Yesterday, Representative Jim Cooper said there aren't enough votes to pass a health care bill with a public option:
"It's really not an ideological question; it's a question of how you pass a bill," he explained. "We don't have 60 Democratic votes in the Senate."
For Cooper to single out the Senate as the chamber lacking votes is tantamount to admitting that health care reform with a public option will pass the House. He could easily have said that there are not 218 votes in the House, where he holds a seat and signing letters designed to defeat the public option. He seems to be giving up his hope of defeating the public option in the House, and is now relying entirely on the Senate.
Not only is Cooper relying on the Senate to defeat the public option, he is relying on a filibuster in the Senate. Just as he could have said there were not 218 votes in the House, he could have also said that there aren't 51 votes in the Senate. He said neither.
It has been widely publicized that 64 House Progressives won't allow health care reform to pass the House unless there is a robust public option in the bill. Given this, Cooper clearly considers Conservadem objections in the senate to be unmovable, while Progressive objections in the House don't mean anything. Cooper is relying on the longstanding tradition of this happening, but right now the political situation is different:
- If if the Progressive Block doesn't fold and health care reform without a robust public option cannot pass the House;
- If not passing a health care reform is considered politically unacceptable by both the White House and the Democratic Congressional leadership;
- And if we have the 50 Senators needed to pass health care through reconciliation;
Then the White House and the Congressional leadership have no choice but to pass health care reform with a public option either through reconciliation, or by convincing all Senate Democrats not to filibuster even if a handful vote against passing the bill.
We only need five more Senate Democrats to come out in favor of the public option in order to make this happen. You can get us there by sending a fax to one or more of the following Senators:
- Send a fax to Max Baucus, asking him if he supports the public option!
- Send a fax to Mark Begich, asking him if he supports the public option!
- Send a fax to Tom Carper, asking him if he supports the public option!
- Send a fax to Kent Conrad, asking him if he supports the public option!
- Send a fax to Mary Landrieu, asking her if she supports the public option!
- Send a fax to Blanche Lincoln, asking her if he supports the public option!
- Send a fax to Ben Nelson, asking him if he supports the public option!
- Send a fax to Bill Nelson, asking him if he supports the public option!
- Send a fax to Mark Pryor, asking him if he supports the public option!
- Send a fax to Jon Tester, asking him if he supports the public option!
- Send a fax to Mark Warner, asking him if he supports the public option!
- Send a fax to Ron Wyden, asking him if he supports the public option!
This is an easy action that will be noticed in all of these congressional offices even more than phone calls. It won't even take you much time to send faxes to all twelve.
It also has the advantage of being specific. In addition to the four questions we had been asking in the whip count, we are now asking a fifth: do you support the public option in the Senate HELP bill? Five more "yes" statements on that, and we win this campaign.
If you receive a response from anyone you fax, report it over email to Response@DemocracyforAmerica.com or go to http://healthcareforamericanow.org/page/s/swdd
All of these Democrats voted for a budget with health care reconciliation. Only Mary Landrieu and Ben Nelson have previously said they oppose a public option. However, Landrieu has also signed a pledge supporting it and Nelson has said he is "open" to it.
We only need five. Send a fax to these Senators now! At the very least, it will make Jim Cooper even more desperate.
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