“There are a lot of people who have drawn lines in the sand that they’re erasing furiously today.”

[jefferson_dem]

Weiner: Health Bill Will Pass House
A key boost for the health care bill.

Dem Rep Anthony Weiner, one of the fiercest Dem critics of watered down reform, is now flatly predicting that the bill will pass the House, because Dems holding out for changes are now willing to erase their “lines in the sand.”

In an interview with me just now, Weiner suggested it’s basically a foregone conclusion that Dems holding out will back it in large enough numbers to pass it. The shift in Dem sentiment comes after two major breakthroughs yesterday: The White House deal with labor on the “Cadillac” tax, and Obama’s rallying speech to House Dems yesterday evening.

“I think it’s going to pass,” Weiner told me. “There are a lot of people who have drawn lines in the sand that they’re erasing furiously today.”

Weiner cautioned there was still a key sticking point: He said the bill still needed to be tweaked so that every state should get the same level of assistance from the Federal government on Medicaid funding that Ben Nelson’s Nebraska is getting. He said he needed to see this fix before he could support the bill.

But he spoke about the overall bill almost like a foregone conclusion. “There are still some various and sundry things, but it’s mostly done,” he said, referring to efforts to merge the House and Senate bills. Negotiators will produce a final bill within days.

“A lot of people recognize that we can’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good,” Weiner added.

Weiner had been one of the most determined holdouts for improvements to the bill — on the public option, on single payer, on abortion and so forth — so his prediction that Dems recognize the writing on the wall could carry some weight with fellow members.

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/health-care/weiner-health-care-bill-will-pass-house/

[ananda]

1. Perhaps we should talk more in terms of a moral center..

.. instead of a line to cross.

[Sebastian Doyle]

8. Or perhaps we should talk about amoral "centrists"

who gave us this watered down shitty corporatist crap that doesn't remotely resemble "reform"?

[Vincardog]

12. No we can not let the unacceptable be the enemy of the corporate welfare.

[Faryn Balyncd]

36. You nailed it!

:hi:

[Cha]

2. I know so many will be helped

with this and it will be a good start for those who need it the most.

[daleanime]

3. Get my cell ready.....

:argh:

[HughMoran]

4. Thank god - we desperately need this bill at my small business - $36k/yr is INSANE!!!

We'll be able to go from a pool of less than 10 to a pool of thousands. Our rates for the same coverage (family) will go from $36k/yr to about $15k/yr. Anybody who is against this is against the middle class. There's SO much else good in this bill - you'd have to be a sadistic monster to want people to suffer without it.

[Larkspur]

7. You'll have to wait til 2014 to get any help, but the taxes will start as soon as the bill is signed

That's one of the big problems with the Senate HCR bill -- the so called benefits don't start right away but the taxes to pay for it start immediately.

[Scarsdale Vibe]

35. Wrong, tax credits for some small businesses start in 2010 in the Senate bill.

Depending on the size of the small business, they will pay 35% less in health care costs right away, moving up to 50% in 2014. There will also be a small group exchange set up and insurance companies can only rate groups based on geography and age with minimum benefit packages defined by law along with limits on cost-sharing. This bill is a huge boon for small businesses with low/medium-wage workers and gets better over time.

[DebbieCDC]

5. Guess that spine the dems briefly grew has collapsed

Par for the course

[MoJoWorkin]

6. I'd say some have come to their senses. THANK GOD!

[Sebastian Doyle]

9. Stephen Hemsley? Is that you?

Thank God for what, exactly? Only an insurance executive would be thanking God (or Satan, more likely) for this shit.

[jefferson_dem]

10. Indeed.

Seems there are still a few "dead enders" straggling around but I guess that should be expected.

[Phx_Dem]

13. Ditto. Cutting off your nose to spite your face is not helpful.

And some Dems are now realizing they aren't the only voice on the HCR bill and they're going to have to compromise, which is always the case.

[HughMoran]

14. Thank god is right - my company's future is dependent on HCR

If we don't get it, we all may be out of jobs sooner than later. There are many benefits to small businesses in the bill that will help us dramatically.

1) exchanges - go from a pool of 10 to thousands
2) tax breaks
3) can continue Cobra if company doesn't offer insurance

[Inuca]

22. A spine without

a functioning brain is not much help.

[lib2DaBone]

11. NO ONE will benefit from this POS welfare for Big Insurance...

You will need an attorney and a CPA just to read your monthly statement.

Medical offices in my town are already canceling Medicare appointments for seniors and refusing to fill medications.

And this giant-stinking-turd isn't even law.... yet.

[n2doc]

15. The GOP will n/t

[leveymg]

42. They already have. Immensely. The damage has already been done, and no erasing it.

The cost of the insurance industry bailout bill had been to split the Democratic Party. The corporate Blue Dogs and inept Party Leadership have done what the GOP never could on their own - totally alienated the progressive Democratic base.

Putting a smiley face and some lipstick on it now isn't going to change that basic fact.

[RollWithIt]

16. Care to back that up with a link or a shred of proof of any kind?

Those are serious allegations. Something the press would have jumped all over.

"Medical offices in my town are already canceling Medicare appointments for seniors and REFUSING to fill medications."

Really? I call bullshit.

[Tippy]

18. Having no problem here getting appointmens...

Or getting medications filled....here

[mkultra]

19. lies like this make trolls stand out like red delicious and the granny cart.

[dionysus]

33. well, *I* have reliable information they are preemptively machine-gunning seniors out back of

nursing homes!!1!1!1! TO MAKE ROOM FOR ILLEGAL ALIENS

[mkultra]

41. we all know that Obama actually kicked a guy with cancer yesterday

why has the WH not at least come out with a denial?

[dionysus]

34. you wouldn't be resorting to a little fibbin' now, would you?

:rofl:

[JTFrog]

43. *cough*bullshit*cough*

:eyes:

[GeorgeGist]

17. Mediocrity is the perfect enemy

[Vinca]

20. I swear if I hear that expression - "can't let the perfect be the enemy of the good" -

one more time, I'm going to go postal.

[jenmito]

21. You can't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

Sorry-it's true. ;)

[Vinca]

23. I'm now going postal. Thanks, jenmito.

:argh:

[jenmito]

25. No problem. Can you pick me up some stamps?

:)

[CTLawGuy]

44. I'm sorry you have to live in the real world

with the rest of us. I wish we could live in a world where everyone in Congress was liberal, but we don't. We live in country that is 25% liberal and almost 40% conservative. To get as far as we get on health care is a miracle if you think about it.

[freddie mertz]

24. Does that mean Weiner is going to cave too?

Or is he complaining about others?

[jenmito]

26. It means he thinks the bill is good enough to pass-just like the rest of 'em. n/t

[freddie mertz]

27. In other words, he is going to cave.

[jenmito]

28. Nope. He wouldn't sign on if he didn't think the good outweighed the bad. n/t

[dionysus]

29. does he go under the bus now? SHOULD HE BE PRIMARIED!!1!!1!????

;)

[jenmito]

30. Of COURSE he does. And of COURSE he should!

:)

[freddie mertz]

31. No. Just another member of the club. And in fact, I would understand his decision.

I just wish we had a few more ornery, stubborn old progressives out there.

[jefferson_dem]

39. Right. Caving to the President and the rest of the Dems.

Instead of standing strong with the Repugs and teabaggers.

[freddie mertz]

45. This DLC approach is killing us in the polls.

Keep it up, guys, then come back and tell me how well it is working.

[jefferson_dem]

37. It means he's being sensible and is prepared to support reform...

as are (just about) every single Dem in congress.

[IndianaGreen]

40. Referring to the Senate's HCR POS as 'reform' is rather Orwellian, don't you think?

But then, Obama gave a warmongering American Exceptionalism speech right after he was bestowed with the Nobel Peace Prize.

[Lorien]

46. “A lot of people recognize that we can’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good,” Weiner added.

Total cave in.

[highplainsdem]

32. I'd say it was the change in the excise tax, not the speech.

If Obama had given a similar speech without changes that helped not only the unions but other workers, it would have had little effect.

I'm glad union pressure had some effect. I still think the threshold should have been raised much farther, and ideally the excise tax would have been scrapped completely. It's good that other exceptions to the tax are being made, so it can't be argued this compromise is helping ONLY the unions, but that point needs to be made more clearly since there are already a lot of critics calling this a sweetheart deal and trying to make it look as bad as the deal Ben Nelson was given. We need to make sure people know other workers, non-union workers, were also helped when the White House backed down on favoring the excise tax over other funding.

An SFGate.com blog was reporting yesterday that there would be a final push to exempt anyone making less than $200K from the excise tax, but I haven't seen anything more on that yet.

The threat Brown is posing to the Democratic supermajority in the Senate is probably another factor in House Dems being willing to accept the compromises being reached. Much more so than Obama's speech.

But I still think that overall the HCR compromise being hammered out a poor excuse for health care reform. And it will be VERY difficult to sell to the American people, and it's likely to hurt Dems in this year's elections.

We'd be in much better shape if the White House had fought harder for the public option and reimportation of drugs. An individual mandate without a public option is going to hurt us, especially if the employer mandate is dropped.

But I'm afraid Congress as well as the White House has gone so far out on that limb that they don't see much option now except trying to finish the bill despite all its huge flaws, and then trying to convince people later that the bill is better than it is.

[Faryn Balyncd]

38. The stench from this bill will destroy the Democratic Party.....

....whether people erase their morals or not.

[JVS]

47. Like that the bill I sign must have a public option to keep insurers honest line in the sand?

[Tom Rinaldo]

48. Mine is still there and the Democrats are still on the wrong side of it

They have political reasons for not wanting to come up emptyhanded after all of this effort, and few elected Dems want to openly defy the Obama Administration at crunch time. I understand that, it hasn't changed my line though.