There has been a lot of talk in the last few days about killing the health care bill. When Senator Joe Lieberman announced that he would stand with his Republican friends to filibuster the health care bill if it contained a Medicare buy-in option, Democrats, progressives and liberals were more than outraged. There has been a furious debate frought with emotions, mostly anger.
Former Governor Howard Dean, who has a lot of influence in health care matters, called for Democrats to kill the bill. A lot of liberals are blaming President Obama for not doing more to prevent the health care bill from being watered down and hijacked by Republicans. I am angry too.
Frankly, many of us would have preferred that a single payer health care bill be written into legislation. But the idea was never even considered by the Obama White House. Instead the bill promised a public option. The term itself caused a lot of confusion and it's still hard to find a definition of what a public option is. Ostensibly, a public option "either allow Americans to buy into Medicare, or in the alternative, open up the Federal Employee Health Benefits (FEHB) program."
There was great hope for a public option and as recently as a month ago, it seemed that we would get the public option as part of health care reform. Soon, conservative Democrats brought us back to reality. Senator Max Baucus said he couldn't support the bill with a public option in it unless the 'language' of the bill promised that insured women wouldn't have the right to choose an abortion, a right that is part of our current legislative rights.
Baucus wasn't the only Democrat standing in the way of the public option in the health care reform bill. Southern senators from Louisiana and Arkansas, Mary Landreau and Blanche Lincoln, were clearly more concerned about being re-elected than preventing unnecessary deaths of their uninsured constituents and balked at the idea of a public option.
While President Obama was busy courting Republican votes in an effort to be bipartisan, it was conservative Democrats who were dismantling the public option possibility. Without their votes, there would be no public option. It was known all along that the new Republican party of No wouldn't vote for anything the President or Democrats put on the table. They went so far as to filibuster a vote on funding for American troops.
Then someone came up with the idea of a Medicare buy-in program that would allow people aged 55 and over to buy into Medicare earlier than the current requirement (age 65 and over). This was an idea that came out of the Gore-Lieberman campaign. Liberal Democrats weren't crazy about it but they were willing to compromise. Then of course, as we all know, Joe Lieberman, in a stunning turn around, announced he would stand with Republicans in a hijacking of the bill if it contained the Medicare buy-in.
Some progressives and liberals feel betrayed by President Obama and say that he will lose their vote in 2012. Some have said they will vote against their state Democratic leaders in 2010 if they vote for the watered down bill. Others say they will vote against their Democratic leaders if they don't vote for the health care reform bill.
There is a lot of anger among Progressives and rightly so. But it's time to take a moment, step back from the fray and above it. The bickering and anger is exactly what Joe Lieberman and Republicans want.
If no health care reform bill is passed at all because Dean and other Democrats are successful in killing the bill, 2010 and 2012 look bleak for Democrats. It's probable that Republicans will win back some seats in the House in 2010 if no health care reform bill is passed at all. Do we really want to comtemplate the thought of the Republicans' best candidate, Sarah Palin, in the White House? Do we really want to go back to a Republican majority in Congress or a Republican White House?
I would wager that most of us would answer no to that question. As Paul Krugman wrote yesterday,
"But let’s all take a deep breath, and consider just how much good this bill would do, if passed — and how much better it would be than anything that seemed possible just a few years ago. With all its flaws, the Senate health bill would be the biggest expansion of the social safety net since Medicare, greatly improving the lives of millions. Getting this bill would be much, much better than watching health care reform fail."
Krugman continued,
"Beyond that, we need to take on the way the Senate works. The filibuster, and the need for 60 votes to end debate, aren’t in the Constitution. They’re a Senate tradition, and that same tradition said that the threat of filibusters should be used sparingly. Well, Republicans have already trashed the second part of the tradition: look at a list of cloture motions over time, and you’ll see that since the G.O.P. lost control of Congress it has pursued obstructionism on a literally unprecedented scale. So it’s time to revise the rules.
But that’s for later. Right now, let’s pass the bill that’s on the table. "
I agree with Krugman. It's time to pass the bill. It's not a perfect bill, few are. I am disappointed with the watered down health care reform bill. But if we kill the bill as Dean and others suggest, who wins? Joe Lieberman, his health insurance industry patrons and Republicans win, that's who. Republicans would love nothing more than for the infighting among Democrats to result in a killing of the health care reform bill. Senator John McCain as much as said so on the floor of the senate a few days ago.
Comments
Joe Lieberman shall rot in ..... I hope he is able to look in the mirror after
selling his soul to the devil.. with the rest of them.. How much padding from Cigna and your budding Mr. Lieberman?
Abortion most certainly is NOT in the Constitution. Abortion is MURDER and if it were not for the tyrannical Roe v Wade decision, states would have the right (and the moral duty) to prosecute abortion as MURDER.
Yay Roe vs. Wade. David, until you have a uterus, I don't care what you think about reproduction.
This bill is WORSE than the status quo. All it does is give private insurers 30 million new customers without any increased competition or other means to suppress premium prices. It should be defeated by Democrats if it comes to the floor without either a public option or a Medicare buy-in.
And the "public option" is very simple to understand, and was simply laid out in the 1st version of the House bill. It's plan administered by the government that is paid for entirely by the premiums of those who voluntarily enroll. It would be essentially the same as an optional Medicare buy-in for all. Nothing complicated about it at all.
And, in and of itself, the Public Option doesn't cost taxpayers a dime. It's only the affordability credits that cost money. And those are going to be in the bill with or without the public option. The cost of the bill has to do with affordability credits, not the Public Option.
www.examiner.com/x-17571-LA-Populist-Examiner
In my opinion the only reason Roe vs. Wade was aloud to happen is that in the 70's the ultrasound of the pregnant uterus did not show clear image. I do not believe that any justices liberal and or conservative who has any conscience who view the picture of a 10 week fetus, with its legs shaking and being mutilated by the probe of an abortionist.
In UK, abortion is legal but the young pregnant woman is obligated to follow with a social worker in order to view in a rational way other options she can have. In my experience many of the pregnant women who were initially going to go for abortion changed their mind for adoption.
David
Very nice article about medical insurance industry. But you could get medical insurance for your entire family at the best price from www.bit.ly/7bwEx2 if you spent few mins you can find a good plan.
The Democratic/Socialist/Communist/Progressive/Nazi party will be permanently visiting the ash heap of history. This time they have gone too far. Most of what they've done since FDR is unconstitutional--this certainly is. Why can't they be honest Democratic/Socialist/Communist/Progressive/Nazi's and either call for a new constitutional convention, or create their utopian schemes at the state level? What they're not appreciating is that the people I've spoken with are so angry that they are ready to fight and die if necessary. And people--whether they are right or wrong--that do not fear death any longer are dangerous. Well that's what you get when you steal people's private property (money--which is just temporary storage of life's energy) and give it to others as the government sees fit--it's beyond outrageous, it's illegal, and we better stand up now!
Karen, the fact that you are more concerned about ANY Health care bill passing regardless of how bad it is, is disturbing. It's obvious to me, that you are more worried about party politics and scoring a win for Obama than what is actually good for the country. That's too bad.
What we want is the Sanders Amendment, which calls for a single-payer system of health care in this country. Because of our broken government, we are going to achieve this step-by-step. Lieberman, if you have not noticed, reversed his position on the Medicare proposal simply because he has received over 1 million dollars from For-Profit Insurance Companies, plus been put on notice for his re-election by his constituency, which by the way 22,000 of whom work of big insurance in Connecticut...
This sick pay-off scene is repeated time and again, affecting many members of Congress...especially those idiot Republicans. It is no wonder why single-payer is defeated as a concept, and now as an Amendment...
Someday, hopefully, people will once again again read our Constitution, where, by the way, it recognizes Health Care as a "right" of each citizen, and not a privilege of the wealthy...
THIS IS JOE LIEBERMANS BILL!!! This bill sucks and if Americans would have been told that we would be FORCED into buying heath care and from WHOM this bill would not even have made as far as it did. This is an outrage! We have been lied to by our President and by the Senate. Joe Lieberman is the biggest bum of all but I'm afraid his partners in crime in the senate are none the less to blame for allowing this garbage of a Bill to come as far as it has. The people will not forget this come 2010 just because Obama had a nice photo signing this crap. Down with the Dems and republicans in 2010, it's 3rd party or ANY other party time.
Look at the stock prices for the heath insurance companies and then tell me the did not win. They have doubled!! FOOLISH TALK!!
The House of Reps version of health care reform has a public option in it. The Senate version does not. If the House caves in and the final version that is worked out does not have a public option in it, those Democrats in the House who cave in and vote yes need to be primaried.
This is not health care reform. It is a an insurance bailout. Take off your blinders and stop being a shill for this ridiculous administration.
Who is being a shill for this administration? Not me. This administration is quite happy if there is no public option, and so are many Senate Democrats.
But what are we going to do about it?
We tell House Democrats two things:
1.) They need to stand firm and not cave in on their promise that they would not vote for a bill that did not have a public option in it.
and
2.) That if they vote yes on the final bill and that final bill does not have a public option in it, that they will be primaried.
Our nation is run by whores, and for now it seems there's not much we can do about it.
So Karen is willing to accept anything they want to sell her?
You lost the single payer.
You ;ost the public option.
You lost the medicare buy in.
What else is on your agenda for health care you have not lost already?
babylon says: Yay Roe vs. Wade. David, until you have a uterus, I don't care what you think about reproduction.
Until YOU have a brain , I don't care what you think about anything!
Nelson, YOU LIE!
This bill us great for insurance companies and the reason for that is Republicans are most interested in helping big businesses and so would not support the Obama/Democrat plan.
However, this bill will save lives and give greater access to health care and that is the most important thing.
The person who calls Obama a Nazi should be ashamed of herself. The extreme right Republicans have tried to kill this bill and have told lie after lie about death panels and comparing Obama to Hitler.
It is only because the health care system in USA is not working for millions that it has to be changed, including some Republicans who I have encountered who cry "communism" and "socialism" and either do not have insurance or use Medicare, or are adept at reducing their taxes as far as possible. These ignorant Republicans are socialists, relying on others to pay for their health care.
Obama is the polar opposite of Hitler people, Hitler hated communism and Obama is a commie like Marx/Lenin/Trotsky/Stalin and his mentor Saul Alinsky. Let's try to be a little more knowledgeable regarding history people. I mean I know a lot of you were brainwashed and indoctrinated in the LIEberal Educational System but at least now you've got the internet to counter the lies taught at Commie U. Also the commies in the Soviet Union killed tens of millions more people, many Christians during the Bolshevik Revolution-WWII-After WWII than the Nazis ever thought about.
The fact of the matter is 61% of American voters don't want this piece of crapola. Since when did the public become so dumb-downed that we need the gubmint to tell us what we want? Maybe people like Karen Harper prefer the gubmint running their lives but it appears most AMERICANS don't.
What have opinion polls got to do with it? Obama was elected President. Accept it. Obama is not God. This bill doesn't do everything he wanted, but it is better than nothing. It expands health care coverage and addresses many issues.
How quickly Republicans who cry "socialist" forget that in 2003 Bush and the Republican Congress passed the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 that costs an estimated 1.2 trillion dollars over ten years.
Funny, how Republicans are jumping up and down yelling and waving their flags now, but not then. They are more 'socialist' than the Democrats, but hate this bill purely for party political reasons and in the cases of some, because they can't stand having a black President.
I wish George Soros-Rahm Emanuel-Andy Stern-David Axelrod would stop telling Obamao what to do.
Looks like it's Chicago politics as usual friends.
The 10 worst words you'll ever hear are; My name is Barry Soetero and I'm here to help.
What have opinion polls got to do with it? Obama was elected President. Accept it. Obama is not God. This bill doesn't do everything he wanted, but it is better than nothing. It expands health care coverage and addresses many issues.
How quickly Republicans who cry "socialist" forget that in 2003 Bush and the Republican Congress passed the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 that costs an estimated 1.2 trillion dollars over ten years.
Funny, how Republicans are jumping up and down yelling and waving their flags now, but not then. They are more 'socialist' than the Democrats, but hate this bill purely for party political reasons and in the cases of some, because they can't stand having a black President.
www.motivatedphotos.com/?id=56186
Thanks Obama....
Obamao and his crew of Kosher Nostra will be the Detroitification of the US.
This bill will be found to be unconstitutional.
Regarding 61% of the public not wanting this (as claimed), FDR faced greater sentiment to stay out of a war in 1940, knowing the longer we stayed out, the more threatened the survival of the nation. Again he resisted the popular pressure for a premature invasion of France (his Military advisors pushing for 1942 and 1943), listening to Winston Churchill, who convinced him that there was only one way to lose the war, and a premature invasion of France was the way. The president has to play the public, but the public to an extent is mindless, just the way it is. What matters is having leadership that has a plan, even if the public is not fully aware of it, and who knows what he is doing. The last president was so stupid he got us into Iraq. I have hopes that Obama is a lot sharper, time will tell. But the public, like a bunch of barking dogs, they have always been mindless, always will be. We supported Bush and Iraq for the most part, shows how stupid we were as a people.
And FDR should have stayed out of the war in 1940 and your point?
Yeah sure Odumtard has read the 2,000 page bill along with FRANK and knows exactly all about it. Dubya looks like a rocket scientist next to this affirmitive action reject. If your Messiah is so smart why are his college records sealed? He can't even give a speech without uh-uh-uhing people into a coma.
Man anybody don't like this bill must be rayciss dawg. Obama just might be the greatest prez of all time cuz, don't be hating cause he black.
Peace
Tyrone your an ignorant black fool, I am black and if you really use your brain and not your eyes you would see and perhaps understand what this bill will do to hard working people. Next time you strive to make 60,000 in a year you will think twice, That 60 is actully now worth about 40 and puts me closer to the poverty line. I have 1 child in high school getting ready to go to college, she will now have to go to a community college because my income with loans and scholarships can not pay for her to go to a good school and further herself. When you have kids i hope this bill will haunt and hurt you for the rest of your lives.
Thank God there are two Senators who are looking out for our founding documents and our last freedoms.
"Today, U.S. Senators Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina) and John Ensign (R-Nevada), raised a Constitutional Point of Order on the Senate floor against the Democrat health care takeover bill on behalf of the Steering Committee, a caucus of conservative senators. The Senate will vote tomorrow on the bill’s constitutionality.
“I am incredibly concerned that the Democrats’ proposed individual mandate provision takes away too much freedom and choice from Americans across the country,” said Senator Ensign. “As an American, I felt the obligation to stand up for the individual freedom of every citizen to make their own decision on this issue. I don’t believe Congress has the legal authority to force this mandate on its citizens.”"
michellemalkin.com/2009/12/22/forcing-a-vote-on-demcares-constitutionality/
"A U.S. House Democrat who opposes the health care overhaul announced Tuesday he is defecting to the GOP, another blow to Democrats ahead of the midterm elections.
U.S. Rep. Parker Griffith spoke to reporters at his home in northern Alabama, a region that relies heavily on defense and aerospace jobs.
"I believe our nation is at a crossroads and I can no longer align myself with a party that continues to pursue legislation that is bad for our country, hurts our economy, and drives us further and further into debt," Griffith said as his wife Virginia stood by his side.
The 67-year-old radiation oncologist was narrowly elected last year in a district that includes Huntsville and Decatur. President Barack Obama lost badly there to Republican John McCain."
news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091222/ap_on_el_ho/us_congress_party_switch
You can KEEP him!
"While President Obama was busy courting Republican votes in an effort to be bipartisan" What kind of drugs are you on?? Show me where this happened! They have been kept out of everything. Back that statement up with facts!!
Tom, Sorry to tell you sir but Karen Harper is well known to streeeeeeetch the truth some, you might even call it lying, and I sincerely don't believe she knows the meaning of "facts."
So,Karen sez: If Health Care Fails, Lieberman and the Republicans win. What you didn't really establish in your article is whether that is a good thing, or a bad thing. Please count me among the people who know that is a GOOD thing. For you others, well, it sucks to be you.
I truly hope these bills fail miserably. I may not be a republican but I am a real liberal which, more often than not, I agree with conservatives on economic issues(not neocons). We should not add more government poison to a system that is manipulated by government. Heck govt (taxpayers) are forced to pay for 47% of all medical care already! NO MORE REGRESSIVE POISON.
If the bill dies, it will be an unmourned death. Like the little furry creatures in Al Gore's sad, sad excuse for a poem.
IMO, the GOP won long ago. They won when Obama appointed Max Baucus to shepherd the process; when Obama backed out of his promise to veto any bill that doesn't include a public option; when Rahm Emmanuel called progressives effing retarded for pressuring Dems into supporting a public option (because it would cost GOP votes later, he said-which we never got anyway); when Obama embraced the MA model requiring all citizens to purchase insurance (a MA resident, my insurance costs have increased 30% in two years, while meds & service coverage has decreased by about as much).
In all fairness, I can't really characterize any of this as a GOP WIN. They did nothing but nothing, while the Dems did all the giving away. But the real problem started 2 decades ago, when Dems bought into Lee Atwater's lie that they "must campaign & govern from the center"-after which the Right, & the DLC, began moving the center to the Right. The DLC has ruined the Democratic party. We compromise, and still lose.
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