This midnight session looks really bad

[Neecy]

The kind of middle-of-the-night crap that was pulled in the Bush years.

[Morning Dew]

1. McCain is still pissy over losing the election.

[Neecy]

2. What he's saying isn't a lie, though

[Morning Dew]

5. when you have an ax to grind, it always sounds like you're grinding your ax.

he's not much of a diplomatic speaker.

[still_one]

11. It is bullshit what he is saying. The only thing him and his shit party have done is obstruct and

lie

[frazzled]

3. Huh?

It's an open session: all 60 votes are already on board. There's nothing secret about it. It's a question of the number of hours required before cloture can be called. A bird in the hand.

Nothing would be changed by doing this at some other point. Except delay. Which I guess is what you're wanting.

[still_one]

12. Of course, because then the bill would loose. That is what the repukes want. They aren't in

control. Maybe they will hold there breath until they turn blue

damn hypocritical liars, the repukes that is

[leftstreet]

4. Well, they're passing the Insurance & Pharmaceutical Profit Protection Act!

It's not easy

[GreenPartyVoter]

15. +1

[Zen Democrat]

6. It's Senate rules. 30 hours after the call for cloture as soon as the 60 was secure was required.

And that 30 hours expires at 1:00 a.m. Sen. Stabanow explained it in detail this afternoon.

[still_one]

7. bull, they did the same thing on the house vote. Whether you are for or against this

the truth is the repukes had over 9 months to come up with something, and they did shit

which is what they are shit

[Connie_Corleone]

8. No it's not. The middle of the night crap was done in the House under Bush.

The vote was held open for hours in order to twist arms of Republicans to vote for the prescription drug bill.

The reason the Senate is in session is because they can't take a cloture vote until a certain amount of time has passed.

Plus, the republicans objected to having the vote at a reasonable time. It's just more obstruction tactics from the republicans.

[still_one]

10. How do you know when a republican is lying? Answer: When they open there mouth

They have been lying and distorting about this bill from the start. It may not be the best, but it isn't the worst either

I will wait until the republicans are finished before I turn it on again

[CoffinEd]

13. Beat me to it

"Plus, the republicans objected to having the vote at a reasonable time."

Yep, someone pointed this out in another thread. Thanks for mentioning it again.

[terrell9584]

14. Mandatory Insurance

That's all that needs to be said. The government will be forcing people to purchase a product or face penalties.


It is un-American fucking bullshit and the thing is, once it passes the Senate it goes to conference committee and as I understand it, only 51 votes are needed to pass a conference committee bill.


This is not single payer. This is horseshit. And once the American people find out whats in this thing it hands the Repugs back Congress.

[Frances]

16. I wanted single payer

but the votes weren't there

BUT I prefer reform to nothing

[terrell9584]

18. How is this reform?

How?

If Obama signs this he breaks a campaign promise. And more importantly, he puts the burden on the working men and women of this country while insurance companies get a payoff.


This bill is bullshit. It's that simple. Max Baucus can go to hell.

[Frances]

19. I think not allowing insurance companies

to deny insurance because of pre-existing conditions is very important. Also I think denying insurance companies the right to impose yearly or lifetime caps is important.

[JDPriestly]

21. This bill will not really save Americans money.

It will save the government money because it cuts Medicare benefits. But other than that it is going to increase costs for many Americans. There is no public option or single payer. It's a bad bill.

[Frances]

22. I don't think it cuts Medicare benefits

I think it is trying to rein in the profits that private insurance companies get for administering Medicare. I personally have the original Medicare which costs 14% less than the Republican version. My personal opinion is that Repubs introduced private insurers as middlemen in order to get them to give kickbacks in the way of campaign contributions.

[JDPriestly]

23. Do you have Medicare coverage for doctor's visits?

That is Medicare B. I think you have to have supplemental insurance or an advantage plan to cover it. My advantage plan is cheaper than the supplemental. I don't think that good doctors take straight Medicare in L.A. much.

[Frances]

24. I do have a supplemental and I pay nothing for doctor visits

[JDPriestly]

25. Supplemental is like Medicare Advantage. Medicare Advantage in my case

is an HMO -- an HMO similar to a community health care center but with a hospital. Supplemental insurance would be too expensive for me.

[Frances]

26. My husband is older than I am

I got a discount because I joined the same supplemental he has; I also got a discount because I joined as soon as I became eligible.

With this plan, I can go to any doctor or hospital I choose.

My husband says the people at his Senior Center do not believe that we don't have co-pays.

If you factor in the cost of co-pays, we think we got the best deal there was.

[Zynx]

9. If we restricted things to just hours between breakfast and lunch and lunch and dinner

on weekdays, this shit would take even longer. This "dead of night" stuff is nonsense. The news agencies will pick up the full story regardless and that's all that really matters.

[zaj]

17. Not remotely similar, but to the masses, it will be spun that way.

Just like Republicans trying to spin this as an effort by Dems to *force* this through during a holiday period when no one is paying attention. That of course is BS. They want all of the attention they can get on this. It's just that deadlines are the things that push real negotiations. And the holiday is a big deadline.

[dysfunctional press]

20. it'll make for good copy in repuke campaign ads...

they've gotta be LOVING the clusterfuck that the democrats have made out of this pile of legislative vomit.

i mostly feel sorry for all those poor misunerstood incumbent democratic congresspeople who will be ousted in next year's selections, and will be forced into lowly jobs as high-paid corporate lobbyists...oh, wait- no i don't.