Pelosi Says No Public Option in Final Bill

[The Hope Mobile]

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Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said on Thursday that she would not include a public option in a health care reconciliation package that the House will send to the Senate.

"We're talking about something that is not going to be part of the legislation," Pelosi said, noting "with sadness" that the public insurance option won't be part of legislation. "I'm quite sad that the public option is not in there," she said.

Earlier Thursday, a spokesman to Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the Majority Whip, said Durbin would "aggressively whip" a health care bill that included a public option.

Pelosi, however, put the onus back on the Senate, saying that the chamber didn't have the votes needed for it.

"I'm not having the Senate, which didn't have a public option in its bill, put any of that on our doorstep," she said. "It did not prevail. What we will have in reconciliation will be something that is agreed upon, House and Senate, that they can pass and we can pass... It isn't in there because they don't have the votes."

Progressive activist Adam Green, who's been leading an outside effort to reintroduce the public option into the debate, said that Pelosi's whip count is unconvincing. "When the Senate Whip says he will aggressively whip the House reconciliation bill through the Senate unamended and onto the President's desk, the Speaker doesn't get to say the Senate lacks the votes," said Green, a co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee. "Mark Warner, Tom Harkin, Herb Kohl, Claire McCaskill, and other undeclared senators are not going to vote against the president's top priority, and if Speaker Pelosi refuses to even allow a vote on the public option, than she killed the public option. She needs to step up."

Pelosi is correct that the Senate bill did not include a public option, but when the upper chamber passed its legislation, the vote threshold was at 60 and Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) vowed to filibuster it. But under reconciliation, only 50 votes are needed.



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/12/pelosi-public-option_n_496559.html

[Bluebear]

1. Then Obama won't sign it. He said the bill he signs MUST include public option.

[marylanddem]

2. Thanks, Bluebear - I had almost forgotten that long-ago promise.

[The Hope Mobile]

3. Wow! I so wish that were true! nt

[midnight]

4. Oops this is not going to be good.

[katandmoon]

5. It's a few weeks early for April Fool!

[placton]

7. and Obama will, as always, keep his every promise

right? Hello? Bueler? Anyone?

[Echo In Light]

12. No pussy-footing about & mincing words: "must."

[Shrek]

13. He doesn't actually need to sign it

Constitution has a loophole:

If any Bill shall not be returned by the President within ten Days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the Same shall be a Law, in like Manner as if he had signed it

After ten days it'll become law without his signature so he'll have kept to the letter of his campaign promise.

[Canuckistanian]

14. Unless he uses a "Pocket Veto"

If the President does not sign the bill within the required time period, the bill becomes law by default. However, the exception to this rule is if Congress adjourns before the ten days have passed and the President has not yet signed the bill. In such a case, the bill does not become law; it is effectively, if not actually, vetoed. If the President does sign the bill, it becomes law. Ignoring legislation, or "putting a bill in one's pocket" until Congress adjourns is thus called a pocket veto. Since Congress cannot vote while in adjournment, a pocket veto cannot be overridden (but see below). James Madison became the first president to use the pocket veto in 1812.

[unblock]

15. interesting point, but there is NO WAY obama is not signing it.

there's just no way he can not have a big signing ceremony and claim victory regardless of the substance of the bill he signs into law. even if it means breaking a campaign promise about the public option.

[unblock]

16. (dup)

[placton]

6. It's almost like she is, hmmmm

backing off her promises, as always? But I am sure she has a wonderful excuse for doing so.

[Marr]

9. Covering for the Senate, I suspect.

Can't have them going on record, after promising support for so long. She blames the Senate, they blame the House, Obama blames Congress, and there you have it.

[The Hope Mobile]

17. Check this out . . . Durbin says he would wip FOR PO if in the reconciliaton bill.

Yesterday, thousands of us called Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), criticizing him for recent remarks that undermined the public option.

In direct response, his spokesperson emailed us some big news today:

"I want to be crystal clear: Sen. Durbin and the rest of the Senate Leadership will be aggressively whipping FOR the public option if it is included in the reconciliation bill the House sends over."

This is huge. The fate of the public option is now in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's hands.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi has already said she supports a public option -- but now we need her to make it happen. Can you call her now and ask her to include it in the bill -- or at least allow a vote?

Yes, give me Pelosi's number and a script.

No, thanks.

We will keep the pressure on the Senate, but Durbin's statement today was game-changing and Speaker Pelosi needs to act -- by scheduling an up-or-down vote in the House.

So far, she seems resistant. But too many people have fought too hard for Speaker Pelosi to now deny a vote on the public option. The more House members speak out, the more pressure Pelosi will face to allow the public option to move forward.

Can you call Speaker Nancy Pelosi and ask her to urge Pelosi to schedule a vote on the public option? Click here for the number and a script.

The public option is in our grasp. With your help, we'll make it happen.

Thanks for being a bold progressive.

-- Aaron Swartz, Stephanie Taylor, Adam Green, Brian Bills, Michael Snook, and the PCCC team

P.S. We will run the above image as an online ad in Pelosi's district and Washington, D.C. to pressure Pelosi. You can help by chipping in here.

[Ian David]

8. Public Option has been on and off the table more often than Joan Rivers. n/t

[veganlush]

23. yeah, it's been on and off the table more times than my

..beer mug!:toast: :toast: :toast: :toast: :toast: :toast:

[Tx4obama]

10. A separate Public Option Bill has been introduced in U.S. House by Alan Grayson - H.R. 4789

Article, video, text to the four page BILL, petition link, etc. can be found on the below link:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-alan-grayson/hr-4789-the-public-option_b_496977.html

[Jefferson23]

22. Good for him!, we are going to need to clone this man and a few others like him.

[Atman]

11. She's...she's...she's...

Argh. Can't say what I actually think of her...I'm sure it's against DU rules. So I won't say. 'Cuz momma said, "If you can't say nothin' nice, don't say nothin' at all." So I'm saying nothin'. At all.

However, I'm always cynical when it comes to Republicans and what we perceive to be trickery when it is perpetrated against US. Shouldn't I now be just as cynical about Pelosi's motives as I am of Boehner's? After all, this is politics! I guess when cynicism is happening on OUR side, it's called "hope."

Maybe she's playing games with them they way they fucked with us.

Maybe.

Really...maybe.

It could happen.

Right? It could, couldn't it?

:shrug:

.

[marylanddem]

19. I can't stand her voice. It's so very affected.

[RedCloud]

18. I am beginning to think "Life after humans" isn't so theoretical.

[Zoeisright]

20. Oh 'sad' my ass.

That's just pathetic. She could put it in there if she had a spine.

God, I'm so sick of wussy Democrats.

[Bluebear]

21. You said it.

[omega minimo]

24. "YOUR DOORSTEP"? !!!!!!!!!!!!!! ???????????????

:wtf: It's the PEOPLE'S doorstep Mydamn Speaker and people's LIVES are at stake. :evilfrown: YOU ARE NOT MARIE ANTOINETTE.

[Hubert Flottz]

25. Politics is the only thing on the table!

Politics is going to go on killing 40,000 or more Americans a year.

[anAustralianobserver]

26. "We have 51 for Public Option in the Senate" - see this thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7905840

and this Ed Schultz video with the whipcongress.com (51 votes) guy:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/35844133#35844133

[The Hope Mobile]

27. Thanks! I was just about to post this too! nt

[L0oniX]

28. ...- - -...