Senators Say Stuff: John Kerry Edition

by: Chris Bowers

Thu Jul 09, 2009 at 12:00


Senator John Kerry's office has responded to our push to get all Senators on the record for a strong public option.  The response is a resounding "yes."

1. Do you support a public healthcare option as part of reform?
Yes.

2. Do you support a public healthcare option that is ready on day one?
He supports a public option that will be available immediately.

3. Do you support a public healthcare option that is national, available everywhere, and accountable to our government?
Sen. Kerry supports a robust public plan, that like Medicare, would be
available to everyone from coast-to-coast.

4. Do you support a public healthcare option that has the clout to establish rates with providers and big drug companies?
Sen. Kerry believes a public plan will meaningfully transform our delivery system through its lower administrative expenses and bargaining power. These efficiencies will provide affordable coverage to those enrolled in the public plan and due to increased competition could lower costs in the private insurance market.

That brings us to 40 Senators in support of a public option. Only ten more to go.

Keep emailing your Senators here. Check out the updated targeting chart in the extended entry.

Update: Count Feinstein in, too. Great work by commenter carson002!
Chris Bowers :: Senators Say Stuff: John Kerry Edition
Generic Public Option Support
Yes--41; Maybe--15; Unknown--5; No--2

Senate Public Option Whip Chart
STATE/SENATOR Public Option? Available Day One? Nationally Available? Can Bargain for Rates?
AK - Begich (D) Unknown
AR - Lincoln (D) Maybe Dodges (via email) Dodges (via email) Dodges (via email)
AR - Pryor (D) Maybe Dodges (via email) Dodges (via email) Dodges (via email)
CA - Boxer (D) Yes Dodges (via email) Dodges (via email) Dodges (via email)
CA - Feinstein (D) Yes Yes Yes Dodges (via email)
CO - Bennet (D) Yes Dodges (via email) Maybe Dodges (via email)
CO - Udall (D) Yes Dodges (via email) Maybe Dodges (via email)
CT- Dodd (D) Yes Yes (supporting HELP bill) Yes (supporting HELP bill) Yes (supporting HELP bill)
CT - Lieberman (I) No Dodges (via email) Dodges (via email) Dodges (via email)
DE - Carper (D) Maybe
DE - Kaufman (D) Yes
FL - Bill Nelson (D) Maybe (via email) Dodges (via email) Dodges (via email) Dodges (via email)
GA - Isakson (R) Maybe Dodges (via email) Dodges (via email) Dodges (via email)
HI - Akaka (D) Yes
HI - Inouye (D) Yes
IA - Harkin (D) Yes Yes (supporting HELP bill) Yes (supporting HELP bill) Yes (supporting HELP bill)
IL - Burris (D) Yes Dodges (via email) Dodges (via email) Dodges (via email)
IL - Durbin (D) Yes Dodges (via email) Dodges (via email) Dodges (via email)
IN - Bayh (D) Maybe Dodges (via email) Dodges (via email) Dodges (via email)
LA - Landrieu (D) Maybe No No No
MA - Kerry (D) Yes Yes Yes Yes
MA - Kennedy (D) Yes Yes (supporting HELP bill) Yes (supporting HELP bill) Yes (supporting HELP bill)
MD - Cardin (D) Yes Dodges (via email) Dodges (via email) Dodges (via email)
MD - Mikulski (D) Yes Yes (supporting HELP bill) Yes (supporting HELP bill) Yes (supporting HELP bill)
ME - Collins (R) No Dodges (via email) Dodges (via email) Dodges (via email)
ME - Snowe (R) Maybe
MI - Levin (D) Yes Dodges (via email) Dodges (via email) Dodges (via email)
MI - Stabenow (D) Yes
MN - Franken (D) Unknown
MN - Klobuchar (D) Unknown
MO - McCaskill (D) Yes Dodges (via email) Dodges (via email) Dodges (via email)
MT - Baucus (D) Maybe
MT - Tester (D) Maybe Dodges (via email) Dodges (via email) Dodges (via email)
NC - Hagan (D) Yes Yes (supporting HELP bill) Yes (supporting HELP bill) Yes (supporting HELP bill)
ND - Conrad (D) Maybe Yes No Yes
ND - Dorgan (D) Yes Maybe Yes Yes
NE - Ben Nelson (D) Maybe
NH - Shaheen (D) Yes Dodges (via email) Dodges (via email) Dodges (via email)
NJ - Lautenberg (D) Yes Dodges (via email) Dodges (via email) Dodges (via email)
NJ - Menendez (D) Yes Dodges (via email) Dodges (via email) Dodges (via email)
NM - Bingaman (D) Yes Yes (supporting HELP bill) Yes (supporting HELP bill) Yes (supporting HELP bill)
NM - Udall (D) Yes Dodges (via email) Dodges (via email) Dodges (via email)
NV - Reid (D) Yes
NY - Gillibrand (D) Yes Yes Dodges (via email) Dodges (via email)
NY - Schumer (D) Yes Yes Yes
OH - Brown (D) Yes Yes (supporting HELP bill) Yes Yes (supporting HELP bill)
OR - Merkley (D) Yes Yes (via email) Yes (via email) Yes (via email)
OR - Wyden (D) Maybe Dodges (via email) Dodges (via email) Dodges (via email)
PA - Casey (D) Yes Yes (supporting HELP bill) Yes (supporting HELP bill) Yes (supporting HELP bill)
PA - Specter (D) Yes Dodges (via email) Dodges (via email) Dodges (via email)
RI - Reed (D) Yes Yes (supporting HELP bill) Yes (supporting HELP bill) Yes (supporting HELP bill)
RI - Whitehouse (D) Yes
SD - Johnson (D) Unknown
VA - Warner (D) Maybe Dodges (via email) No Dodges (via email)
VA - Webb (D) Yes
VT - Leahy (D) Yes
VT - Sanders (I) Yes Yes Yes (supporting HELP bill) Yes (supporting HELP bill)
WA - Cantwell (D) Yes Dodges (via email) Dodges (via email) Dodges (via email)
WA - Murray (D) Yes Yes (supporting HELP bill) Yes (supporting HELP bill) Yes (supporting HELP bill))
WI - Feingold (D) Yes Yes Yes Yes
WI - Kohl (D) Maybe (via email) Dodges (via email) Dodges (via email) Dodges (via email)
WV - Byrd (D) Unknown
WV - Rockefeller (D) Yes Yes


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Senators Say Stuff: John Kerry Edition | 18 comments
no plan is better than a bad plan (4.00 / 4)
did Kerry promise to vote against legislation that failed to include a public plan?
Exactly. (4.00 / 2)
That's another key question.  Will Kerry or any other senator vote against a bad bill?  Without pressure from the left, they won't.


[ Parent ]
Let's see if Kerry has the gonads to stick to this. (4.00 / 4)
It'll help that we have Al Franken finally seated, as his liberal positions are on the record and he isn't one to back down against Republican bullying.  But we should not let up until after a strong, national public health insurance program is passed and signed into law.  Even if that unlikely event were to happen, we'd have to stay on top of things to make sure the law isn't ignored or unenforced by the executive branch.


It occurs to me (4.00 / 2)
That any Senator who says yes then votes no in the end deserves more retribution from the left than any politician who has been honest enough to say no all along.

Things You Don't Talk About in Polite Company: Religion, Politics, the Occasional Intersection of Both
Good point. (0.00 / 0)
I mean, what is the point of rewarding politicians who say one thing and then do another?  That's called lying, and it gets zero respect or support from me.  In fact, it gets anger and contempt from me.


[ Parent ]
Sen. Feinstein (4.00 / 9)
I just spoke with Senator Feinstein's office and asked if she supports the public option available on the first day.  Her staffer was very irritated and dismissive when I told her I read on a blog that Senator Feinstein did not support it.  He told me that I shouldn't believe what I read on blogs.  I had to firmly remind the staffer that 1) I am a constituent and 2) I pay his salary.  At that point he seemed a little bit more inclined to answer my questions.

After some back and forth, he indicated to me that Senator Feinstein supports either a public option or non-profit co-ops.  He also said that yes she supports it on the first day, and that it would be available to all Americans.

I was as underwhelmed by the staffer as I have been by Senator Feinstein generally.  

Her issues with health care reform... (0.00 / 0)
...have been mostly personal... she doesn't like Baucus, and thinks that California money will go to Montana... That's her beef, not the public option...  

REID: Voting against us was never part of our arrangement!
SPECTER: I am altering the deal! Pray I don't alter it any further!
REID: This deal keeps getting worse all the time!
[ Parent ]
when making constituent calls (4.00 / 3)
it helps to lead with your city and state, so they know you are a constituent.

given California's budget crisis, they need single payer more than anyone.

[ Parent ]
re (0.00 / 0)
given California's budget crisis, they need single payer more than anyone.

yes, use CA's budget crisis to push single-payer

if on the one hand we position ourselves against any monetary federal help or state tax increase and on the other we keep pushing single-payer and the money that the state will save by implementing it and will be able to spent elsewhere, sooner or later they'll budge?

the state has to come up with some money?

[ Parent ]
I see the logic (0.00 / 0)
But my concern in using single payer (or even a "public option") in the reform of US healthcare as a solution (even partial) to the budget problems seen in CA and elsewhere around the nation is that the state's budget woes will come to a head long before any real relief on the healthcare front kicks in.

For example, here in MN the budget "crisis" is expected to hit hardest in FY 2010. I doubt any national healthcare plan can be written, debated, filibustered, passed and implemented in time to actually help by 2010.

The case for how making healthcare more affordable can help the State's bottom-lines has to be made in terms of a longer timeframe. So, yeah, use the current problems as a starting point, but let's be realistic about WHEN the benefits of reform will show up in the State budgets.


"It sounds wrong...
     ...but its right."

[ Parent ]
re (0.00 / 0)
using single payer (or even a "public option") in the reform of US healthcare as a solution (even partial) to the budget problems seen in CA

I think she means single-payer in the state level

[ Parent ]
The wind is out of those sails (0.00 / 0)
at least in my state. Few support making major reforms to the state system that might be undone, incompatible, or supplanted by the actions taking shape in DC.

I would like to see a single-payer plan at the State level, sure. I just think we need to see what comes out of DC before we start making any changes. Its all about timing. Were there no push for reform at the national level, I'd be pushing at the state level. Now, should the current push for a national plan fail, that's another story.

"It sounds wrong...
     ...but its right."

[ Parent ]
re (4.00 / 1)
The wind is out of those sails   at least in my state. Few support making major reforms to the state system that might be undone, incompatible, or supplanted by the actions taking shape in DC.

exactly!

if they get the money via a tax hike or via help from the feds, then you can kiss state-level single-payer goodbye

now is the chance we can push single-payer at the state level, the state needs money now, it must get money somehow

if we keep pushing the money that the state will save by going single-payer while opposing tax hikes and fed help the single-payer argument will gain traction

eventually something will have to give

I just think we need to see what comes out of DC before we start making any changes. Its all about timing.

ok, we can push for a 2-month solution
but not something (tax hike) that will allow them to avoid needing money further down the road

there won't be any single-payer at the federal level in the current health-care reform push

[ Parent ]
Fantastic! (4.00 / 1)
Was out running errands all day, but will update now.
[ Parent ]
Can you try to get confirmation? (0.00 / 0)
Not that I don't trust carson002 but Feinstein has been saying no to a public option for a long time now.  

John McCain: Beacuse lobbyists should have more power
[ Parent ]
Confirmation (0.00 / 0)
If someone wants, perhaps the best way to get confirmation would be to get it in writing via a letter.  Or maybe Chris can ask a staffer to comment on the record =)


[ Parent ]
No disrespect to Carson002, but... (0.00 / 0)
After some back and forth, he indicated to me that Senator Feinstein supports either a public option or non-profit co-ops.

As our friend David Waldman might say, this has the smell of Senatorial steak sauce, by including the non-profit co-op option as an out to make the total statement plausibly true. Note it is support for "either ... or," which does not necessarily mean both. My reading is she's still in the co-op dodge camp.

Health care reform = Employer payroll savings = More hiring and more jobs!
[ Parent ]
finance committee health-care bill (4.00 / 1)
first a list of the members of the finance committee from wikipedia:

Majority
   * Max Baucus, Chairman, Montana
   * Jay Rockefeller, West Virginia
   * Kent Conrad, North Dakota
   * Jeff Bingaman, New Mexico
   * John Kerry, Massachusetts
   * Blanche Lincoln, Arkansas
   * Ron Wyden, Oregon
   * Charles Schumer, New York
   * Debbie Stabenow, Michigan
   * Maria Cantwell, Washington
   * Bill Nelson, Florida
   * Robert Menendez, New Jersey
   * Thomas Carper, Delaware

Minority
   * Chuck Grassley, Ranking Member, Iowa
   * Orrin Hatch, Utah
   * Olympia Snowe, Maine
   * Jon Kyl, Arizona
   * Jim Bunning, Kentucky
   * Mike Crapo, Idaho
   * Pat Roberts, Kansas
   * John Ensign, Nevada
   * Mike Enzi, Wyoming
   * John Cornyn, Texas

we know the proposal of the finance committee is weaker that that of the HELP committee. I was thinking, isn't there a good democrat that could vote 'no' on baucus' bill and thus ensure that the bill doesn't make it out of the committee? kerry? shumer? rockefeller?

won't that be more effective in stopping baucus from trying to woo republicans while bastardizing the bill?

Senators Say Stuff: John Kerry Edition | 18 comments
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