“Breaking news. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is now signaling that he is ready to join the newly resurgent health reform fight. He says he would support a plan to pass a public option for health insurance without Republican support.”
Reid’s announcement was prompted by a letter from 19 senators calling for the public option through reconciliation. Keith Olbermann added, “The people who started this letter campaign showed some courage.”
The senator who led the charge — Michael Bennet of Colorado — is now being slammed by Republicans and conservative papers in his state.
The Denver Post accused Bennet of trying to “jam [the public option] down our throats” while a Republican opponent accused him of showing “outright contempt” for voters. But a recent poll shows that Colorado voters want the public option 59% to 36%!!
Let’s encourage Bennet to keep fighting. Can you chip in $3 to his campaign? Click here.
(At this link, you can also support Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand — an original signer of Bennet’s letter who is in a competitive primary against corporate Democrat Harold Ford.)
The public option fight is far from over — we still need to push many other senators to commit to voting with us. But this week’s momentum would not have been possible without Bennet, Gillibrand, and other senators sticking their necks out.
Thanks for being a bold progressive.
— Adam Green, Stephanie Taylor, Aaron Swartz, Michael Snook, Brian Bills, and the PCCC team