Posted on 09/14/2009 2:47:44 PM PDT by TroutGuy
Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) is the chief proponent of a public option "trigger," but she said Monday that she does not expect one in the Finance Committee bill.
In fact, the trigger has barely come up in the Gang of Six talks.
"It probably will be a straight co-op at this point," Snowe said. "We did not discuss the trigger to be part of the co-op, at least in the framework we have before us."
She said she wasn't abandoning the idea, which Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) panned on the Sunday talk shows.
"It may be something down the road," Snowe said. "The critical issue is to make sure the public option isn't part of the plan at any point in the process and leaving that open to a legislative possibility creates enormous uncertainty."
It's hard to know which of these two possibilities to root for- any bill that gets 60 votes will have been watered down a good bit in all likelihod. But if the Dems pass it through reconciliation, then it will sunset in five years and have to be re-enacted then by Congress.
So which is better: a horrible bill that sunsets in five years or a bad bill that lasts forever? I kind of root for the first, partly because the political damage the Dems incur by going the reconciliation route will be enormous. We can get a Republican Congress in five years and repeal the whole thing.
Never trust ANYTHING Snowe says! She will always sell out to the highest bidder!
Stupid RINO - a Co-Op is the government plan. I hate RINOs and RATs
I truly think you have misplaced trust in the Republicans, at least the current nest of cockroaches that infest our capitol.
Snowe is dangerous because she’s unpredictable. Collins is dangerous because she’s a drooling moron.
They can do a “straight co-op” without a pork-filled bill.
Yep, just another name for government control. Blech.
The issue with the so called “coops” is structure, who will appoint the first slate of directors, the dems and the WH? What government controls will Washington have on the coops? If the coops are modeled after Southern States Cooperatives then that might be worth talking about, but I don’t see that happening. Plus, the Gang of 6 has been talking about coops well over a month and nothing has happened. I think the dems will push for reconciliation with 50 + 1 votes, and the final bill might very well contain some sort of public option.
That was funny!
Snowe can suck it.
She is as gutless and as two-faced as they come, and anything she votes for will be in her own interests rather than the interests of America. The “co-op” is just another shell game; the government creates a government-run “company” that sells private plans along with the public option. Every provision that is designed to destroy the private insurance industry and thus force you onto government coverage stays exactly the same.
I don't like your line of thinking.
AT.
ALL!
If they are going to pass something, let them cram it down our throats the hard way. We WILL send their unemployed a$$e$ packing in 2010, not in 5 years!
-Toe.
And let me tell ya, I just watched Glenn Beck. Look, I like what the guy says--and I think the Republicans have problems too...big ones...but at times he seems to be equivocating the two parties. And in my opinion that is not an accurate portrayal of the reality.
Hussein, a liberal Democrat (fascist/socialist) as an Alinsky disciple is SO MUCH WORSE than even a RINO like Olympia Snowe or Susan Collins. Why? Because those two women are making foolish alliances; misguided and harmful, but not fiends. Hussein deceives on purpose...like all Alinsky disciples.
In a nutshell, there is a HUGE difference between the parties that I think Beck misses...now, I am not at all dismissing the need for Republican leadership to straighten their act up. But the gulf between the Dems and Republicans is palatable. That is why I am, forever, a
Recovering_Democrat.
And McCain is even more dangerous because he's both.
Purge the RINOs! Impeach Obama! Deport the czars back to Russia!
It makes no difference who is in the majority. If enacted and sunsets in five years, it will just stay on the books so to speak. Washington never cuts anything once they realize the amount of $ realized from the tax increases.
"It probably will be a straight Trojan Horse co-op at this point," Snowe said. "We did not discuss the trigger to be part of the co-op, at least in the framework we have before us."
They should both be kicked out of office and never be allowed to run for office under the Republican label. Aren’t there any serious conservative primary challenges to these two idiots?
Hopefully the lefties will hate the bill, and it won’t get anywhere.
But now that O has “upped the stakes” (and approval rating) expect something to pass.
I have been a democrat, republican independent..currently and a libertarian. I lean mostly libertarian but a conservative one. I am changing back to Republican to stop Crist and vote for Rubio.
There’a already co-ops, so it is hard to get upset about that proposal if it would just expand them.
However, the devil is in the details....and I am sure thta any co-op proposal will likely be just the public option in other dressing.
A true co-op would not have an objection by me, but a public option in sheep’s clothing will.
That is exactly why I am not a big fan of Beck. He tries to equate both parties as the same where in fact they are not. Beck cannot reasonably argue that we would have had Obama’s 787 Billion “Stimulus” with a GOP Congress. I do not think he could reasonably argue that the GOP Congress would pass socialized universal health care. That is why I really don’t pay too much attention to Beck. He seems like a lightweight to me. But that is just my opinion.
Either she’s a useful idiot or as Socialist as the hard left Dems.
A ‘trigger’ in the minds of the left = a goal. Which means those in power can manipulate the system into a ‘failure’ that ‘trigger’s the public option - at which point the health services industry would already be in a death spiral and the road from ‘option’ to ‘obligation’ would be very short indeed.
Co-ops as politicians consider them seem to me a very shaky path. Stay vigilant - demand the opportunity to read this thing, and do you best to insist your senators and representatives read it BEFORE the vote. Make sure we understand what a “co-op” is as defined under the law before we let them sell us a yet another generational debt assignment.
Yeah. He spends a lot of time in Toronto since that's where he has much of his film post-processing done. Cheaper and takes advantage of non-union labor or so I'm told. What a POS.
A ‘Co-opt’ is communism in practice.
We’re going to have to start getting out the message that co-opts are just the Government Option by another name.
Who the hell does Snowe think she’s snowing?
The “public option” (read: government run) will drive private insurance companies out of business.
The “co-op” option (read: camouflaged “piblic option”) is the same thing. It will just take the private insurance companies longer to die.
Screw you Snowe. Damned RINO!
What an idiot Snowe is.
That or she thinks the voters of Maine are stupid enough to fall for this bait and switch.
Both?
You want a list of the crap that passed under President Bush?
We should rebuild the grassroots conservative movement. From the Reagan Revolution of 1980 through the Contract with America in 1994, it was this movement from outside Washington that carried us to the first center-right majority governing coalition in more than 60 years. The problem has not been with conservatism or with our voters.
The problem has been with Republican leaders who forgot who elected them and what values their supporters expected to see implemented in Washington.
— Newt Gingrich, 11-13-2006
Does this Bride of Frankenstein wannabe really think anyone believes anything she says?
Yes, crap was passed. But one cannot equate that to socialized medicine. One cannot equate that to the type of stuff passed under the 787 Billion stimulus. We would not be having these types of debates now with a GOP Congress.
Perhaps not. But they sure opened the door and made it acceptable.
(and Nixon went to China.)
Add to that that I don’t think a cap and tax bill would have passed a GOP Congress.
Do you think it will pass a democrat congress with the loving assistance of rinos? I do.
Yeah, I understand what you say. We need to primary RINO’s and defeat them in Republican primaries. If we can’t even take over a party then how are we ever going to take over the country again? This must be done.
Thank you! Concur.
We’ll see. There are those 2 in Maine, McCain, Graham, etc. But I don’t think it would be a whole lot of them. We’ll have to see what happens.
Pray for the republic. I voted in the local primaries today. Yep, local.
Soapbox, ballot box, ... well ...
The trigger is just a back door to universal healthcare. Sure you can keep your insurance, but by the time he govt gets done beating it up you won’t want it anymore.
“It’s hard to know which of these two possibilities”
If you care about freedom, the only outcome to root for is that the effort collapses and the whole shooting matche of higher taxes, mandates goes kaput and the Dems are uprooted in a landslide in 2010.
She’s bluffing.
She is just like the Zero....when she opens her mouth, she lies!
I am ashamed she calls herself a Republican!
Exactly. She's probably saying this to use as leverage to get some pork pet project thrown into the legislation. Once she gets her pork she'll vote for anything the Dems write up.
Medicare Part D, one of the largest expansions since Medicare was initiated conservatively costing $724 BILLION through 2015, expected to cost at least double if not triple the initial projection... pushed and signed by Bush and a lot of Republicans.
SCHIP, major expansion of a dying program covering "Poverty line" families making $84,000 and covering "children" up to 24 years of age - brought back to life and signed into law by... wait for it... Bush and a lot of Republicans.
50 BILLION dollars to fight AIDS - in other countries, expected to be doubled by Obama - pushed through by Bush and the Republicans
So yes, it might not be in one big chunk, but a lot of little pieces add up quickly. and are the bases for an ever expanding "System".
I can’t imagine ANY republicans voting for ANY bill that comes out of committee.
First off, they haven’t brought the republicans to draft any legislation.
Secondly, if ANY republican signs on, then it can be labeled, a BIPARTISAN BILL.
Let us pray:
“Please God, give these idiot republicans the strength, courage, moral fortitude and common sense to recognize a boodogle when they see it. Give them the smarts to vote NO!!!! Amen.”
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.