Transcript: THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW (11-24-09)

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in reference to:

"Tonight, a small group of senators in the Democratic Caucus are reaffirming their commitment to killing the Senate health care reform bill, if it includes a public option. The most vocal among them is Senator Joe Lieberman, of Connecticut, who is now repeating his threat to block any bill that includes any version of a public option.With the Senate now less than a week away from debating health care reform, Democratic majority leader, Harry Reid, now has a choice, stand firm on the public option or compromise it to get something passed. Those on the compromise side argue that we should just let the bill pass without a public option so we can get all of the good insurance reform that`s in the bill. But, there`s a dirty little secret about this -- the insurance reform is gone.In order to have insurance reform, you need two things. The first is making sure insurance companies can`t turn you down for any medical reason. That`s called guaranteed issue -- and that`s in the bill. But that`s only effective if you make sure that the coverage is affordable. And that`s not in the bill. As the bill is written now, the insurance companies will still be allowed to gouge their customers if they have illnesses to charge you two or three times what your neighbor gets charged.A lot of the insurance reform in this bill is gone. The only real reform that`s left is the public option. If that`s compromised away, this bill is no longer health care reform. It`s just a huge gift to the health insurance industry from the same people who bailed AIG out, the American taxpayers.Instead of ruining the bill by taking out the public option, why not just do the fair thing? If there are four senators who won`t let us pass the bill with a public option, we have a mechanism to pass it, anyway -- through the budget reconciliation process.If you do that, you only need 51 votes to pass it, which exist in the Senate, instead of 60, just a simple majority. That`s how most democracies work. That`s what we should have done in the beginning. And that`s what Democrats ought to do right now."
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