. It was in his health care platform, for those like Landrieu who weren’t paying attention. But her assertion to Howard Dean about what the Senate always intended is gobsmacking:

DEAN: You would not let us choose another program. You forced us into the insurance industry. We don’t want to be forced into the insurance industry. You took away our choice. That is wrong.

LANDRIEU: That is not true, you never had that choice to begin with.

DEAN: The President campaigned on it, Mary.

LANDRIEU: In this bill we always wanted…

DEAN: The President of the United States campaigned for it.

LANDRIEU: No he did not campaign for public option, he did not campaign on Medicare for all, he most certainly did not.

The only bill to pass so far, the House bill, has a public option. And there is a public option in the merged bill that Reid delivered to the Senate, which Landrieu voted for cloture on.

To say “you never had that choice to begin with,” and that this is the bill they “always wanted,” means that it was all just smoke and mirrors.

Courtesy of Harry Reid. Who was always just putting on a show until they gave the insurance industry what they wanted.

Transcript after the jump:

LANDRIEU: Senator Lieberman has helped us on dozens and dozens of votes when we needed 60 votes, and he’s been there. He just does have a little different view than many in the party, but actually, I understand his view. He says we’re going to reform health care, which means we’re going to reform the insurance market, not eliminate it. There are governors like Governor Dean who wants to eliminate the insurance companies in America. The President did not run on that.

DEAN: That’s simply not true

LANDRIEU: That is true. Governor, that is. The President didn’t run on it, he ran on reforming it and fixing it, so Joe has a little different view of wanting the private sector to have more at the table. I sort of agree with that, but I”m a little bit more open to compromise on it than he is. But nonetheless, we need 60 votes, we’re still working with Olympia Snowe, hoping we can get her vote as well.

MATTHEWS: Well good luck Senator Mary Landrieu, thank you. And a last thought, Governor…

HOWARD DEAN: First of all, it’s obviously not true that I want to eliminate the insurance market. Second if all, I’d be interested to know why Senator Landrieu…

LANDRIEU: (interrupts) Well you just spent a half hour beating up on them, Howard, we need to reform them. And there’s plenty…

DEAN: Mary, I’d like to know why you deny my people the choice to sign up for an alternative. You are forcing us into insurance companies.

LANDRIEU: There is plenty, there is plenty of reform in this bill for insurance companies. I’ve never supported (it?) before either.

DEAN: You took away our choice. You took away our choice.

MATTHEWS: We’re in overtime here. 30 seconds for the Governor, and then 30 seconds for the Senator

DEAN: You would not let us choose another program. You forced us into the insurance industry. We don’t want to be forced into the insurance industry. You took away our choice. That is wrong.

LANDRIEU: That is not true, you never had that choice to begin with.

DEAN: The President campaigned on it, Mary.

LANDRIEU: In this bill (he/we) always wanted…

DEAN: The President of the United States campaigned for it.

LANDRIEU: No he did not campaign for public option, he did not campaign on Medicare for all, he most certainly did not.

DEAN: Yes he most certainly did. He most certainly did.

LANDRIEU: He most certainly did not.

DEAN: He absolutely did. You are not accurate in that. He campaigned for a federal employee benefit with a public option. That’s what he campaigned for.

LANDRIEU: He told people if you have what you — if you like the insurance that you have, you’ll be able to keep it.

MATTHEWS: Governor.

DEAN: And he also said there would be a public option along with a federal employee benefit package. That is what he said.
LANDRIEU: And there is, there is one in the bill.

DEAN: There is no public option.

MATTHEWS: I’ve got to stop you, Governor. I’ve got to let the Senator respond.

LANDRIEU: Thank you.

MATTHEWS: The Senator gets to respond. Is that your last word, Senator? Because I want you to have the final word.

LANDRIEU: Yes, my last point, thank you Chris. In the bill that the Governor is now saying he’s not for, there is a national, non-profit option that gives the same choices that members of Congress and federal employees have. If that’s not enough, I don’t know what is.

[leftstreet]

1. K&R

Thanks for posting that

[fascisthunter]

2. well, there it is...

and I claimed as much a month or so back. These politicians aren't as clever as they think they are, but then again the arrogance and hubris of those who present themselves publicly think the shit smells like flowers.

[roguevalley]

8. I loathe that skank.

[yurbud]

3. non-profit would be good, but we have to see the fine print.

[RoccoR5955]

4. It seems to me that Landrieu is clueless. n/t

[AndyA]

5. Landrieu is a real piece of crap.

She voted to pass the Patriot Act because she said there were other more important things that needed to be worked on.

What's more important than rights and liberties in this country?

She should read the Constitution sometime, it might be an eye opener for her, but I doubt it.

Landrieu is a 4-letter word that I won't post here, but she fits the definition perfectly. :puke:

[cenacle]

6. Don't Really Know What's Going On...

From what I've been reading this morning, support for Obama's HCR among the bloggers has all but completely disintegrated. These are very smart people who write Kos, HuffP, DemU, etc., and they are not going to be bamboozled, nor are they one to take a blow for the team on such a big issue, without even a good reason. Obama's support and the Dems' support, their hardcore base, is disappearing.

I don't know that this is the bill Obama wanted all along, or all he thought he could get, or just anything better than nothing. I'd like to see him interviewed by someone like Mike Wallace, how he used to hold people's feet to the fire til they yelped the truth. Maybe Maddow would do a good job these days on it.

I wish I knew the truth of the matter. There's a post at Salon by Glenn Greenwald that really just brought me down. (http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2009/12/16/white_house/index.html)

The only thing I don't see is motive; why build a national movement that is driven by progressives, and then turn on us at pivotal points? It makes no sense. Nobody is turning into a Republican or a tea-bagger, we're not becoming lunatics. But the opposition is now out in the open.

I really, really think the time for third and fourth and fifth parties has come. Neither major party can coherently contain its range of views. Let the tea-baggers join up, and let the centrists take full control of the Dems, and let the Republicans do whatever they used to do, and let a really progressive party emerge. Maybe this would make things worse, but it is clear that the two-party system is a bust. It's ugly.

[Swamp Rat]

7. I'd gladly trade Mary for Dean to be our senator.

:kick: