They are blocking health reform -- GOP representative Paul Ryan is bragging that he thinks the GOP can drag the debate on health reform into 2010. They are blocking judicial appointments, right after condemning such tactics. They have blocked the nomination of the Secretary of Health and are still blocking the surgeon general, right in the middle of the swine flu crisis. And they blocked unemployment benefits, just in time for the holidays. And the GOP has now been busted for obstruction tactics again.
A Senator put an anonymous hold on a bill for veterans benefits, and now the Senator has been outed: Tom Coburn of Oklahoma. This is the third time Coburn has blocked funding for veterans benefits. Even the American Legion is screaming about this – I guess they’re a bunch of Marxist traitors too. Also the VFW, DAV, Purple Heart recipients…Just imagine the Democratic campaign ad for 2010, reeling off all of the popular, necessary congressional actions which the Republicans have blocked just for the childish, sadistic fun of it.
Showing posts with label health reform and obstruction in Washington. Show all posts
Showing posts with label health reform and obstruction in Washington. Show all posts
Thursday, 5 November 2009
Sunday, 1 November 2009
The GOP has a health plan…or do they?
Months ago the Republicans promised their own health plan, and then didn’t deliver. Now they are finally delivering – but the plan they’re unveiling is actually a plan to obstruct the deliberation process.
Boehner is starting to dribble out a teeny health plan, which he wouldn’t be doing unless there was a serious danger (to the Republicans) that the Democratic plan would pass. This is after Kyl was dangling in front of the Democrats the promise of a compromise on the opt-in plan. So clearly they know Obama wants a bipartisan bill if possible, and they will try to drag things out and confuse people with a dozen dangle-the-football-in-front-of-Charlie-Brown “compromises” that sound good in Fox sound bites but are really bad policy.
The House may vote on health care within the next 10 days. Michelle Bachmann is screeching about tyranny and egging on the teabaggers to march on Washington, invade the Capitol, and confront Pelosi. When is the Secret Service going to investigate Bachmann as a threat?
A key problem for the GOP is that they are obstructing so much, on so many fronts, that their block-everything strategy is becoming too flagrantly obvious: they have been blocking unemployment benefits just in time for Christmas (expect 100 “Grinch” ads from the Democrats next summer), blocking the surgeon general we need to fight the swine flu crisis (until they backed down), blocking virtually every judge who’s ever been nominated, and of course blocking health reform. Americans are waking up to the fact that these are not differences of policy or philosophy, but sheer obstruction. What are they going to filibuster next, the Senate cafeteria menu? Even more interesting, Reid is firing back, pointing out that the GOP has used procedural votes to block funding for our troops, Medicare, a clean water bill, an anti-fraud bill, and of course the unemployment benefits.
Also, the Democrats are pursuing a new line of attack against the GOP’s paymasters in the insurance industry: being a woman is not a pre-existing condition.
Some liberals think the Blue Dogs are really seeking a way to say “yes” on health reform rather than betraying Obama; they think the Blue Dogs are warming up to the Reid bill, that the stuff which the Blue Dogs claim they’re afraid of isn’t even in the bill, and that the Dogs will warm up more once they read it (Lincoln admitted she hasn’t read it). The CBO score will come out soon, and guys like Carper are pointing out that the Reid bill is almost like Conrad’s coop idea, in that the public option will only get seed money at the beginning (after that they would only get more federal money with a new bill). Lincoln must have seen the polls showing that in Arkansas the public option is more popular than she her self is; Snowe is talking triggers but she still hasn’t drafted or sold an actual plan that is realistic; some Dogs like Nelson are pushing for an opt-in but everyone knows it is a terrible idea which the House would never approve; and Lieberman hasn’t actually asked for a specific change in the Reid bill and nobody, still, even knows what he’s after (it could be something as simple and crass as bitchslapping the Lamont supporters who tried to end his career).
Boehner is starting to dribble out a teeny health plan, which he wouldn’t be doing unless there was a serious danger (to the Republicans) that the Democratic plan would pass. This is after Kyl was dangling in front of the Democrats the promise of a compromise on the opt-in plan. So clearly they know Obama wants a bipartisan bill if possible, and they will try to drag things out and confuse people with a dozen dangle-the-football-in-front-of-Charlie-Brown “compromises” that sound good in Fox sound bites but are really bad policy.
The House may vote on health care within the next 10 days. Michelle Bachmann is screeching about tyranny and egging on the teabaggers to march on Washington, invade the Capitol, and confront Pelosi. When is the Secret Service going to investigate Bachmann as a threat?
A key problem for the GOP is that they are obstructing so much, on so many fronts, that their block-everything strategy is becoming too flagrantly obvious: they have been blocking unemployment benefits just in time for Christmas (expect 100 “Grinch” ads from the Democrats next summer), blocking the surgeon general we need to fight the swine flu crisis (until they backed down), blocking virtually every judge who’s ever been nominated, and of course blocking health reform. Americans are waking up to the fact that these are not differences of policy or philosophy, but sheer obstruction. What are they going to filibuster next, the Senate cafeteria menu? Even more interesting, Reid is firing back, pointing out that the GOP has used procedural votes to block funding for our troops, Medicare, a clean water bill, an anti-fraud bill, and of course the unemployment benefits.
Also, the Democrats are pursuing a new line of attack against the GOP’s paymasters in the insurance industry: being a woman is not a pre-existing condition.
Some liberals think the Blue Dogs are really seeking a way to say “yes” on health reform rather than betraying Obama; they think the Blue Dogs are warming up to the Reid bill, that the stuff which the Blue Dogs claim they’re afraid of isn’t even in the bill, and that the Dogs will warm up more once they read it (Lincoln admitted she hasn’t read it). The CBO score will come out soon, and guys like Carper are pointing out that the Reid bill is almost like Conrad’s coop idea, in that the public option will only get seed money at the beginning (after that they would only get more federal money with a new bill). Lincoln must have seen the polls showing that in Arkansas the public option is more popular than she her self is; Snowe is talking triggers but she still hasn’t drafted or sold an actual plan that is realistic; some Dogs like Nelson are pushing for an opt-in but everyone knows it is a terrible idea which the House would never approve; and Lieberman hasn’t actually asked for a specific change in the Reid bill and nobody, still, even knows what he’s after (it could be something as simple and crass as bitchslapping the Lamont supporters who tried to end his career).
Friday, 30 October 2009
working over the Blue Dogs
Reid will address the Senate Democratic caucus again next week, although the real audience is those five Blue Dogs who are still dithering. One way or another it would be nice to get one of these idiots to just read the damn bill and sign up for it. None of the Blue Dogs has given a credible reason why they would oppose the Senate bill – either they express objections which are inaccurate like Lieberman, or they express vague philosophical objections which have no basis in reality. If they were to express a concrete, real-world objection to something that’s in the bill, Reid could fix it with no sweat. Getting one of the Blue Dogs in line will help put the pressure on Lieberman: there is a tremendous difference between having one dissenting vote, or two or three.
The other part of the two-prong strategy is to publicly set up the reconciliation option. Conrad, Lieberman and Bayh will at least allow the Senate to debate the bill. But with Lincoln going even further to the right than Lieberman the Independent, saying she might not even let the Senate bill be debated, and Nelson also noncommittal on the debate issue – it’s time to plan seriously for reconciliation, and wave that stick in the faces of the Blue Dogs. Meet with the parliamentarian and get it sorted out and publicize the results.
Lieberman seems hell-bent on spitting in the faces of Democrats. The same guy who campaigned, hard, to eliminate the filibuster tool entirely 15 years ago is now the poster child for filibusters, like a two-year-old who is throwing shoes into a toilet to block it up just because he can; he was also talking about launching a nonsensical investigation into Obama’s czars, an attack that has already been debunked, and then screwing Reid over on the public option, and then deserting the Democrats in favour of the GOP on reauthorizing the Patriot Act, and he is now saying he’ll campaign for Republicans in 2010. Is he trying to provoke Obama and Reid with all this crap? Is he swinging to the right so he can cover himself if he does vote for health reform, or to lay the groundwork for switching to the GOP? Or is he just insane? Some say he is in fact running for reelection although he’s unpopular back home, particularly on the public option issue, and even if he runs, Harkin is already hinting that he could lose his committee chair.
Bayh has switched on the procedural vote, now saying that the motion to debate is not the same as the motion to pass the bill, although he is still mum on the motion to allow the final vote. So the anti-Blue-Dog backlash is starting to work. More backlash: the latest polling from Arkansas shows that the voters want the public option by a huge margin, and that they are less likely to vote for Lincoln if she blocks the public option. Nelson is still sucking around for the opt-in; he doesn’t want a bill that will “destabilize” the insurance industry he used to work for.
Perhaps the GOP is starting to realize that their stonewalling tactics are making them look really bad. Under pressure from Reid, the GOP backed down and allowed the surgeon general nomination to go through.
The other part of the two-prong strategy is to publicly set up the reconciliation option. Conrad, Lieberman and Bayh will at least allow the Senate to debate the bill. But with Lincoln going even further to the right than Lieberman the Independent, saying she might not even let the Senate bill be debated, and Nelson also noncommittal on the debate issue – it’s time to plan seriously for reconciliation, and wave that stick in the faces of the Blue Dogs. Meet with the parliamentarian and get it sorted out and publicize the results.
Lieberman seems hell-bent on spitting in the faces of Democrats. The same guy who campaigned, hard, to eliminate the filibuster tool entirely 15 years ago is now the poster child for filibusters, like a two-year-old who is throwing shoes into a toilet to block it up just because he can; he was also talking about launching a nonsensical investigation into Obama’s czars, an attack that has already been debunked, and then screwing Reid over on the public option, and then deserting the Democrats in favour of the GOP on reauthorizing the Patriot Act, and he is now saying he’ll campaign for Republicans in 2010. Is he trying to provoke Obama and Reid with all this crap? Is he swinging to the right so he can cover himself if he does vote for health reform, or to lay the groundwork for switching to the GOP? Or is he just insane? Some say he is in fact running for reelection although he’s unpopular back home, particularly on the public option issue, and even if he runs, Harkin is already hinting that he could lose his committee chair.
Bayh has switched on the procedural vote, now saying that the motion to debate is not the same as the motion to pass the bill, although he is still mum on the motion to allow the final vote. So the anti-Blue-Dog backlash is starting to work. More backlash: the latest polling from Arkansas shows that the voters want the public option by a huge margin, and that they are less likely to vote for Lincoln if she blocks the public option. Nelson is still sucking around for the opt-in; he doesn’t want a bill that will “destabilize” the insurance industry he used to work for.
Perhaps the GOP is starting to realize that their stonewalling tactics are making them look really bad. Under pressure from Reid, the GOP backed down and allowed the surgeon general nomination to go through.
Monday, 12 October 2009
Health insurers take off the mask and threaten…you
Insurers are making no effort whatsoever to dial back their worst excesses in the ramp-up to the big reform votes. Pregnancy, domestic violence, fat babies as disqualifying preexisting conditions, jacking up rates….These guys seem to be positive they can stop reform. Makes you wonder.
But their already-discredited AHIP report is likely to backfire. With this report, drafted at the behest of the insurance industry, they have effectively threatened all of America that even if the reform bill contains a mandate which will provide them with millions of new customers, they will still jack up all our premiums. This gives a strong impetus to setting up a public option, to save American families a ton of money. It also makes Pelosi’s windfall profits tax more likely to pass. Some are also proposing a cap on premiums. Even Republican leaders are warning their members not to campaign on the report if they have also taken a ton of insurance money for their campaigns. Watch the Blue Dog Senators on this – extortionists themelves, they know blackmail when they see it.
Meanwhile the CBO report has dealt a serious blow to the idea of health care coops; the only vote it adds to the tally is possibly Conrad’s.
The trigger option is less unpopular than the coop option, but the trigger won’t work either – Snowe tried, and she overplayed her hand. The Democrats seemingly have already conceded that many of the major provisions of the health reform package won’t go into effect for years, and they don’t want the trigger nonsense to delay things even more. They’ve conceded enough and they know it.
So Senators are back at work urgently seeking a public-option formula that can attain 60 votes for cloture, if not for the actual bill; then when Reid merges the HELP and Finance bills, they will toss out the Baucus coop plan in favour of the public option.
As the coop and trigger options slowly expire, the public option opt-out formula, the most promising of all the compromise proposals, is gaining momentum. White House polling possibly discovered that opt-out will sell, liberals will accept it, Krugman likes it, and Carper may support it; probably Lieberman too.
Obama has rounded up more Republican supporters of health reform, Chuck Hagel and Bush’s HHS Secretary, Louis Sullivan. However, Bill Nelson has said no to opt-out, and likes the trigger better. How about both? Or at least cloture? He’s undoubtedly worried that Florida could opt out. I think a lot of these Blue Dog knuckleheads are dragging this out forever, because once they commit and the Senate votes, they will deservedly become relative non-entities again.
And more justification for urgency: a new Consumers Union report says Americans are skipping doctor visits, procedures, tests, prescriptions, and even taking expired drugs to save money; a quarter of us have been unable to pay for medical bills or prescriptions.
But their already-discredited AHIP report is likely to backfire. With this report, drafted at the behest of the insurance industry, they have effectively threatened all of America that even if the reform bill contains a mandate which will provide them with millions of new customers, they will still jack up all our premiums. This gives a strong impetus to setting up a public option, to save American families a ton of money. It also makes Pelosi’s windfall profits tax more likely to pass. Some are also proposing a cap on premiums. Even Republican leaders are warning their members not to campaign on the report if they have also taken a ton of insurance money for their campaigns. Watch the Blue Dog Senators on this – extortionists themelves, they know blackmail when they see it.
Meanwhile the CBO report has dealt a serious blow to the idea of health care coops; the only vote it adds to the tally is possibly Conrad’s.
The trigger option is less unpopular than the coop option, but the trigger won’t work either – Snowe tried, and she overplayed her hand. The Democrats seemingly have already conceded that many of the major provisions of the health reform package won’t go into effect for years, and they don’t want the trigger nonsense to delay things even more. They’ve conceded enough and they know it.
So Senators are back at work urgently seeking a public-option formula that can attain 60 votes for cloture, if not for the actual bill; then when Reid merges the HELP and Finance bills, they will toss out the Baucus coop plan in favour of the public option.
As the coop and trigger options slowly expire, the public option opt-out formula, the most promising of all the compromise proposals, is gaining momentum. White House polling possibly discovered that opt-out will sell, liberals will accept it, Krugman likes it, and Carper may support it; probably Lieberman too.
Obama has rounded up more Republican supporters of health reform, Chuck Hagel and Bush’s HHS Secretary, Louis Sullivan. However, Bill Nelson has said no to opt-out, and likes the trigger better. How about both? Or at least cloture? He’s undoubtedly worried that Florida could opt out. I think a lot of these Blue Dog knuckleheads are dragging this out forever, because once they commit and the Senate votes, they will deservedly become relative non-entities again.
And more justification for urgency: a new Consumers Union report says Americans are skipping doctor visits, procedures, tests, prescriptions, and even taking expired drugs to save money; a quarter of us have been unable to pay for medical bills or prescriptions.
Tuesday, 6 October 2009
Who to watch in the next few days
OBAMA. The latest Gallup poll shows that support for health reform increased, and the latest AP poll shows Obama’s approvals are rising; likewise his approvals for handling the economy and health care. His approvals among the all-important independents is up too. Obama steps directly into the health care fray this week, Finance or no Finance: Senate Democrats do want Obama to steer on key issues such as the public option. But some of his key efforts are happening out of our view: in addition to lobbying Senate Blue Dogs to support cloture, Obama is also working behind the scenes to attract non-Washington Republicans to the cause. As a result, more Republicans are coming out for health reform: three former Senate GOP leaders, Mike Bloomberg, former HHS boss Tommy Thompson, and now Arnold Schwarzenegger. Buncha communists, right?
PETER ORSZAG. The White House team helping to shape the Senate bill will be Rahm Emanuel, health care adviser Nancy Ann DeParle, and OMB chief Peter Orszag. Having Emanuel in the room means we could get a trigger option; having Orszag in the room means a lean system which could win over deficit hawks like Bayh and Conrad. Orszag also said that the public option isn’t essential, and that he was okay with triggers and coops, so we’ll need to watch him to see how wobbly he really is. The GOP is watching him too: they demand that he be there for the Finance Committee vote on the Baucus bill, so they may be planning to ambush him.
HARRY REID. Reid is already beginning the effort to merge the two Senate bills; he’s not even waiting for Finance to vote anymore. Finance is delaying its vote, either due to Baucus’ glacial pace of operations as chairman, or because Baucus doesn’t have the votes to pass it. The Blue Dogs are demanding 72 hours to read floor bill before voting; I’m surprised they didn’t demand 72 years. Fine, gives Obama more time for arm-twisting. Meanwhile, Reid is moving forward.
CHUCK SCHUMER. Today we heard a cautionary tale about state-level health care plans, from the guy who ran the Texas plan. He said Texas tried to set up a state-run exchange, but it failed because because the plan was so small that the private insurers could undercut it and cherry-pick it to death, targeting companies with young, health employees and dumping the older folks out. The public exchange was swamped with old, sick people, prices rose, and it collapsed. Such cherry-picking by insurers also killed the systems in Florida, North Carolina and California . This is why we need a national plan, even if it’s just a coop, and we need provisions to prevent the insurers from gaming the system or exploiting adverse selection. If we reach a compromise on a plan that is a coop, but a national-level coop, watch for Schumer to be the architect of the deal, possibly working with Conrad.
KENT CONRAD The North Dakota Democratic party has passed a resolution demanding single payer, or at the very least the public option. It was unanimous. This is by way of putting more pressure on Conrad – vote with us or you’ll get a primary challenge! -- right after the Nebraska Democrats launched the same ambush against Ben Nelson.
RON WYDEN. Wyden wants to break the grip of the insurers. Wyden and other Democrats are furious at Baucus and Conrad for their obstructive behaviour in the Finance Committee. He and Rockefeller and Cantwell have been threatening to vote against the Baucus bill – perhaps they can force Obama to take a harder line on the public option on the Senate floor, in exchange for their acquiescence on the Baucus bill now. Wyden will vote for the public option if it comes to a vote.
BEN NELSON. A recent poll shows that if Ben Nelson supports a filibuster on health care, his support among Nebraska Democrats drops a staggering 17 points, thus paving the way for a long-overdue primary challenge. But Ben Nelson claims his leadership hasn’t even approached him on the cloture issue, which is bullcrap: he could still be planning to screw Obama over.
ALAN FRUMIN. He’s the Senate parliamentarian, and will rule on some critical issues once the health reform bill hits the Senate floor. He will uphold the rule that a conference report can be filibustered, which will put more pressure on Obama and Reid to hold the Senate Democrats together. He will probably support the notion that the Democrats, if need be, can overcome a filibuster not only by cloture or reconciliation, but also by leaving the bill on the agenda indefinitely, with nothing else on the agenda, so no other business can be conducted (the Republicans would try to play chicken and wait them out, but that’s a losing proposition). He may also have to rule on a tactic which the Republicans tried to use in 2005: the Democrats could threaten to use a chair ruling to kill a filibuster on the grounds that using the filibuster in such a case would be unconstitutional.
And of course THE REPUBLICANS; the air is slowing leaking out for them, and they know it:
Snowe is pushing to weaken insurance exchanges by forcing exchanges to allow any company into the exchange even if they have sky-high prices and lousy coverage like the existing firms. She is clearly not serious about either reform or bipartisanship. So she’s finally tipped her hand, and her influence will drop accordingly. Meanwhile GOP leaders are insisting that even if Snowe supports reform, it’s still not a bipartisan effort. As if anyone cares.
Earlier, the Republicans, on orders from their masters in the insurance industry, forced Democrats to amend the Baucus bill by adding an individual mandate forcing people to buy insurance. Now they are arguing exactly the opposite – now mandates allegedly are a bad idea -- in an effort to slow things down even further. Let’s just sit there and admire their chutzpah: slamming the Democrats for including something the Republicans demanded in the first place.
The conservatives are arguing, simultaneously, that “government can’t possibly compete with private enterprise”, and that “private enterprise can’t possibly compete with government.” Um, if government care is really that crappy, no will choose the public option, will they? You would think the Republicans would love to see the Democrats fall on their faces, right? But actually, the Republicans aren’t afraid that government health care will fail. They are afraid it will succeed. And if fact both of the arguments are wrong. As Bob Cesca pointed out, taking a private cab in New York costs four times as much as the public subway, but there are still more than 10,000 cabs on the streets – they didn’t disappear the minute the public trains began to run. .
Rasmussen, the Republican pollster, gets busted for lying again. At the same time, another right-leaning pollster, Strategic Vision, is also busted for cooking the books.
Fox anchor Shepherd Smith finally loses it and totally blows apart a Republican politician who was spewing lies about the “government takeover” of health care.
Republicans sucking up to the female voters again? The National Republican Congressional Committee just said "If Nancy Pelosi's failed economic policies are any indicator of the effect she may have on Afghanistan , taxpayers can only hope McChrystal is able to put her in her place." Another uppity liberal broad.
Limbaugh is trying to buy the St. Louis Rams. This guy is a drug addict who has failed in one field of endeavour after another, whose one brief flirtation with higher education was a laughable disaster, who only survives as a “pundit” because he never comes out of his sound booth where a real opponent could challenge his lies and his bullcrap, and who only has all those listeners because his company offers the show for free in many markets, in exchange for preferential advertising agreements. The man lacks the aptitude to lead flies to a pile of shit, and he’s going to turn around a team which is arguably the worst in football? And how could any black player possibly work for that guy? Or anybody who believes in labor unions? Or anybody with a brain?
Yet again, Republican governors who slammed the stimulus bill are now begging for stimulus money. As Kos implied today -- How about this? Any state whose Senators voted “no” on the stimulus gets no stimulus money. Call it The Hypocrisy Clause.
Pelosi is shooting for passage by Thanksgiving, so within milliseconds the Republican will make fools of themselves with a new wave of obstruction tactics, just so they can brag that they threw the timetable off track.
PETER ORSZAG. The White House team helping to shape the Senate bill will be Rahm Emanuel, health care adviser Nancy Ann DeParle, and OMB chief Peter Orszag. Having Emanuel in the room means we could get a trigger option; having Orszag in the room means a lean system which could win over deficit hawks like Bayh and Conrad. Orszag also said that the public option isn’t essential, and that he was okay with triggers and coops, so we’ll need to watch him to see how wobbly he really is. The GOP is watching him too: they demand that he be there for the Finance Committee vote on the Baucus bill, so they may be planning to ambush him.
HARRY REID. Reid is already beginning the effort to merge the two Senate bills; he’s not even waiting for Finance to vote anymore. Finance is delaying its vote, either due to Baucus’ glacial pace of operations as chairman, or because Baucus doesn’t have the votes to pass it. The Blue Dogs are demanding 72 hours to read floor bill before voting; I’m surprised they didn’t demand 72 years. Fine, gives Obama more time for arm-twisting. Meanwhile, Reid is moving forward.
CHUCK SCHUMER. Today we heard a cautionary tale about state-level health care plans, from the guy who ran the Texas plan. He said Texas tried to set up a state-run exchange, but it failed because because the plan was so small that the private insurers could undercut it and cherry-pick it to death, targeting companies with young, health employees and dumping the older folks out. The public exchange was swamped with old, sick people, prices rose, and it collapsed. Such cherry-picking by insurers also killed the systems in Florida, North Carolina and California . This is why we need a national plan, even if it’s just a coop, and we need provisions to prevent the insurers from gaming the system or exploiting adverse selection. If we reach a compromise on a plan that is a coop, but a national-level coop, watch for Schumer to be the architect of the deal, possibly working with Conrad.
KENT CONRAD The North Dakota Democratic party has passed a resolution demanding single payer, or at the very least the public option. It was unanimous. This is by way of putting more pressure on Conrad – vote with us or you’ll get a primary challenge! -- right after the Nebraska Democrats launched the same ambush against Ben Nelson.
RON WYDEN. Wyden wants to break the grip of the insurers. Wyden and other Democrats are furious at Baucus and Conrad for their obstructive behaviour in the Finance Committee. He and Rockefeller and Cantwell have been threatening to vote against the Baucus bill – perhaps they can force Obama to take a harder line on the public option on the Senate floor, in exchange for their acquiescence on the Baucus bill now. Wyden will vote for the public option if it comes to a vote.
BEN NELSON. A recent poll shows that if Ben Nelson supports a filibuster on health care, his support among Nebraska Democrats drops a staggering 17 points, thus paving the way for a long-overdue primary challenge. But Ben Nelson claims his leadership hasn’t even approached him on the cloture issue, which is bullcrap: he could still be planning to screw Obama over.
ALAN FRUMIN. He’s the Senate parliamentarian, and will rule on some critical issues once the health reform bill hits the Senate floor. He will uphold the rule that a conference report can be filibustered, which will put more pressure on Obama and Reid to hold the Senate Democrats together. He will probably support the notion that the Democrats, if need be, can overcome a filibuster not only by cloture or reconciliation, but also by leaving the bill on the agenda indefinitely, with nothing else on the agenda, so no other business can be conducted (the Republicans would try to play chicken and wait them out, but that’s a losing proposition). He may also have to rule on a tactic which the Republicans tried to use in 2005: the Democrats could threaten to use a chair ruling to kill a filibuster on the grounds that using the filibuster in such a case would be unconstitutional.
And of course THE REPUBLICANS; the air is slowing leaking out for them, and they know it:
Snowe is pushing to weaken insurance exchanges by forcing exchanges to allow any company into the exchange even if they have sky-high prices and lousy coverage like the existing firms. She is clearly not serious about either reform or bipartisanship. So she’s finally tipped her hand, and her influence will drop accordingly. Meanwhile GOP leaders are insisting that even if Snowe supports reform, it’s still not a bipartisan effort. As if anyone cares.
Earlier, the Republicans, on orders from their masters in the insurance industry, forced Democrats to amend the Baucus bill by adding an individual mandate forcing people to buy insurance. Now they are arguing exactly the opposite – now mandates allegedly are a bad idea -- in an effort to slow things down even further. Let’s just sit there and admire their chutzpah: slamming the Democrats for including something the Republicans demanded in the first place.
The conservatives are arguing, simultaneously, that “government can’t possibly compete with private enterprise”, and that “private enterprise can’t possibly compete with government.” Um, if government care is really that crappy, no will choose the public option, will they? You would think the Republicans would love to see the Democrats fall on their faces, right? But actually, the Republicans aren’t afraid that government health care will fail. They are afraid it will succeed. And if fact both of the arguments are wrong. As Bob Cesca pointed out, taking a private cab in New York costs four times as much as the public subway, but there are still more than 10,000 cabs on the streets – they didn’t disappear the minute the public trains began to run. .
Rasmussen, the Republican pollster, gets busted for lying again. At the same time, another right-leaning pollster, Strategic Vision, is also busted for cooking the books.
Fox anchor Shepherd Smith finally loses it and totally blows apart a Republican politician who was spewing lies about the “government takeover” of health care.
Republicans sucking up to the female voters again? The National Republican Congressional Committee just said "If Nancy Pelosi's failed economic policies are any indicator of the effect she may have on Afghanistan , taxpayers can only hope McChrystal is able to put her in her place." Another uppity liberal broad.
Limbaugh is trying to buy the St. Louis Rams. This guy is a drug addict who has failed in one field of endeavour after another, whose one brief flirtation with higher education was a laughable disaster, who only survives as a “pundit” because he never comes out of his sound booth where a real opponent could challenge his lies and his bullcrap, and who only has all those listeners because his company offers the show for free in many markets, in exchange for preferential advertising agreements. The man lacks the aptitude to lead flies to a pile of shit, and he’s going to turn around a team which is arguably the worst in football? And how could any black player possibly work for that guy? Or anybody who believes in labor unions? Or anybody with a brain?
Yet again, Republican governors who slammed the stimulus bill are now begging for stimulus money. As Kos implied today -- How about this? Any state whose Senators voted “no” on the stimulus gets no stimulus money. Call it The Hypocrisy Clause.
Pelosi is shooting for passage by Thanksgiving, so within milliseconds the Republican will make fools of themselves with a new wave of obstruction tactics, just so they can brag that they threw the timetable off track.
Friday, 25 September 2009
Wednesday, 23 September 2009
The “Gang of Seven” and “Commit to cloture”
Two new phrases to learn.
If the Republicans had embraced the Baucus bill, which was essentially designed for them, it would have passed in some form. But the Republicans doubled down their bets: apparently they know that any health bill will be bad for them, and/or they think they can prevent any good bill from passing. So the red-meat Republicans are up to their old tricks. In the current deliberations on the Baucus bill, Hatch is deliberately slowing down the process with endless, repetitive questions regarding the constitutionality of the bill, which is a bogus argument to begin with. He actually lectured Baucus for moving too fast. Jim Bunning took a nap during the deliberations; in his waking hours he demanded (with Snowe’s support) an unprecedented change in the committee’s rules regarding legislative language, which would delay the process for weeks. Pat Roberts demanded that the insurance lobby be given three days to attack the legislation. Then, stunningly, Republican Senator Demint is claiming that Obama’s effort on health reform is taking so long that it’s putting our troops in Afghanistan in danger -- hey, Jethro, which party has been delaying health reform for months?
The stalling tactics aren’t going to stop. This is how pathetic the fortunes of the GOP are right now: their only “victory” this year was preventing passage of health reform this summer, and now they hope to do so again, to prevent passage before the end of the year, in hope that the media will start mooing all over again, about how Obama has “lost control” of the process, and writing op-ed pieces all through the holidays about how health reform is dragging into 2010, an election year. This is all the “policy” the GOP has left: obstruction. This is why we need to get the process out of the hands of Baucus, who is perfectly willing to let the Republicans set the snail-like pace of the process, even if it means dragging this out indefinitely.
And of course the Republican lies and attacks are never ending, although the Democrats are fighting back for a change. While Roy Blount was getting nailed for comparing Obama to a monkey, the Republican party as a whole was getting nailed by the White House for trying to frighten seniors about Medicare: “These distortions and outright falsehoods would be offensive under any circumstances, but they’re especially disingenuous coming from a group who has a long history of opposing Medicare and who very recently tried to kill the program as we know it. Just this past April, nearly four-fifths of Republican House members voted to end Medicare as we know it by turning it into a voucher program that provides a fixed sum of money to buy private insurance.” Ouch!
Now there’s a new problem. There’s a new Gang Of Seven – Snowe, Collins, Lieberman, Nelson (Nebraska), McCaskill, Landrieu, Wyden. This group dislikes both the public option and the reconciliation strategy; they want a cheap, bipartisan bill when it all goes to the Senate floor. The one positive sign is they don’t like the Baucus bill: Wyden, whom Obama likes, is worried about the lack of competition; Snowe is worried about affordability.
In the face of all the pressure to move to the right, at least one White House guy is wobbling. The White House Budget Director said a reform bill could be passed in 6 weeks, based mostly on Baucus bill. Orszag implied that the White House doesn’t consider the public option essential; coops or triggers could work also, provided that there is real competition. Two DC liberals are claiming that the White House is trying to persuade liberals to accept a trigger option in the Senate bill, after which the defect would be fixed in the conference report, although the report is now being denied. Another report says the White House is still seeking Republican support.
Which brings us to “commit to cloture”.
Instead of the reconciliation option, there is also the option of insisting that all 60 Democrats and Independents vote for cloture, even if they vote against the ensuing health care bill itself. Those Gang of Seven people (also the Gang Of Six people) would need to be convinced. Democratic leaders at both ends of Capitol Hill, as well as pro-reform unions, are discussing this daily, to include trying to pin down the Blu Dogs and Gangers on the cloture issue. Specter supports cloture and believes Snowe will too (I’m not convinced). Democratic strategists prefer the “commit to cloture” plan to the reconciliation plan, but the strongest option would be “commit to cloture” PLUS the threat of reconciliation if cloture doesn’t happen. In fact Obama may have sought the reconciliation option not to use it, but to use the mere threat of it to get what he wants. “Commit to cloture” allows the Dogs to have their cake and eat it too, to vote for cloture and then against the bill, whereas they could be left out entirely in a reconciliation effort.
The reconciliation option isn’t the only way to pressure Blue Dogs to do the right thing. They should also be told that committee chairs and political support can be taken away if they screw the President over. Or in Lieberman’s case, he could be thrown out of the caucus entirely, and lose ALL his committee memberships. The Senate Democratic leadership is moving in the direction of insisting that Democrats commit to cloture.
Keep in mind that the have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too gambit should be sufficient for the key Blue Dogs, since the voters whom they represent are actually okay with the public option. Even in we-hate-Obama Arkansas they like it, which should make Lincoln and Pryor moveable. Maine as well, for that matter. And Connecticut .
So at the end of the day, Obama has a number of ways he can seek the plan he wants: he can get the plan in good shape during the “merge” between the HELP bill and the Baucus bill, or fix the problems in the bicameral conference report (as noted in the trigger option mentioned above), or go with “commit to cloture” and gamble that he won’t lose a single Senator, or reconciliation.
The liberal cause is stiffening in the House. House Blue Dogs are realizing that Pelosi can pass the public option if she wants to.
If the Republicans had embraced the Baucus bill, which was essentially designed for them, it would have passed in some form. But the Republicans doubled down their bets: apparently they know that any health bill will be bad for them, and/or they think they can prevent any good bill from passing. So the red-meat Republicans are up to their old tricks. In the current deliberations on the Baucus bill, Hatch is deliberately slowing down the process with endless, repetitive questions regarding the constitutionality of the bill, which is a bogus argument to begin with. He actually lectured Baucus for moving too fast. Jim Bunning took a nap during the deliberations; in his waking hours he demanded (with Snowe’s support) an unprecedented change in the committee’s rules regarding legislative language, which would delay the process for weeks. Pat Roberts demanded that the insurance lobby be given three days to attack the legislation. Then, stunningly, Republican Senator Demint is claiming that Obama’s effort on health reform is taking so long that it’s putting our troops in Afghanistan in danger -- hey, Jethro, which party has been delaying health reform for months?
The stalling tactics aren’t going to stop. This is how pathetic the fortunes of the GOP are right now: their only “victory” this year was preventing passage of health reform this summer, and now they hope to do so again, to prevent passage before the end of the year, in hope that the media will start mooing all over again, about how Obama has “lost control” of the process, and writing op-ed pieces all through the holidays about how health reform is dragging into 2010, an election year. This is all the “policy” the GOP has left: obstruction. This is why we need to get the process out of the hands of Baucus, who is perfectly willing to let the Republicans set the snail-like pace of the process, even if it means dragging this out indefinitely.
And of course the Republican lies and attacks are never ending, although the Democrats are fighting back for a change. While Roy Blount was getting nailed for comparing Obama to a monkey, the Republican party as a whole was getting nailed by the White House for trying to frighten seniors about Medicare: “These distortions and outright falsehoods would be offensive under any circumstances, but they’re especially disingenuous coming from a group who has a long history of opposing Medicare and who very recently tried to kill the program as we know it. Just this past April, nearly four-fifths of Republican House members voted to end Medicare as we know it by turning it into a voucher program that provides a fixed sum of money to buy private insurance.” Ouch!
Now there’s a new problem. There’s a new Gang Of Seven – Snowe, Collins, Lieberman, Nelson (Nebraska), McCaskill, Landrieu, Wyden. This group dislikes both the public option and the reconciliation strategy; they want a cheap, bipartisan bill when it all goes to the Senate floor. The one positive sign is they don’t like the Baucus bill: Wyden, whom Obama likes, is worried about the lack of competition; Snowe is worried about affordability.
In the face of all the pressure to move to the right, at least one White House guy is wobbling. The White House Budget Director said a reform bill could be passed in 6 weeks, based mostly on Baucus bill. Orszag implied that the White House doesn’t consider the public option essential; coops or triggers could work also, provided that there is real competition. Two DC liberals are claiming that the White House is trying to persuade liberals to accept a trigger option in the Senate bill, after which the defect would be fixed in the conference report, although the report is now being denied. Another report says the White House is still seeking Republican support.
Which brings us to “commit to cloture”.
Instead of the reconciliation option, there is also the option of insisting that all 60 Democrats and Independents vote for cloture, even if they vote against the ensuing health care bill itself. Those Gang of Seven people (also the Gang Of Six people) would need to be convinced. Democratic leaders at both ends of Capitol Hill, as well as pro-reform unions, are discussing this daily, to include trying to pin down the Blu Dogs and Gangers on the cloture issue. Specter supports cloture and believes Snowe will too (I’m not convinced). Democratic strategists prefer the “commit to cloture” plan to the reconciliation plan, but the strongest option would be “commit to cloture” PLUS the threat of reconciliation if cloture doesn’t happen. In fact Obama may have sought the reconciliation option not to use it, but to use the mere threat of it to get what he wants. “Commit to cloture” allows the Dogs to have their cake and eat it too, to vote for cloture and then against the bill, whereas they could be left out entirely in a reconciliation effort.
The reconciliation option isn’t the only way to pressure Blue Dogs to do the right thing. They should also be told that committee chairs and political support can be taken away if they screw the President over. Or in Lieberman’s case, he could be thrown out of the caucus entirely, and lose ALL his committee memberships. The Senate Democratic leadership is moving in the direction of insisting that Democrats commit to cloture.
Keep in mind that the have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too gambit should be sufficient for the key Blue Dogs, since the voters whom they represent are actually okay with the public option. Even in we-hate-Obama Arkansas they like it, which should make Lincoln and Pryor moveable. Maine as well, for that matter. And Connecticut .
So at the end of the day, Obama has a number of ways he can seek the plan he wants: he can get the plan in good shape during the “merge” between the HELP bill and the Baucus bill, or fix the problems in the bicameral conference report (as noted in the trigger option mentioned above), or go with “commit to cloture” and gamble that he won’t lose a single Senator, or reconciliation.
The liberal cause is stiffening in the House. House Blue Dogs are realizing that Pelosi can pass the public option if she wants to.
Wednesday, 16 September 2009
Rockefeller says other Democrats oppose Baucus bill
Baucus has submitted his version of the health reform bill, the “chairman’s mark”, to the rest of the committee. It is at least as bad as the rough draft we saw a week ago: coops, mostly at the state level, apparently would be launched with a measly $6 billion and could be crushed easily by the national-scale private insurers. Also, the plan allegedly bans private insurers from masquerading as coops, but apparently there is a plan afoot to re-label Blue Cross in North Dakota (Conrad’s home state) as a coop, so that Blue Cross can not only cement their control over that market and charge anyone whatever they want, but also qualify for federal subsidies while they rip off their customers. It’s open armed robbery. Furthermore the bill requires strict verification of immigration status, which means that all of us must prove citizenship to get the care. Overkill.
Now the full Finance Committee will negotiate and amend. And that’s when the bill will probably be killed. Keep in mind that Rockefeller is the chairman of the health subcommittee in the Finance committee, and Baucus has frozen him out of the process all summer. Now he will step in and kill this monstrosity, I think. He has publicly opposed it, and he says that 4 to 6 other Democrats feel the same way. It is in those committee deliberations that people like Wyden, Schumer and Kerry will hit the brakes on Baucus’ concessions. If Baucus and Conrad hold firm in blocking liberal amendments, they can do so with Republican help, but then the liberals will vote against the overall bill. And so it will die.
While the other Democrats are saying that Baucus gave away too much and must move the bill from the right back to the center, the Republicans want to move even further to the right – they want more concessions. McConnell is already screeching that the bill is too partisan, despite all the Democratic concessions. And the ink on Baucus’ bill was hardly dry before Grassley had leaked his list of further demands to the New York Times.
Grassley even demanded that the Democrats commit to a bipartisan bill all the way through the process – in effect demanding Republican veto power over the final bill. “On top of all that, there’s no guarantee that a Finance Committee bill, even if it becomes bipartisan, will stay that way after it leaves the committee. An overriding issue for some time has been the fact that members of the Democratic leadership haven’t made a commitment to back a broad bipartisan bill through the entire process.” In other words they are insisting that, not only will the Baucus bill contain no provisions that Grassley doesn’t like (such as public option), no later bill will contain them either – they are demanding that even the Democrats outside the committee commit in advance to caving in to Grassley’s demands. So no matter what Baucus gives the GOP, the Republicans are now effectively appointing themselves the majority party, as though the last two elections had never happened.
There’s your dealbreaker.
(Actually Enzi demanded the same thing in July: he expected the full Finance Committee, Reid, Pelosi and Obama to promise not to alter the Baucus monstrosity once the Gang Of Six finished it. Swear to God.)
So there is nothing Baucus can do, realistically, to win Republican votes – whatever he offers Snowe and the gang, it won’t be enough, and it will cost him even more Democratic votes. And the only way to secure a Democratic majority is to rip the bill apart and rebuild it so that it looks pretty much like the HELP bill – which we could have voted on weeks ago.
Baucus has had no luck at all in bridging the partisan gap all summer – he isn’t going to suddenly stumble on a bipartisan miracle in a week or so. The gap is just too wide. Baucus will meet the full committee Thursday morning; the committee members only have until Friday afternoon to propose amendments. Think of that – an outright crook like Grassley had all summer to issue one demand after another, but Rockefeller, the chairman of the health subcommittee, gets two days. And then next Tuesday the final markup of the bill begins – but again, how can Baucus mark up a bill that anyone will support? The tricky part is that Baucus may ask for more and more time to work with the Gang on the final markup – will Reid have the guts to tell him “you’ve got 10 days and then the train is leaving the station”? The reconciliation process is earmarked to begin 15 October – presumably you would want all such committee nonsense finished by then.
Other Democrats, reading the Baucus bill, are also getting feisty. Specter (facing a primary challenger for reelection) now says we should discuss single-payer; Bayh wants to talk about the anti-trust rules (currently the private insurers have a gigantic anti-trust exemption).
Some, like Kos, are already saying it’s reconciliation or bust. There are those who warn that Reid won’t fight for reconciliation because he has a tough reelection fight next year. I thinks that’s nonsense: if he presides over a train-wreck on health care, he really is doomed. He himself has said publicly that he will use reconciliation if he needs to. He isn’t necessarily the street fighter we want to lead this, but guys like Schumer and Dodd will have his back. And Emanuel will be there to knock heads too.
At Obama’s Tuesday appearance, he seemed to toughen up his language a bit. He again spoke out in favor of the public option, but this time he left out the “I’m open to alternatives” dodge. Perhaps it means nothing, but….As he said this week, he has no incentive to pass a bill that people hate, so it’s hard to see him signing a Baucus bill that forces middle-class families to pay $700 a month for lousy coverage and is especially damaging to a core Obama constituency, young voters.
Democrats need this fight, and they need to win it. The American people, and the Republican party need to know that after 40 years of Caspar Milquetoast Democrats, we have fighters in our corner. Because the Republicans will never stop with the attacks, the threats, the public insults, the lies, the smears, the character assassination. Keep in mind that all of this insanity occurred during an off-year: does anyone think the lunacy will taper off in 2010, when the wingnuts dream of repeating 1994, and then in 2012 when Obama runs again?
As I have said before, we will win nothing if we don’t fight.
According to latest polling, the American people think Obama should keep trying to win over Republicans even though the Republicans are not negotiating in good faith. So a key message for 2010 is “Here are all the things we offered, which they rejected; here are all the demands they made. They made compromise impossible”.
And ironically if the Republicans had negotiated in good faith, they could have gotten more of what they wanted: now it is quite possible that they will watch helplessly as the Democrats ignore them and pass a thoroughly Democratic bill.
Now the full Finance Committee will negotiate and amend. And that’s when the bill will probably be killed. Keep in mind that Rockefeller is the chairman of the health subcommittee in the Finance committee, and Baucus has frozen him out of the process all summer. Now he will step in and kill this monstrosity, I think. He has publicly opposed it, and he says that 4 to 6 other Democrats feel the same way. It is in those committee deliberations that people like Wyden, Schumer and Kerry will hit the brakes on Baucus’ concessions. If Baucus and Conrad hold firm in blocking liberal amendments, they can do so with Republican help, but then the liberals will vote against the overall bill. And so it will die.
While the other Democrats are saying that Baucus gave away too much and must move the bill from the right back to the center, the Republicans want to move even further to the right – they want more concessions. McConnell is already screeching that the bill is too partisan, despite all the Democratic concessions. And the ink on Baucus’ bill was hardly dry before Grassley had leaked his list of further demands to the New York Times.
Grassley even demanded that the Democrats commit to a bipartisan bill all the way through the process – in effect demanding Republican veto power over the final bill. “On top of all that, there’s no guarantee that a Finance Committee bill, even if it becomes bipartisan, will stay that way after it leaves the committee. An overriding issue for some time has been the fact that members of the Democratic leadership haven’t made a commitment to back a broad bipartisan bill through the entire process.” In other words they are insisting that, not only will the Baucus bill contain no provisions that Grassley doesn’t like (such as public option), no later bill will contain them either – they are demanding that even the Democrats outside the committee commit in advance to caving in to Grassley’s demands. So no matter what Baucus gives the GOP, the Republicans are now effectively appointing themselves the majority party, as though the last two elections had never happened.
There’s your dealbreaker.
(Actually Enzi demanded the same thing in July: he expected the full Finance Committee, Reid, Pelosi and Obama to promise not to alter the Baucus monstrosity once the Gang Of Six finished it. Swear to God.)
So there is nothing Baucus can do, realistically, to win Republican votes – whatever he offers Snowe and the gang, it won’t be enough, and it will cost him even more Democratic votes. And the only way to secure a Democratic majority is to rip the bill apart and rebuild it so that it looks pretty much like the HELP bill – which we could have voted on weeks ago.
Baucus has had no luck at all in bridging the partisan gap all summer – he isn’t going to suddenly stumble on a bipartisan miracle in a week or so. The gap is just too wide. Baucus will meet the full committee Thursday morning; the committee members only have until Friday afternoon to propose amendments. Think of that – an outright crook like Grassley had all summer to issue one demand after another, but Rockefeller, the chairman of the health subcommittee, gets two days. And then next Tuesday the final markup of the bill begins – but again, how can Baucus mark up a bill that anyone will support? The tricky part is that Baucus may ask for more and more time to work with the Gang on the final markup – will Reid have the guts to tell him “you’ve got 10 days and then the train is leaving the station”? The reconciliation process is earmarked to begin 15 October – presumably you would want all such committee nonsense finished by then.
Other Democrats, reading the Baucus bill, are also getting feisty. Specter (facing a primary challenger for reelection) now says we should discuss single-payer; Bayh wants to talk about the anti-trust rules (currently the private insurers have a gigantic anti-trust exemption).
Some, like Kos, are already saying it’s reconciliation or bust. There are those who warn that Reid won’t fight for reconciliation because he has a tough reelection fight next year. I thinks that’s nonsense: if he presides over a train-wreck on health care, he really is doomed. He himself has said publicly that he will use reconciliation if he needs to. He isn’t necessarily the street fighter we want to lead this, but guys like Schumer and Dodd will have his back. And Emanuel will be there to knock heads too.
At Obama’s Tuesday appearance, he seemed to toughen up his language a bit. He again spoke out in favor of the public option, but this time he left out the “I’m open to alternatives” dodge. Perhaps it means nothing, but….As he said this week, he has no incentive to pass a bill that people hate, so it’s hard to see him signing a Baucus bill that forces middle-class families to pay $700 a month for lousy coverage and is especially damaging to a core Obama constituency, young voters.
Democrats need this fight, and they need to win it. The American people, and the Republican party need to know that after 40 years of Caspar Milquetoast Democrats, we have fighters in our corner. Because the Republicans will never stop with the attacks, the threats, the public insults, the lies, the smears, the character assassination. Keep in mind that all of this insanity occurred during an off-year: does anyone think the lunacy will taper off in 2010, when the wingnuts dream of repeating 1994, and then in 2012 when Obama runs again?
As I have said before, we will win nothing if we don’t fight.
According to latest polling, the American people think Obama should keep trying to win over Republicans even though the Republicans are not negotiating in good faith. So a key message for 2010 is “Here are all the things we offered, which they rejected; here are all the demands they made. They made compromise impossible”.
And ironically if the Republicans had negotiated in good faith, they could have gotten more of what they wanted: now it is quite possible that they will watch helplessly as the Democrats ignore them and pass a thoroughly Democratic bill.
Monday, 14 September 2009
Democratic campaign ad, 2010
Here is a campaign ad which the Democrats can run against any and every Republican candidate next year:
Where were you when Obama offered the GOP just about everything the Republicans said they wanted? When he gave them what they wanted on tort reform, abortion, immigrants, deficit spending, tax increases on middle class, “death panels”, forcing people to buy insurance even when costs come to 13 percent of annual income, banning cuts in Medicare benefits, coops governed by members rather than the government, coops not government sponsored, coops without guaranteed government subsidy beyond a certain date; small business tax credits; allowing private insurers to sell across state lines; McCain’s catastrophic health care plan; state-level coops which insurers would be able to crush easily…Where were you when your leaders rejected everything on the table? Where were you when your “leaders” said “no” to an independent insurance board, to single payer, to mandating employer participation, no to health care information technology, to comparative effectiveness research, to eliminating overpayments to insurers? When they said “no” to the public option, and then to the trigger option, and then to coops?
Why didn’t you step forward, speak up, and lead? Obama waited for ANY Republican to come forward and negotiate a health reform bill – where were you?
Where were you when your GOP “leaders” were spewing lies about birth certificates, about Sotomayor, about the stimulus, about torture? When your field generals were hollering that Obama will kill seniors, kill our troops, kill Republicans, promote suicide, let people go blind, invade your home and decide how to raise your kids, impose martial law? Why didn’t you have the guts to speak out against the lies?
Where were you when your “spontaneous” goon squads were sending armed thugs to Obama events, launching violent attacks, shouting down all real debate, committing acts of vandalism, painting swastikas on the doors of black Congressmen, making death threats, joking about killing Democrats, screeching insults during a Presidential address to Congress? Why didn’t you have the guts to speak out against these tactics?
Where were you when your GOP colleagues were bragging about blocking all reform, admitting that the compromise effort is a joke, promising to oppose any bill regardless of content, trying to rewrite Senate rules to block reform, offering poison-pill amendments? Why didn’t you denounce this pattern of obstruction?
Where were you when the people who hope to run for President – Perry, Palin, Huckabee, Pawlenty – evinced not only a hatred of their country but also a staggering ignorance of the Constitution, in insisting that health reform violates the Constitution (wrong – see Article 1 Section 8) and that states should nullify whatever Obama does, or even secede? Why didn’t you speak out?
You now condemn budget reconciliation – where were you when Bush used it?
You now condemn the Obama plan – why is that the only plan you ever put forward was either completely impractical, or a mirror of Obama’s exchange system?
You now condemn death panels – where were you when the original authors of the plan – Republicans – proposed the language you’re now criticizing?
You now condemn massive government spending – where were you when Bush launched one massive program after another, all of which were funded by…debts which our grandkids will be paying off?
You now condemn the public option – where were you when the American people said in poll after poll that they want it?
You say you’re a leader – so where were you, when it was time to lead? There was a gigantic national battle last year, and you ran away from the battlefield just when we needed leaders. And now you want to lead us in Congress?
Where were you when Obama offered the GOP just about everything the Republicans said they wanted? When he gave them what they wanted on tort reform, abortion, immigrants, deficit spending, tax increases on middle class, “death panels”, forcing people to buy insurance even when costs come to 13 percent of annual income, banning cuts in Medicare benefits, coops governed by members rather than the government, coops not government sponsored, coops without guaranteed government subsidy beyond a certain date; small business tax credits; allowing private insurers to sell across state lines; McCain’s catastrophic health care plan; state-level coops which insurers would be able to crush easily…Where were you when your leaders rejected everything on the table? Where were you when your “leaders” said “no” to an independent insurance board, to single payer, to mandating employer participation, no to health care information technology, to comparative effectiveness research, to eliminating overpayments to insurers? When they said “no” to the public option, and then to the trigger option, and then to coops?
Why didn’t you step forward, speak up, and lead? Obama waited for ANY Republican to come forward and negotiate a health reform bill – where were you?
Where were you when your GOP “leaders” were spewing lies about birth certificates, about Sotomayor, about the stimulus, about torture? When your field generals were hollering that Obama will kill seniors, kill our troops, kill Republicans, promote suicide, let people go blind, invade your home and decide how to raise your kids, impose martial law? Why didn’t you have the guts to speak out against the lies?
Where were you when your “spontaneous” goon squads were sending armed thugs to Obama events, launching violent attacks, shouting down all real debate, committing acts of vandalism, painting swastikas on the doors of black Congressmen, making death threats, joking about killing Democrats, screeching insults during a Presidential address to Congress? Why didn’t you have the guts to speak out against these tactics?
Where were you when your GOP colleagues were bragging about blocking all reform, admitting that the compromise effort is a joke, promising to oppose any bill regardless of content, trying to rewrite Senate rules to block reform, offering poison-pill amendments? Why didn’t you denounce this pattern of obstruction?
Where were you when the people who hope to run for President – Perry, Palin, Huckabee, Pawlenty – evinced not only a hatred of their country but also a staggering ignorance of the Constitution, in insisting that health reform violates the Constitution (wrong – see Article 1 Section 8) and that states should nullify whatever Obama does, or even secede? Why didn’t you speak out?
You now condemn budget reconciliation – where were you when Bush used it?
You now condemn the Obama plan – why is that the only plan you ever put forward was either completely impractical, or a mirror of Obama’s exchange system?
You now condemn death panels – where were you when the original authors of the plan – Republicans – proposed the language you’re now criticizing?
You now condemn massive government spending – where were you when Bush launched one massive program after another, all of which were funded by…debts which our grandkids will be paying off?
You now condemn the public option – where were you when the American people said in poll after poll that they want it?
You say you’re a leader – so where were you, when it was time to lead? There was a gigantic national battle last year, and you ran away from the battlefield just when we needed leaders. And now you want to lead us in Congress?
Tuesday, 1 September 2009
GOP plans obstruction campaign against reconciliation
http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/56897-gop-objections-await-healthcare-plan
Sen. Judd Gregg has hundreds of procedural objections ready for a healthcare plan Democrats want to speed through the Senate....Gregg (N.H.), the senior Republican on the Budget Committee, told the Hill in a recent interview that Republicans will wage a vicious fight if Democrats try to circumvent Senate rules and use a budget maneuver to pass a trillion dollar healthcare plan with a simple majority....Gregg said that Republicans could file “hundreds” of points of order objections to the bill, each one requiring 60 votes to waive....Gregg said the only way for the so-called public option to have the necessary budgetary impact to warrant procedural protection would be if the program were “very aggressive in setting rates, price controls and rationing,” an option that might cause conservative Blue Dog Democrats in the House to bolt.
Sen. Judd Gregg has hundreds of procedural objections ready for a healthcare plan Democrats want to speed through the Senate....Gregg (N.H.), the senior Republican on the Budget Committee, told the Hill in a recent interview that Republicans will wage a vicious fight if Democrats try to circumvent Senate rules and use a budget maneuver to pass a trillion dollar healthcare plan with a simple majority....Gregg said that Republicans could file “hundreds” of points of order objections to the bill, each one requiring 60 votes to waive....Gregg said the only way for the so-called public option to have the necessary budgetary impact to warrant procedural protection would be if the program were “very aggressive in setting rates, price controls and rationing,” an option that might cause conservative Blue Dog Democrats in the House to bolt.
Monday, 31 August 2009
GOP: we'll repeal health reform
http://washingtonindependent.com/57198/joe-barton-republicans-will-repeal-health-care-reform-if-it-passes
First, they're admitting they can't stop the public option -- they're already planning for the next phase.
Second, they're wildly unrealistic regarding their prospects in Congress. As 538.com noted recently, the Democrats aren't going to lose Congress anytime soon.
Third, it is appallingly stupid strategy. 70-80 percent of the country wants the public option so they can be liberated from the tyranny of corrupt private insurers, and if the Dems give that freedom, and then the Republicans go on record as wanting to take it away, the GOP will never win another election cycle.
First, they're admitting they can't stop the public option -- they're already planning for the next phase.
Second, they're wildly unrealistic regarding their prospects in Congress. As 538.com noted recently, the Democrats aren't going to lose Congress anytime soon.
Third, it is appallingly stupid strategy. 70-80 percent of the country wants the public option so they can be liberated from the tyranny of corrupt private insurers, and if the Dems give that freedom, and then the Republicans go on record as wanting to take it away, the GOP will never win another election cycle.
Saturday, 29 August 2009
Enzi: Obama will raid Medicare
Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY), one of the three Republican negotiators on the Senate Finance Committee, said in the GOP weekly address that bills introduced by Democrats "fail" to lower health care costs and will "raid Medicare."
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/08/enzi-dem-plans-fail-on-health-care-reform.php?ref=fpb
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/08/enzi-dem-plans-fail-on-health-care-reform.php?ref=fpb
Friday, 28 August 2009
GOP Senator: The No. 1 assignment in 2009 is to kill Obamacare
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/08/28/bennett-barrasso-kill/
Sen. Bob Bennett (R-UT) -- “The No. 1 assignment in 2009 is to kill Obamacare”.
Sen. Bob Bennett (R-UT) -- “The No. 1 assignment in 2009 is to kill Obamacare”.
Thursday, 27 August 2009
Inhofe will vote "no" without even reading the bill
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/08/27/inhofe-without-even-reading/
Just like McConnell, and Dole before him in 1994.
Let's all remember this when the Republicans start screeching "did the Dems even read their own bill??"
Just like McConnell, and Dole before him in 1994.
Let's all remember this when the Republicans start screeching "did the Dems even read their own bill??"
Wednesday, 26 August 2009
Gang of Six Republican admits "compromise" is a sham
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/26/mike-enzi-gang-of-six-rep_n_269447.html
Mike Enzi, one of three Republicans ostensibly negotiating health care reform as part of the Senate's "Gang of Six," told a Wyoming town hall crowd that he had no plans to compromise with Democrats and was merely trying to extract concessions. "It's not where I get them to compromise, it's what I get them to leave out," Enzi said Monday, according to the Billings Gazette.
...So we know (and knew all along) it was going to be no, no, no, no....
Mike Enzi, one of three Republicans ostensibly negotiating health care reform as part of the Senate's "Gang of Six," told a Wyoming town hall crowd that he had no plans to compromise with Democrats and was merely trying to extract concessions. "It's not where I get them to compromise, it's what I get them to leave out," Enzi said Monday, according to the Billings Gazette.
...So we know (and knew all along) it was going to be no, no, no, no....
Saturday, 22 August 2009
Even Snowe admits the insurers have too much power
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/22/competition-lacking-among_n_266153.html
Good article – it explains how many markets are dominated by a single insurer, so costs skyrocket and no one can control the insurance firms. The domination by the big firms grows year by year. Even Olympia Snowe admits it, although she wants to give the insurers one more chance to show they can control costs. A recent study showed that a public plan would save consumers $200 billion to $400 billion.
So let's hold her feet to the fire -- if she admits the insurers need to be brought under control, where's her plan for fixing the problem? And if she doesn't act, why shouldn't we find a challenger to boot her ass out of the Senate next time, since Maine is a blue state anyway?
Good article – it explains how many markets are dominated by a single insurer, so costs skyrocket and no one can control the insurance firms. The domination by the big firms grows year by year. Even Olympia Snowe admits it, although she wants to give the insurers one more chance to show they can control costs. A recent study showed that a public plan would save consumers $200 billion to $400 billion.
So let's hold her feet to the fire -- if she admits the insurers need to be brought under control, where's her plan for fixing the problem? And if she doesn't act, why shouldn't we find a challenger to boot her ass out of the Senate next time, since Maine is a blue state anyway?
Friday, 21 August 2009
Even Baucus is starting to get it
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/08/21/baucus-gop-kill-hc/
“The Republican leadership in the Senate and in the House is doing its utmost to kill this bill,” he said. “They are putting intense political pressure on Chuck Grassley, Olympia Snow and Mike Enzi, to bow out, because they want to kill it. So I’ve got a challenge ahead of me to work out all this on policy as we go through these meetings.
“The other thing is the politics of it: ‘People, this is the right thing to do for America. I know you’re under intense political pressure, but do the right thing. I know it’s easy for me to say right now, because I’m getting beat up by both sides, but not nearly as much as you are by the Republican hierarchy.’ ”
“The Republican leadership in the Senate and in the House is doing its utmost to kill this bill,” he said. “They are putting intense political pressure on Chuck Grassley, Olympia Snow and Mike Enzi, to bow out, because they want to kill it. So I’ve got a challenge ahead of me to work out all this on policy as we go through these meetings.
“The other thing is the politics of it: ‘People, this is the right thing to do for America. I know you’re under intense political pressure, but do the right thing. I know it’s easy for me to say right now, because I’m getting beat up by both sides, but not nearly as much as you are by the Republican hierarchy.’ ”
Even Montana is screaming at Baucus to get moving
Montanans are not terribly keen on the job that home state Senator Max Baucus is doing on health care reform, according to a new Daily Kos/Research 2000 poll. Only 42 percent of Montana residents -- and 34 percent of Democrats -- said they favored the work Baucus had done in shepherding health care legislation through the Senate Finance Committee. Forty-four percent of respondents said they disapproved, according to the poll of more than 600 people in the state. The results may be partially attributable to Baucus's apparent decision to craft legislation without a public option. Within Montana, 47 percent of the public supports creating a "public health insurance option," while 43 percent oppose it. Looking closer at the numbers, slightly less than one-quarter of Republicans (23 percent) support a public plan. Forty-eight percent of independents and 78 percent of Democrats support the provision.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/21/montantans-not-backing-ba_n_265477.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/21/montantans-not-backing-ba_n_265477.html
GOP Senator admits health reform will get zero GOP votes
In an interview with Fox News' Neil Cavuto, Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) affirmed that neither health care reform bill currently in circulation will get any Republican support. "For either the bill that passed the House Committee or the bill that passed the HELP committee in the Senate, I don't think a single Republican in the Senate would support either of those bills," he said confidently.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/21/kyl-i-dont-think-a-single_n_264951.html
NOW does everybody get it? They will unanimously obstruct whatever bill is submitted. So the quest for bipartisanship is a waste of time.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/21/kyl-i-dont-think-a-single_n_264951.html
NOW does everybody get it? They will unanimously obstruct whatever bill is submitted. So the quest for bipartisanship is a waste of time.
Thursday, 20 August 2009
Orrin Hatch demands 75-80 seat supermajority for passing health reform
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/08/20/superfilibuster/
Gee, what if Chuck Schumer came out and said it only needs a vote of 35?
Hatch knows what the rules are, because he himself has exploited them endlessly in the past.
Oh, and Grassley and Enzi have seconded the idea.
Nice try.
Gee, what if Chuck Schumer came out and said it only needs a vote of 35?
Hatch knows what the rules are, because he himself has exploited them endlessly in the past.
Oh, and Grassley and Enzi have seconded the idea.
Nice try.
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