GOP senators to block defense bill in bid to delay health-care vote

[steven johnson]

Source: Washington Post

By Paul Kane and Lori Montgomery
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, December 18, 2009

Senate Republicans said Thursday that they would try to filibuster a massive Pentagon bill that funds the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, an unusual move that several acknowledged was an effort to delay President Obama's health-care legislation.

Late into the night, Democrats emerged from a huddle confident that they would muster the 60 votes needed to thwart the GOP effort at blocking the military spending bill as an antiwar liberal said he would set aside his reservations and support choking off the filibuster in order to keep the chamber on a timeline of holding a final health-care vote before Christmas. The vote on the defense spending bill was to occur after 1 a.m. Friday, too late for this edition.

The maneuvering occurred on a day when Democrats were still desperately trying to round up a 60th vote on the health-care legislation, as Sen. Ben Nelson (Neb.) rejected an abortion compromise aimed at bringing him on board. Nelson, the last holdout in the Democratic caucus and the focus of an intense lobbying campaign by White House officials, has said he would not support the package unless it explicitly bars the use of federal funds for abortion services.

If Nelson's support can be secured over the weekend, Democrats are hopeful that they will be able to begin clearing the parliamentary hurdles that would allow final passage of their version of the health-care legislation by Christmas Eve. That would meet their self-imposed deadline to pass the legislation and begin a negotiation with House Democrats to craft a final version to send to the president's desk.



Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/17/AR2009121703585.html?hpid=topnews

---

Scumbags

[valerief]

1. they should block that bill anyway. nt

[tritsofme]

2. Republicans: Playing politics with national security. nt

[LakeSamish706]

3. I say F*** the Repugs on every issue, however, they are the ones that are

looking good out of this POS of an escalation in Afghanistan to the Health Care bill.

[babylonsister]

4. Wow. Times have changed. They were before defense of this

country before they were against it? And they were always against health care. Is this a two-fer?

[jwirr]

5. If they delay the vote until after Christmas break that means two

things. Senators have time to go home and hear how angry people are and give us some more time to get this thing right. repugs are betting it won't come up again if they can slow it down. I don't think our good progressive Senators will forget what was on the table before they left.

[PSPS]

13. No, it just means another teabagger circus orchestrated by the RW media wurlitzer.

It appears that they intend to drag this into the recess and then bombard the media with more astroturf teabaggers. Remember, the content of the bill doesn't matter. The GOP playbook says that every obama bill will be filibustered regardless of what it is. As for this health care fiasco bill, even if obama were to let the GOP write it (it is a de-facto GOP bill now anyway,) they would still not vote for it.

[BlueIdaho]

6. Why do they hate the troops? Why do they hate America?

Lets try not to forget who the real enemy is here...

[tomm2thumbs]

8. do as we say, not as we do...

maybe through this process, Democrats will grow a couple

(backbones, that is)

[BlueIdaho]

12. That would be refreshing...

[scentopine]

7. LOL! HCR is a Republican CEO wet dream !!

Gotta hand it to the republicans it is fucking hilarious how they operate - they never give up and always get what they want. Democrats capitulated everything to keep them happy and they still fuck em over.

Now when republicans win, who loses? Democrats? Well - if there was ever a group of individuals who ALWAYS give something up it is definitely democrats, but they also profit with their republican brothers when it gets time for perks and bonuses in the form of campaign money.

Republican leadership wins, Democratic leadership wins, CEOs win, every other American citizen loses. But you knew that.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

11. I don't understand

If HCR is the "wet dream" for CEOs that many here claim that it is, why the hell aren't the Republicans begging to give the Democrats (and President Obama) big sloppy kisses for capitulating to Lieberman? Are insurance CEOs lining up to support this bill because I sure haven't heard anything? Their stocks may be soaring because the PO is *dead* but are any of them lining up to back the bill now? Seems they and their Republican allies are still doing whatever they can to kill it and AFAIK there is about only one Republican that MIGHT support it in the end. If the Republicans start praising HCR en masse and talking about voting for it, then I might start worrying about it. Before then....meh....not so much. It certainly could be (much) better but I still have a hard time arguing for its death- I just don't believe that there will be a better time in the near future for getting something substantive through. If we can get a foundation in place and people realize that the sky isn't falling, then they will be more likely to support more reform in the future. That's my theory, anyway, and I'm sticking to it.

[scentopine]

14. Republicans will never, never, never, embrace a democratic bill

it just isn't their way. They never yield. Ever. They will use any and every opportunity to disrupt.

Hear that - ? That silence is a trillion dollar industry with a billion a year budget for marketing, who is getting exactly what they've asked for. They are spending a million dollars a day with armies of lobbyists writing the legislation in the house and senate.

It would be foolish of them to be critical of what they wrote. Trust me - if they felt consumers were getting a good deal, they would be furious and they would be in our face.

Banking reform legislation was written by the banking industry. Health care reform is being written by the insurances and for-profit health industry. Just like banking reform hurt us all, insurance reform will hurt us all. Its the way reform works these days as opposed to the old days when legislation was designed to stop unfair practices and curtail monopolies.

But you have to be awe struck by the irony of it all- republican insiders are privately quite happy with the bill and their insurance sponsors have warned them not to blow it. But here they are grandstanding over the defense bill. Ahahahahahahah ! Fucking perfect@!

Corporate republicans and democrats love this bill- prescription drugs anti-competition provisions, mandated policy's, gaping loop holes, allowing employers to charge "unhealthy" workers more than "healthy" workers - this is a literal wet dream for Atena. And almost no government oversight (just like wall street bailout!)

Plus, they are attempting to build in "lifestyle" provisions (i.e. fat people pay more) and exclusions (i.e. pre-existing conditions) that politicians are are exempt from in their own plans.

CEOs also think Obama is a pussy. I think they are right about that.

There will be no future. No bill ever, ever, ever gets revisited. Even now after a huge financial disaster, we are not re-regulating the banks. In fact, Obama's team has been looking at more de-regulation. Jesus, they just passed rules allowing banks to defer reporting losses!

It just goes on and on. This is a bad bill - a real stinker. It will hurt us for the next generation and lowers the bar on accountablity and consumer protection, fairness and business regulation. We are screwed.

[MessiahRp]

18. Not to mention they don't have to risk anything at all...

They can just play the NO card all they want when the votes come down but they know Dems will constantly cave to their demands so they get the bill they want AND the political theater of opposing it when the compromised bill inevitably fails the American Public, which the HCR bill certainly will.

Then they get to sweep into office without taking a single ounce of the damage the idiot Democrats and Obama team did.

[classysassy]

9. The devils gang

those bastards will do what ever it takes to make Obama look bad,pure evil.

[liberal N proud]

10. The headline should read "GOP Blocks Funds for WAR," with sub-heading

"World ends tomorrow"

[cartach]

15. Great Idea !

The Republicans always the advocates of overkill are going to change their stripes because of their disdain for health care? Sounds like a great idea but is good example of cutting off your nose to spite your face. Filibustering of the defense bill will give more time for opponents to make the case for how expensive domination over other nations really is. Because that's what it is all about. Any support for increased spending for Iraq or Afghanistan is support for the aggressive policies of Bush and Cheney and nothing else,using the excuse of terrorism and national defense to mask the real reasons foremost of which is the domination of the Middle East to secure oil interests. I hope they filibuster it into the ground.

[snot]

16. too good to last.

[Waiting For Everyman]

17. Rs doing this is just silly.

I'd like to see how long they could fillibuster through the holidays.

[kpete]

19. GOP senators to block defense bill in bid to delay health-care vote

Source: Washington Post

GOP senators to block defense bill in bid to delay health-care vote

By Paul Kane and Lori Montgomery
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 18, 2009; A03

Senate Republicans said Thursday that they would try to filibuster a massive Pentagon bill that funds the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, an unusual move that several acknowledged was an effort to delay President Obama's health-care legislation.

Late into the night, Democrats emerged from a huddle confident that they would muster the 60 votes needed to thwart the GOP effort at blocking the military spending bill as an antiwar liberal said he would set aside his reservations and support choking off the filibuster in order to keep the chamber on a timeline of holding a final health-care vote before Christmas. The vote on the defense spending bill was to occur after 1 a.m. Friday, too late for this edition.

The maneuvering occurred on a day when Democrats were still desperately trying to round up a 60th vote on the health-care legislation, as Sen. Ben Nelson (Neb.) rejected an abortion compromise aimed at bringing him on board. Nelson, the last holdout in the Democratic caucus and the focus of an intense lobbying campaign by White House officials, has said he would not support the package unless it explicitly bars the use of federal funds for abortion services.

If Nelson's support can be secured over the weekend, Democrats are hopeful that they will be able to begin clearing the parliamentary hurdles that would allow final passage of their version of the health-care legislation by Christmas Eve. That would meet their self-imposed deadline to pass the legislation and begin a negotiation with House Democrats to craft a final version to send to the president's desk.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/17/AR2009121703585_pf.html

[MNDemNY]

20. Well , then Harry should just pull the HCR bill, and get on with business.

;-)

[midnight]

21. Hopefully the Dems. will stop fooling around, and

take this time to take out the mandate, and close the loopholes the greedy put in.....

[Orrex]

22. Why don't they tack the healthcare reform bill onto the defense bill, as an amendment?

Hell, why not go whole-hog and tack on a single-payer option while we're at it?

[SpiralHawk]

23. "We want America to Fail." - Republicon Homelanders

"Because we are totally all about FAIL."

- Republicon Homelanders

[Bitwit1234]

24. I think it is about damn time the democrats showed the

republicans just who in the hell is boss in this congress. They should push em to the corner and leave em sit. Don't ask them for support, don't ask them to get the bills going. DON'T ASK THE OBSTRUCTIONIST A**HOLES ANYTHING. LET EM STEW.

[Blackdog4241]

25. Good...Block the defence bill and

Bring everybody home.

[Altoid_Cyclist]

26. The way that our government is operating would be laughable if....

it wasn't harming so many Americans (and others) in the process.

The repukes have lowered themselves to making this a contest to see who's is bigger. I don't know which is worse, the fact that the Repukes continue to act like Repukes (no shock there), or the fact that the Dems continue to allow it to happen.

At least we're providing entertainment to other countries that actually care about their citizens.

As the saying goes; if it isn't broke then don't fix it. I 'm starting to think that our system is very broke and does need to be fixed. I have no clue how it will happen, but we really have to find a way to fix this train wreck before many more Americans get caught up in it through no fault of their own.

[msongs]

27. when you know your opponents' leadership is weak, go for the kill nt

[SlavesandBulldozers]

33. exactly.

There have been zero repercussions on acting like complete obstructionist assholes, so exactly what reason do they have to not continue doing the same thing.

From the schoolyard to the halls of power, when you show weakness it invites further insult and abuse. This is not complicated.

[Marthe48]

28. Why do Republicans hate Americans?

So punitive, vindictive, hateful.

[ArcticFox]

29. The Republicans Don't Support Our Troops

Shouldn't that be their political suicide?

[stubtoe]

30. You would think - that was my conclusion also.

But we have to remember, they're so caught up in politicking, they've forgotten what they were sent to Congress to do.

[groundloop]

31. Well, actually many of the repukes were sent to congress to obstruct Democrats

And they've been doing a hell of a job at it. They're nearly as good at it as are the Democrats are at letting it happen. As bad as I hate most of the repukes in the senate I gotta give them credit, they're dam good at playing the political game.

Al Franken for majority leader.

[StreetKnowledge]

32. Al might be a little inexperienced yet.

But how about somebody who has an axe to grind with the GOP who is experienced......John Kerry, maybe? ;)

[SlavesandBulldozers]

34. if this is what experience acts like

maybe we should shop for inexperience

[dflprincess]

35. Isn't the COBRA subsidy extension attached to this bill?

I know the House passed the extension earlier this week but now it's up to the Senate. I know some people who will be hurting if that extension isn't passed.

They shouldn't be allowed to mix bills like this. The extension should be voted on by itself and it needs to be fast tracked. As of now, anyone who is laid off after 12/31 won't be eligible for the subsidy.