Dem leaders unite on health care strategy

[kpete]

Source: Washington Post

Dem leaders unite on health care strategy

By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR
The Associated Press
Monday, January 25, 2010; 7:36 PM

WASHINGTON -- Democratic congressional leaders are uniting around their last, best hope for salvaging President Barack Obama's sweeping health care overhaul.

Their plan is to pass the Senate bill with some changes to accommodate House Democrats, senior Democratic aides said Monday. Leaders will present the idea to the rank and file this week, but it's unclear that they will have the votes to move forward.

Last week's victory by Republican Scott Brown in Massachusetts cost Democrats the 60th vote they need to maintain undisputed control of the Senate, jeopardizing the outcome of the health care bill just when Obama had brokered a final deal on most of the major issues.

"We've put so much effort into this, so much hard work, and we were so close to doing some significant things. Now we have to find the political path that brings us out. And it's not easy," the No. 2 Senate Democrat, Dick Durbin of Illinois, said Monday.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/25/AR2010012502952.html

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

1. Good. I hope the rank & file goes for it.

[Iowa]

23. It depends on what changes they make...

http://rawstory.com/2010/01/democrats-dropping-ban-preexisting-conditions/

[Toots]

45. If they make a single change to the Senate Bill Health Care is dead

There is no way the Senate will come together again with sixty votes. The Senate has already passed a Bill. If the house would just approve that it would go to the President's desk. If they make a single change it will have to go back to a vote in the Senate and that will not happen. Republicans will block any vote. ANY VOTE.

[dflprincess]

51. If they go with the Senate bill, health care is dead

The Senate bill is just a scam to protect the insurance companies' profits. It does nothing to guarantee access to health care.

[liberal N proud]

2. Maybe the Massachusetts election is just what Democrats needed.

Not as dead as the M$M wants us all to believe.

[grytpype]

3. PTDB!!!

[eleny]

4. I wonder how this meshes with the spending freeze

[bjobotts]

12. The only spending freeze that will actually help is a military spending freeze.

[bjobotts]

13. We don't need to be the world's largest weapons manufacturers and salesmen

[bjobotts]

15. Get rid of the filibuster, focus on fixes via reconciliation but for now Pass the Damn Bill

[wordpix]

48. +1 our major export: military equipment, weapons & bombers. What a nation

:cry:

[BunkerHill24]

5. Reflection is a good thing, n/t

[flamingdem]

6. DO IT NOW or we'll never see nutin' nt

[grahamhgreen]

29. Do it and you'll never see real reform, AND you'll be out $$$ for crapsurance that never pays out.

[customerserviceguy]

7. I might be the only one here saying this

but if they succeed, it will be dangerous. If there is any clear message out of Massachusetts, it is that the way the current bills were crafted stinks to high heaven to the majority of American voters.

I don't think it will happen, but I've been wrong before.

[bjobotts]

16. The bill has too many good things in it but is surrounded by lies and misinformation

[bjobotts]

17. Once passed then we can immediately fix what's wrong with it-or else we get nothing

[flamingdem]

24. YES, pass the bill and it will improve nt

[customerserviceguy]

25. The so-called Cadillac tax is not a lie

and the deal reached a couple of weeks ago in the White House to not whack union members with that stick for five years, but everybody else right away, is just classic divide-and-conquer.

The special backroom deals for Louisiana and Nebraska are not lies, either. I'm in favor of dropping the whole damned thing, letting a few more million Americans find out that they are not as secure as they think they are, and trying for single payer in 2013 if the stimulus bill is shown that it managed to do the trick.

Otherwise, anything we pass in the next month or two is going to be completely undone by a Repuke Congress and President Palin. They'll run specifically on its repeal, and once they get in, they will waste no time dismantling it.

[No Elephants]

33. The mandatte is not a lie, either.

[No Elephants]

32. Too many good things?

[customerserviceguy]

43. Not enough good things soon enough

And too many bad things right up front. But that's separate from the Louisiana Purchase, the Cornhusker Kickback, and the Lieberman Cave-In. Those are irrevocably tied to this legislation, and I'm sure there's more, when we get down to analyzing it page-by-page.

[No Elephants]

31. I don't think most Americans know what is in the bills as currently crafted. I think a lousy

job of educating the public has been done by all, including the crap maedia. So, Republicans stepped into the void with their lies. And their lies are what people around America are reacting to. No one has read the 2000 plus page bill, including most of both houses of Congress.

[customerserviceguy]

44. You're right, no one has

I wonder what other sweetheart deals are in there, just waiting to be discovered after the President's ink is drying on the bill. You can bet that Faux News has a list of them, waiting to be used against incumbent Democratic congresscritters this fall.

[Pirate Smile]

8. Thank God. Pass.The.Damn.Bill!

[Guilded Lilly]

9. This was never an absolute.

"Last week's victory by Republican Scott Brown in Massachusetts cost Democrats the 60th vote they need to maintain undisputed control of the Senate"

They never HAD undisputed control. It was always shaky with Lieberman, and some seriously Blue Dogs.
They just have to work smarter right now. Wake-up call came, and they have to get down to some serious business. If they had had such undisputed control a stronger bill would have already passed.

Media downmouthing in part.
Media wanting the drama to go on...just needs some SMART action...and less whining.

[New Dawn]

10. The "health" insurance industry demands that they force the fascist Individual Mandate on us.

[Melissa G]

11. Another fine whine about how tough it is not having 60 votes....

:nopity: I did not like what they did when the Senate had the alleged clout. The pubs Did Not have 60 votes and they managed to ram all sorts of bad legislation through... We lament about having the spine to accomplish good things that most of the other developed nations just expect/take for granted and we are timid in our attempt... This strikes me as crazy.

[placton]

14. Fuck this evil choice

this is not what I have shed money, time and blood for for decades. Wow.

[bjobotts]

18. We will kill 30 people, but with this bill we will kill only 5. "Screw it, kill all 30"

[bjobotts]

19. Get the point!. PTDB...then work on saving the other 5.

[ShortnFiery]

20. Once the insurance cartel gets their hands on billions upon billions of MANDATE BUCKS ...

we'll all have to go to "debtors' prison" if we dare recover from a serious illness. :thumbsdown:

KILL THE BILL!!!

[PSPS]

21. And they will freely funnel those billions into election coffers to guarantee their hegemony.

[tomhayes]

37. You think that the poor will be forced into debtor's prison??

You clearly have no idea what you are talking about.

[grahamhgreen]

27. No you kill all 30, but con 5 into thinking they'll be saved, yet get $$$ from all 30!

We all know wha the scam is.

[bvar22]

22. Ramming this bill through now is political suicide,

but the For Profit Health Insurance Industry will do nicely.

* Would you favor or oppose the national government offering everyone the choice of a government administered health insurance plan — something like the Medicare coverage that people 65 and older get — that would compete with private health insurance plans?

Favor 82%

Oppose 14%

Not Sure 4%

http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2010010320/poll-shouts-message-massachusetts-voters-were-sending

Mandates + NO Public Option +Trillion Dollars for the Health Insurance Cartel = Republican Health Care Plan...

...without the Republican Party taking ANY political risk.
ALL they have to do now is just sit back and say, "Yep. We opposed it".

LESS than 35% of the American People support Mandates without a Public Option.

[grahamhgreen]

28. Unless they are after the big insurance billions unleashed by SCOTUS.

[grahamhgreen]

26. Why couldn't they do this w/ Medicare expansion & without Nelson & Liebermann?

Smells fishy unless the new plan has a public option.

Not fishy - evil.

[tomhayes]

36. Really?

So it's medicare expansions / radically different bill or nothing??

DID WE LEARN NOTHING FROM CLINTON??

[grahamhgreen]

40. Yes. The Clinton bill was also a sell-out to big insurance - you have to expand Medicare.

But the real deal is that if they can pass this bad bill with 59 votes, they can expand Medicare - a better option for you - with 58.

[tomhayes]

41. They can't pass another bill (or incremental changes)

The simply can not do it.

Unless you know something we don't?

Show some sort of procedural way to get it done. SHOW YOUR WORK!!!!!!

(Frankly you sound like John McCain and his plan to capture Bin Laden - except that he wasn't elected so he won't tell anyone how.)

[grahamhgreen]

47. The same way the Repubs passed the "Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation Act of 2005"

with reconciliation.

[wisteria]

30. If something passes, it will make the Massachusetts loss less significant

and the press and Repubs will have to go crow about something else.

[change_notfinetuning]

34. Passing a bad bill will just prove the Dems didn't learn a thing from Mass. and

it will come back to haunt us sooner than later and more often than sometimes. And for years to come.

[tomhayes]

35. So a "BAD" bill is better than NO ACTION FROM DEMS in elections??

And what's so bad about this bill.

It seems much better than what we have right now - which is jack shit!!

(Hey, my cobra eligibilty runs out in june and after that no company will insure me due to pre-existing conditions.)

And do you honestly think that any "better" bill has ANY chance of actually becoming law in the next 3 years?? Or 7 years?? or 15 years???

[mvd]

38. The mandates are a big sticking point with me, plus..

I don't believe the loopholes have been closed enough. I also doubt the Senate bill has enough subsidies. It will need major improvements, but people will be helped short term, and that's worth passing it IMO.

[grahamhgreen]

39. Yes. Dems MUST pass a bill - this one is not going to guarantee you anything that they can't blow-up

But the real deal is that if they can pass this bad bill with 59 votes, they can expand Medicare - a better option for you - with 58.

[No Elephants]

42. IMO, they're screwn either way. If they pass no bill, they may be

somewhat less screwn than if they pass a bad bill. And/or screwn for a shorter period of time. But, they earned it with the way this has been so horrendously mishandled, to this point,

Imo, now that we are at this juncture, they should go one issue at a time, forcing the Republicans (and the frickin' Purple Snakes) to go on record, starting with the monopoly exemption, then going to pre-existing conditions (with a cap on how much extra can be charged), and so on. Make those who insist on forcing Americans into bankruptcy and/or premature graves go on record. Meanwhile, start a massive public education campaign as to each issue that is going up for a vote. And do put it on C-Span. And start fast.



No matter what happens, I am very sorry about your situation, though.

[emsimon33]

50. As I said in my other post on this thread: No accommodating & KISS

One Page, large type, all in bullet points:

Anyone can buy into Medicare (and reimbursements to doctors & hospitals, etc. will be adjusted up as a result of a larger and healthier pool)

No denying or higher rates by insurance companies for preexisting conditions



That's it! Two points.

Later, then Congress can come back and add things like death squads and murder of the unborn and at that time Republicans and Blue Dogs can get all lathered up.

[groundloop]

46. "Dem Leaders Unite..." - We're supposed to believe that?

The Democrats in the senate will NEVER agree on anything really meaningful. Betwee Lie-berman, Nelson and all the others it's like a high school marching band with each section trying to play a different song. And so far the band director has done a pitiful job of getting everyone to play the same song.

[emsimon33]

49. Stop accommodating & KISS!

Make it simple: No pork, no concessions to ANYONE, let anyone buy into Medicare and in so doing, increase the $$$$ paid to doctors and hospitals, and no denying ANYONE for preexisting conditions

That's it! Even a caveman could understand it and it can be written in bullet points in large type on one page!

Then, later, if Congress wants to write in death squads, the murder of the unborn, etc., they can do so and the Republicans and Blue Dogs can get all hot and bother over those things then.