Here is a preliminary version of a list that reader mcc put together based on the calls that you have done so far. So many Congressmen are clearly on the fence over the Senate bill that I think your calls can have a real effect. Keep it up.
Roll Call
by Tim F| 80 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads
Tom Hilton
Grijalva is a no.
Fucking douchebag.
dr. bloor
No one’s getting off the fence until they know what they’re voting for.
beltane
Not getting much hope looking at that list. Sigh.
mcc
Note, the list there is based on a CSV Tim sent me a couple hours ago. I will start going through in 10 or 15 minutes and trying to add comments posted since then.
If anyone else wants to help add information from the comments, let me know. I think google docs will let me give up to 8 more people write permissions.
Elias Isquith
So I just called my congressman Scott Murphy (D-NY) and spoke with one of his staffers and he said it looks like they can’t get the Senate bill through the House and so the White House and others are pushing for drastically pairing down their ambitions and basically sending a bunch of bills or one bill loaded with all the non-controversial goodies (no pre-existing conditions discrimination, no excision, etc.) through the House and Senate. He said, and I agreed, that this is far from ideal – and will likely lead to higher costs and could be an eventual political disaster – but it’s also much better than doing nothing. I told him that I voted for Murphy, was happy to do so, and that while I was disappointed by his Nay vote for the House bill, I understood why he made that decision. I implied that I would be far less willing to vote for Murphy this year unless the Congressman was a voice for movement – for doing something – on HCR, and he said that Rep. Murphy intends to be so and does not consider inaction to be an option both in policy and political terms.
On the less encouraging side, my girlfriend, who is registered in PA, called Rep. Sestak’s office and couldn’t get a straight answer one way or another about how the Congressman intends to vote re: the Senate bill.
BR
Add Susan Davis (CA): I called and her staff said she’s waiting on house leadership and the whitehouse to figure out a deal because she likes the house bill better and doesn’t want to give up on fixing the bill before she votes on it. I asked whether they get that it’s unlikely the bill will get better if they wait, and was told that they think they can improve the bill.
Sounds to me like they’re engaged in wishful thinking.
mcc
@Tom Hilton: He might still be movable. What he’s saying now is very different from what he was saying yesterday.
His new trial balloon sounds incredibly messy. I don’t think I understand what he’s even proposing.
@dr. bloor: It’s true, but there’s a kinda feedback loop thing going on here. If Congresspeople have an idea there are constituents that want the original, non-cut-up bill passed it will change their behavior going into the phase where they decide what will be voted on.
You Don't Say
You can add two more, both Dems from southern Nevada:
*Dina Titus, totally noncommittal about voting, favors public option and
*Shelley Berkley, would vote for Senate bill only if other bill(s) passed via reconciliation.
MP
No commitment from John Lewis’ office, but staffer did note my support as a constituent.
evie
I called Schakowksy’s office. She’s “waiting to see” what the final bill will be and has no position yet on the Senate bill.
I urged her to vote for the Senate bill.
Mary
Thanks for the hard work you guys. I’ll be calling my rep every day in support. Is there anything else we should do?
Rick Taylor
We’ll have to put pressure on the Senate as well. This isn’t passing the house without at least some prospect that the flaws can be addressed in reconciliation. It’s not realistic to expect the House to make all of the compromises and to take all of the risk.
dr. bloor
@mcc:
Not in the House, it won’t. They don’t get to modify anything at this point. They get the Senate Bill as it is currently written, plus whatever else (if anything) Harry Reid can rustle up in terms of add-ons through reconciliation, other bills, etc.
growingdaisies
Called John Sarbanes (MD-3) again today. Staff says he still hasn’t made a decision on the Senate bill. Very frustrating.
BR
The house needs to understand how hard it was to get the senate to pass the bill they passed, and with one less vote they are sure as hell not likely to pass anything else health care related this year.
They need to get that. We need to snap them the fuck out of their magical thinking.
MattR
Does anyone have a link to a good summary of the Senate bill (preferably with a comparison to the House bill)?
Rick Taylor
__
The bill as it was was fairly minimalistic, given conservative demands we do it through the free market. If you want this country to join the civilized world and eliminate the specter of people losing everything just because they get sick, you have to require insurance companies to cover everyone, without regard to pre-existing conditions. If you’re going to require insurance companies cover everyone who signs up, you have to mandate everyone sign up, otherwise why would would anyone buy insurance before they get sick? If you’re going to mandate that everyone buy insurance from private companies, you’d better put some sort of consumer protection in there, and you’d better put in subsidies to support those who can’t afford it. And then you have pretty much the bill we’re trying to pass.
__
Passing a bill to eliminate discrimination against pre-existing conditions might make sense as a political move I guess. If we could do it, suddenly the insurance companies would be pushing hard for the rest of health care reform, just to avoid being put out of business.
sacman701
I called Matsui (CA) today and she’s a meh.
tcolberg
As I mentioned here, I called Diane Watson’s (D-CA-33) office in D.C. about 3 hours ago. She’s behind passing the Senate bill with immediate reforms.
Micah
Waters (CA-35) should go in the ‘meh’ column – the staffer I talked to doesn’t know, though I think I got the message across pretty clearly that not doing anything on health care is going to lose the Democrats a politically engaged 24-year-old. The one thing I got out of the staffer is that they’d gotten a lot of calls back in the day from people urging her to hold firm on the public option, and I said that I (and the people I know) are quite willing to let that drop at this point in exchange for getting a bill to the President.
geg6
I called Jason Altmire’s (D-PA) office this morning. The staffer I spoke to seemed very nonchalant and said he had not yet decided. Told her I had canvassed, contributed, and voted for him but would not do so again if he did not vote yes for the Senate bill. I hate that bill, but I did it for you guys.
The Raven
Jim McDermott (D-WA-07) is on the fence, but will probably get behind any reasonable health care proposal.
mousebumples
@Rick Taylor: Agreed. I’d appreciate a “What to cover” list for calling Senators (as well as House Reps), in terms of what we’re asking for so that we’re covering the same things. Asking them to consider using reconciliation to improve the bill is a given … but what in *particular* needs to be improved? The Nebraska deal is one (but would trashing that prevent Nelson from voting for anything Dem again … and/or do we mind if he turns GOP Red?), and perhaps the Cadillac health plan tax, and I heard someone here mention the excise tax, but I’m not informed enough to understand that.
Obviously, everyone should represent their own views and not just parrot a list of talking points. But since I’d love to give my Senators more specific direction, if anyone has specific ideas about *what* to ask for, I’d love to hear it, as I continue to call each day.
Also: Will someone be answering phones on the weekend? I’m up for calling then as well, but I’m not sure if it would even be a viable option. [/uninformed, first time phone caller of elected representatives]
minachica
@MattR: Ezra links to a pretty good summary of the differences between the two bills (if that helps any):
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/01/11_pages_apart.html
dr. bloor
@BR:
I’m guessing that House members have a clue as to how hard it was to get the Senate bill out, and they understand that any new provisions will be through reconciliation and not through changes of the existing Senate bill (They get CNN and MSNBC on their teevees, too).
As BTD has said on other threads, asking House members to vote for a bill with the excise tax on “Cadillac plans” intact is political poison and a pretty tall order by itself, never mind the language on abortion and public options. Pelosi’s statement this morning was essentially a message to Harry Reid; let’s see what he has to say.
Nellcote
Called Mike Thompson (CA-01) and the staffer didn’t know what he planned to do.
evie
@Rick Taylor:
I called Durbin as well (my senator). The response from his office was dismaying.
First, the person who answered the phone tried to placate me with “he supports health care reform.” When I pressured her for an answer as to what his plan is to get it passed, she said “he’s waiting for it to get out of conference.” Oh, and “Obama doesn’t want any votes until Brown is seated.”
It was a bizarre litany of talking points completely untethered to the current situation. I find it horrifying coming from Senate leadership.
I’m not even bothering with Burris.
Matthew
I spoke to a staffer for Allyson Schwartz PA-13, and he told me that she’s waiting on the House leadership.
I told him that 2010 was going to be a pretty grim year for the Democratic party if this didn’t get done, and he said that we’re not going to be any closer to reform with more Republicans in Congress.
Way to take your liberal constituency for granted, buddy.
dr. bloor
@evie:
I’m sure this has been mentioned elsewhere, and I’m not a hater, but for all the “Let Congress Do Its Job” messaging that came out of the WH last year, where the fuck does Obama get off by suddenly coming out and telling them when they should be holding their votes?
mtbinwi
Ron Kind WI-3 wouldn’t say.
Ben H.
Called Rep David Wu D-OR’s Portland office. Registered my approval of passing the Senate HCR bill as is and then toughening it in reconciliation. Wu’s staffers said he had no stand as yet.
geg6
dr. bloor: If Obama has so much control over what House members do and when, he should be standing on the Capitol steps screaming at them to get the fucking bill on his desk.
DougJ
Louise Slaughter — on the fence
Eric Massa — voting against it (he voted against the original bill)
MattR
@minachica: Thank you. That is a nice summary of the differences.
dr. bloor
@geg6:
Heh. Obama having a Howard Beale moment would certainly be entertaining, if ultimately ineffectual.
Ailuridae
Kucinich was on the Ed show . I flipped over the sound from Billy Joe Shaver to hear him pretty unequivocally say he wasn’t voting for the Senate bill. Given that he didn’t vote for the House bill that’s not a surpise.
Also, I suggested this in another thread but there should be a separate email from the website itself to the offices asking the same question. If you look at the open left whipping of the Senate for the PO you’ll see a lot of their firm commitments came over email.
Ailuridae
@DougJ:
Eric Massa—voting against it (he voted against the original bill)
Purer than John Dingell (and I like Massa)
Tenzil Kem
If Grijalva’s so bothered by the Senate, he can damn well run against McCain this year. Jackass.
Does Kucinich have a primary opponent this year?
Ailuridae
@dr. bloor:
As BTD has said on other threads, asking House members to vote for a bill with the excise tax on “Cadillac plans” intact is political poison and a pretty tall order by itself, never mind the language on abortion and public options. Pelosi’s statement this morning was essentially a message to Harry Reid; let’s see what he has to say.
I wonder what the perception of the excise tax would be right now if it weren’t being misrepresented and lied about from the left the last 6 weeks? Right about now it looks like demagoguing the excise tax in hopes that a tax on the wealthy that could never pass the 60 vote threshold in the Senate would be passed instead looks particularly dim.
Its nice that Jane walked Raul out on that limb and left him there.
Tom Hilton
Over at Crooks & Liars, the post about liberals refusing to vote for the bill was greeted with positive comments. The first was simply “Grijalva 2012”. Had to fight back the desire to (figuratively) choke the living shit out of the dumbass who posted that one.
Seriously–does anyone who isn’t smoking PCP-laced crack with a heroin-LSD chaser honestly believe that if (through some miraculous confluence of unicorns and leprechauns) Grijalva (or Kucinich or Massa or whoever) became president he would get any better (or even half as good) results as Obama?
Gwangung
Marginal tax! Marginal! Marginal! Marginal!
dr. bloor
@Ailuridae:
We should be so lucky to be in a spot where tweaking the tax issue was the only thing Reid needs to do to get the votes in the House. I’m not feeling very lucky this week.
David
I have more respect for the GOP for just opposing HCR than the House Dems that can’t suck it up and pass the bill. To agree that HCR is needed and throw it away now over some minor details is unforgivable.
mcc
Guys, I’m sorry I haven’t updated the spreadsheet yet– I will get to it as soon as I can.
In the meantime here’s the results of TPM’s informal whipping
Ailuridae
@dr. bloor:
That’s exactly where we would be if there hadn’t been crass misrepresentation of what the excise tax was and who it affected.
On November 5th of last year it was obvious that there was never going to be an increase in income tax on anyone that would pass this Senate on legislation subjected to 60 votes. Its fine that the house passed that in their legislation as their preferred funding mechanism (and I prefer it too) but now there is through freakish chance only one game in town. That’s the excise tax and its a perfectly fine, progressive way to pay for a large portion of a massive expansion of insurance coverage.
Or it would be if the FDLers had been arguing in good faith the last six weeks. But, you know, they didn’t. So now its a bridge too far for the Progressive Caucus.
Ailuridae
@David:
So pragmatic. So impure.
FoxinSocks
Thanks for the spreadsheet. Received an e-mail back from Donna Edwards’ legislative assistant, Janel George, this is what she said:
—
I handle health care issues for Congresswoman Edwards and received your e-mail regarding the status of the health care reform legislation. Many share in your frustration with the Democratic caucus over the handling of health care reform. It is Congresswoman Edwards’ position that we must be clear and decisive moving forward. Congresswoman Edwards believes it is the job of legislators to unravel the confusion surrounding health care reform and to ensure the American public is clear on wheat the party stands for in terms of health reform.
The Congresswoman believes that we should move forward on the areas upon which both parties agree (i.e. ending exclusions for pre-existing conditions, creating accountability in the insurance industry, and expanding insurance coverage up until the age of 26 for young adults). In addition, she supports systemic changes, such as investments in community health centers and supporting primary care practitioners. She hopes that the caucus can outline a specific framework and move forward.
Today, Speaker Pelosi announced that she does not believe she has the votes in the House of Representatives to pass the Senate bill “as is.” This means that the probability of the House voting on the Senate health bill, sending it to the President to sign, and simultaneously passing another bill amending “problem areas” in the Senate bill is less likely. However, the leadership (including the President, Speaker Pelosi, Majority Leader Hoyer, and Senator Majority Leader Reid) will communicate to the caucus their plan of action. ”
My translation of this: “We’re rolling over and playing dead.”
Martin Gifford
Passing a bill to force people to pay for health protection to a private company would be a disaster for Dems. Can you imagine the Rep message machine:
The Dems will be destroyed if they don’t have a public option. But they will also lose if they don’t pass a HCR bill after dicking around for so long.
mcc
@Ailuridae: It seems to me the unions had a legitimate concern about what the excise tax would do to them because of the relatively unique nature of their contracts. Of course, the patch there (the 7 year exception) seems like one of the most reconciliation-ready things on the table…
David
@Martin Gifford:
Why don’t people understand that passing this bill or not, the Democrats already voted for this and have to run against this. They can choose to run on actually passing a decent but not great bill, or choose to run on “yes I voted for it, but it didn’t pass” and validate the GOP message machine.
Brian Schmidt
I left this note in another thread, but Ann Eshoo staffers (CA-14) couldn’t tell me her position.
Ailuridae
@mcc:
Yep. And maybe it should have been written in the final Senate bill. But i think some of that was CBO jigging (to force a higher payroll tax on high earners) so that’s fine.
But, nobody, and I mean nobody arguing against the tax was arguing that it needed small tweaks to be fair they were all, here, on GOS, on FDL arguing it was a regressive tax on the middle class and attacked unions. There probably isn’t any walking that back in heavily union CDs. And its obvious that they were arguing in bad faith because after every major union in the country got on board with the compromise they still didn’t own up to the idea itself being just fine. Then it was time for Grubergate. They made an idea toxic that absolutely had to be in the bill anyway in hopes that a funding pony that would never pass the 60 vote threshold (but could pass separately with 50 readily) would be used instead.
Good for Jane again. I hope her lilly white Hollywood producer self drives around LA explaining to all of those would have been Medicaid recipients that here purity BS is why they don’t have care. And as we are lucky to have a jobs bill that gets to 150B with shitty tax cuts in it to pass maybe she can explain to the rest of the country how the 40B in immediate Medicaid spend (stimulus mutliplier around 1.6) isn’t there because she didn’t get a public option.
Ailuridae
@Martin Gifford:
Both bills had hardship exemptions and the Senate bill had much more reasonable penalties. Nearly every non blue bod Democrat has already voted for a mandate (as they should have)
JMY
I’m starting to fear that if we don’t get HCR passed, we won’t be able to accomplish anything. It’s bad enough we have Republican obstructionism, but Democrats? I understand the differences in policy and strategy among the party, but the fact of the matter is, you don’t come this far just to give up when the finish line is right in front of you. If this fails (I’m optimistic it won’t, but even that is difficult) I expect major consequences and repercussions come mid-terms. The worst thing that could happen is Republicans making substantial gains especially in the Senate. A majority is even scarier. Then the president won’t get anything done, people will blame him, blah , blah, blah, black Jimmy Carter…this has turned into one huge clusterfuck of a situation.
martian
@mcc: Schakowsky’s name is misspelled, when you get a chance.
While I’m grateful for the work everyone is doing, damn, that list is depressing. What a comedown from the post-election glee over our majorities.
But I’ll call my reps again tomorrow.
Mary
@geg6: You are an angel geg, a real team player.
Mary
I’m having very dark thoughts about who might have funded the Kill Bill drive on the left. It was balls to the wall even after the unions dropped out.
Martin Gifford
@David:
Just sayin’. It’s a either a thrashing (passing the bill without a public option) or a close loss (not passing the bill at all)
@Ailuridae:
Just sayin’. It’s a political loser to force people to pay their money to private health insurance companies without a public option. The GOP will slaughter the Dems with:
“They are forcing you to give thousands of dollars of your hard earned money to private health insurance companies.”
Watch out!
john b
i called david price of nc a couple days ago and got an intern/assistant. the assistant didn’t let on one way or the other how price felt about the issue. he just took down my opinion.
Scott de B.
I used to say that I’d never seen a major party self-destruct like I saw the Republicans do over the last three years.
Now I think I’ll have to say I’ve never seen two major parties self destruct like this before.
reginium
I called Nydia Velasquez yesterday to urge her to support passage of the senate bill. All the staffer was really able to tell me was that she supports a public option.
Edward G. Talbot
Still just a little bit curious which of those 30+ blue dog types that opposed the original bill have changed their mind. I’ve not seen many change their mind.
I’d love to see some links if they have (not the first thread where I’ve asked this question) b/c without major position changes there, the blue dogs are still a bigger problem than the liberals.
Malron
Leading Health Care Group to Democrats: Get it done. Now!
We have HCAN, the SEIU and constituents ringing up their congressmen demanding the same strategy. Hell, even Jane Hamsher’s advocating this move. What the hell is the House waiting for?
David
Martin, pretty sure you’ve got that backwards. The deserved thrashing is passing nothing at all, they may keep it close by doing the responsible thing and passing the bill. You know, actually proving they are capable of governing.
bystander
Markey’s “no comment” (from mcc‘s spreadsheet) is only slightly more informative than the responses I got from her all summer… on any aspect of health insurance reform. I remind myself that her predecessor was none other than Marilyn Musgrave, on the one hand, but the DNC was profoundly stingy with campaign dollars for the infinitely more progressive Angie Paccione in the previous campaign against Musgrave, on the other. Simply stated, Markey is a Blue Dog. I’m beginning to pay a great deal more attention to which candidates get to the Primaries, and how much support they get from the Democratic Party once they get there. It would be easy to say that Markey was more electable than Paccione, but I’m unconvinced that it’s true. The current SCOTUS decision isn’t going to make any of this better.
tatere
@mcc:
i put up a version of the sheet with columns for the vote on the original House bill. i added in the original No voters where they weren’t already there. i think you can get a copy from that link if you want it.
considering that of the 3 vote margin it passed with, Stupak and i believe Cao have flipped to No and that guy from Hawaii resigned, the bill almost certainly can’t pass unless there are some Nays that flip to Ayes. even without the collective traditional Democratic Freak-Out this would be a tough job.
Nick
@Tenzil Kem:
good point
xian
@Mary: I have the same thoughts (that geg6 is a mensh and that the teabaggers took useful-idiot money from ratfuckers)
Boston Yankee
It appears that most do not understand that the majority of Democrats do not apparently favor the Senate health bill. First, other than Lieberman, Baucus, and Rahm. Who understands what is in this bill. Does it impose an excise tax, 40% , on health plans that really provide medical care? Will any of the policies be affordable? Will they provide decent coverage? Just because Harry can’t get his ducks in order, is not sufficient reason to pass this inadequate bill.
I do not feel like following Max and Joe over the cliff. New Jersey, Massachusetts, and the polls clearly show that HCR is DOA. This turkey could kill the few liberals that are in the Congress and Grijalva is worth three Joe’s any day of the week.
Mary
@xian: It would perfectly explain the incongruous call to join with the teabaggers issued in the 4th quarter of 2009 and was my immediate thought when that happened. It would provide a cover for taking the money, however lame that cover is.
Ailuridae
@Boston Yankee:
Does it impose an excise tax, 40% , on health plans that really provide medical care?
What’s being taxed 40%?
Will any of the policies be affordable? Will they provide decent coverage? Just because Harry can’t get his ducks in order, is not sufficient reason to pass this inadequate bill.
The bill is perfectly adequately just not sufficiently perfect for purists. I know, I know, any bill without a
ponypublic option is just a corporate give away. Any bill with a mandate is fascist.Another thread starts with a health care discussion from an infrequent poster who just, coincidentally is spreading FUD while claiming to not know anything about the bill itself. Whee hee! Its the firebagger express!
David
@Boston Yankee: The policies will cost less and cover more under the Senate plan. The excise tax should really be a non-issue at this point, you should probably read up on marginal tax rates.
mcc
Just added everything from this thread.
Gonna go through the other threads and make sure there’s anything missing. Will post back here when I do.
Tatere, thanks, that’s really helpful!
mcc
Just added everything from the “Comment Of The Day 2” thread.
I believe that the spreadsheet Tim F sent me had everything from the threads before that.
Nothing from the “reconciliation” thread (Senate members) is added. Maybe we should make a sheet 2 for that?
Now that I’m up to speed I should be able to add things much quicker. I am still curious if anyone else is interested in being given edit privileges to the spreadsheet so we can have more than one person adding stuff.
Tatere, your spreadsheet is helpful but I’m not sure what to do with it. Maybe I can add it as a sheet.
Martin Gifford
@David:
Well, time will tell. I reckon if they didn’t pass but did other good things like a jobs plan, then it would be close. If they pass it without the public option, then the Reps have a gigantic attack weapon:
“The Dems are forcing you to give huge amounts of your hard-earned money to private companies.”
I tell ya, you better get used to the sound of that and the sight of Dems on their knees (of course, you’re used to the second part already). The Reps are rubbing their hands together watching the Dem blogs beg the Dem politicians to pass HCR without a public option.
tatere
@mcc:
you might be able to just add those columns – i couldn’t get the formatting right. there were only the 39 Nays so it wasn’t that much to add in.
joy
Gutierrez isn’t commenting-I don’t know if that means he hasn’t decided or that he’s just not sharing his decision for some reason, and his office couldn’t tell me which it was.
afferent input
Jay Inslee’s (D-WA) Shoreline office told me that he knows the need to pass some kind of reform, and that failure to do so will be a disaster. But he has not yet taken a stand on whether he supports the Senate bill with a following fix bill or passing several smaller bills with just the good parts. So, basically, meh.
Dayv
I love you, Jim Moran.
mtbinwi
The spreadsheet tally has a minor error. It should be Ron Kind (not Rob).
I called the local Eau Claire office again today. I asked if he was going to support the Senate HCR bill. The staffer answering the phone said their legislative director would send me a letter answering my questions. I said that wasn’t good enough. I wasn’t interested in getting a form letter in 2 or 3 weeks when it would be too late and wanted to know where Ron Kind stood today. She tried to transfer me to Travis, the legislative director. She then came back and asked if Travis could call me back. I said sure and gave her my number. A few minutes later she called back and said Travis had just gotten off the phone with Ron and that they are “still evaluating” things. I told her this wasn’t good enough and wanted to know what was left to evaluate? I pointed out that Pelosi said she didn’t have the votes and wanted to know which side Ron Kind had come down on, what message he had conveyed to Pelosi. She didn’t know but said she would pass my question along and get back to me with an answer. I asked how long that was going to take. She didn’t know. I said I would be calling back next week to find out if I didn’t hear from somebody before then.
If you live in WI -3 call. Ron Kind is a blue dog and Cantor at the beginning of January noted that Kind (along with Kagen) might not be willing to support the Senate version. They voted for the House bill. Ron needs to understand that if he holds out and tanks HCR he will be held responsible. There will be no passing the buck and finger pointing and he will lose support.
I will be looking for a democrat to challenge him in the next primary if he doesn’t support passing the bill.