Josh Marshall says Chuck Schumer is the "point man" on the public option. WTF?

[beachmom]

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/07/chuck-schumer--public-plan-point-man-and-political-barometer.php

The above is the article written by Brian Beutler.

Here is Josh:

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/07/point_man.php?ref=fpblg

Point Man

07.10.09 -- 9:07AM By Josh Marshall

Through all the legislative ins and outs on health care over recent weeks, one pattern keeps standing out to us. Each time the 'public option' looks like it's getting marginalized on the leftward side of the policy equation, it's Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), through a mix of his rep for 'centrism' and perceived political canniness, who pushes it back to the center of the debate as something that will be in the final bill, with some pointed public comment.

It's kind of funny, but John Kerry, other than in response to erroneous articles, has not SAID A WORD during all of these negotiations. Yet, Schumer, who changes his story all the time (he was for the co-op, Olympia Snowe said he was negotiating w/ her on the trigger, now he is all for the public option!!), is the hero? I also think Schumer's staffers were behind the hit pieces on Kerry. Yet, now he is the hero for the public option? Seriously, TPM is being SPUN BIG TIME.

Word I hear, btw, is that John Kerry is THE leading advocate for the public option on the Finance Committee.

[karynnj]

1. Schumer is worse than his reputation - and his reputation was not good

Given that his ambitions do not go beyond the Senate, you wonder how smart this really is. It seems highly likely that the other Senators see what is going on, know who is doing what - and I assume they know who is trustworthy and who isn't.

I think that TPM is being spun.

[TayTay]

2. I think this is happening because Finance doesn't have a bill yet

and everything that happens in Finance is behind closed doors. Chuck Schumer and everyone else on that committee can spin however they want and there is no way to verify what they did as opposed to what they say they did.

The Finance Committee doesn't have a bill yet; it has hints of what it wants in a bill. HELP has a bill, roughly, that has been in markup for weeks. Until these 2 things come together, we are going to hear a lot of spin and blather about what is going on. None of it is real until we get a bill.

Can we map out the members of the Senate Finance Committee as to where they stand on the public option?

MAX BAUCUS, MT (Unknown on the public option)
JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER IV, WV (For the public option)
KENT CONRAD, ND (Unknown on the public option)
JEFF BINGAMAN, NM (Unknown on the public option)
JOHN F. KERRY, MA (For the public option)
BLANCHE L. LINCOLN, AR (Unknown on the public option)
RON WYDEN, OR (Unknown on the public option)
CHARLES E. SCHUMER, NY (Unknown on the public option)
DEBBIE STABENOW, MI (Unknown on the public option)
MARIA CANTWELL, WA (Unknown on the public option)
BILL NELSON, FL (Unknown on the public option)
ROBERT MENENDEZ, NJ (Unknown on the public option)
THOMAS CARPER, DE (Unknown on the public option)

Seriously, given that list of Senators, who would be a problem on a public option. I can buy that Sen. Schumer is on-board for the public option. I can also buy that Rockefeller is as well and I can give some props to Stabenow as well.

The problem is not Kerry or Schumer, but Baucus, Conrad, Bingaman, Lincoln, Cantwell, Nelson, Menendez and Carper and maybe Wyden. Those are the people who need to clarify their position on the FinComm. We know Kerry is working for this. It seems that Schumer wants to be seen as working for this. What about the rest of "our guys" or our Dems on this vital committee?

[karynnj]

4. Menendez and Bingaman are on Dean's list as yeses

It is actually good news that Schumer is suddenly a big public option person - that likely means that the tide may be turning.

I have less problem with Schumer saying he is leading this - he likely is "one of the people" leading it. I have a problem with him being the likely source of spreading rumours about someone working diligently for healthcare. It likely should not help him within the Senate because the Senate is small enough that others know who everyone else really is and what they are doing.

[TayTay]

5. I think that "public option" is a very expansive term for Sen. Schumer

And means whatever it needs to mean at the moment he means it. It could mean co-ops, it could mean a stand-alone agency, it could mean some sort of private-public hybrid.

We shall see what the good Senator means when he actually crafts a bill and has to stand behind it and back it. And when he states how it is going to be paid for and who will be required to pay into it.

[karynnj]

7. Very wise comments

He has been all over the map on this.

[Luftmensch067]

3. I can totally believe TPM (and others) are being spun

What frustrates me, having just heard in the On Point Friday news roundup that someone (can't remember who) is going around saying (with no credit, at least as far as I heard, to JK) we should just get rid of the "paperwork" and we'll cut healthcare costs right there, is that hardly any notice is taken of JK's healthcare ideas and plan from 2004. He had such amazing ideas in his plan, and has often talked of them since: e-prescribing, reinusurance, the public option (which he described so much more clearly and meaningfully as giving the American public the same healthcare the Congress gets!) It actually hurts that because of their blinders and personal ambitions, so many in government and in the media ignore JK and his ideas on healthcare. He truly was a pioneer, it seems to me, in the way he put the whole thing together, and I wish that could be acknowledged and his ideas brought into the public debate.

I also remember seeing him at a local meet and greet last year where he answered a question about how we could solve the healthcare crisis. He went through it step by step. I won't remember all of it, but he said first you make sure all the kids are insured. Then you do something about Medicare (can't remember what it was, but if anyone else has heard him talk about this, please chime in!) so that the elderly are taken care of. Then you do the reinsurance and e-prescribing step. Then you bring everyone to the table, including the insurance industry and the businesses and make sure everyone is involved in the decision. He said that doing things one step at a time was the only way to get the votes you needed out of the Congress. We know some of this is being done, and we know none of it is easy (the same On Point broadcast pointed out that the insurance industry is spending more than one million dollars a DAY in lobbying) but this is one of those times when I wish JK had a more bully pulpit.

[karynnj]

6. Your comment was great on the top one

Reading the comments, it seems most people aren't buying it - because he is on the record speaking favorably for co-ops. Schumer does have a fan in the second person listed. (I'm still waiting to get the email response to login)

Looking at the TPM stuff, it is true that Schumer has been the one going to the press - which is nothing new for him, but he hardly has been consistent.

[ProSense]

8. Kerry quote from article in The Hill

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) said even though everything’s on the table, not everything is being taken seriously. “You’ve got to look at all the options. Some just aren’t real,” he said, declining to be more specific.

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