Pelosi: Confident House will pass health care bill (AP)

[jefferson_dem]

Pelosi: Confident House will pass health care bill
By SUDHIN THANAWALA Associated Press Writer © 2010 The Associated Press
March 13, 2010, 6:59PM

SAN FRANCISCO — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Saturday she's confident the House will pass health care legislation and dismissed Republican criticism that she did not have enough votes for the measure.

"We're very excited about where we are and will not be deterred by estimates that have no basis in fact," she said during a dedication of the renamed Lim P. Lee Post Office in San Francisco. The post office was renamed after the nation's first Chinese-American postmaster.

Pelosi declined to say when House members would vote on a health care bill, or how many votes that she had secured. Although she added that lawmakers were "on the verge of making history."

She also dismissed criticism by House GOP leader John Boehner of Ohio that she did not have sufficient votes.

"I'm never dependent on Congressman Boehner's count. I never have," she said to a smattering of laughter from the crowd.

House Democratic leaders are pressing for a vote on their bill as early as this coming week.

<SNIP>

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5itKAiQ-Eeu2JCZqilNbjuyJQmS7gD9EE39T01

[Xipe Totec]

1. What about the public option?

Is it back on the table?



No?



I didn't think so.

[Pirate Smile]

2. FFS - the world isn't about the friggin public option. It isn't the be all, end all. It was

already watered down to the point where it wasn't particularly effective and the number of people it would include was actually quite small.

Jesus, people! Get a friggin grip!

[Xipe Totec]

4. Touchy aren't you

Without a public option, this bill does diddly squat for me.

It is nothing more than mandatory payments to private for profit insurance companies.

Wake up and smell the coffee.

[Pirate Smile]

8. It's gotten ridiculous. The idea that without the PO the bill does nothing for you is ridiculous.

There are a ton of new protections for everyone under the new insurance regulations but you say those are "diddly squat". That is ridiculous.

Missing the forest for the trees.

The debate around here is embarrassing and a disgrace considering the enormous hardships suffered by so many in the existing insurance structure but people who consider themselves progressive are ready to throw those all away.

Ridiculous!

[Xipe Totec]

10. That's just bullshit

Protections?

At what price?

Debate is embarrasing?

For whom? You?

How easy it is to dismiss the problem bu just blaming the "progressives".

Then you don't have to actually argue the benefits, if any, of this betrayal of trust.

Stick your head in the sand if you want, but don't come back crying in November, wondering where the support went.

[jefferson_dem]

11. +1.

Well said. Down with simple-minded purity tests.

[HughMoran]

14. It is ridiculous

The right-wingers just 'say stuff' to promote their side - doesn't make it true.

I thought only Republicans did this:

[CreekDog]

15. The public option was small enough that the bill wasn't much different without it

I'm in favor of the bill for lack of something better.

But if I were against it, the presence of the public option actually included in the House Bill would not change my mind.

If it changes your mind, that seems kind of silly...that public option is almost negligible in scale.

And regardless of what it will make you do, most of us who want any health care have to have insurance and until that changes, it should be easier to get insurance and the government should help more people do it.

You don't just not help people get health care simply because you don't like the way they procure it, they way almost everyone in the US procures it in the US (through the insurance system).

[jefferson_dem]

3. What about the sound of one hand clapping?

Nope. The AP report above doesn't address that either.

[Xipe Totec]

5. Clap isn't covered either?

That's just great.

[Kablooie]

13. If this passes a public option could still be possible some time in the future.

But if this doesn't pass, a public option as well as ANY kind of health care bill is gone and the current system will continue unchanged. It's unlikely there will be another attempt at health care reform for a decade or more.

The only possible way to get a public option is to pass something now and hope that adjustments will be made in the future.

[IndianaGreen]

16. Get this through into your head: Democratic Party elites don't want any public option

They serve their corporate masters, not the people.

[mzmolly]

18. New bill timeline is here:

http://dpc.senate.gov/healthreformbill/healthbill50.pdf

I don't see the original 2014 PO. Not sure which is the latest version?

[bbinacan]

6. How many times have I heard that before?

:eyes:

[Ishoutandscream2]

7. I can't keep up anymore. Mixed signals after mixed signals

We got the votes, we don't have the votes. Public option is on the table, it's off the table.

I give up. It seems no one really knows what the hell is going on.

[Pirate Smile]

9. The public option is off the table and the Bill will pass. Ignore any other signals unless Nancy

says it.

[Better Today]

12. So I should ignore everything I've learned about value of what Nancy says

based on your demand?

Gee, let's see, on the one hand I have the experiences of the past, on the other hand I have an anonymous person on a forum whose clearly got an agenda. . . which should I choose? So tough a decision,. . . . NOT!

[NJmaverick]

17. K & R for historic good news!