BNB Politics

DOWNLOADS: (31)

PLAYS: (48)

In what world does Blanche Lincoln's sort of "independence" leave anyone "smiling"? Apparently after watching this hackery, it does in CNN's Rick Sanchez's world. Sanchez and Gloria Borger have a nice little pity party for Senator Blanche Lincoln and do their best to paint her as being beaten up by extremists on both sides.

Since when is someone who's taking all kinds of corporate money and voting like a Republican make them either "independent" or a "centrist"? Borger and Sanchez should be ashamed of themselves for this segment. ConservaDem Lincoln has been acting in the interest of her campaign contributors and not the interest of the party she is supposed to belong to or the interest of her constituents. Sadly who she's taking money from and how that might be affecting her votes is too much to ask either Sanchez or Borger to point out.

SANCHEZ: Let me show you something else because the Democrats have their own problems. Look at Blanche Lincoln. This is Blanche Lincoln's ad. She's a Dem. And if you study the ad -- folks, I am going to play this for you. Watch to see how many times President Obama comes up in the ad. And tell me if she doesn't come off sounding more like a conservative than a progressive or a liberal. Play it, Rog.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LINCOLN: I'm Blanche Lincoln and I want to show you what it's like in Washington these days. And your tax dollars? This is why I voted against giving more money to Wall Street, against the auto company bailout, against the public option health care plan.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: She's voting against everything that could possibly increase your taxes, and there is no mention in that ad of, "I support the president" or let's do health care reform. You know, I'm sorry, but I'm looking at that thing and I'm thinking, she's sounding more conservative than she is progressive or liberal or whatever you want to call it.

BORGER: Well, look, she's in a very tough state. Arkansas is not an easy state for Democrats under the best circumstances. Now she has a challenger on her left, in fact. And she's got challengers on the right, in the Republican party.

So, you know, she has always portrayed herself as an independent Democrat. But she did vote with Democrats on the health care bill in the Senate. That health care bill didn't have a public option in it, which is why the liberals are so mad at her. So this woman has it coming at her from both directions. It's going to be a very difficult fight for her.

The liberal who is challenging her raised a million bucks in a day. You know, that hurts for Blanche Lincoln. I don't think you're going to see Democrats like this run away from Barack Obama the way Republicans ran away from George W. Bush. You're not going to see that because he remains personally popular. They're going to need his help in getting out the voters.

SANCHEZ: Yeah.

BORGER: But she's clearly not tying herself to him either.

SANCHEZ: It's interesting to see members of both party running away from parts of their own ideology. I think there's a lot of folks out there who call themselves independents or want to be in the middle or are angry with both parties, who are smiling now.

BORGER: Right.

SANCHEZ: I have to let you go. We're out of time.

BORGER: All right.

Alan Grayson came to the House Floor today to introduce the Public Option Act, which would allow all Americans to buy into Medicare at cost. The bill is 4 pages long, and calls for an unsubsidized option for any American to choose Medicare over private insurers.

The bill would require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to establish enrollment periods, coverage guidelines, and premiums for the program. Because premiums would be equal to cost, the program would pay for itself.

“The government spent billions of dollars creating a Medicare network of providers that is only open to one-eighth of the population. That’s like saying, ‘Only people 65 and over can use federal highways.’ It is a waste of a very valuable resource and it is not fair. This idea is simple, it makes sense, and it deserves an up-or-down vote,” Congressman Grayson said.

I have doubts that this bill will get to a vote anytime soon, but it gives me hope that we'll move in the direction of a Medicare expansion, and it certainly offers a solid goal for progressives to embrace going forward. I have always believed this is the right public option, rather than creating a brand new bureaucracy. However, the Medicare infrastructure needs some work before the doors can be thrown open to everyone. Those remodels are already in the Senate bill, in the form of innovation, streamlining, electronic health records and outcomes-based medicine. The Medicare reforms are robust, meaningful, and will make Medicare the most viable public option of all.

More significantly, Grayson's introduction of this bill right now invites Dennis Kucinich to stand down on his opposition to the Senate bill. Grayson isn't introducing this bill as a symbolic gesture. There's no question that the public option, as debated over the past year, has traction and is popular, especially when framed as a Medicare buy-in. By making it a separate initiative, Grayson unbundles it from the Senate bill and gives both an opportunity to pass.

Whether it passes this year or not, it's a magnificent and savvy political move on Grayson's part. Let's hope Kucinich picks up the cue, moves the ball down the field instead of picking up the goalposts and heading home.

The reason? AHIP, the health insurance lobbying organization, was meeting in (where else?) the Ritz-Carlton. A coalition of groups led by unions including SEIU, AFSCME, UFCW and Health Care for American Now declared the meeting site a "corporate crime scene" and attempted to make a citizens' arrest:

In a reverse twist on the old protestors' tactic of getting arrested to make a point, union leaders and other backers of President Obama's healthcare plan issued "citizen's arrest" warrants for health insurance executives Tuesday – accusing them of exploiting consumers.

The "warrants," delivered to police during a demonstration outside an insurance industry meeting at a Washington hotel, were an attempt to dramatize protestors' call for insurance reform – and to build public support for the Democrats' healthcare legislation.

The demonstration, which drew several thousand protestors from as far away as Illinois and California, was organized by groups that for more than a year have pushed Congress to create a government-run insurance plan to compete with private insurers as part of national healthcare overhaul.

While that policy objective, known as the public option, is not part of the healthcare legislation pending in Congress, the groups are nonetheless mounting a multi-million dollar campaign to promote the bill. The effort will continue in coming weeks, with more demonstrations, paid advertising and other events, including a hearing to take place Wednesday on Capitol Hill.

Boy, there was a time when you couldn't turn on the TV without seeing someone about Tea Party rallies. I guess the only way you can get on TV these days is to be on the side of the insurance companies.

Chris Hayes filling in for Rachel Maddow talks to Howard Dean about the protests held outside of the Ritz-Carlton "where the insurance companies were having their conference and plotting to kill health reform". Dean also weighed in on what he thinks should happen if the bill does pass -- the Senate should either include a Medicare buy-in or restore the House version which has a public option. He also thinks they should get rid of the individual mandate and that might make it a decent bill. I guess we'll find out if anyone's listening to Dean shortly if the bill does make it through the House.

You'd think this was common sense, right? An ATM shouldn't give you money you don't actually have, and you shouldn't be able to use your debit card when you don't have enough money in the account to cover it. Now even Bank of America admits it, and has decided to take the lead as the good guy. (Although I don't think this is completely altruistic. If memory serves me, there's already a class action suit out there over this - even though it's not mentioned in the story.)

In a move that could bring an end to the $40 cup of coffee, Bank of America said on Tuesday that it was doing away with overdraft fees on purchases made with debit cards, a decision that could cost the bank tens of millions a year in revenue and put pressure on other banks to do the same.

Bank officials said that effective this summer, customers who try to make purchases with their debit cards without enough money in their checking accounts will simply be declined. Debit purchases account for roughly 60 percent of overdrafts at Bank of America, the nation’s largest issuer of debit cards.

Banks are bracing for a new federal rule that will require them to get permission from account holders before providing overdraft services for debit purchases and A.T.M. withdrawals. That change was already expected to wipe out billions of dollars in overdraft revenue for the banks.

“What our customers kept telling me is ‘just don’t let me spend money that I don’t have,’" said Susan Faulkner, the bank’s deposit and card product executive, who said the overdraft changes were part of a broader push to build trust among its customers. “We wanted to help them avoid those unexpected overdraft fees.”