Carper On Board? ***Updated*** Carper Says No
Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE) tells TPMDC that he plans to sign a letter urging Senate leadership to pass a public option via reconciliation.
“I expect that I will” sign, Carper said. The letter, written by Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO), has been signed by 23 senators so far.
That’s a bit of a departure from his position just yesterday. Asked by TPMDC if he thought passing a public option via reconciliation was appropriate or desirable, Carper said he thought it wouldn’t fly procedurally.
“I don’t know that that’s going to be part of a reconciliation bill,” Carper said. “In fact, I don’t know that you can actually do public option in the context of a very narrow reconciliation–I just don’t know if that’s possible.”
He doesn’t sound too hopeful that it will work – so I wonder if this is a free pass for Senators – they can pretend they care about the public option without actually having to vote for it. Keep up the pressure on the Senate to give it a try.
Update
Carper’s spokesman says Carper misunderstood the question:
His spokeswoman now tells us the senator misunderstood the question, thinking that we were referencing another proposed letter which promises House Democrats that fixes to the Senate bill would be passed via reconciliation.
It’s a letter basically to shore up commitment from wary House Democrats that if they pass the Senate bill in its current form they won’t be hosed.
“The senator just misunderstood your question, thinking you were talking about the proposed reconciliation letter,” the spokeswoman said. “He does not support public option in reconciliation.”
This sounds a lot more like the Carper we know.
alright everyone. one more big phone push….
Ha! Believe it when he actually votes? Today from Firedoglake:
STILL no public option in the Obama plan. STILL a TAX on middle class health care plans. STILL huge restrictions on womens right to choose. STILL special protections for drug makers who fight Medicare drug price negotiations, reimportation, and acces to cheaper generics.
Worse yet, the bill forces you to pay an even BIGGER fine if you don’t buy products of the monopoly insurance companies.
A mandate without a public option to provide competition to the private companies is wrong. For months, polling has shown the Public Option makes the health care bill stronger, even among republicans in swing districts. So why are the democrats still tinkering with this issue?
Waiting for the report of what comes out of the other side of Tom Carper’s mouth now.
Carper is obviously trying to stave off the expected Jason330 primary challenge in 2012.
Too bad the President is opposed.
That is really lazy of you, Jason. I’m starting to think you are working on your own personal Tom Carper impersonation in order to run under the Carper rules.
Wonder if any public option supporter has the balls to stand up at the HCR summit and ask Obama to explain on camera why he won’t get behind the public option. “Because it doesn’t have the votes” just won’t cut it. It’s about time we got a real explanation.
Or why he lied about the public option and not taxing healthcare benefits constantly while campaigning.
You have to think that Obama is setting up some meta-narrative with which to clobber Republicans across the board. Either that or he is just a dumbass and I don’t think he is a dumbass. I HOPE (c) not anyway.
Oh Jason, from your lips to God’s ear.
It feels like the White House has taken the reins from the lame duck Harry Reid. We’ll see.
What is the format of this thing Thursday? Where is it, who will be there? Is there a website with an agenda? I didn’t see one in a quick search.
(never mind, it’s here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/health-care-meeting/bipartisan-meeting)
Carper has actually left me speechless.
One possible theory about Obama and the public option is that he is playing the middle road going into Thursday, waiting for a Dem groundswell demanding it. In my view, that is not going to happen, unfortunately, which is why Carper is suddenly ostensibly on board with it.
i wonder if obama left out the public option so the dems could present it as one of their ideas on thursday. the man is one wily M-Fer
beat me to it per. great minds think alike…. however i think it does stand a chance of working. the republicans, in my opinion pushed their momentum WAAYYYY too far. right wing white people always run as fast as they can toward violence and revolution and now the democrats can take advantage of the “hold on, these crackers are insane” feeling that is growing among the fence sitters
I am holding my breath…just sign it ALREADY Carper. Riiiiiiiiiiight.
a.p. ~
Obama left out the PO because he isn’t interested in scaring off the profitable health insurance industry’s money for the next two election cycles.
I am sorry to say that I have come to believe that all of the hooey we are seeing out of the White House and Congress about the public option is that they really have NO INTENTION of putting it out there because it is a insurance company/GOPer talking point that any form of a Public Option will lead to the end of the PRIVATE INSURANCE INDUSTRY AS WE KNOW IT. Period.
The lobby money and campaign money coming out of that billions-in-profits industry will dry up for the DEMs that are getting it now if they DARE to broach the PO. I think it sinks and they may as well admit that is what is going on.
Why else is Obama et al running like hell away from a program that is tracking into the high 60’s in popularity.
/mind reader
Glenn Greenwald is summing up what I feel is happening to us DEMs:
We are being faked out by feining no-intentioned, disingenuous cop-outs:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/2/23/839961/-Glenn-Greenwald:-This-is-what-the-Democratic-Party-does;-its-who-they-are
Glenn holds out Jay Rockefeller as a common turncoat but I think it is more than that with Jay.
I think I know why Rockefeller turned.
He is really, really miffed that Obama is pouring money into the nuke power people and isn’t giving much sugar to the coal states. He’s been out in front of some pretty pissed of legislators in the last few days over coal and the lack of support for their plight. They want a slow-down on C02 caps. I think Jay is just taking his Public Option ball and going home to WV.
What Nancy (actually GG) said. And it fits perfectly with Greenwald’s thesis — that Democrats take turns wearing the renegade hat so voter anger is dissipated. After taking lots of lumps on HCR 1.0, Carper gets to play liberal for HCR 2.0 while someone like Jay Rockefeller takes a turn as a villain.
Update just in: Spokescritter says he misheard the question, meant that he supports using reconciliation, not the public option.
Adam at Bold Progressives asking Delawareans to call Carpetbagger and Kaufman…neither have stepped up! So whats up with you Ted, you standing with Carper or do you have a mind of your own. Asking once again….where the hell is the Delaware Democratic Party and what pressure have they put on both these blind mice…this is disgusting politics and shows Delaware to be the corporate controlled State it truly is. Greenwald is correct…we got Villian Politics in the Democratic Party.
My take on this is that if Carper comes out in support of the public option or of using reconcillation to pass the public option, it is only because he is absolutely convinced it will not pass when the votes are counted. It is purely political calcultation to curry favor with the voters who support the public option and not risk offending his corporate masters in the insurance industry.
I think that EK is right on on that assessment.
And here is Ezra Klein with a less conspiratorial view of Rockefeller’s current stance on the Public Option.
Thanks, Cassandra. I don’t mean to sound conspiratorial so much as just plain cynical. I think Carper is just ‘bravely’ going out to support something he knows is hopeless. The link to Ezra Klein makes some good points, too. The reality seems to be that a few pols vulnerable to losing reelection, combined with the vast power of the insurance lobby, can kill an idea that remains quite popular with a majority of the nation’s voters. Nearly everyone gets political cover and the public loses.
Hey EK! I didn’t mean that you were conspiratorial — I was offering the Klein as an alternative analysis (and from someone who is pretty decently connected to folks up on the Hill) to Greenwald’s.
Sorry to imply you were being conspiratorial…
No offense taken at all, Cass.
Tom Carper’s approval numbers are already down around 40. He is too smart to follow you off the clift.
Not that I doubt it, but where’s the link to substantiate that?
The DKos has had several diaries that explicitly show how Biden can easily end this showdown of partisanship and circumvent the need for 60 votes for cloture and all that we’ve suffered under the recent abuse of the filibuster from the GOP and Lieberman and a few DEMs in Red States.
But the continual inability to lead is far worse prescription for the DEMs in 2010 than if we just went for it and got bills through for the American people’s benefit. There are 290 bills passed by the House waiting for action.
What is worse is that the party of no NO REFORM GOP is working for against the DEMs and for the GOP in corporate America.
SEE: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/23/AR2010022305537.html?hpid=topnews
– downwithtyranny
Would it surprise you to know that Wall Street banksters are underwriting a GOP takeover of Congress in November? http://tinyurl.com/yl42f37
– Wall Street shifting political contributions to Republicans
Commercial banks and high-flying investment firms have shifted their political contributions toward Republicans in recent months amid harsh rhetoric from Democrats about fat bank profits, generous bonuses and stingy lending policies on Wall Street.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The DEMs are getting it from both sides. They say they want to reform all the sins of Bushco. They hem and haw and allow the gridlock in the Senate. Whose fault is that? Reid? Obama?
DEMs now are seen by the public as having no ability to get true reform legislation passed because of weak-kneed leaders.
But the more cynical think that the gridlock is purely a result of the influence of Wall Street and K Street and they see DEMs fumbling around pretending that they really really do want to sign onto legislation they know won’t pass or totally flip-flopping like Rockefeller –who is getting cover from Klein as being more honest about it all….
Once again. If Rockefeller is against the PO because it can’t get through the 60 needed for cloture, will he stand with the DEMs and rid themselves of the filibuster altogether?
If DEMs don’t get themselves some legislation through and reform the Bushco excesses, the GOP will fool everyone into another decade of hell. This is really on the DEM Senate and it is immediate.
Is it also dire? (not that I have heard of this ‘pollster’, Harry Joe, before):
http://slatest.slate.com/id/2245810/entry/1/#add-comment
Pollster: Democrats Could Lose House in Midterm Elections
The numbers aren’t looking good for Democrats, leaving liberal bloggers to hope the midterm elections will be merely terrible rather than “history-making.”
Comment in moderation –too many links?
Oh shite UI. Carper was all over national teevee last night and the blogs as an almost-signer. This is major egg on face.
Meanwhile, he and Kaufman are getting slammed in the liberal blogosphere (Think Progress – Matt Yglesias and FDL David Dayen/Jane Hamsher) for going against Obama’s legislation to make student loans more affordable by removing the middleman.
The DE Senators are in lockstep with Corporate Welfare and saying the legislation will hurt jobs in DE.
The Carper correction appeared in a new TPM post today about Kent Conrad’s snit over the House, the Senate Bill and the sidecar and who should go first.
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/02/conrad-health-care-dead-unless-house-passes-senate-bill-first.php
..And a spokesperson for Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE) told TPMDC yesterday that Carper would be willing to sign on to a letter assuring House Democrats that the Senate would take action on a reconciliation bill if they passed the comprehensive Senate bill first.
carper is flaping around on the deck like a dying fish. he is stuck between doing the biding of the people who put him in office and doing the biding of the insurance scams who gave him money. KEEP CALLING HIM!
a.price “carper is flapping around on the deck like a dying fish….” If you think he is “flapping” on health care, you should see the “Charlestown” he is doing on Energy. Incredible !!!