A close friend of mine is an aide to Nydia Velazquez. She lives across the street from me in Brooklyn and was one of my good sources when I worked at ABC. We are spending the weekend among other friends here in Fire Island. She was with Nydia yesterday on the conference call with the President. Here’s what she told me.
On the call was the President, Rahm Emanuel, Lynn Woosley, Raul Grijalva, Mike Honda, Barbara Lee, Nydia Velazquez and whoever else from the caucuses who wanted to join in.
The President opened up by saying that he was not dropping the public option, but that he wasn’t going to demand it because he felt to do so would not make it anymore likely he’d get it than if the progressive caucuses in the House demanded it. He told them that they have much more influence over legislation than he does, reminded them of what happened with cramdown in the Senate and Bill Clinton in 1994 with healthcare.
The President also reminded them that the conference committee would likely be filled with their own and that puts them in a bigger bargaining position.
The part about how they’re safe in their districts came up on a suggestion by Lynn Woosley that voting for a bill with no public option would put progressives in jeopardy in primaries, to which the President suggested that would never happen. “You’re all safe” The President pointed out that Jim Clyburn has been whipping a bill with a strong public option and that fall frighteningly close to 218 votes, in part because progressives in swing districts (He, my friend, named Tom Periello, Eric Massa, Alan Grayson, John Adler, Steve Kagen and Larry Kissell specifically, are voting no or leaning no because they believe there is strong opposition in their constituencies.) I’d be surprised if Grayson is in fact a no, but whatever. Woosley told the President that if these members voted yes, they need not worry because the money would be there to fund them next year to which the President suggested they take it up with Clyburn, Chris Van Hollen and the specific representatives.
Now, on the public option, the President did confirm that he was considering a trigger in the Senate bill and reminded them that a trigger was better than having no public option coming out of the Senate into conference. They agreed, but pressed further that they would really prefer a strong public option coming out of the Senate. The President said whether or not we get triggers in a final bill depends on how far they willing to compromise. He then asked them how far they were willing to compromise. They answered this was as far as they would go, but that it was entirely possible for some members of their ranks to compromise further only after it appears the public option cannot pass both Houses. The President suggested that being unwilling to compromise would put progressives in a better position in conference, but that they might have to swallow a bill with a trigger coming out of the Senate into conference. He would have to try. The President discussed reconciliation and said the only way to push the Senate leadership on that would be if a public option came out of the House first. They further suggested the possibility of putting triggers to a vote in the House and letting it fail to pressure the Senate. The President suggested that might be a bad idea from the PR standpoint to see anything fail in the House.
They agreed to meet before the speech so the leaders of the CPC and tri caucus can go over his speech and set up a legislative timetable to get a bill out of the House.
Now I was reminded at MyDD that I’m not nearly a as trusted a news source as, say, Politico, but hey. Too bad, if I was still worked for ABC, they’d be licking my feet.
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