Health Care Reform Update: Could Senator Harkin's Proposal to Limit the Filibuster Keep Joe Lieberman from Spoiling Our Health Care Reform?
by Alta Price, M.D.Is anyone else as frustrated with Joe Lieberman as I am? (I guess Howard Dean is just as frustrated, so I count myself in good company!) If the Senate Democratic leadership has to negotiate with Joe on health care reform, we are going to end up with the biggest give-away to the insurance industry imaginable.
Of course Senator Lieberman doesn’t care about the 66% of his constituents in favor of the public option – he would filibuster a bill with the public option. So a compromise is worked out, ditching the public option in favor of a series of proposals, including letting people in the 55-64 age group buy into Medicare. After agreeing to this compromise, Joe goes on the Sunday talk shows and says he will filibuster any bill that opens up Medicare to younger citizens. Joe Lieberman will filibuster any bill good for his constituents or good for the Democratic Party.
I came across this interesting story in The Hawk Eye – “Harkin considers raising bill to end filibuster”. In the mid 1990’s Tom Harkin, frustrated by a previous generation of Republican obstructionists, introduced a bill to change how the filibuster works. He introduced the bill when the Democrats were in the minority, rather than using the filibuster to give the Republicans a taste of their own medicine. Ironically, Joe Lieberman co-sponsored the legislation with him. Although the bill failed, Harkin is thinking of bringing it back to end the abuse of one or two Senators stopping legislation the other 58 or 59 want to pass.
You should read the whole article, since it gives an interesting history of the filibuster. I’ll just excerpt a few paragraphs to explain the general idea of the bill.
I still hope the Senate can pass a bill, either with 60 votes or through reconciliation, and that any bad things – like no public option – can be repaired when the House and Senate bills are merged. But the way Joe Lieberman is acting, I think he might be willing to filibuster the final bill and go down in history as the person responsible for stopping health care reform. So I think Senator Harkin should be encouraged to offer his bill changing the filibuster right now. Senator Harkin could garner a lot of votes for his bill just by pointing out it would neutralize Joe Lieberman!
We need to keep calling our Senators, and Senator Harkin is no exception. I just read something at TPM (scroll up) saying the Senate is going to give in to Lieberman, and take the public option and Medicare expansion out of the bill. If they don’t fix this in conference committee, Democrats back home are going to be VERY unhappy.
Call Senator Harkin to thank him for his great work on health care reform. Tell him we still want the public option AND we want to let people younger than 65 buy into Medicare. Encourage him to re-introduce his bill to limit the filibuster (and tell him to ask Joe Lieberman to sign on as a co-sponsor!)
Cedar Rapids 319-365-4504
Davenport 563-322-1338
Des Moines 515-284-4574
Dubuque 563-582-2130
Sioux City 712-252-1550
Washington D.C. 202-224-3254
Or email Senator Harkin.
You can also sign this petition asking the Democratic Leadership to strip Joe Lieberman of his committee chairmanship if he filibusters health care reform.
Alta Price is a physician practicing Pathology in Davenport, Iowa. One of the original Deaniacs, she stays involved with Democracy for America, Iowa, and the Quad Cities. She advocates for quality, affordable health care for all, primarily as a volunteer with Progressive Action for the Common Good (Health Care Reform Issue Forum). Watch for Dr. Price's Health Care Reform Update every Tuesday here on Blog for Iowa. E-Mail Alta Price
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