NYT: DEMS PLAN TO GO IT ALONE ON HEATHCARE... DEVELOPING...(Drudge)

Drudge & New York Times ^ | August 18, 2009 | Carl Hulse and Jeff Zeleny

[MeekOneGOP]

NYT: DEMS PLAN TO GO IT ALONE ON HEATHCARE... DEVELOPING...

Democrats see little chance for GOP cooperation on health care

By Carl Hulse and Jeff Zeleny

New York Times
Posted: 08/18/2009 07:05:52 PM PDT
Updated: 08/18/2009 07:05:53 PM PDT

WASHINGTON — Given hardening Republican opposition to congressional health care proposals, Democrats now say they see little chance for the minority's cooperation in approving any overhaul, and are increasingly focused on drawing support for a final plan from within their own ranks.

Top Democrats said Tuesday that their go-it-alone view was being shaped by what they saw as Republicans' purposely strident tone against health care legislation during this month's congressional recess, as well as remarks by leading Republicans that current proposals were flawed beyond repair.

The White House spokesman, Robert Gibbs, said of Republican lawmakers, "Only a handful seem interested in the type of comprehensive reform that so many people believe is necessary to ensure the principles and the goals that the president has laid out."

The Democratic shift may not make producing a final bill much easier. The party must still reconcile the views of moderate and conservative Democrats worried about the cost and scope of the legislation with those of more progressive lawmakers determined to win a government-run insurance option to compete with private insurers..........

[Recovering Ex-hippie]

this country is starting to look like Hondurous....Yikes.

[presently no screen name]

Just too good! Love it! Send it to Hannity for his TV show.

[HiTech RedNeck]

I award you a few marshmallows for that astute observation.

[RobRoy]

>>Unfortunately, we’ll be the ones paying the price.<<

We’re gonna be anyway, no matter how this health care thing goes. The economy will collapse, it will be global, and all that will matter is how much gunpowder, lead, and food you have compared to the next guy.

The country does not have the character it did in the GD and there was no worldwide (1st world, that is) entitlement mentality.

This will go very badly for a lot of people. And this health care thing is utterly irrelevant except that if they pass it, we may be able to count the time to the collapse in days rather than months.

[Recovering Ex-hippie]

why haven’t the Republicans advanced a fast track to Green Cards or better yet, a work visa system. Our immigration dept is totally inadequate! THAt would totally undermine the Dems AND get us the “hispanic” vote!!

[HiTech RedNeck]

Fourth, The GOP can be counted on to nominate a lot of “moderate” dweebs.

That's how they'll tend as the RINOs they are, however larger America is going to be watching a lot closer than usual. There needs to be pressure not to put any more Snowe jobs in.

[sirchtruth]

You must be in that third world country with the libs. American at this point at least, does not operate like what you're trying to describe.

I agree if dems want this version of healthcare they'll get it, but America will respond ferociously negative to such a gross adjudication of power and tin ears.

[presently no screen name]

Obama to America: DROP DEAD

He's living out his church mantra: "G*d dam America"

[OldDeckHand]

"Reconciliation brings in a whole new element to the game...how many Democrat Senators aren’t willing to blow up the Senate for the sake of Obama’s career? If it’s 4, 5 then that would be enough to kill it."

I hope you are right. I really hope that you are right.

[HiTech RedNeck]

I wish.

Trouble is, illegales come in expecting all government to be corrupt like in their homeland, and prepared to weasel the system. ‘Rats are tailor made for that.

[Recovering Ex-hippie]

Reagen was Amnesty too.

The conservatives can kill this amnesty thing by creating a fast track ‘instant work visa” program. They stay illegal, no amnesty and we get the Hispanic vote, tax them and create a “true path’ to legal immigration.

[Danae]

hehe. Let them sink alone.

[bombthrower]

The plan starts in 2013 but the TAXES start in 2011. That is why in the early years the costs look contained. Well duh, no benefits but plenty of taxes. Those taxes will be a jobs killer so I doubt an economic recovery which will be difficult to run on for the One in 2012

[Cboldt]

-- Bush was pro-amnesty (as were McCain, Graham and others) and yet the last amnesty bill (McCain-Kennedy) was defeated by Republicans. Don't talk crap, things are bad enough as it is. --

Government entitlement programs DEPEND on an increase in population. Demographics DICTATE that this population increase is NOT forthcoming by procreation of natives. Ergo, relaxed immigration rules are IMPERATIVE.

Either the government reneges on entitlement, or it relaxes immigration. The government has abdicated control of the borders, because it wants more bodies on US soil.

[Recovering Ex-hippie]

Hannity and Michelle Bachman are talking about this right now....the NYT article.

[Nighttime in America]

-- but a few weeks ago I saw Harry Reid say, "President Obama is the quarterback -- he calls the plays." I was astonished at his abdication of his Constitutional responsibility. --

Frist and McConnell did exactly the same for President Bush on FISA, PATRIOT Act, the Military Commission Act, and probably half of what passed Congress when Bush was President and the GOP held Congress. Those branches don't do "check and balance" for the people's benefit. That's why I used the word "fiction." Still, the legislative language has to pass the body of Congress, and on paper (but not in fact), the words are all theirs.

Agreed, no question. And they will answer for it.

[HiTech RedNeck]

I’d be mighty nervous about that unless and until sociological studies by conservative think tanks show any significant chance this would tilt the new people to the GOP in gratitude. Once they’re in, they can toss the GOP away like a McDLT wrapper.

[devolve]

[RummyChick]

Interesting email supposedly from Kucinich- found on DU

The masquerade is over! The "public option" is ... dead. Health care reform is now a private option: WHICH FOR PROFIT INSURANCE COMPANY DO YOU WANT? You have to choose. And you have to pay. If you have a low income, under HR3200 government will subsidize the private insurance companies and you will still have to pay premiums, co-pays and deductibles.

The Administration plan requires that everyone must have health insurance, so it is delivering tens of millions of new "customers" to the insurance companies. Health care? Not really. Insurance care! Absolutely. Cost controls? No chance.

You will next hear talk about "co-ops." The truth is that insurance company campaign contributions have co-opted the public interest... The hotly-debated HR3200, the so-called "health care reform" bill, is nothing less than corporate welfare in the guise of social welfare and reform. It is a convoluted mess. The real debate which we should be having is not occurring. .

Removing the "public option" from a public bill paid for by public money is not in the public interest. What is left is a "private option" paid for with public money. Why should public money be spent on a private option which does not guarantee 100% coverage nor have any cost controls? A true public option would provide 30% savings immediately which would then cover the 1/3rd of the population who presently have no health care..

Unfortunately, under HR3200, the Government is choosing winners and losers in the private sector; proposing to spend public funds on subsidizing insurance companies who make money not providing health care. This process will insure only the expansion of profits. Gone is the debate over cost..

As a result of current negotiations, the Medicare Part D rip-off will continue for another decade, further fleecing senior citizens. Drug importation has been dropped, so no inexpensive drugs can be accessed from other nations..

Instead we are told the pharmaceutical companies will accept a 2% cut in the growth rate of their profits - they call this cost control! .

If the matter were not so serious, it would be farcical: The executive branch pretends that the proposed health care reforms are something they are not. The legislation is being attacked for something it is not. Congressional leadership and the White House defend the legislation, pretending it actually is the very proposal that is being attacked. But it is not. A commonsense government health care reform policy would insure that every single American has full access to health care by expanding Medicare to cover everyone under a Single Payer System. We are already paying for a universal standard of care, it is just we are not getting it...

[Cboldt]

-- They just need to know that they have been surrounded by brute force. --

Heh. In human events, the outcome always turns on superior force in physical violence.