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Coburn Forces Reading of 767-Page Single Payer Amendment
http://spectator.org/ ^ | 12.16.09 | By Philip Klein

Posted on 12/16/2009 10:10:26 AM PST by Maelstorm

Sen. Tom Coburn has just demanded that the Senate clerk read the single-payer amendment offered by Sen. Bernie Sanders -- and it's 767 pages.

Typically, Senators offering amendments will ask for unanimous consent to avoid reading the entire meausure, but all it takes is one Senator to object to demand its reading, and Coburn objected to Sanders attempt to dispense with the reading of the amendment.

To give you a sense of how this could delay things, it took the Senate clerk 18 minutes to get through the first 6 pages of the amendment, which were the table of contents. At this current pace, it will take 38 hours to get through the entire amendment.

You can follow along with the amendment here.

UPDATE: The body of the bill seems to be going faster than the table of contents, but it still looks likely to take at least 12 hours at this pace

(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...


TOPICS: Breaking News; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Oklahoma
KEYWORDS: 111th; berniesanders; bhohealthcare; care; coburn; cultureofcorruption; democratscandals; drtom; health; healthcare; hellthcarefromhell; killthebill; obama; obamacare; politics; pravdamedia; saulalinsky; singlepayer; socialism; socialist; socializedmedicine; starkravingsocialism; truthhurts
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To: library user

All rise.


41 posted on 12/16/2009 10:34:18 AM PST by savedbygrace (You are only leading if someone follows. Otherwise, you just wandered off... [Smokin' Joe])
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To: Albert Barr
I feel sorry for her

Poor thing. I watched her reading for a while just now and her brain appears to be shutting down. I could put that on in the background and it would put me down for a very good nap.
42 posted on 12/16/2009 10:34:27 AM PST by Bad Jack Bauer (Fat and Bald? I was BORN fat and bald, thank you very much!)
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To: Maelstorm

Coburn is the man. He ought to use that unlimited debate rule to re-read the bill—after the clerk reads it.


43 posted on 12/16/2009 10:34:30 AM PST by Recovering_Democrat
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To: windcliff; onedoug

ping


44 posted on 12/16/2009 10:34:57 AM PST by stylecouncilor (What Would Jim Thompson Do?)
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To: clintonh8r
Oklahoma has the best senators by far.

I'm not an Okie by birth, but I'm glad to call Coburn my Senator. Smart and principled, and the fortitude to do the right thing for our country.

45 posted on 12/16/2009 10:36:03 AM PST by FatherofFive (Islam is an EVIL like no other, and must be ERADICATED. Barack OBORTION is a close second.)
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To: GeronL

At LEAST 12 hours. I’d go for reading phone books at this point. It seems the best form of protest given the situation.


46 posted on 12/16/2009 10:36:32 AM PST by Sequoyah101 (Half of the population is below average)
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To: Maelstorm

Dr. Senator Coburn is such an American hero.

God bless him.


47 posted on 12/16/2009 10:37:41 AM PST by onyx
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To: who knows what evil?

Maybe the same guy who wrote Dreams of Obama’s Father


48 posted on 12/16/2009 10:37:42 AM PST by a fool in paradise (Question authority!Who is the University of East Anglia to drive the 'Global Climate Change' agenda?)
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To: Maelstorm

Good to see someone in the GOP still has a backbone.


49 posted on 12/16/2009 10:37:43 AM PST by edge10 (Obama lied, babies died!)
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To: Kenny

It took 11 months for Republicans to decide to fight? Why did they allow all the rest of the Democrat agenda to get passed in mere hours over the entire year?

This is kind of late to start now. It took millions of angry citizens to take charge of this fight themselves with out much help from the GOP.


50 posted on 12/16/2009 10:38:08 AM PST by PSYCHO-FREEP
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To: savedbygrace

LOL


51 posted on 12/16/2009 10:38:59 AM PST by library user
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To: clintonh8r
Oklahoma has the best senators by far.

They certainly have my vote to replace McConnell and Kyl in the leadership roles.

52 posted on 12/16/2009 10:39:24 AM PST by Night Hides Not (If Dick Cheney = Darth Vader, then Joe Biden = Dark Helmet)
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To: savedbygrace

Rush alerted me. He said Andrea Mitchell is fit to be tied. Said that she was giving Michael Steele hell about it. LOL.


53 posted on 12/16/2009 10:40:43 AM PST by onyx
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To: library user
I'm invoking the rules here.


54 posted on 12/16/2009 10:41:24 AM PST by Hoodat (For the weapons of our warfare are mighty in God for pulling down strongholds.)
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To: Maelstorm

Awesome. Let’s shed some light on their real intentions.


55 posted on 12/16/2009 10:41:59 AM PST by americanophile (Merry Christmas!)
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To: etcb
It would also be nice if he would make a point of order that a quorum is not present. That would require suspension of reading until at least 50 senators could be assembled.

Why you are urging Saul Alinsky tactics "using their own rules against them". Jolly good show!

And we are witnessing the media noticing: "Any effective means is automatically judged by the opposition as being unethical."

56 posted on 12/16/2009 10:42:26 AM PST by a fool in paradise (Question authority!Who is the University of East Anglia to drive the 'Global Climate Change' agenda?)
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To: Maelstorm; All

Go Tom, go!

Agreed.

BUT it’s a moot point ... the Senate Bill (and likely all of ObamaCare) will die.

Labor Holds Emergency Meetings To Discuss Senate Bill, May Formally Oppose

Two of the country’s largest labor groups, the SEIU and the AFL-CIO, are each holding emergency executive meetings today to discuss whether they should support the latest round of health care compromises made by Senate Democrats.

Though there’s no official word yet, early indications based on talks with various officials are that the groups will either formally oppose the legislation or, less dramatically, just not fight very hard to ensure its passage.

Labor leaders are fuming at the concessions that Democratic leadership made in the last few days to win the support of the caucus’s most conservative members, notably Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.). A bill that already included one highly objectionable provision (a tax on so-called Cadillac insurance plans) was stripped of a provision beloved by labor: a public alternative to private insurance coverage. Frustration boiled over even further after the leadership succumbed to Lieberman’s demand to jettison even the compromise to the public option — a proposal to expand Medicare to those as young as 55.

Together, the changes have spurred emotional internal debates about the approach labor should take to the Senate bill. Dennis Rivera, the Health Care Chair at the SEIU, was slated to appear at a Capitol Hill press conference on Wednesday to push for senators not to filibuster reform. He pulled out from the event, which was sponsored by the pro-reform group Families USA, because of uncertainty about the union’s position.

“We just couldn’t do it,” said an SEIU official. “We haven’t even seen the manager’s amendment... At this point, we have to make the final decision about how to proceed. There is an emergency meeting tonight to figure that out.”

The AFL-CIO, likewise, is hosting an executive council meeting to discuss the legislation. Richard Trumka, the president of the union conglomerate, has been one of the foremost champions of a public plan. And on Tuesday, one of his close allies, Leo Gerard, the president United Steelworkers Union, hinted that opposition to the bill is in the offing.

“I believe that the House [of Representatives] has got a good bill,” Gerard told MSNBC’s Ed Schultz. “Hopefully it is going to have to go to committee, we’re going to fight like crazy to make sure that we get a good bill. I’m not prepared to give up. I want to fight and get a good bill out of this. The American people deserve this and President Obama, whose values are right, he deserves this.”

Labor’s stance could have big ramifications. Progressive Senate Democrats held their noses as the legislation was watered down at the behest of Lieberman and others. Off the Hill, however, former Democratic National Committee chair Howard Dean called for the current Senate proposal to be “killed” — and others echoed his concerns.

The labor community has already poured massive resources into the health care debate. Now there is a growing concern that the money and time may have not been well spent. As one high-ranking labor official emailed the Huffington Post:

“What is really frustrating folks here is that it’s impossible to make and implement plans to pressure senators when the White House and Reid keep undermining the efforts no one from the outside can put any credible pressure on Senators because they know the White House will back that Senator up whatever they do. If the White House is going to cave to a Senator who spent the entire election campaigning with McCain and calling Obama a traitor how are we supposed to have any leverage over anyone?

“If Lieberman — who has done so many horrible things directly to Obama — can get away with this on Obama’s signature issue it makes it infinitely harder for us to pressure senators, on issues in the future, because there is no fear of retribution or coercion from the White House. They only pressure progressives, not anyone in the middle.”

57 posted on 12/16/2009 10:42:39 AM PST by BP2 (I think, therefore I'm a conservative)
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To: Hoodat

It’s so tiny (the picture, that is...)


58 posted on 12/16/2009 10:44:12 AM PST by library user
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To: Maelstorm

OKIES have to save the country! ATTA BOY COBURN!


59 posted on 12/16/2009 10:44:43 AM PST by Doctor Don
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To: savedbygrace

ROFLMAO!!!


60 posted on 12/16/2009 10:44:53 AM PST by acad1228 (Meep!)
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