Posted on 12/14/2009 4:20:21 PM PST by Free ThinkerNY
Major Garrett’s in the hall outside the Democratic caucus room and tweeting the word from Tom Harkin. Can’t really call this good news, as it makes passage much more likely, so let’s call it slightly-better-than-worst-case-scenario news. No more public option:
Asked by a reporter if the Medicare buy-in will be pulled out, Harkin said “looks that way,” before praising a Democratic health care bill without the two public option compromises.
“There’s enough good in this bill that even without those two, we gotta move,” he said. “All the insurance reforms, all the stuff we wrote so hard for prevention and wellness in there, the workforce development issues that we have in there, the reimbursement based on quality not on quantity — there’s good stuff in this bill. It’s a giant step forward, changing the paradigm of health care in America.”
Lieberman said he can (read: will) vote for the bill without the public plan provisions. Reaction, straight off the top of my head: (1) Kind of surprising that neither Snowe nor Collins defected to bail Reid out, eh? Now that he’s back to 60-ish, I wonder if they or Nelson, Bayh, Lincoln, etc. will suddenly ramp up their own demands. (2) The Democrats are so frantic to pass something at this point — e.g., there was a rumor floated earlier today that Emanuel was pressuring Reid to use reconciliation — that Pelosi will almost certainly want to ping-pong the Senate bill. Will the absence of a public option convince Blue Dogs who voted no on the House bill to vote yes this time or will the gruesome polling scare them away?
(Excerpt) Read more at hotair.com ...
” Amnesty in 2010 along with the VAT and Cap and Trade.
All signed and sealed before the Nov., election.”
We’ll see. Obama’s numbers are horrendous, along with the Dems in Congress. If just enough of them vote to keep their seats, Obama’s agenda is FINISHED.
By the way, as for those who keep saying that there is no difference between RINOS and Dems...look how the votes are lining up...and maybe reconsider, since if Maine didn’t have two RINOS in the Senate, Pelosi would have gotten EVERYTHING she wanted by now.
Yes, and I think the liberals would win in the courts (given the general liberal domination of the courts and atrocious recent court decisions) on the question of whether premiums required to be paid by private parties for health insurance is not really a “tax” imposed and appropriated by government. (but in reality it is both unconstitutional and a tax)
The key for the Rats is to progressively move the policy venue from the public into Congressional back rooms and then into the bowels of a giant government regulatory agency. That is the ultimate home field advantage for them. Even in Republican administrations, government bureaucrats remain overwhelmingly leftwing, and government employees unions are arguably the ultimate inner core of what the Democrat party really is at its heart.
As far as the Senate is concerned, there is no bill other than the one they area working on themselves and there is no Senator named Stupak. They won’t even see it until after the conference comes up with yet another version, which may or may not include any particular section from either the House or Senate bills.
I think she did get what she wanted, Cap and Trade and Health Care.
She did her job, now its up to Reid.
Even with the 0’s numbers in the tank, as long as they have the majority, they don’t give a...
Congress no longer cares about the American People.
Judging by the fact that Obamao is below 50% approval in EVERY single poll shows that the public is not distracted by the holidays.
He can call this a victory but everyone knows better.
Anyone who believes that he is "principled" must have missed his speech in the SINate when he "almost" condemned clinton back during impeachment days.
He is NOT to be trusted, nor lauded.
So now the question is which liberal senators will bolt without a public option or medicare option?
If the people do not bombard the capitol in the next several days with calls and letters like they did in defeating the illegals amnesty attempt, I will be surprised if the health care takeover does not pass (regardless of Obama’s polling numbers).
Problem is when they go to conference committee with the house, the pubic option will go back in. As I understand it, it will then take only 50 votes to pass. If it is not killed here, we will have the public option yet...
Absolutely nothing. It will be added back in later - you can take that to the bank.
“Strike for 0. He just had them all to the WH to lay down the law I thought”
It’s more like a walk-off home run for 0.
Just more theatrics. These changes will be changed back at some point after a bill passes, and a bill WILL pass.
Joe LIEberman needs to wake up!
Are you sure it was the CBO that said that? Do you have a link?
Get a grip, Newbie.
This is the camel's nose in the tent, you'll see it evolve into full-blown Socilaized Medicine, while you savor some "percieved victory", while getting your clock cleaned.
Come back when you see the forest for the trees.
This is a Plan B I can live with! ;-)
You have the timeline wrong. Our march to socialized healthcare started in the 1930s when Blue Cross became a tax-free conduit for prepaid healthcare, and in the 1940s when FDR capped wages pushing employers to offer health plans as benefits.
What really needs to be done is to untangle employers and insurers from being preferred healthcare payment channels. The tax code is what makes it that way, and distorts the market through a pile of regulations gathered up over time. People can't afford health care on their own because the market is for large corporations to purchase in bulk from other large insurers who set the prices, and state legislators who target these large organizations.
This also brings up another problem. Making things tax-free to purchase with an income tax system means complicating the tax code, and making it more expensive to hire employees. A sales tax system would work better for such a situation, where you don't tax the people purchasing the product.
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