The daily Progressive Breakfast serves up what progressive movement members need to know to start their day.
Public Option Vote Soon in Senate Finance Committee
Public option vote in Senate Finance Cmte was predicted to happen today by Sens. Rockefeller and Schumer, but AP reports this AM its been delayed: "Rockefeller and Schumer had hoped their moment would come Friday, but with the committee moving slowly through hundreds of amendments to the sweeping legislation, the public plan debate was pushed off until next week."
Schumer tells CQ he doesn't expect to win in committee, but he does on the Senate floor: "Liberals on the panel are ready to take a stand in committee first, and then on the floor, where they think they can win. 'The committee is what starts the debate and gets people thinking,' said Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y. 'Lots of people who are not on the committee follow the committee, and that gets people thinking. . . . As the process moves on, for the public option and for some of these other things, it gets better and better.' ... 'Of all the committees, the public plan faces its steepest obstacle in the Finance Committee,' said Schumer, who supports the idea. 'It’s the most conservative.'"
Sen. Kent Conrad bizarrely asserts France's successful health insurance system is "not government-run" to argue against public option, in interview with Ezra Klein.
Attempt to scrap WH-PhRMA deal fails in Finance Cmte reports Politico. Sen. Kerry will revisit issue on Senate floor he tells CQ.
House Dems Struggle To Reach Public Option Consensus
House Democratic caucus aims to forge consensus bill by Monday, public option status unclear. CQ: "House Democratic leaders hope to produce a consensus version of their health care overhaul legislation over the weekend, two committee chairmen said Thursday ... rank-and-file Democrats remain divided on the bill’s central, controversial proposal: to create a government-run insurance plan, popularly known as the public option ... Rangel said he expected that Democrats would be able to send a final bill to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) for a cost estimate by Sept. 28 ... CBO needs about 10 days to produce an estimate, Rangel said, meaning the House would not vote on the bill until well into October ... Pelosi has said that the proposal will be in the bill, despite concerns among more conservative Democrats, but a dispute remains over the plan’s structure."
Blue Dogs fighting public option with reimbursement rates pegged to Medicare to ensure lower costs to customers and government. The Hill: "[Pelosi] wants reimbursement rates tied to Medicare. Blue Dog Democrats and other centrists are skeptical of any public plan and especially don’t want one linked to Medicare ... But the Congressional Budget Office has determined that the Medicare-linked public option would actually save $85 billion more than the Blue Dogs’ 'negotiated rates' approach, according to Democratic aides."
Adjusting the Medicare rates another possibility. HuffPost: "Blue Dogs, along with other rural lawmakers, very much want an increase in Medicare reimbursement rates in certain areas to fix what they see as a disparity. 'If the Medicare rates were adjusted, I think there would be less resistance to tying the public option to Medicare rates,' said Rep. Sandy Levin (D-Mich.)."
Pelosi appears to rule out "trigger" compromise reports CBS.
AFL-CIO asks states to investigate spending on lobbying by insurers. CBS: "AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka also asked the commissioners to review health insurance companies' lobbying expenditures before approving rate increases. He sent the letter to commissioners in Connecticut, Indiana, New York and Pennsylvania, where the regulators must approve any rate changes. 'We believe that health insurance providers' lobbying expenditures have led to excessive rate hikes,' Trumka wrote."
Conservative Plan to Handcuff EPA on Climate Fails
Sen. Lisa Murkowski's attempt to ban EPA from combatting climate crisis blocked in Senate, reports McClatchy. Climate Progress notes: "she will likely come back to offer this amendment in the future."
Yet another company quits Chamber of Commerce over climate stance. New Mexico Independent: "The Public Service Company of New Mexico (PNM) is dropping its membership in the U.S. Chamber of Commerce over the business group’s stance on climate change. Earlier this week, PNM criticized the Chamber of Commerce, saying, 'We believe the science is compelling enough to act sooner rather than later, and we support comprehensive federal legislation to meaningfully reduce greenhouse gas emissions and protect customers against unreasonable cost increases.'"
China moving on voluntary system to reduce carbon emissions. NYT: "A French emissions exchange and a Chinese exchange are forming a carbon market standard for China, marking a step toward a voluntary system to limit greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture and forestry in the world’s top emitter."
Climate science denier inside EPA a Nixon administration hire who is not a scientist, reports NYT: "Agency officials and outside experts who reviewed his report as a result of the outcry over the episode have said they found it wanting in a number of ways. It included unverified information from blog posts, they found, quoted selectively from journal articles, failed to acknowledge contradictory information and may have borrowed passages verbatim from the blog of a well-known climate change doubter."
G-20 Rises Over G-8
Bloomberg reports G-20 is "replacing the G-8 as the main forum for global economic coordination, reflecting a shift in power from rich countries to emerging markets."
Bloomberg reports expected agreement on "reduce[d] reliance on exports for growth" and "a plan to force banks to tie compensation more closely to risk and tighten capital requirements".
OurFuture.org's Dave Johnson, blogging from Pittsburgh, notes: "other countries want us to clean up our Wall Street act before we start cutting our imports. "
OurFuture.org's Eric Lotke on judging the success of the summit: "compare [the G-20's] performance to promises made in advance" on job growth and balanced trade.
