We Want the Public Option for Health Insurance!

[Guest guest]

Progressive Change Campaign Committee is running an ad on CNN, MSNBC, and The

Daily Show. Titled " We Want a Public Option, " the ad first is up on the

organization's Web site, asking all supporters of a public insurance option to

sign their names to the ad, as residents would on a petition. " We're Calling

Democratic Senators Out! " the appeal proclaims, and links to OpenSecrets.com so

that viewers can see the lobbying money from health and insurance interests

flowing to various lawmakers.

 

SIGN HERE:

http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/5649/t/4612/content.jsp?content_KEY=2621

 

June 24, 2009, 11:53 am

On Health Care, a Public Insurance Option Pile-On Campaign

By Kate Phillips

With health care reform at the top of the agenda on Capitol Hill and at the

White House, the public campaigns for and against a public insurance option are

beginning to shift into high gear. And so far, the message is Democrats beware,

because they have become the prime targets, not only of the opposition but from

within their own ranks.

 

It doesn't seem to matter that just yesterday, President Obama stopped short of

declaring the public insurance option " non-negotiable, " even though he has been

expounding its virtues to some of the most skeptical audiences, like the

American Medical Association. During his news conference, Mr. Obama said: " We

have not drawn lines in the sand other than that reform has to control costs and

that it has to provide relief to people who don't have health insurance or are

underinsured. Those are the broad parameters that we've discussed. "

 

Republicans are out in force against a public option, seeing it as a precursor

to full government takeover of health insurance. Senator Mitch McConnell, the

minority leader, takes to the Senate floor routinely to warn against

government-supplied insurance. Overall, the G.O.P. has upped the ante for public

opinion now with a new ad planned for cable that is to coincide with a health

care forum at the White House that will be broadcast by ABC News tonight.

 

Yet the president's own willingness to compromise isn't dissuading advocates of

such an option from attacking Democrats who may be uneasy about the costs of

such a plan or whether it's palatable to a broader public.

 

Going up on cable networks soon is an ad by the Progressive Change Campaign

Committee. Titled " We Want a Public Option, " the ad first is up on the

organization's Web site, asking all supporters of a public insurance option to

sign their names to the ad, as residents would on a petition. " We're Calling

Democratic Senators Out! " the appeal proclaims, and links to OpenSecrets.com so

that viewers can see the lobbying money from health and insurance interests

flowing to various lawmakers.

 

And it's enlisting support on Twitter.

 

The PCCC says that the ad will appear on CNN, MSNBC and on The Daily Show at

Comedy Central. Adam Green, co-founder of the organization, asserted this

morning that unlike other groups' ads, this one isn't " light and fluffy. "

 

We asked Mr. Green what effect the president's own words on the issue would have

on the group's campaign. He called Mr. Obama's suggestion a " lack of

leadership. " And he continued:

 

" Advisers like Rahm Emanuel operate out of fear - like it's 1994 - instead of

operating like people who just won a huge mandate in 2008. They obviously

haven't mastered the bully pulpit yet, which is a shame since Obama is a master

communicator. If Obama insisted on the public option and held rallies in

Montana, Nebraska, and Louisiana, it would happen.

 

" That said, if they are going to defer to the Congress, all the more reason for

people who care about this issue to publicly shame Democratic senators on the

verge of selling out. "

 

 

This latest missive follows attacks on other Democrats by groups with solid

bases. MoveOn has taken on Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, for

her remarks over the weekend that the votes aren't there yet for the president's

plan.

 

And there are rallies planned by several groups for tonight and tomorrow. In

addition, the Congressional Black Caucus, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, the

Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus and the Congressional Progressive

Caucus - held a news conference today to insist that a public health option must

be a cornerstone of any health care legislation.

 

We haven't even mentioned the labor groups battling to keep public insurance a

viable piece of the health care legislation.

 

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