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Thank Senate Democrats … Public Option supporters


Senators Bennet, Brown, Merkley, Gillibrand, Kerry, Leahy, Franken, Whitehouse, Burris, Sanders, Feinstein, Reed, Boxer, Udall (NM), Mikulski, Lautenberg, Schumer, Shaheen, Specter, Menendez, Inouye, Johnson, Stabenow, Levin, Durbin, Murray, Bingaman, Cardin, Klobuchar, and Casey have shown bold leadership — asking Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to pass the public health insurance option through reconciliation, which only needs a simple majority in the Senate. Click on the picture and sign the note

Thanks

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Breaking News … from Adam Green PCCC.org

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Akansas Lt. Gov Bill Halter is running against Sen. Blanche Lincoln in a Democratic primary! Click here to learn more and help him.

Mike Bennet - under attack

BIG NEWS: Bill Halter, the popular Arkansas Lt. Governor, just announced he will run against Senator Blanche Lincoln in the Democratic primary this year.

Blanche Lincoln is one of the worst corporate Democrats in Washington. She took millions from corporate interests and then joined Joe Lieberman in attempting to kill the public health insurance option.

Bill Halter is a populist — in his announcement today, he attacked Wall Street and the insurance companies! Corporations will attack him back, so we’re teaming up with other progressives to raise his campaign $500,000 in one week.

Can you stand with Bill Halter? Click here to chip in $5 and see a video we put together about his candidacy.

Then, please forward this email to every progressive you know who is sick and tired of corporate Democrats like Lincoln, Lieberman, and the rest.

An early show of strong fundraising will help Halter’s candidacy instantly be seen as credible.

This is the best opportunity we’ll have in 2010 to show corporate Democrats in the Senate that when they oppose change, there will be payback.

Please chip in $5 to Bill Halter today.

Thanks for being a bold progressive.

— Adam Green, Stephanie Taylor, Aaron Swartz, Max Berger, Forrest Brown, and the PCCC team

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March madness countdown … and what’s on CSPAN


It’s Monday, and the Cape Wind meeting with Sec Salazar, Tribes and Energy Management happens today, the Senate is back in session battling it out on Ui benefits and more around 2pmET watch it live-stream; the House is not in session today.

The impact of just one Senator, Bunning, has put a complete stop to all types of construction projects, including Medicare programs that will need to be put on hold and leaving people who need a doctor without; putting not just construction workers out of work temporarily, but doctors will be losing 21%payments and they won’t be taking new patients.

The President along with Colin Powell/wife and Sec of Ed Arne Duncan will be announcing the 900million dollars in grants for the education program called Helping a America become a Grad Nation in association with Americas Promise Alliance.

PATTY MURRAY (D-WA):

“I’ve been consistently supportive of a public option so that Washington’s families and businesses have choices in their health care options and so insurance companies are finally forced to compete for the business of the American people. Nothing has changed that support. I don’t know whether the votes exist in the Senate right now, but if the public option came up for a vote as we move ahead with reform, including under reconciliation, I would vote yes.”

Thank you Patty Murray

on CSPAN today …

Partisan Divide Affects Unemployment Benefits

Sen. Maj. Ldr. Reid (D-NV) plans to introduce a bill in the Senate to extend federal unemployment and other benefits. Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY) blocked passage of the House-approved package of provisions on Friday. The benefits began to phase out yesterday, potentially leaving some people without unemployment and health benefits until a final Senate vote.

visit CNN Politics: Lone Senator Blocks Unemployment

watch Congressional Agenda: Now on C-SPAN

Rep. Hoyer on Fiscal Responsibility and PAYGO legislation

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) will talk about fiscal responsibility in a speech at the Brookings Institution. He’s expected to discuss the new bipartisan fiscal commission charged with recommending solutions for reducing the federal deficit, and also the “PAYGO” legislation recently enacted into law that requires federal spending or tax cuts to be offset by savings or revenue increases.        watch Brookings Institute: C-SPAN at 1pm ET

read Additional Event Information

Commission Evaluates Teamwork Among Contractors

The Commission on Wartime Contracting will hold a hearing on how to improve cooperation among contract agencies in Iraq and Afghanistan. This hearing builds on previous testimony that exposed problems with planning and organizing contract projects. Government witnesses are set to testify on their actions to promote interagency coordination.

Cato Institute Discussion on States and the Right to Bear Arms The Cato Institute hosted a panel of legal scholars to preview the Supreme Court case McDonald v. Chicago and its implications for gun rights and other constitutional liberties.

Washington, DC                    watch Cato Institute Panel
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Public Option Garners Avalanche of Support in Senate


Adam Green

Adam Green

Co-founder, Progressive Change Campaign Committee

Posted: March 1, 2010 01:18 AM

In the wake of last week’s “bipartisan summit” — which proved that no Republicans in Congress will vote for health care reform — an avalanche of Democratic senators are announcing today that they will vote YES for the public health insurance option if it is brought up in “reconciliation.”

Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL), Patty Murray (D-WA), Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Ben Cardin (D-MD), and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) are the latest to announce their support, raising the number of senators on record from 0 to 30 in under 2 weeks.

The below statements were released to the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC), Democracy for America, and Credo Action — three groups who have been organizing thousands of Americans daily on this issue and who gathered over 200,000 signatures on a petition telling Congress that Americans want a good bill with a public option over a “bipartisan” bill without one. A tally of senators supporting the public option in reconciliation is at WhipCongress.com.

DICK DURBIN (D-IL):

Durbin Communications Director Joe Shoemaker: “Sen. Durbin has long been a supporter of the public option. I don’t know whether the votes exist in the Senate right now, but if the House version of the public option came up for a vote in reconciliation Sen. Durbin would vote yes.”

PATTY MURRAY (D-WA):

“I’ve been consistently supportive of a public option so that Washington’s families and businesses have choices in their health care options and so insurance companies are finally forced to compete for the business of the American people. Nothing has changed that support. I don’t know whether the votes exist in the Senate right now, but if the public option came up for a vote as we move ahead with reform, including under reconciliation, I would vote yes.”

JEFF BINGAMAN (D-NM):

“I have long been a supporter of the public option, and I have voted for it every time it has come before the Senate. I drafted the public option provision in the HELP Committee and co-sponsored the public option amendment in the Finance Committee. If the public option came up for a vote in reconciliation I would vote yes.”

BEN CARDIN (D-MD):

Cardin spokesperson Sue Walitsky: “Senator Cardin has always been a strong supporter of the public option. As a member of the Budget Committee, he has always considered reconciliation a viable option for passing health care reform. If there is a vote in reconciliation on the House public option, Senator Cardin would vote yes.”

AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN):

“I support the House bill version of the public option which is based on negotiated rates, and if that came up for a vote in reconciliation I would vote yes. I do not support a public option based on Medicare rates because it exacerbates geographic disparities that already hurt Minnesota.”

Previously, 24 other senators signed Sen. Michael Bennet’s letter calling for the public option through reconciliation plus Majority Leader Harry Reid made big news by endorsing the idea:

Reid spokesperson Rodell Mollineau: “Senator Reid has always and continues to support the public option as a way to drive down costs and create competition…If a decision is made to use reconciliation to advance health care, Senator Reid will work with the White House, the House, and members of his caucus in an effort to craft a public option that can overcome procedural obstacles and secure enough votes.”

target

We are finding out who our real friends are. These senators deserve praise for embracing the will of the people. Polls show that voters in state after state overwhelmingly want the public option — and progressives will keep pushing others senators to take a stand until 50 votes are reached.

The Progressive Change Campaign Committee will spend thousands of dollars this week on an online ad campaign in the states of at least 10 senators who should be for the public option but have refused to issue a statement so far, reaching at least 1 million people online.

First up: Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa — and we’ll soon be naming more. Jon Stewart lampooned Harkin last week for previously saying, “I’d say right now we have well over 55 votes for a public option, but we need 60” — while now shrugging his shoulders and saying not even 50 exist.

Harkin also claimed on MSNBC that nobody has fought harder for the public option than him. I’ve been a longtime Harkin fan, but at this point, that claim is laughable. I can name at least 30 senators who have fought harder than Harkin, with more likely to come.

People can help fund the online ads pressuring Harkin and others here — and can join 200,000 others in signing the petition to Harkin and others here.

The avalanche of Senate support for the public option will continue. Who do you think is next to take a stand?

huffington Post

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TGIF … news reviews and what’s on CSPAN.org live-stream


This is Black History Month

Friday …

will be spent analyzing  what actually was accomplished at the Thursday Summit or not, this will probably go on through the weekend maybe more.  My take on the summit was that Democrats, specifically the President, Pelosi and Reid were able to see through the wall the continued rhetoric from Repubs as a sign that after a year no major moves to the center was on the Republican agenda; hoping Americans watched and truly listened to the need to move forward with HCR.  The governing body has the right to keep bills that passed already;  I hope our Democratic Party finally understands the ramification and votes HCR through reconciliation; we are the majority and it’s time to act like it… don’t we use majority rules in most things we do in our lives.

In the news this Friday …

**Governor Paterson will not be running in 2010: Democratic officials in Washington were informed of Paterson’s plans early Friday. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because Paterson had not publicly disclosed his plans.huffpost

Democrat Charlie Rangel is under investigation for breaking House rules… taking gifts(trips)

**VP Biden will be announcing new Labor Regulations aimed at protecting worker’s retirement savings

watch V.P. Biden Remarks

**Our economy grew by 5.9% stronger than expected but it’s not expected to carry forward for too long

**The House passed extensions to unemployment benefits with a voice vote and Senate Republicans JimBunning and McConnell have been blocking the temp extension of unemployment benefits,which end on 2/28/10  the vote  next Tuesday… TP reports that Senator Bunning was missing his BB game,tough sh-t on unemployment benefits. Democrats made repeated attempts to pass the extension by unanimous consent, and Bunning blocked them all. He then complained that the Democrats’ insistence on trying to ensure that unemployment benefits not expire had caused him to miss a college basketball game: GOP Rep. Dean Heller claims extending unemployment benefits is creating ‘hobos.’ TP

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Today on CSPAN.org

HR2701- Intelligence programs; Democrats stripped the torture amendment

First Hundred Years of the NAACP

Panelists talked about history and the future of the NAACP. Panel: – Patricia Sullivan, University of South Carolina, history professor; author “Lift Every Voice: The NAACP and the Making of the Civil Rights Movement” – Robert Zangrando, University of Akron, history professor; author “The NAACP Crusade Against Lynching, 1909-1950” – Kenneth Mack, Harvard University, law professor; author “Representing the Race: Creating the Civil Rights Lawyer, 1920-1955”


White House Briefing with Press Secretary Robert Gibbs Press Secretary Robert Gibbs conducts a daily briefing at the White House.

Washington, DC : 49 min.

watch White House Press Briefing

Hearing examines small business and commercial real estate lending

The House Financial Services and House Small Business Committees hold a joint hearing on lending programs for small businesses. Witnesses will likely discuss the state of lending, and how credit standards affect small businesses.

read WSJ: Examiners Aren’t Hindering Lending
read Washington Independent: Plan Meets Skepticism

watch Joint Hearing: Panels 1 & 2 watch Joint Hearing: Panel 3

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JEC Hearing on Prospects for Jobs and Growth

Joint Economic Committee Chairman Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) holds a hearing to discuss ways to promote job creation. The committee hearing, titled “The Road to Economic Recovery: Prospects for Jobs and Growth,” will include witnesses from Manpower Inc., the jobs services agency.

visit JEC website

watch JEC Hearing: From Earlier