Jane Hamsher: Kill The Senate Bill

[Hissyspit]

http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2009/12/15/kill-the-senate-bill/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+CampaignSilo+%28Jane+Hamsher+Campaign+Silo%29

Kill the Senate Bill

By: Jane Hamsher Tuesday December 15, 2009 2:36 pm  

On MSNBC, I was asked what I thought about Howard Dean’s call to kill the Senate bill.

I agree with him.  From what we know about the bill, it is worse than passing nothing.

When urging its passage today, President Obama said two things that are manifestly untrue.  He says that the bill fulfills all of the promises he made in his September speech before a joint session of Congress, but it doesn’t.

What the President said in September:

They will no longer be able to place some arbitrary cap on the amount of coverage you can receive in a given year or a lifetime.

But while nobody was looking, Harry Reid slipped in an “arbitrary cap on the amount of coverage you can receive in a given year”:

A loophole in the Senate health care bill would let insurers place annual dollar limits on medical care for people struggling with costly illnesses such as cancer, prompting a rebuke from patient advocates.

The President Obama also said that “what ever ideas exist in terms of bending the cost curve and starting to reduce cost for families, businesses, and government, those elements are in this bill.”  Not true either.

As we speak, Frank Lautenberg and Kay Hagen are destroying Byron Dorgan’s drug reimportation amendment by making a bunch of bullshit claims about drug safety.  The danger of transferring drugs from a CVS warehouse in Candada to a CVS store in the United States?  Zip.  But they’re pretending that everything is coming from Chinese counterfeiters to keep something that could save the government $19 billion and the public over $100 billion from passing so the White House deal  with PhRMA can be upheld.  The Dorgan amendment could have been a way of honestly bending the cost curve, something the President campaigned on.

Instead, the “bend” comes from taxing middle class insurance benefits, which makes them worse.  According to the CSM report released last week:

- snip -

Congratulations, President Obama.  This is the “win” you’ve been working toward.  Joe Lieberman kicks the entire Democratic party in the teeth and you thank him for it.  He writes the bill, and you go on national TV and have to misrepresent what’s in it in order to find anything good to say.

And Ben Nelson isn’t even done working his Bart Stupak magic.

If I wanted Joe Lieberman writing a health care bill, I would’ve voted for John McCain.

Howard Dean is right.  Kill the Senate bill.

MORE

[FiveGoodMen]

1. Absolutely.

[mix]

2. k & r nt

[DJ13]

3. K&R

[AndyA]

4. Change? Really? This is change?

I guess we should have been more specific as to exactly what we meant by change. :eyes:

Government as usual, nothing to see here folks...move along... :eyes:

[suffragette]

5. Jane and Howard are correct.

Time to kill this sorry mess of a Senate bill.

[quiller4]

10. They are wrong. Even in its present form it will cover many of the

uninsured and save lives. That is worth doing.

[defendandprotect]

17. Will kill more Americans in the end ...it's an effort to cement corporations in our health care . .

and that's the very basis of our current problems -- corporate health care!!!

$600 BILLION/$800 BILLION to insurance and drug companies???

How is that progress?

It's self-delusion to not understand that over 40 years and more corporations have

bought our government and Congress -- and have control over the Congressional agenda!!!

What you're suggesting is a compromise with corporate/fascism!!!

[suffragette]

22. The problem is its form keeps getting chipped

away every time we catch a glimpse of the thing.
They started out the gate with compromises to the insurance industry, started chipping away from Congress members beholden to insurance financing and have reached the point of having a compromised and deeply flawed bill.
At each stage, they chipped away more: Public Option, Medicare buy-in, no annual limits, etc, etc, etc.

[bvar22]

6. Cheap Talk.

Chump Change.

[WillyT]

7. Kill It...

:thumbsdown:

[mike_c]

8. damn right....

That was a righteous rant! Hamsher nailed it. Rec'd!

[sendero]

9. If Howard Dean..

... is against it, I'm against it.

[bluethruandthru]

11. +1000 n/t

[wisteria]

12. I don't like that woman at all. And, she is not using any sense on this. Just trying to flex her

muscles to see how many people will listen to her. We need reform- I will take some reform over none at all.

[placton]

13. wisteria

here is some Jim Jones/Barack Obama KoolAid - drink deeeeeep

[wisteria]

16. You know, I think you are the one drinking the Koolaid. n/t

[defendandprotect]

18. There is no sense in denying what Jane Hamsher is pointing to: CORPORATISM....

It is corporate control over our people's government and its agencies --

It's is the buying of government by corporations -- buying of our candidates and

elected officials -- pre-bribed and pre-owned elected officials!!!

What you're suggesting is rolling over for corporate fascism --

Self-delusion isn't going to help us here no matter how comfortable it may make some feel!!

[pundaint]

27. change is not reform.

Screwing a few less is not reform. Not screwing anybody is reform
Taxing Americans to pay the highest premiums in the world is not reform, removing the money changers from the healthcare delivery continuum is reform
Paying off PhRMA in behind closed door meetings is not reform, ending the restrictions on the purchase of drugs at world prices is reform

I hope this helps

[dflprincess]

14. Obama also said he wanted to be the last president to deal with health care

if he thinks this bill will accomplish that, he's delusional.

[bertman]

15. Recommend. To watch President Obama stand there with that slimy son of a bitch, Max Baucus

and tell us that we MUST pass this bill or risk our premiums rising and Medicare going bust WAS DISGUSTING AND INFURIATING.

Kill this POS!!!

[defendandprotect]

19. It is the face of CORPORATISM . . .

and what we need is a plan to deal with it --

We have pre-owned and pre-bribed candidates and elected officials --

Corporations own our people's government --

That's the reality you are seeing --

NOW . . . what's Plan B . . . what's the plan to deal with it???



PS: I owe you a handful of smilies for your post -- but couldn't get the smilies to come up!!!

[bertman]

24. 's okay, defendandprotect. I'll take an IOU.

:-)

[pundaint]

28. The People must reestablish their dominion over government

If we fired every incumbent one election cycle, our interests would become the preeminent concern for a few years. Or we could repeat some failed approach from the past.

[Jack Sprat]

20. This bill passes in its' present form, then

you won't see any Democratic majorities for a long time to come. The only way out is to kill this monster. Not only does it not have any real reform, but it is huge tax on the next generations to follow. It is poisonous. Only the most vile and hateful legislators could have brought us to this point. This was a scam from the start. Obama and Emanuel are going to raise some big campaign checks for selling American consumers out. It's as despicable as passing Nafta and watching the middle-class slowly die.

[Hissyspit]

21. .

[democracy1st]

23. K & R

[thereismore]

25. Obama went from "reducing cost" to "bending the cost curve". He's no ML King!

I won't be fooled. I know what you requested, Mr. President. Increased coverage and reduced costs. Not this.

[Vidar]

26. K&R.