To hell with Byrd. Kennedy would have "evacuated" on this bill

[Indenturedebtor]

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/01/10/politics/main2349810.shtml

(AP) The federal government should join the state of Massachusetts in enacting universal health coverage, said Sen. Edward Kennedy, the new chairman of the Senate committee with jurisdiction over numerous health issues.

Kennedy's home state is the first to require everyone to have health insurance, just as drivers must have automobile coverage.

Kennedy has his own version of what universal health coverage would look like. He wants to extend Medicare to all. In his first hearing Wednesday as chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, the Massachusetts Democrat called on 10 witnesses from all over the country to talk about how to make health care more affordable.

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From the LA Times (a NOT so liberal rag but read between the lines here):

http://articles.latimes.com/2009/jul/26/nation/na-kennedy26?pg=3

Ted Kennedy's record on healthcare reform is hardly flawless. Critics believe his refusal to compromise with Presidents Nixon and Carter caused him to miss promising windows of opportunity. During the Reagan years, he bowed to labor unions and declined to back a plan for catastrophic health insurance, a move he later regretted.

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Kennedy was for UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE and had passed up crappy deals in the past "bowing to labor unions". Kennedy was a Progressive not a corporatist sellout!

[graywarrior]

1. Yawn

[Indenturedebtor]

3. Thanks for the kick. Please come back and be bored some more n/t

[graywarrior]

5. Contribute something to DU and maybe we'll respect your opinion

[Indenturedebtor]

7. I have in the past... but you're just grasping at straws because you know I'm right

Thanks for another kick.

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Indenturedebtor]

10. Hah and you call me a liar because...? nt

[ima_sinnic]

14. information about Ted Kennedy's record on health insurance is not a "contribution"?

interesting.

[Bitwit1234]

16. Didn't Kennedy's wife Victoria say he would have agreed with the bill.

[cliffordu]

2. As his good friend, do you know how his kids are doing??/

[graywarrior]

4. You should buy him a star

[Indenturedebtor]

6. Hah. Do you have anything more substantive to say?

Or maybe you could say something funny like "You're either with us or against us!"?

[cliffordu]

9. Do YOU have anything more substantive to say?

Since you knew Edward Kennedy, and all.

Did you know Bobby, too??

[Indenturedebtor]

12. I know what he said and stood for on healthcare

And I take him at what he actually said about healthcare and what he worked for which is to make it universal and expand medicare to do so.

This bill does not do that. Sorry.

[Schema Thing]

11. Kennedy would be very happy today,

after having voted for the bill this morning.

Just as his wife pointed out.


Deal with it.

[Indenturedebtor]

13. Well I'm not going to argue with her on what he would have done then

but I would have lost faith in him as well then.

[Orangepeel]

15. From the article you posted:

"Kennedy emphasized how Democratic legislators in his home state worked last year with Republican Gov. Mitt Romney in crafting universal coverage there. He wants the same spirit of compromise to take hold in Congress."

You also point out that he regretted not compromising in the past.

But you don't believe he would have voted with the other 57 Democrats and Sanders (despite what his wife and friends say)?

I guess there is an outside possibility that Kennedy could have shamed Nelson and/or Lieberman some and ended up with a slightly better bill. But I see no evidence that he wouldn't have voted for it. In fact, your own links imply that he would have.

[UTUSN]

17. Nope. n/t

[KittyWampus]

18. Let me tell you about Ted Kennedy. He loved sailing. And when you are heading into a strong wind

you don't expect to sail straight ahead. You tack to the side and angle your way forward.

Just like politics.

[Mass]

19. Kennedy supported the MA healthcare bill and worked hard for it.

He would have preferred Medicare for all or a public option, there is no doubt about it, and would have worked for it, but, at the end, he would have done what Sanders and Feingold did, vote for a very imperfect bill to make progress without waiting 20 more years.

[golddigger]

20. I agree.

If Sen. Kennedy was still alive we wouldn't have this monstrosity of a bill?