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Iowa Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Nov-15-10 01:44 PM
Original message
Harkin says health overhaul won't be repealed
Source: Waterloo/Cedar Falls Courier

DAVENPORT, Iowa --- U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, a key defender of the new health care law, says Republicans threatening to repeal it are just placating their base and efforts to kill the reform package will be dispensed with quickly next year....

And Harkin, who will begin his first full session at the helm of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, will be a key defender. The panel is one of the most powerful in Congress, and health-care-related legislation, including any kind of repeal, must pass through its door. Harkin, an Iowa Democrat in his fifth term, said he'll slam the door shut.

Read more: http://wcfcourier.com/news/local/7a97d1c9-18a1-5bde-855d-f2879e9cf97d.html



Way to go Tom! No quibbling, no equivocating, and no weasel words.
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ChairmanAgnostic Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Nov-15-10 01:45 PM
Response to Original message
1. would be nice if a president showed the same gumption
wouldn't it?
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speppin Donating Member (197 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Nov-15-10 01:59 PM
Response to Reply #1
3. +1
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elleng Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Nov-15-10 02:05 PM
Response to Reply #1
4. ...
:thumbsdown:
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ChairmanAgnostic Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Nov-15-10 02:15 PM
Response to Reply #4
8. Oh, I see. you DON'T want the president showing a spine.
I get it. The status quo is just fine, eh?
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elleng Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Nov-15-10 05:37 PM
Response to Reply #8
28. ...
:thumbsdown:
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ChairmanAgnostic Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Nov-16-10 12:46 PM
Response to Reply #28
30. very eloquent. A bit wordy, though.
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HereSince1628 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Nov-15-10 01:55 PM
Response to Original message
2. I expect holes to be punched in it.
I am not sure the insurance companies will allow the mandate, so hated by tea-partiers, to go away, but I expect that they will work for ways to make mandated health care ever more profitable for insurance companies and corporate health providers.
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pattmarty Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Nov-15-10 02:10 PM
Response to Original message
5. There are so many fucking problems with this "reform" that it will never.......
...........be "fixed". Some are that "most" of it won't be functional until 2014 and the so called donut hole in the Medicare prescription bill won't be addressed until 2014. BUT, the main reason is now with the insurance companies empowered and with all the extra $$$$$$$ they will get, the money forces alone are enough to crush ANY effort to "fix" the POS. It won't be repealed, the Republicans are doing the same thing with the insurance companies that the Dems were doing against their Wall st buddies when they "fixed" the financial system. Bottom line, neither party wants it repealed.
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Safetykitten Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Nov-15-10 02:17 PM
Response to Reply #5
9. So true, and this is the legacy of this monumental screwup
Things that should of been done will never be done, and things that were done will be in a constant state of fucked-upedness all the while the insurance companies will feed on the confusion and turmoil.

Obama's biggest legacy. His own HC reform that will haunt us for years.
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pattmarty Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Nov-15-10 02:30 PM
Response to Reply #9
11. Yep, and it will "haunt" the Democratic party for years too.
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BillH76 Donating Member (145 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Nov-15-10 03:46 PM
Response to Reply #5
17. The health care "reform" is such a p.o.s., I don't care.
Let the reactionaries gut it. Maybe our distant descendents will have a chance at passing single payer.
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savalez Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Nov-15-10 04:44 PM
Response to Reply #5
21. There are good things in the HCR bill.
No, it's not single payer but President Obama couldn't wave a magic wand and get that passed. But that is not reason enough for me to want to throw it out. Too many folks will be helped by it.

Here's a summary ( http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20000846-503544.html ). Read it, there are some good things in there.

Or, continue to bash it, it's up to you. But don't be surprised if you find yourself benefiting from this bill in someway somewhere down the line.

I do wish major parts of it started sooner so we could judge it by what it is and not by what detractors say it's going to be. But, time keeps rolling on and those start dates will come.
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ProudDad Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Nov-15-10 04:56 PM
Response to Reply #21
25. Since it leaves the profit motive in charge of "USAmerican Sick Care(tm)"
this "plan" cannot be sustained -- it's just too expensive...

Enhanced and Improved Medicare for All with STRICT cost controls on providers and the health-industrial complex is the ONLY way we'll be able to afford Health Care!
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pattmarty Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Nov-15-10 07:46 PM
Response to Reply #25
29. Yep.
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One Fly Donating Member (16 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Nov-15-10 02:14 PM
Response to Original message
6. You betcha!
This you can take to the bank --- that is until they take poor Tom to the back room and give him the or else treatment like Kucinich got.
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ProgressiveProfessor Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Nov-15-10 02:15 PM
Response to Original message
7. He is both right and wrong. The original legislation was not complete
It will need some additions as well as funding. The Republicans in the house can easily block both.

I expect it not to be overturned as a block, but be attacked in small pieces in an attempt to gut it.
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TygrBright Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Nov-15-10 02:18 PM
Response to Original message
10. I love this guy. I wish he'd made it in 2002. I campaigned for him.
Alas for the might-have-been. I'm glad he's on our side.

regretfully,
Bright
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lumberjack_jeff Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Nov-15-10 02:44 PM
Response to Reply #10
12. Me too. n/t
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SomeGuyInEagan Donating Member (872 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Nov-15-10 02:55 PM
Response to Reply #10
13. I was behind him in '92 ...
... he was a voice of reason after eight years of Reagan followed by another four of GHWB.

Later, I met him a couple of times in work-related meetings. I also had the opportunity to meet with several Iowa local and state office holders plus two Representative in the U.S. House from both parties during the mid-90s - he always impressed me with his memory, passion, ideas and warmth (I really *wish* I could say that same about the other Iowa pols I met during those years, but sadly cannot). He was clearly head-and-shoulders above the others I met.
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TygrBright Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Nov-15-10 03:32 PM
Response to Reply #13
15. Yeah, 1992. Old age does things to yer brain cells....
I saw him at a little community center in St. Paul way early in the campaign and immediately thought, "Damn, this guy is too smart and too ethical to ever get elected President, but it's worth a try anyway."

befuddledly,
Bright
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mommalegga Donating Member (77 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Nov-15-10 03:04 PM
Response to Original message
14. Dont worry, if you dont like the health insurance profits protection act,
you can get a waiver:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/10/health/policy/10waiver.html?_r=1

Oh wait, big business need only apply.

This whole bill is a clusterfudge....

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TygrBright Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Nov-15-10 03:34 PM
Response to Reply #14
16. Maybe to YOU it is, but it's going to allow nearly half a million of my fellow New Mexicans...
...a better chance at getting the health care they need. Is it flawed? Yes. Would I rather have bupkiss? No. Do I think there was ever a snowball's chance in hell of getting an UNFLAWED bill passed. No.

So thank you, I'll take the half-inch of progress we have made, and try to protect it and build on it.

irritably,
Bright
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BillH76 Donating Member (145 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Nov-15-10 03:49 PM
Response to Reply #16
18. Let's see what happens in 2014 when the law is implemented.
By then, we are supposed to start getting out of Afghanistan, too. Isn't that adorable?
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TygrBright Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Nov-15-10 04:15 PM
Response to Reply #18
20. Starting THIS YEAR small businesses like mine (less than 25 employees)...
...will be eligible for tax credits to help provide health coverage to employees. A LOT of New Mexicans are employed by very small businesses, and we have one hell of a time competing with larger employers because the big ones can offer health benefits.

Starting THIS YEAR the state is offering an exchange where we can get insurance plans that will cover 2-3 people without penalties for pre-existing conditions.

Starting in 2011, our community health centers (which are the ONLY care option for nearly a quarter million New Mexicans (mostly minorities, incidentally) will be getting additional federal assistance with construction and renovation, critical infrastructure needs in our economically marginal communities where facilities are outdated and decrepit.

Starting now, scholarships will help us recruit more non-white, non-English speaking students into education and training programs to become health care professionals. Our state has one of the worst health care workforce shortages in the country, and non-white professionals who can speak something other than English are desperately needed for our very diverse population. AND we will be getting grants to increase minority representation on the health care faculty of our colleges and universities. AND more continuing education dollars for all of our desperately underpaid, overworked rural health care providers who can't afford nearly enough continuing education to keep up with technology and standards of care for the chronic diseases that are endemic in New Mexico.

And starting in 2012 the state MUST be prepared to collect data that will help us identify and monitor health problems that disproportionately affect our poor, non-white, rural populations. It will take at least that long for our slapdash, corrupt, brother-in-law infested state bureaucracy to manage that anyway, so 2012 is, like, RIGHT NOW for us.

We are also eligible for funding for additional community health workers for medically underserved communities, which describes a shamefully large area of our state.

And in 2014, things will get even better, if we don't fuck it up with circular firing squads, etc.

So, yes. THANK YOU, PRESIDENT OBAMA AND CONGRESS, for all that the VERY FLAWED HCR legislation IS doing for me and my fellow New Mexicans.

defiantly,
Bright

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ProudDad Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Nov-15-10 05:00 PM
Response to Reply #20
26. And no "small business" will be able to afford the premiums
even with "subsidies" that may or may not be funded...

This POS just shovels more money at the for-profit "Sick Care" status-quo...

Those nice things you've mentioned could have been passed by themselves and are the few pieces of this legislation that actually address the deformed, distorted, dysfunctional USAmerican sick care system.

Nice stuff but the whole stupid thing (and Medicare) will be heading for bankruptcy by 2014...

Then Improved and Enhanced Medicare for All will finally be put on the table...but it might be too late by then...
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dflprincess Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Nov-15-10 05:17 PM
Response to Reply #16
27. This bill does nothing that guarantees access to care
Edited on Mon Nov-15-10 05:18 PM by dflprincess
it merely requires that we keep buying the same shoddy products from the same bunch of crooks.

Having insurance doesn't mean you will be able to afford care. Ask anyone who has declared bankrupcty because of the medical bills. Before they needed to use their insurance most of them thought they were "covered".

This bill isn't just flawed - it's a scam.
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Kingofalldems Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Nov-15-10 03:53 PM
Response to Original message
19. A real Democrat
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ProudDad Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Nov-15-10 04:51 PM
Response to Original message
22. Democrats United: Actual Health Care Plan will Not be Considered...
Democrats have decided that current give-away to the health insurance mafia and Big PhRMA and GE, etc. will be defended. Actual comprehensive, universal health care will remain "off the table".

Tough titties USAmerican Sheeple!

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Name removed Donating Member (0 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Nov-15-10 04:53 PM
Response to Reply #22
24. Deleted message
Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.
 
ProudDad Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Nov-15-10 04:52 PM
Response to Original message
23. Democrats United: Actual Health Care Plan will Not be Considered...
Edited on Mon Nov-15-10 05:01 PM by ProudDad
Democrats have decided that current give-away to the health insurance mafia and Big PhRMA and GE, etc. will be defended. Actual comprehensive, universal health care will remain "off the table".

Tough beans, USAmerican Sheeple!
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