This is what Rep. Steny Hoyer said a few days ago in a conference call with reporters:
“I’m for a public option, but I’m also for passing a bill,” he said. Democrats believe the public option is necessary, he said, “but we’ll have to see.”
He added that there are many other important parts of healthcare legislation approved by three committees in the House.
This went directly against what Speaker of the House, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, said about the public option:
"There's no way I can pass a bill in the House of Representatives without a public option.”
When Rep. Steny Hoyer said that a bill was acceptable to him without the public option as an essential part of the package, he was sending a clear signal to the Blue Dog Democrats, which they picked up on as you can see below from Rep. Altmire, one of the Blue Dogs:
The House's healthcare reform bill will have to be changed before it can even win a majority among Democrats, one centrist, Blue Dog Democrat insisted Friday.
Rep. Jason Altmire (D-Pa.), who opposed the health bill on the Ways and Means committee, signaled that Democrats may not even have the votes to force through a preliminary health bill without any Republican support.
"And in order to get a majority even among the Democratic Party, we're going to have to change the way that House bill is formatted right now," Altmire said during an appearance on Fox News.
Those words come after liberal Democrats strongly signaled to President Obama earlier this week that a publicly available health plan would be essential to winning their votes. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Thursday that she wouldn't be able to pass a bill without a public option.
And another Blue Dog Democrat, Rep. Boyd, chimed in with more noise about "slowing down" the process and working to make sure that the House bill is more like the Senate Finance Committee bill:
But he did reflect the increasing unease of moderate Democrats with the issue, in Marianna holding up hefty H.R. 3200 — the primary bill in the House — and proclaiming to applause that he would not support it as is.
He also told crowds that the public option was probably unlikely, that he would prefer the process to slow down and was open to a more incremental approach.
And in an effort at reassurance in Marianna, he urged the audience to pay attention to the Senate Finance Committee, the only relevant committee in either chamber that has yet to move a bill and the one that is most inclined toward a centrist approach.
“Wherever we end up will be more like what they're doing, anyway,” Boyd said.
It's the plan of the Blue Dog Democrats to throw another "ruckus" when Members of Congress come back after the August recess, and demand that the House Tri-Committee bill, H.R. 3200 be watered down even more, with the public option possibly removed in favor of co-operatives, or insisting that subsidies be pared back even more to match the Senate Finance Committee bill.
And what will Rep. Steny Hoyer do? He'll likely give in to the Blue Dog Democrats, considering that he's received thousands of dollars from the murder-by-spreadsheet industry below:
- $2,500 from Aetna
- $2,500 from AHIP
- $5,000 from BluePAC (the PAC for Blue Cross Blue Shield)
- $2,500 from Cigna
- $1,500 from HealthNet, Inc
- $5,000 from Sun HealthCare Group, Inc.
- $6,500 from UnitedHealth Group, Inc.
- $5,000 from WellPoint
That's over $30,500 given to Rep. Steny Hoyer from the murder-by-spreadsheet industry. It's why it's time for us to bring the hammer down on Rep. Steny Hoyer and his Blue Dog pets in Congress!
Rep. Steny Hoyer has a townhall on Tuesday, September 1st, at 7PM. We NEED you guys to go to that townhall event to tell Steny Hoyer when you have the chance to speak, that you know how much money he's taken from the murder-by-spreadsheet industry, and that he MUST make sure the public option is in the final bill or else you'll wonder if his vote is bought that easily.
Congressman Steny H. Hoyer (D-MD) announced that he will hold a town hall meeting on health care reform for residents of the Fifth Congressional District of Maryland on TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1ST, 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. at North Point High School located at 2500 Davis Road, Waldorf, MD.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION
Doors will open at 6:00 p.m.
Event capacity is 1000. Entry will be granted on a first come first serve basis.
Parking is available in the high school parking lot after 5:00 p.m.
So, please PRINT OUT this diary with the contribution amounts from these private insurers, make signs in support of the public option, and GO EARLY so that you're one of the first few people to ask Steny Hoyer questions!
Tell Rep. Hoyer that the public option is a necessary cost containment, and that you don't want RomneyCare to go national without a strong public option in order to keep premium costs affordable. Let him know what Senator Kennedy said in his Newsweek editorial about the public option:
To accomplish all of this, we have to cut the costs of health care. For families who've seen health-insurance premiums more than double—from an average of less than $6,000 a year to nearly $13,000 since 1999—one of the most controversial features of reform is one of the most vital. It's been called the "public plan." Despite what its detractors allege, it's not "socialism." It could take a number of different forms. Our bill favors a "community health-insurance option." In short, this means that the federal government would negotiate rates—in keeping with local economic conditions—for a plan that would be offered alongside private insurance options. This will foster competition in pricing and services. It will be a safety net, giving Americans a place to go when they can't find or afford private insurance, and it's critical to holding costs down for everyone.
Ask Rep. Hoyer if he agrees with Senator Kennedy about the public option being critical to holding costs down for everyone, and let him know that co-ops aren't an acceptable alternative to the public option!
PLEASE recommend this diary so others can see Rep. Steny Hoyer's townhall event and GO TO that event!
And don't forget to donate to our public option fund at FDL since Nyceve, Jane, I, and others are working hard night and day on this issue for us all!
We also have a new game plan which we're hoping that you guys will join in tomorrow because this is going to be a crucial effort that will lead to automated phone calls in a Representative's district, telling voters the truth about that Representative on whether he or she can be bought so easily by the murder-by-spreadsheet industry.
It's going to be one of our biggest sticks we're going to use on a Member of Congress, which will be chosen by you after this crowd-sourcing effort, and it'll make people in Congress sit up and take notice because it might happen to them if they vote to support a health care bill without a strong public option in it.