GRAYSON: "I feel so proud! I must be doing something right."

[kpete]

We Are #1! #1 in Right-Wing Attacks Against Us!
by Alan Grayson
Mon Oct 11, 2010 at 12:47:52 PM PDT

On Friday, the DC newspaper "Politico" reported that:

(a) "conservative outside groups" have now spent over $9 million "slamming vulnerable House Democrats," and

(b) the total against me will reach "at least $1.7 million by the end of next week."

Think about that. I am only one member of the U.S. House of Representatives, out of 435. I represent one-quarter of one percent of America. And yet roughly TWENTY PERCENT of spending in the entire country by these shadowy right-wing groups has been spent to defeat . . .

Me.

I feel so proud!

I must be doing something right.

more:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/10/11/909479/-We-Are-#1!-#1-in-Right-Wing-Attacks-Against-Us!

[gratuitous]

1. Dangit Grayson, you're supposed to cower and beg forgiveness

Don't you know nothing about being a Democrat?

[msongs]

4. he's a "professional leftist" not an obama conservadem lol nt

[Lorien]

9. Thank goodness! I'll be proud to vote for him again

He's well supported in my neighborhood.

[2Design]

14. they have an ad saying he cowers to pelosi and obamacare yada yada yada n/t

[JuniperLea]

2. Way to stimulate the economy!

:rofl:

Good... let them spend their ill-gotten gains...

[maxsolomon]

3. "the candle that burns twice as bright burns half as long...

and you have burned so very very brightly..."

like a giant roman candle, rep. grayson. give em hell and fight nasty.

[L0oniX]

5. STFU professional lefty.

:sarcasm:

[metapunditedgy]

6. How much financial support is Grayson getting from the Democratic party? n/t

[Recursion]

28. Looks like half a million as of August

http://www.opensecrets.org/races/summary.php?cycle=2010&id=FL08

Well, that's all PAC money. I'm not sure how to tease out DCCC alone.

But, he's raised a whole lot more money than Webster. And he's still polling in the 30s as an incumbent.

[lpbk2713]

7. This is good.

I think the Florida rethuglicans are very worried about losing ground in several statewide races.
It's good to hear Grayson is using up so much of their budget. :rofl:

I think he'll win no matter how much money they waste on defeating him.

[obxhead]

8. K&R

[donheld]

10. Way to go Alan!

[indimuse]

11. yep! heheh..

knr!

[Iwillnevergiveup]

12. An ideal candidate and Congressman!

Keep at it!

K&R

[Donald Ian Rankin]

15. You mean he was once peripherally involved in shadowy South American speculation

but has since reformed and is willing to denounce corruption even at risk of having his youthful misjudgements exposed?

Or am I reading too much into your choice of words...

[keopeli]

21. A bizarre reading of an innocuous post, at best.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

44. Not if you know your Wilde, it isn't. N/T

[Recursion]

16. HE'S LOSING

Why does DU keep ignoring that?

[awoke_in_2003]

20. So I guess he should become...

DINO like 70% of the other "democrats"

[Recursion]

24. I'd rather have DINOs than Republicans

So, if that's what would win in his district, yes.

[awoke_in_2003]

35. we wonder why the party..

has managed to slip so far to the right. I can tell you why- because we are willing to accept anybody who calls themselves the right thing. Principles- fuck them, winning is the only thing that counts. Because we don't hold our reps accountable they will do whatever they want, then we bitch and moan, then vote them right back into office. Then we sit back and ridicule people who have a backbone. The party has become a pathetic joke.

[Recursion]

37. The option is what happened to the GOP

If you want to do to the Democratic party what the Teahadists did to the GOP, you can try. I hope you don't succeed.

[kenfrequed]

42. False equivalency.

Apples are not the same as handgrenades.

Nonviolent issue based progressives who want to improve working conditions, healthcare and education and do not want giveaways to corporations.

versus

Violence inciting, homophobic, racist, short sighted, astroturf planted rabble rousers?


Yeah I can totally understand how you think we would be the same.

[Recursion]

43. The tea party's goals sound reasonable to tea partiers

Our goals sound reasonable to us. (And they could just as easily spin our goals in a way that sounds just as bad.)

What is the same is that both our goals and the tea party's goals, taken to the limits we would like to take them, turn off a lot of the electorate.

[DireStrike]

48. Please tell which progressive goals are not supported by the electorate

There are indeed some. However, many important progressive issues are supported by the populace at large and ignored by Democrats AND Republicans.

The Democratic party somehow fails to run on these popular ideas, consistently picking people who are "moderate" on those issues... why?

[Recursion]

49. Oh, people love the programs, just not paying for them

Just like people love conservative shrinking of government, but hate losing the programs that have to go with it.

People would love for Medicare to be open to anyone. They wouldn't like how much the premiums would have to cost to pay for that.

[kenfrequed]

52. Uhm

Taking insurance out of healthcare and removing Medicare Part D actually would be a hell of a lot cheaper. Look at every single nation on earth that has a public health care program. All of them are cheaper per capita and the overwhelming majority produce better results.

Your arguments presume the insurance companies are still in the loop.

[kenfrequed]

55. I should have asked earlier...

Isn't recursion a regressive property?

Is this your cleverly coded way of thumbing your nose at progressives?

[Recursion]

58. Ha. I hadn't thought of that.

Recursion is an elegant form of algorithm, which is what I was thinking of.

[Recursion]

56. Cause and effect

Your arguments presume the insurance companies are still in the loop.

And yours presume that the insurance companies rather than the delivery costs are why prices are so high.

Medicare itself costs ridiculously more than other countries' health systems, even their old-age health systems. It's $800 per person per month just for Parts A and B. That's why before HCR the trust fund was projected to run out of money in 2017, and HCR only pushed that back 12 years to 2029.

[kenfrequed]

67. Think agian

The delivery costs of medicare are high because hospitals and clinics are forced to increase the costs of all treatment to recoup the costs of what insurance will not cover. Those increased costs are levied against all consumers to include medicare and those average costs are used in calculations for cost of care when it comes

There are exceptions of course, but the for-profit health care system is producing terrible results.

[awoke_in_2003]

75. when have you heard anyone on the left...

talk about "2nd Amendment Solutions"?

[Recursion]

79. Not since the 70s

Your point?

[awoke_in_2003]

80. you are comparing the left...

to teabaggers. They advocate "2nd amendment solutions".

[Recursion]

81. Well, a few of them do. So do some on the left

My actual comparison, if you look at the posts, was about the danger of driving our candidates too far to the left to win general elections, much like the teabaggers seem to be dragging many Republican nominees too far to the right to be viable.

[awoke_in_2003]

82. hell, if we drove...

our candidates just a little left most of them would be considered republicans.

[awoke_in_2003]

74. We used to make fun of the repubs...

for being sheep to their party, now we are wearing the wool. So, do not make any demands of your reps, do not expect them to do what democrats should, and continue to BOHICA. If you do not question dems when they do wrong then you are a sheep, plain and simple.

[kenfrequed]

39. Not only that...

Not only is it selling out our principles it is lousey strategy.

How many times are we told to be practical and pragmatic? When we actually had a good challenger against Blanche Lincoln in the primary the party DLC establishment sorts all campaigned for her hard core. Despite this they KNEW she had little chance of winning and that her Democratic challenger was only trailing the republican by less than 5 percentage points to her 10%+. Were the DLC sorts 'pragmatic'? Were they 'practical'? Did they want to win?

No.

The same can be said of the constant bipartisan mulling over Healthcare and every other decision we have been prevented from making. Rather than looking strong and sturdy and making a committed stand we have looked weak and defeated despite having a majority.

[awoke_in_2003]

76. and the dems in DC...

have been selling out for a long time. They make a lousy opposition party. They make a lousy majority party.

[sabrina 1]

57. What's the difference?

As for Grayson's poll numbers. They dropped after the media went after him last week for an ad not anywhere near as bad as some that Republicans have produced. But the 'liberal' media as always, while it accepts the nastiness of the GOP, cannot resist and opportunity to chide a Democrat and any reason they can find will do.

The public has a short memory, his poll numbers are beginning to go back up. Those numbers more likely included Democrats who did not like the ad, rather than do not like Grayson. I have every confidence that he will win in November when people get past the media blitz against him. There is never a reason to let go of your principles. It is a sorry excuse for doing so 'just to win'. He won before without compromising his principles, and he will do it again.

People have already moved on from the great Political Ad debacle mostly created by the Media. When it comes to their own interests, any Democrat who was upset by the ad, will quickly forget about it when they are faced with a choice between Fundie Webster whose religious beliefs he cannot keep out of his politics and Grayson, who actually fights for the best interests of his constituents.

There is also the teabagger taking away votes from Webster. Long live the Teabaggers, may they continue to divide the Republican vote.

[demwing]

62. Why?

one you know is dead against your best interests, the other pretends to be your friend, then sucker punches you.

What kind of fucking choice is that?

[Recursion]

64. The kind of real-life choice adults have to make

I'll take Max Baucus over Mitch McConnell any day. If you don't see the difference, you need to look harder.

[demwing]

72. Oh I get it, its too hard for my puny brain.

But try this one one for a moment: instead of Dino to Asshole, lets compare Dino to Republican.

The only difference is the color of the confetti on the floor. Blue or Red. Take your pick, because you'll get the same results with either color/candidate.

Yeah, partisanship is very mature.

Here's one you might not get - there are other choices available to America. You seem content with the Dino/Rebub choice. I am not.

I want something better than the bucket of warm spit you are offering. If that makes me blind or naive by your measure, then I'll gladly take it, because I rather be blind or naive than content with spit.

[awoke_in_2003]

77. no choice at all...

You know what I like about Grayson, he says exactly what he means. American's respect that. Take Rahm as an example. I cannot stand that SOB, but I can respect the fact that he is going to tell it like he sees it. He may punch you in the face, but you don't have to worry about a knife in the back.

[keopeli]

22. and your point is...

There's a difference between 'losing' and 'lost.' How, exactly, does this post ignore the facts? Further, how does your comment IN ALL CAPS help the Democratic cause?

[Recursion]

23. Capital letters make Republicans cry

OK, actually it's just a sign of my frustration with this. How can people call a guy that at this rate is going to end up costing us a "D" seat the ideal candidate?

[keopeli]

31. It's only been a "D" seat for 2 years.

It's traditionally an R seat. Grayson's behavior in Congress has been among the most progressive. At a minimum, he deserves the full support of progressives in his bid for re-election, even if his chances are slim. He is the #1 target for the Republicans nationwide. If we don't defend him, how can we expect other congress critters to speak truth to power as he has done so bravely? Even if he loses, it will be known that the Progressive Dems defended him fully so other progressives will be willing to do the same, knowing we have their backs.

Peace

[Recursion]

34. What has he accomplished in Congress?

He's sat on the Financial Services committee and voted the party line. He's introduced 2 big bills that will go precisely nowhere (universal Medicare and an immediate end to funding for Iraq and Afghanistan).

If making inflammatory speeches and writing bills that can't pass are your idea of what a Congressperson should be doing, then he's your guy.

[kenfrequed]

36. Uhm

Who, precisely do you look up to as a congress critter? What do you think ought to be done? He has stood up for the little guy every day. The DLC sorts don't really want him to win. The reasons is that it screws with the 'blame the left' meme that they are cranking up for after losses in November. Rather than trying to win they are more concerned with managing the loss and scapegoating progressives.

His speeches are honest. He calls the republicans out in language the majority of the American people would understand. When he said that the Republican health care plan was to 'not get sick and die young' he wasn't exagerrating. How many Republicans did all that happy bipartisan Kum-Bey-yah handholding get us? Were they one bit less loony and obstructionist at any point in time?

All we did was look weak, ineffectual and give up the ball. If you think this is good strategy then I really don't know what to say.

[Recursion]

38. Who I look up to in Congress

In the House, people like Waxman, Frank, Pelosi, or Moran. People who are more interested in seeing an imperfect bill get passed than a better bill fail.

[kenfrequed]

40. Lack of definition

I see a total lack of definition in terms here.

What is the definition of an imperfect bill and which imperfect bills did Grayson refuse to back?

Also the 'perfect bill' argument is a bit of logical quandry as it suggests that wise policy is somehow perfect and therefore unattainable.

You are aware he is a freshman representative and does not draw as much water arent you? I mean you seem to try to be creating the impression that you are a practical professional at all this and I'm just curious whether you were aware of that fact.

I still also am waiting to find out whether you think continual moans towards bipartisanship was an effective strategy for getting republicans on board for the great healthcare compromise? you know, the one that didn't happen? Also do you think running quietly and trying to get along with the most obstructionist minority party in American history was really a good idea? Is it a good idea to let them do this without having a decent number of Democrats speaking out against these tactics?

[Recursion]

41. OK

I still also am waiting to find out whether you think continual moans towards bipartisanship was an effective strategy for getting republicans on board for the great healthcare compromise? you know, the one that didn't happen?

The point of that was to keep conservative Democrats on board.

Also do you think running quietly and trying to get along with the most obstructionist minority party in American history was really a good idea?

Sure, and given the Senate's rules doing something other than "running quietly" wouldn't have accomplished anything more.

You are aware he is a freshman representative and does not draw as much water arent you? I mean you seem to try to be creating the impression that you are a practical professional at all this and I'm just curious whether you were aware of that fact.

Ooh.. I'm allegedly "trying to create an impression"? Whatever.

Yes, he's a freshman who has sponsored two pointless showboat bills. His "Public Option" bill didn't even begin to address how to pay for it. That irritates me.

[kenfrequed]

51. Ok

Uhm... I'm sorry but this is nonsense, there were weeks and weeks of courting and currying favor with a small handfull of Republicans (like Olympia Snowe). The "convincing" of the conserva-dems was for the progressives to give up Everything they wanted and capitulate even more to the insurance companies.

Also I think you are factually mistaken. I seem to recall a number of these conservadems offering special triggers for a public option but for some reason even that was jettisoned.

What irritates ME is that since the whole bill was handled in budget reconciliation anyhow all we needed was 51 votes. That is all. We didn't need Joe Lieberman and I'm pretty sure we could have arm-twisted up to that 51 votes and still lost a couple of the Senate Blue dog caucus. Which by the way was a creation of Evan Bayh-who decided that right after Obama won he should stab the party and the american people in the back and form a group specifically dedicated to preventing the change that Americans voted for.

Actually the congressman did state where the funding would come from in the case of providing medicare for all. I find it odd that people would continue to wring their hands about "how we will pay for it" when the bill itself spoke to that. It ended up being coded language for 'not wanting to create another entitlement' or just a means to reject it out of hand. Even odder since it would be far cheaper a system in terms of GDP.

[Recursion]

54. Here is the full text of his bill. Please point to the funding mechanism.

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.4789:

(click "Bill PDF")

Where is the funding? The premiums aren't even set, the Secretary of HHS is supposed to set them. If they are high enough to make it budget-neutral, they'll be too high for people to pay. If they're low enough for people to pay, they won't be budget-neutral (or they'll just exhaust the Medicare trust fund that much more quickly).

[kenfrequed]

59. Uhm

Maybe it is a formating thing on that website or a broken link but where is the actual bill?

[Recursion]

60. I think colons screw up DU's wikicode

Ugh. Yeah, it's the colons.

Here's the Wiki article; you can get to the full text from the first "References" link

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Option_Act

Here's its opencongress page: http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h4789/show

[kenfrequed]

61. And oh yes...

Technically this amendment would fall under the budget for medicare and, like most bills taxes would be collected.


Again, every other industrialized nation does it cheaper, and most have far better results in infant mortality and in longevity.

[Recursion]

63. The problem with the longevity argument

is that we have many more cars and guns per capita than pretty much every other country. I'll definitely grant you infant mortality, though; we have much worse outcomes for that than any industrialized nation should. Though we also have much more poverty than any industrialized nation should.

Technically this amendment would fall under the budget for medicare and, like most bills taxes would be collected.

Well, that's what I'm asking. If the Secretary of HHS set premiums that were affordable, there would be a Medicare shortfall that would eat into the already-disappearing Medicare trust fund. So would the rest just come out of general revenue? And would it be mandatory spending like the rest of Medicare? Would Congress have oversite of the Secretary's premiums regime? How much oversite? I'm not saying there aren't good answers to that, I'm saying he should have had those answers already and put them in the bill.

[Recursion]

66. Other questions about the bill

Would people be allowed to be uninsured until they got sick and then just pay one Medicare premium and get treatment? Would they have to stay on Medicare after that?

[kenfrequed]

68. ...

One would presume that the same authority would set the rates. It would be a godsend to the clinics and hospitals as they would have steadier and more reliable payer (in the form of the government) and the cost of clinic administration would go down. Private insurers and med benefit carriers make money by errecting bureacratic walls and mazes to stall a healthcare providers attempts to collect payment. Bereft of these walls cost of care would drop saving everyone money.

[Recursion]

69. Secretary of HHS negotiates (not "sets") Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement rates

Or, being even more pedantic, hires the people who negotiate them.

"One would presume" is generally a bad place to be left when talking about a bill. Would Congress have authority to force HHS to make premiums affordable if those premiums were set too high? Or alternately to force an increase in premiums if the shortfall was too great?

And, like I asked above, would people be able to not pay the Medicare premium for years until they get sick, then pay one premium and get coverage immediately?

[kenfrequed]

70. sigh

Unless otherswise stated that IS where the authority lies. It would be covered by all other legislation that currently exists defining the medicare program.

Quibbling about my usage of a rough linguistic equivalent is absurd and a disingenuous method of argumentation.

And to the second question I would say "sure, why not."

Honestly in most nations healthcare is a right, not a premium.

[Recursion]

71. Most countries pay for it out of general revenue

If you can find a way to get the US population to elect a Congress that would agree to do that, more power to you.

As it is, we have a dedicated revenue stream which is just barely meeting the needs of the current Medicare population. If we expand the benefit without mandating paying in the system goes broke almost immediately (this is why a public "option" is in my mind a horrible idea; if it's going to be universal it needs to be mandatory).

[Donald Ian Rankin]

45. He's a valuable triangulation point.

My impression (although I'm far from an expert) is that the main contribution of people like Grayson in America is *not* in what they achieve themselves, it's that they pull the boundary of what is considered "far left", "left", "centre left", "centrist" and so on to the left, enabling other people to be seen as more moderate and less extreme.

[Recursion]

47. I suppose

I'd prefer that be done by people like Kucinich and Capuano who aren't going to lose their seat in the process.

[kenfrequed]

53. I'd prefer

A bout a half dozen more Kucinich's to get the left pushed just a bit further to the left. Oddly conservative districts will elect the most psychotic, right wing, nut jobs into office and no one within their party tells them no. Only we moderate our viewpoints right out of the gate and hamstring ourselves by refusing to run on or express our most populist ideas.

[Scurrilous]

13. K & R

:thumbsup:

[ProfessionalLeftist]

17. The FDR attitude. That's what ALL Dems need ...

..." I welcome their hatred "

Rub their damn noses in it, flip them off, and keep going.

[spanone]

18. politico = shit

[Rhiannon12866]

19. He seems to have decided to tell us about this, himself...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=9299138&mesg_id=9299138

[kpete]

25. wow,

stiff competition!
peace, kpete

[Rhiannon12866]

29. I know! Yikes! LOL.

I wanted to spread the word on this one... :wow: :hi:

[keopeli]

26. Alan Grayson (apparently) joined DU to tell us this

Thanks, kpete, but a quick glance will show that Rep. Grayson joined DU to share this same info. The post is at the top of the Homepage. Everyone should check it out.

(While there is no way at the moment to know for sure that Grayson was the one who joined and posted - or his campaign - it's still a cool thought and adds to the weight of the post.)

[DireStrike]

27. I can't find info on spending in this race

And there seems to be only one poll.

Is Grayson being badly outspent?

[Recursion]

30. The opposite

He's raised and spent significantly more than Webster: http://www.opensecrets.org/races/summary.php?cycle=2010&id=FL08

(this was before the shadowy conservative groups started spending)

[xchrom]

32. recommend

[Plucketeer]

33. Go ALAN, Go!

K'n & R'n

[Yeshuah Ben Joseph]

46. Real Democrats in congress are rare these days

Real Democrats in Florida, even more so. We definitely need Alan Grayson.

[defendandprotect]

50. LOVE Grayson and have to try to get some $$ to him ... !!

[Swamp Rat]

65. KICK ASS!!!

:kick:

[lastone]

73. Keep it UP!

We need to CLONE GRAYSON - or send him all the dang cash you still can spare.

[Cal33]

78. I was disappointed when Wexler announced his retirement and

was really glad when Grayson stepped in and turned out the way he did. Wouldn't it
have been nice if both of them are in Congress?!