Posted on 02/12/2010 5:58:55 AM PST by coaltrain
It's no wonder Democratic lawmakers are less than enthusiastic about Obama's overture to the GOP.
The president has blamed special deals cut on Capitol Hill for the public's skepticism about health care legislation, distancing himself from what he's called "this Congress," even though his White House was closely involved in the process...
But with the legislation languishing, the bipartisan health care summit Obama has set for later this month almost has to break the logjam, even if neither Democrats nor Republicans are particularly excited about it. ... One possibility is that Republicans make a poor showing at the summit, emboldening Democrats to strong-arm their sweeping health legislation through Congress with no GOP votes, which would require the use of controversial rules in the Senate. Another is that Democrats find a way to incorporate some Republican proposals, such as curbs on medical malpractice lawsuits, into legislation. Then they'd essentially call Republicans' bluff by forcing them to vote on it.
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
Fox News reported this morning that Big Pharma has just fired Billy Tauzin, their chief lobbyist. Apparently their members are not happy with the deal he cut with Rahmbo. I take this as a hopeful sign that they are about to do a 180 and unleash the power of their ad budgets to kill this thing once and for all.
One can only hope. Finding the one plug that leads to the life support from the tangled web of life giving tentacles of this POS has been going on since it was placed of life support weeks ago. Die blank blank Die! Don’t ever come back.
LLS
Tennessee has joined several other states in trying to pass a Health Care Freedom Act. NO COLAs for granny, retired Military or retired fed employees. BIG NEW fees for Tricare for Life retired over 65 Military's secondary health ins. (DOD bill already passed, delayed but goes into effect 2011)
New Dem mantra: Woof, woof eat dog food granny....ala let them eat cake.
TRI CARE FOR LIFE This from a google search:
This option would help reduce the costs of TFL, as well as costs for Medicare, by introducing minimum out-of pocket requirements for beneficiaries. Under this option, TFL would not cover any of the first $525 of an enrollee’s cost-sharing liabilities for calendar year 2011 and would limit coverage to 50 percent of the next $4,725 in Medicare cost sharing that the beneficiary incurred. (Because all further cost sharing would be covered by TFL, enrollees could not pay more than $2,888 in cost sharing in that year.)
Bill Would Restrict Veterans’ Health Care Options 11/06/09
Buyer and McKeon Offer Amendments to Protect Veterans and TRICARE Beneficiaries
Congress plans to block Tricare fee increases
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/10/military_tricarefees_blocked_100709w
By Rick Maze - Staff writer, Oct 7, 2009
Tricare fee increases imposed last week by the Defense Department will be repealed by a provision of the compromise 2010 defense authorization bill unveiled Wednesday by House and Senate negotiators.
Snip
The fee increases were announced on Sept. 30 and took effect on Oct. 1, but the defense bill, HR 2647, includes a provision barring any fee increases until the start of fiscal 2011.
Snip
Retired Army Maj. Gen. Bill Matz, president of the National Association for Uniformed Services, said the announcement of fee increases was shocking considering that the Obama administration promised earlier this year to hold off on any new fee Tricare fee increases until fiscal 2011.
“President Obama and DoD assured NAUS and the entire military family earlier this year that there would rightly be no increases in any Tricare fees” in fiscal 2010, Matz said. “We took them at their word, and I can’t believe that a co-pay increase like this was allowed to go forward,” he added.
Moderate Democrats in both chambers are cool to the simple majority approach, which surely would infuriate Republicans and risks being perceived as a partisan gambit.
More fiction from the AP world of make-believe. The only part of this that may remotely be true is "work continues behind closed doors". The Dims won't use Senate budget reconciliation because it won't work. A point of order can be raised in the Senate to object to each and every sentence in a reconciliation bill, with ensuing debate, and a 60-vote cloture motion required to shut off debate.
Furthermore, Dims are not holding back from attempting this because it would "infuriate" Republicans or "be perceived as a partisan gambit". Republicans are already infuriated, and the whole government heath care takeover has obviously been a Dim-only effort from day one. The Dims are not going the reconciliation route because: 1.) It won't work. 2.) At this point in the game, none but card-carrying American Socialist Dims will vote for a bill whose passage guarantees most will lose their jobs in nine months.
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