The Progressive Change Campaign Committee has signaled its next step in the health care battle – asking if liberal senators did enough to fight for the public option.
PCCC sent an email to members in states with progressive senators and asks if they would support “pressuring” those senators to be stronger during the final conference negotiation period between the House and Senate.
If members say yes, it could result in a new PCCC campaign with television and online ads pressuring senators to “block any final bill without a public option.”
From the email:
The House has a public option in their bill, but advocates for the Senate bill will have all the power in negotiations unless progressive senators like Russ Feingold stand up now and publicly threaten to block a final bill unless it has a public option.
But when push came to shove the last couple weeks, where was Feingold? Progressive senators allowed themselves to get rolled by Lieberman — but it’s not too late to fight back.
A similar email went to members in Vermont, Ohio and Minnesota to target Sens. Bernie Sanders, Sherrod Brown and Al Franken. Earlier in the health care debate, PCCC went after President Obama on the public option.
The full Feingold email, obtained by TPMDC, after the jump.
Friends,
BREAKING NEWS: Conservative Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) announced today he will be the 60th vote to allow the Senate health care bill to move forward, after fellow Democrats agreed to new restrictions on abortion.
This comes after Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) also agreed to be the 60th vote, after fellow Democrats agreed to remove a public health insurance option — while mandating that millions of people buy insurance from private corporations.
We have a very serious question for our Wisconsin members as we plan our next activism steps: Do you think Sen. Russ Feingold has fought strongly enough on behalf of the public option? And would you support pressuring him to be stronger?
Please share your thoughts on Russ Feingold’s leadership by clicking here.
Here’s why this matters. The Senate and House will soon go to “conference committee” to iron out differences between their bills.
The House has a public option in their bill, but advocates for the Senate bill will have all the power in negotiations unless progressive senators like Russ Feingold stand up now and publicly threaten to block a final bill unless it has a public option.
This is what Joe Lieberman and Ben Nelson did. But unlike them, Russ Feingold would be advocating on behalf of the overwhelming majority of people. This past week, we commissioned a Research 2000 poll with our friends at Democracy for America. Check out these numbers:
Voters want the public option: 59% to 31%.
Support for current Senate bill (mandates without a public option): 33% to 56%.
63% of voters say President Obama didn’t fight Joe Lieberman hard enough. (Democrats: 87%)
81% of Democrats want Joe Lieberman stripped of his powerful committee chairmanship.
If Feingold and other progressive senators threatened to block a bad bill, President Obama would face a choice: Strong-arm Lieberman and Nelson to support the final bill, which has huge popular support OR strong-arm progressives into supporting a bill with 33% support. The smart choice is obvious. But it’s up to progressive senators to force that choice.Feingold said recently, “I do not support proposals that would replace the public option in the bill with a purely private approach. We need to have some competition for the insurance industry to keep rates down and save taxpayer dollars.”
But when push came to shove the last couple weeks, where was Feingold? Progressive senators allowed themselves to get rolled by Lieberman — but it’s not too late to fight back.
Our next grassroots steps will likely entail pressuring progressive senators to say they will block any final bill without a public option. But before we add Feingold to the list of those who need pressure, we want the opinion of our Wisconsin members.
Please share your thoughts on Russ Feingold’s leadership by clicking here.
Thanks for being a bold progressive.
–Adam Green, Stephanie Taylor, Aaron Swartz, Michael Snook, Natasha Patel, and the PCCC team
More on the poll the email references here.
Late Update: Reader SR tells us she received one going after Sen. Roland Burris (D-IL), who holds Obama’s for Senate seat.
