Bernie Sanders to Insure Public Option Receives Up-or-Down Vote (Defying Democratic Leaders)

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NOTE: This is from our friends at FDL who are letting us reprint Jon Walker’s post on Bernie’s continued fight for health care reform.  The following post discusses Senator Sanders’ willingness to push a vote on a public option despite opposition from the Democratic leadership.



Thank you Bernie and keep up the fight.

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Bernie Sanders to Make Sure Public Option Gets Up-or-Down Vote, Defying Reid, Durbin

 — By: Jon Walker

We recently learned that Harry Reid (D-NV) and Dick Durbin (D-IL) were actually whipping against the public option and trying to deny the American people a real up-or-down vote on the issue in the Senate. It is good to see that Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is willing to defy them and instead go with the will of the American people. From Greg Sargent:

   “I think somebody should do that, and I’d certainly be prepared to do that,” Sanders told me when I asked him if he’d be willing to commit to introducing a public option amendment. This is, in effect, a commitment to introduce the amendment if no one else does.

As I have explained earlier, if even one senator offers a public option amendment, and it is ruled germane, it would likely receive an up-or-down vote as part of the reconciliation vote-a-rama. Designing a public option/public program buy-in that would be ruled germane and does not violate the Byrd rule should definitely be possible.

Durbin’s argument against the public option amendment, or any other smart, pro-consumer, Democratic amendments, is that they could endanger passage of the reconciliation bill if it is sent back to the House. Given that Republican sources are saying the Senate parliamentarian ruled the House must first pass the comprehensive Senate health care bill before the reconciliation fixes can be taken up, the fear that the public option amendment could derail the reconciliation fixes seem strange.

If it gets to that point, Durbin will already have the health care reform bill he originally voted for signed into law. The reconciliation fixes are minor, and clearly not overly important to Durbin, since he already voted for a bill with all the “problems” in it. Since Durbin does not want the important student loan reform bill as part of reconciliation, there is no reason to actually worry about the fate of the reconciliation sidecar bill from his stand point.

About Caoimhin Laochdha

Central Vermont life-long civil liberties activist. I offset my carbon footprint by growing my own energy and riding my bicycle at least 8 months of the year. Every election cycle, since Gerald Ford's social promotion to the Oval Office, I've volunteered for at least one Democratic presidential campaign that ultimately finished in second (or lower) place.

8 thoughts on “Bernie Sanders to Insure Public Option Receives Up-or-Down Vote (Defying Democratic Leaders)”

  1. I wish Bernie luck, but doubt that it will do much.  This must look strange to European eyes where their health care systems have been in place for decades.  

  2. The “our” in “our friends at FDL” does not apply to all of us.  I generally agree with this post, but I do not personally think of FDL as being on the same side as I am.

  3. It’s nice to see that someone whom we all worked so hard to get to Washington has not forgotten the mission for change on which his constituents sent him.

  4. the bill will include mandatory insurance insurance with many premiums to come in part or all from tax dollars. These tax dollars will be funneled directly into the coffers of the glutted insurance industry.

    There will be no public option of any kind.

    This bill will represent total failure on the part of the DC surrender monkeys.

  5. CL, how well I know what you mean.  That is exactly what the US system wants as well.  When you get sick you are a “medical loss,” cutting into their profits.  How well I know what that is like.    

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