Let's Thank Our Progressives In Fight For The Public Option!

I'm proud of the way that our progressive Democrats in the House and in the Senate stood strongly on the public option as the line in the sand in response to Rahm Emmanuel's remarks in the Wall Street Journal about supporting a public option with a trigger or the co-op plan proposed by Senator Conrad.

One of the members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Rep. Lynn Woolsey, demonstrated just why she has bigger balls than Senator Max Baucus:

slinkerwink's diary :: :: Progressive Caucus Co-Chairwoman Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.) warned Emanuel that he would lose the caucus’ votes if the White House compromised on the issue and included a "trigger" that could delay a public insurance plan indefinitely. The trigger idea is backed by conservative Democrats but is anathema to liberals.

"We have compromised enough, and we are not going to compromise on any kind of trigger game," Woolsey said she told Emanuel. "People clapped all over the place. We mean it, and not just progressives."

And her fellow member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Rep. Raul Grijalva, also chimed in support of the public option:

Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), co-chairman of the 77-member Congressional Progressive Caucus, fired off a letter to President Barack Obama warning him against dropping a public insurance option from health care reform plans.

Grijalva described the "alarm and dismay" he felt after reading a Wall Street Journal story that cites White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel offering support for a "trigger" mechanism, under which a public plan option is only part of health care if the marketplace fails to provide sufficient competition on its own.

"I want to be crystal clear that any such trigger for a strong public plan option is a non-starter with a majority of the Members of the Progressive Caucus," Grijalva said.

"Moreover, I consider it unacceptable for any of the cost savings that you are negotiating with hospitals and other sectors of the health care industry to be made contingent upon a robust public plan option not being included in the final legislation," Grijalva continued.

It's clear that our progressives in Congress have finally found their spine as a voting bloc against any weakened, watered down health reform with a toothless public option or a co-op proposal in place of the public option.

Why don't we CALL the members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus to thank them for supporting the public option as the line in the sand for them on health reform? Also please ask them to vote against any health reform plan that doesn't include a strong, robust Medicare-like public option.

Please click on this link to CALL these members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus!

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http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/7/8/751106/-Lets-Thank-Our-Progressives-In-Fight-For-The-Public-Option!

As hideous as Al Qaeda’s attacks were, they killed slightly more than 3,000 Americans. Once. Every year, nearly 20,000 Americans die because of the deadly system our insurance megacorps now spend over one million per day to maintain.