Posted on 10/14/2009 8:09:08 AM PDT by Lazamataz
WASHINGTON – A second Republican senator signaled Wednesday she's open to voting for sweeping health care legislation this year, putting President Barack Obama closer to a historic achievement that has eluded generations of Democratic leaders.
But Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, told The Associated Press that the bill approved Tuesday by the Finance Committee needs substantial improvements to make coverage more affordable, contain costs, and protect Medicare. Nevertheless, she joined her Maine GOP colleague Sen. Olympia Snowe in endorsing the goal of far-reaching changes.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
If Maines Republican leadership is like this i might as well just vacation here on Cape Cod.
Same thing, no difference.
Might as well just keep the money in my own state.
Consider, too, where they might be coming from. The current Maine plan is such an unmitigated disaster, eclipsed only by RomneyCare, that Maine desperately needs a Federal bailout. I’ll bet dollars to doughnut cushions that was the enticement behind the scenes, encouraged by Maine’s largely democRAT state government.
Maybe Obamah will convert a lot of the more moderate Democrats over to the Republican side.
Texas is overall conservative, but the big cities like Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and Austin are liberal strong holds. The southern border area and towns are also strong Democrat holds.
We have a governor's race coming up which should be interesting.
for them to interpret the right to regulate interstate commerce as justification for taking over healthcare is a wild stretch and opens up the ability for the feds to sieze every aspect of freedom from hot dog sales to who lives and dies (or gets health care)
Oh, that’s a shocker.
Maine is ranked 40th in population--10 states have fewer people. (In fact the two Dakotas together have about as many people as Maine does.)
When there's no need to state the painfully obvious, I don't.
Instead you bluntly wished to disassociate yourself from several states.
Damn right I did. Those states and the people who dominate their elections are the death of the country.
By that line of logic you should disassociate yourself from the U.S. because the executive and legislative branches of government are controlled by socialists with only a minority of conservatives
Done. I hearby disasscoiate myself from my socialist government. That was easy enough...
The deal with Maine is this:
The bulk of the state’s population is in southern Maine, which is more liberal than northern Maine. Also, there are a lot of transplants from Massachusetts who have moved to southern Maine and, unfortunately, they brought their liberal voting patterns with them.
Northern Maine has a great deal of poverty; it’s been that way for many years. Jobs in the paper mills as well as logging were good paying jobs, but many of those mills have shut down over the years. Healthcare is the number one business in Maine. Tourism is another big industry, but it’s seasonal. Acadia National Park is a big draw in the summer. But Maine also has an aging population, and senior citizens here want social programs. So do the younger people who can’t find jobs....there aren’t many good paying jobs here, and many young people move to other states once they get out of school.
No, not everyone is on welfare, but a lot of people are, especially in the northern, more rural part of the state.
The southern half of the state is more prosperous.
Many people here don’t perceive either Snowe or Collins to be liberals. You should see the moonbats who run against them from the democrat party. When Snowe ran for re-election in 2006, she was challenged by a woman I never heard of....Jean Haybright. This Haybright woman reminded me of Cindy Sheehan, although Cindy was better looking!
Haybright had very little money, ran some anti-Iraq war TV ads a week or two before the election which showed the flag-drapped coffins of soldiers, and lost the election to Snowe, who received 71% of the vote.
Collins ran last November against former 1st district congressman Tom Allen. He is an ultra-liberal, and Susan Collins looked like Sarah Palin when compared to this guy.
I guess it boils down to the power of the incumbency....both Snowe and Collins are very well known, and they appeal to democrats, independents, and most of the state’s Republicans. I’m afraid we’re stuck with these two RINO’s. Congressional term limits would be a blessing.
I’d like to see them both out of office as much as my fellow Freepers.
The trouble is that urban areas get more votes per acre than less populated areas. If you could assign representation based on county rather than on direct popular votes the self reliant rural areas would have more of a political voice, and if you used permanent geographical divisions such as county boundaries there will be no gerrymandering. If each county got one vote for each Senate election (much like the electoral college) then the urban Libs wouldn't be as politically dominant. However since the dominant libs are the ones that would have to vote to change the system it will never happen.
The new Socialist battle cry...Remember Maine
There was no weakness, my statement was a matter of personal preference. I don’t want anything to do with any of the states I named, period. Whether or not you can accept that is of little consequence to me. But I’m sure your Blue State Pride will be taken into consideration by your Marxist overlords someday.
Take care!
It's not a gender thing, it's a RINO thing.
Some people will push anyone under the bus in exchange for a TV camera
In this case, so true. Collins got jealous of Snowe and pratically ran at the cameras yelling, “Me, too! Me, too!”
When I first read the title, I said to myself — I don’t even need to read the article to correctly guess who this “Another GOP Senator” is. And guess what ? I was right.
Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe and Arlen Specter have ALWAYS been Democrat in ideology.
A bigger overhaul would be to replace the goofy stuff we have now with actual insurance.
Under the present system, insurance companies can raise rates based upon claims which became imminent on their watch. It would be equivalent to allowing a flood insurance company to collect premiums from people when no flood seems imminent, but then start charging enormous daily rates as soon as waters start rising. Thus, if a flood were to hit, the last few weeks' premiums would have been a substantial fraction (possibly over 100% )of the flood damages; the value of the 'insurance' when there is no flood would thus be pretty limited.
If flood insurance were based upon such a model, it would be unfair to restrict people from buying such insurance any time a flood seemed likely, but making the system "fair" by allowing people to buy insurance when a flood was imminent would not be an improvement. The real key to making insurance fair would be to ensure that if someone has a policy which is effective when an insurable event occurs (e.g. they contract a disease that will be expensive to treat) the policy will cover all future costs associated with that event (subject to deductables, etc.), rather than just the costs of the upcoming year.
Just heard Rep. Michelle Bachman on talk radio on the way home. She was pleading for every American to call their two Senators and Rep. every day between now and Dec. 31st, demanding they vote no on Obamacare. She said if just 10,000 people nationwide did this, which is very do-able, it would have an effect. She said to put it on your daily to-do list. If we don’t stop this, she said the next step would be amnesty for the illegals and cap & tax.
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