Wholly Owned Subsidiary
by digby
I just got this email from my friend Adam:
Hi — this is Adam Green with Change Congress. Some crazy developments…wanted to make sure you saw.
1) Ben Nelson kinda freaked out yesterday and personally called a “blogger” (actually Huffington Post and former Politico reporter Ryan Grim) after Grim’s morning article, which included Change Congress’s latest ad highlighting Nelson’s opposition to giving Nebraskans a public option while taking $2 million in campaign cash from the health and insurance industry.
“I was reading your blog again,” Nelson begins, and then goes on a weird rant.
Our two ads currently in rotation in Nebraska are attached. Both link to this petition to Nelson. First Huff Post article yesterday is here — the one with Nelson then calling Ryan Grim is here. Really a must-read. Wow.
2) Change Congress’s online ads about Nelson and special interests are now up to 4.6 million impressions, and growing.
3) Ben Nelson’s statements on the public option are crazily contradictory — all over the place. Check it out:
May 2: Nelson tells Congressional Quarterly a public option is a “deal breaker” and says if the public gets a choice between private insurers and a new public option “At the end of the day, the public plan wins the game” — a stunning admission.
May 28: Nelson’s spokesperson Jake Thompson issues a 9 paragraph rant after Change Congress begins an ad and direct mail campaign highlighting Nelson’s $2 million in campaign cash from health and insurance interests. Nelson’s spokesperson denies Nelson ever opposed the public option! “These people are…criticizing Senator Nelson for something he hasn’t done.” (See May 2.)
May 28 (the same day): Local Nebraska activists tell Huffington Post that Nelson is “open” to the public option — but Nelson’s staff only publicly confirms a meeting happened, they don’t confirm openness.
May 31: Ben Nelson tells the Lincoln Journal Star, “I have not closed my mind to any option.” Oh, except, “he’s opposed to opening the door to choice between a government and a private plan.” In other words, he’s open to everything except the public option!
June 3 (yesterday): Ben Nelson says “I’ve been accused of being against the president’s plan, but the president doesn’t have a plan” even though that very day Obama re-iterated in a letter to Congress, ‘I strongly believe that Americans should have the choice of a public health insurance option operating alongside private plans.” (Aka, the health care competition and “choice” Nelson opposes.)
January 3 (yesterday): Ben Nelson draws a new line in the sand: He won’t support a public option if it will “erode” private insurance. Nelson doesn’t say whether he would be ok with private insurers losing market share if the public used their “choice” in a competitive marketplace to get better coverage under the public option — a huge open question Nelson needs to answer. (If Nelson prioritizes private insurers’ market share over the health of Nebraskans that again raises the question of his $2 million in campaign contributions from health and insurance interests, 83% out of state.)
January 3 (yesterday): Ben Nelson calls Huffington Post’s Ryan Grim to say, “I’ve always been open to any idea that floated out there, all except one.” Which one? Single-payer…which nobody in this debate has been proposing!
Nelson then goes on and on about how he’s being attacked by groups advocating single-payer. A weird and easily-disproved lie. From the Change Congress petition page: “President Obama’s health care ‘public option’ would force private health insurers to compete — driving health care costs down for families across Nebraska.”
Nelson isn’t all that bright, so part of this is just simple confusion about what his owners want him to say. But he’s also being disingenuous: he’s purposefully conflating the public option with single payer.
Now, I would prefer single payer and I would bet that most of you would too. But every single power center in the political system came out against it (and, truthfully, some of the successful European systems are hybrids) so it’s never been on the table. But the health industry and the aristocrats want everyone to think that’s what a public plan option really is. So, Nelson may be confused, but that confusion is also part of the plan.
Update: Links fixed. sorry about that.
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