Liberal group attacks Harry Reid on public insurance option

By John Byrne
Monday, October 19th, 2009 -- 8:06 am
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harry reid rotunda2 Liberal group attacks Harry Reid on public insurance optionAn alliance of MoveOn staffers and labor organizers will launch an advertising spot targeting Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) in an effort to push the senator to embrace a public healthcare option to compete with private insurance companies.

The ad, drawn up by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, features a Nevada health care employee speaking poorly of health insurance companies and say she was to see if Reid is "strong and effective enough as a leader" to pass the public health option, a measure strongly backed by House liberals and labor groups.

"I'm your typical swing voter," Lee Slaughter, a Las Vegas health care professional who says her insurer denied her care to cover a broken hip.

"I voted for Republicans for president, and I voted for President Obama," Slaughter continues. "I also voted for Senator Harry Reid many times. But in 2010, I'll only be voting on one issue. I'm watching to see if Harry Reid is strong and effective enough as a leader to pass a public health insurance option into law. Here in Nevada the majority wants it.

"Senator Reid," she adds, "these insurance companies cannot be trusted with our lives. Nevadans want the choice of a public option."

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Reid, the Democratic leader in the Senate, is charged with combining two competing versions of a Democrat-written healthcare overhaul. A version passed by the Senate Health and Labor Committee includes a public option; the bill passed by the Senate Finance Committee does not.

Reid has said he's interested in a bill that will be able to get by a Republican filibusters -- by coralling 60 votes; recent tabulations of Democratic senators' positions suggest that a public health option would torpedo chances for the bill's passage.

The ad first ran on The Huffington Post.

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Story comments are below...

  • michaelboh
    I completely agree. Harry Reid is part of the problem. He needs to either back a public option or get the hell out of the way. President Obama needs to get that message too.
  • Sporty
    Obama needs to get the message about renegotiating the free trade bill which has outsourced 5.5 million jobs in 2007 alone and averaging 500,000 plus a month.

    Obama was going to stop the Bush tax cuts to the wealthy and stated there would be no problem funding the health bill with a strong public option ....

    Obama say he would start withdrawning US troops from Iraq as some as he took office..

    So what has happen to Obama to change his direction and mind??
  • HeidiStevenson
    What happened to change his direction and mind?

    Winning. He's in office now and answers to his real masters - the corporations who bought him.
  • Dionysis
    Reid has always been, and will continue to be, a spineless individual. It's a wonder he can actually stand up-right without a full body brace.
  • Sporty
    Why are we not selecting a candidate to run against him in 2010... Now is the time Reid is never going to change...
  • socialismorbust
    Folks, take a look at these posts and others on this and other sites. Do you see what they've done in a very covert way? They have people focusing on "public option" now and taken energy from Single-Payer, Medicare for all. Don't fall for it! Keep spreading talk--and ENERGY-- on Single-payer or bust!
  • smdmfrmr
    If Harry Reid was "strong and effective enough as a leader" we would not be still looking for 60 votes when we only need 50 votes plus Joe Biden.
  • Sporty
    Why does the news media and others keep publishing that the liberals are the only ones backing a public option...
    H... there are over 65% of Americans want a public option.
    So are they saying that 65% of American citizens are liberal democrats!!!
    So why are the elected democrats running like h... away from the single payer or public option????
  • Sporty
    Harry Reid has already been receiving his political funds with his help of the Global Empires..
    Harry Reid needs to be defeated by a democrat in the democrat primary election in 2010/
    Do we have and candidates which need our support..
  • bayside
    I have met the enemy and it is reid. He is not a dem. he is a republican with a dem name. Look at his recordIts time we get someone in that will fight for us. Reid is 79 and probably has alszheimers like mccain does. Retire reid..
  • disappointed voter
    Harry Reid is a useless turd, just like Nancy Pelosi. We need to get rid of them both.
  • dana
    America needs to move forward – one group continuously stands in the way. It’s time for MoveOn to Move Over! The group turned 11 this year, and has repeatedly been the source that drives American politics into the gutter. Stop embarrassing our nation, and move on. http://www.friendsoftheuschamber.com/moveover/
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