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You are here: Home / Open Threads / 40 Senate Votes For The Public Option

40 Senate Votes For The Public Option

by Tim F|  March 11, 20109:39 am| 23 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

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HuffPo notes that Florida’s Nelson has signed on. What does your Senator think? Phone and ask.

If your Senators already support the public option, phone them anyway. Unlike liberals, who rarely phone their Reps and Senators, angry stupid teabaggers phone all day. They will really appreciate a friendly voice.

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23Comments

  1. 1.

    Zifnab

    March 11, 2010 at 9:41 am

    HuffPo notes that Florida’s Nelson has signed on.

    I’m not sure if that makes me more or less hopeful. If Nelson signs on, he might just be gaming a non-issue. Votes or it didn’t happen, after all. That said, it’s going to be really hard to claim “Democrats don’t have the votes” when they’ve got 40 co-signers. Maybe this slow roll to the finish isn’t the worst thing for HCR.

  2. 2.

    Third Eye Open

    March 11, 2010 at 9:42 am

    Hey, brother, can you spare some smelling-salts?

    Plastic-Nelson? Seriously? He said in no uncertain terms that he was supporting the PO? Fuck, I must have woken up in an alternate universe. Well, good for him, I will call his office on my next break to let them know that I think he is slightly less of a crap-weasel, today.

  3. 3.

    John S.

    March 11, 2010 at 9:59 am

    Maybe all the angry calls I’ve made to Nelson’s office in the last couple months have paid off. The guy’s office staff wouldn’t even say whether he supported reconciliation, and now this?

    There’s some strange shit in the Florida political water supply.

  4. 4.

    cfaller96

    March 11, 2010 at 10:17 am

    I called Senator Hagan’s office this morning. She doesn’t have an official stance on reconciliation yet, because as yet there is no specific reconciliation bill per se. But if it gets to the point where a HCR “fix” bill is put through reconciliation, she will vote for it. So yay.

    I finished the call by reminding the poor staffer that back in January Senator Hagan was strongly supportive of “bipartisan” HCR. At the time I took exception to that and pointed out it meant she wasn’t really supportive of HCR, because Republicans aren’t supportive of HCR. I praised Senator Hagan for moving away from her “bipartisan” fetish, and hoped that she wouldn’t make the same mistake in the future.

    Yeah, I’m kind of a dick.

  5. 5.

    slag

    March 11, 2010 at 10:18 am

    Both my senators have signed on.

    And they both got thank-you notes via Bold Progressives: http://boldprogressives.org/home, which seems like a decent organization that actively encourages participation but doesn’t send too much spam. As far as I’ve seen. If anyone knows anything to the contrary about them, I’d be interested.

  6. 6.

    Max

    March 11, 2010 at 10:24 am

    Boxer and Di Fi are in already. California knows how to party.

  7. 7.

    feebog

    March 11, 2010 at 10:40 am

    Wow, if Bill Nelson is in, then getting the PO in the reconcilliation bill looks like it really is doable. Would like to see Hagen and the two Senators from Virginia make a block move, that would most likely move some other holdouts to endorse.

  8. 8.

    Third Eye Open

    March 11, 2010 at 10:48 am

    Just called Nelson’s office and the lady on the phone said that they are getting a pretty good mix of pro vs. con upon his announcement. Wait time was about 5 minutes, so I guess they are really hearing about it. She said the people calling to express their displeasure keep telling her that they, and everyone they know is against it, but she isn’t seeing all those, “everyones”.

  9. 9.

    Danny

    March 11, 2010 at 11:32 am

    Let me just report in and tell you how immensely i appreciate this work that you’re doing here! For all disheartened progressives this is the only road forward to seeing more progressive policy becoming law. In the end our representatives are weak because we are weak at advocacy.

    The day progressive grassroots work as hard and ceaselessly as evangelical wingnuts in inviting middle america to share our way of looking at things is the day when middle america rejects “the crazy” once and for all!

  10. 10.

    ricky

    March 11, 2010 at 11:44 am

    Given the consternation John Cole expressed of Hoyer’s recent lack of a deadline for an HCR vote, let me suggest the deadline will be immediate if this signature list hits
    forty nine.

  11. 11.

    Edward G. Talbot

    March 11, 2010 at 12:37 pm

    That he would say this is definitely a positive. However, remember two things about my Senator Bill Nelson:

    1.He is notorious for voting in favor of progressive things that he knows will not become law.

    2.Read that HuffPo article carefully – he said yes because he voted for it in Committee. He also voted AGAINST at least one strengthened version of the public option they were talking about. I could easily see him voting against the House version of the public option.

    No reason to stop pressing of course.

  12. 12.

    SIA

    March 11, 2010 at 1:14 pm

    Just called my rep, John Lewis, and thanked his staff for his vote on the 1st house bill. I asked him to vote for the Senate bill that will be fixed in reconcilliation. I also said I’m self employed and wanted a public option. Staffer was somewhat rushed but very friendly and said she’d pas it on.

    Tim you deserve a medal for your tenacity.

  13. 13.

    gypsy howell

    March 11, 2010 at 2:21 pm

    Roll Call now saying Durbin is working to ensure it doesn’t come up for a vote, now that they’re getting close to having enough supposed support to pass it.

    Just a bunch of senators keeping the carrot dangling out in front of their liberal base, as long as there’s no danger if it actually getting passed. A long-standing Dem MO, I’m sorry to say, and I’m tired of falling for it.

    I did call Specter and Casey to voice my support, but I have no illusions about what they’re really up to here. Ain’t NO way we’re getting a public option. The only reason 40 of them are voicing support is because they’ve already made a deal that it won’t even come up for a vote.

  14. 14.

    gypsy howell

    March 11, 2010 at 2:28 pm

    @gypsy howell:
    Tried to edit myself with a correction:

    Durbin is telling senators to vote against any amendments, including a PO, he’s not preventing it from coming up for a vote.

  15. 15.

    Glidwrith

    March 11, 2010 at 2:30 pm

    @gypsy howell: Link please?

  16. 16.

    Tonal Crow

    March 11, 2010 at 2:36 pm

    There are now 41 Senators backing the PO.

    Keep callin’!

  17. 17.

    Xecky Gilchrist

    March 11, 2010 at 3:24 pm

    My senator is Orrin Hatch. He only stands for two things: obstructing Democratic …well, Democratic anything, and the national anthem from whatever goddam alien planet he UFOed here from.

  18. 18.

    Tonal Crow

    March 11, 2010 at 3:44 pm

    @Xecky Gilchrist: Don’t mind him and Sen. Bennett. Call your state’s Representatives (if they’re at all likely to be persuadable) and some other states’ Representatives and Senators instead.

    It is definitely useful to call nationwide: it increases the pro-to-con ratio, plants good memes, and keeps the wingnuts from saturating the lines.

  19. 19.

    Lev

    March 11, 2010 at 4:08 pm

    My congressman, John Garamendi, evidently has no public stance on the bills yet, but I gave his office a call anyway to show my support. Called Feinstein as well. I merely sent an email to Barbara Boxer because I couldn’t find her direct number immediately from her website and I didn’t want to go through the switchboard. Cause I’m lazy.

  20. 20.

    Linda Featheringill

    March 11, 2010 at 4:13 pm

    Contacted my representative and my senator today. Told them I was supportive in general but we really would like to have public option on the health care thing.

    We will see what happens.

  21. 21.

    KDP

    March 11, 2010 at 4:29 pm

    Boxer & Feinstein signed on weeks ago.

    Called Stark’s local office in California. After telling the very nice staffer that I’d been calling to express support for weeks but that Stark had not articulated a committed stance one way or the other, the staffer told me that Stark has indicated that he sees the need to pass something now and work on improving it later.

    Woot!

  22. 22.

    Tonal Crow

    March 11, 2010 at 4:30 pm

    @KDP: I like it!

Comments are closed.

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