Posted on 09/14/2009 8:26:19 PM PDT by Steelfish
Senate Negotiators Narrow Health Care Differences
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS September 14, 2009
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Senate health care negotiators said Monday they've narrowed their differences on a host of difficult issues with just a day or so left to seal an elusive bipartisan deal that could change the course of the contentious debate.
After months of closed-door negotiations, Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus said, ''We're getting very close.'' But it remained unclear if the Montana Democrat could strike a bargain that would mark a turning point for President Barack Obama's top domestic priority.
The negotiators pared the cost of their 10-year coverage plan to under $880 billion, and also reported progress on several issues, including health insurance for the poor, restrictions on federal funding for abortions, a verification system to prevent illegal immigrants from getting benefits, and ways to encourage alternatives to malpractice lawsuits.
With or without Republican support, Baucus said he'll have a formal proposal on Wednesday to meet a deadline for moving ahead.
At the same time, he said the bipartisan talks could continue even as his Finance panel begins its formal bill-drafting session next week. The negotiators will meet again Tuesday.
''It's not just tomorrow or the next day,'' said Baucus. ''We're going to keep working.''
His small group of three Democrats and three Republicans has been doggedly laboring in hopes of finding a bipartisan path toward guaranteeing coverage for all and trying to control the rise in health care spending.
The three Republicans -- Mike Enzi of Wyoming, Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Olympia Snowe of Maine -- are under intense pressure from leaders of their own party, some of whom have publicly dismissed Baucus' framework as a Democrat's plan. Baucus may not be able to get any of them to agree. But all three...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Never fear
The RINOS are here.
BOHICA!
God help us if this goes through. Those that are in favor of this have no idea what kind of misery will be unleashed on us.
I lived under socialized medicine. I was a kid then, and still knew how evil it is. The hospitals were places of death. People had to bring their own sheets, pillows and blankets, and had to rely on family for food and laundry. The only way you could get something was through bribes.
I don’t even want to go into cleanliness, sterilization of equipment, etc.
Been seeing this headline all evening.
Some reports say cost is below $880B. Okay. Still too damn much. Other’s say a minor nod toward tort reform “experiments” is included. Others say co-ops are the result with no gov’t direct involvement meaning board/directors are selected by participants, not the gov’t, etc.
Have to find a positive here.........PO is not even in the discussion. Negative is still money and gov’t involvement in set-up.
Bahhhh......
Humbug. Yep RINOS will come to the rescue and crow about it.
Olympia Snowe, a Republican! Who knew?
“...have no idea what kind of misery will be unleashed on us.”
That’s what I’ve been trying to tell people. It’s going to be a nightmare for Americans. They have no idea what their in for.
And that’s just the health care part of it.
If passed, this plan will change America forever. Individual freedom dies with its passage. The left knows this—they know it is everything they’ve ever wanted wrapped in a nice bundle.
If they have 100% control of our bodies, and our death, what else do they have to work for? It’s all built-in.
This plan is liberty-rot on wheels.
RINOs: alleged Republicans dedicated to saving Democrat initiatives when the Democrats can’t be counted on.
“Mike Enzi of Wyoming, Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Olympia Snowe of Maine”
If you live in one of these three states, PLEASE call and email your senator to say you want no health plan, not a plan dreamed up by Democrats and passed with the capitulation of a few Republican senators.
Any one of these three senators can saddle the whole populace of the USA with this bad health idea and we all will have to pay more for this government take over of what should remain in the private economy.
Even Snowe said yesterday that the public option was totally a no-go.
This article's just wishful thinking on the reporter's part.
I just have to be a positive yet realistic conservative. In this environment, some sort of “bill” will be passed and we just have to hope it’s the least destructive and overriding one we can imagine so that the next Congress (more conservative!) and next POTUS (all REPUBLICAN!) can roll much/all of it back.
That’s the reality right now. Something will get done and the more watered-down and benign the better, believe you me. Nonetheless it will leave something that still stinks that later elected pols will have to kill. I do believe elections will prove it out.
I have been talking and trying to inform people about the evils of government health care. Some listen, others treat me like I’m from another planet. People just don’t get it. They think life will go on as usual. It won’t. It will be a nightmare. I lived it. It was survival of the fittest.
I don’t want this kind of life for my son.
Remember it is the NY Times reporting so we don’t have a clue what they are up to right now.
I just looked at it. It has the co-ops in it.
They are federally funded and get their foot in the door.
Read this carefully friends ....
The Truth About the Health Care Bills - Michael Connelly, Ret. Constitutional Attorney 08.24.09
Well, I have done it! I have read the entire text of proposed House Bill 3200: The Affordable Health Care Choices Act of 2009. I studied it with particular emphasis from my area of expertise, constitutional law. I was frankly concerned that parts of the proposed law that were being discussed might be unconstitutional. What I found was far worse than what I had heard or expected.
To begin with, much of what has been said about the law and its implications is in fact true, despite what the Democrats and the media are saying. The law does provide for rationing of health care, particularly where senior citizens and other classes of citizens are involved, free health care for illegal immigrants, free abortion services, and probably forced participation in abortions by members of the medical profession.
The Bill will also eventually force private insurance companies out of business and put everyone into a government run system. All decisions about personal health care will ultimately be made by federal bureaucrats and most of them will not be health care professionals. Hospital admissions, payments to physicians, and allocations of necessary medical devices will be strictly controlled.
However, as scary as all of that it, it just scratches the surface. In fact, I have concluded that this legislation really has no intention of providing affordable health care choices. Instead it is a convenient cover for the most massive transfer of power to the Executive Branch of government that has ever occurred, or even been contemplated. If this law or a similar one is adopted, major portions of the Constitution of the United States will effectively have been destroyed.
The first thing to go will be the masterfully crafted balance of power between the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches of the U.S. Government. The Congress will be transferring to the Obama Administration authority in a number of different areas over the lives of the American people and the businesses they own. The irony is that the Congress doesn’t have any authority to legislate in most of those areas to begin with. I defy anyone to read the text of the U.S. Constitution and find any authority granted to the members of Congress to regulate health care.
This legislation also provides for access by the appointees of the Obama administration of all of your personal healthcare information, your personal financial information, and the information of your employer, physician, and hospital. All of this is a direct violation of the specific provisions of the 4th Amendment to the Constitution protecting against unreasonable searches and seizures. You can also forget about the right to privacy. That will have been legislated into oblivion regardless of what the 3rd and 4th Amendments may provide.
If you decide not to have healthcare insurance or if you have private insurance that is not deemed “acceptable” to the “Health Choices Administrator” appointed by Obama there will be a tax imposed on you. It is called a “tax” instead of a fine because of the intent to avoid application of the due process clause of the 5th Amendment. However, that doesn’t work because since there is nothing in the law that allows you to contest or appeal the imposition of the tax, it is definitely depriving someone of property without the “due process of law.
So, there are three of those pesky amendments that the far left hate so much out the original ten in the Bill of Rights that are effectively nullified by this law. It doesn’t stop there though. The 9th Amendment that provides: “The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people;” The 10th Amendment states: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are preserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” Under the provisions of this piece of Congressional handiwork neither the people nor the states are going to have any rights or powers at all in many areas that once were theirs to control.
I could write many more pages about this legislation, but I think you get the idea. This is not about health care; it is about seizing power and limiting rights. Article 6 of the Constitution requires the members of both houses of Congress to “be bound by oath or affirmation” to support the Constitution . If I was a member of Congress I would not be able to vote for this legislation or anything like it without feeling I was violating that sacred oath or affirmation. If I voted for it anyway I would hope the American people would hold me accountable.
For those who might doubt the nature of this threat I suggest they consult the source. Here is a link to the Constitution: http://www.archives.gov/ex hibits/charters/constituti on_transcript.html
And another to the Bill of Rights: http://www.archives.gov/ex hibits/charters/bill_of_ri ghts_transcript.html
There you can see exactly what we are about to have taken from us if we allow this bill to be passed.
Michael Connelly
Retired attorney,
Constitutional Law Instructor
I think you are correct but *ANY* Repub voting for this needs to be driven from office even if it means voting for a Democrat - this means Snowe.
The rhinos will provide cover for the democrats again. The republican party better get its house in order or conservatives will have to create a third party. I don’t know how a republican can justify voting for a health care bill 80% of their constituents are firmly against?
Which country were you born?
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