Healthcare Reform Thread II

[DaShi]

At least you respond faster than Sloww. I don't have that much free time.

[Drake Tungsten]

Cut Sloww some slack. He responds slowly because he has to have someone else read the thread to him.

[DaShi]

Forgot about that. Anytime. My time is up.

[Drake Tungsten]

For DaShi...

Dem leaders to forgo conference

President Barack Obama and congressional Democratic leaders agreed Tuesday to forgo a formal conference committee for reconciling the Senate and House health care bills, according to three Democratic congressional aides.

The decision means that the White House, Senate Majority Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will attempt to reach an agreement through private negotiations with key lawmakers. Once a deal is struck, the bill will go back to the House for passage, then to the Senate and on to the president’s desk — a legislative path that has been described as “ping pong.”

The decision to bypass the conference committee, which the aides said came during an Oval Office meeting Tuesday, formalized what many Democrats had long known: If they have any hope of passing the health care bill quickly, they would need to circumvent the normal order of business.

But the move — though not unusual in the increasingly gridlocked Congress — has drawn sharp criticism from Republicans and even some Democrats, who say Obama is not living up to his promise of a transparent process.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0110/31188.html

[DaShi]

[Drake Tungsten]

The press is raking Robert Gibbs over the coals for Obama's broken campaign promise to have all the negotiations over healthcare reform take place in public on C-SPAN.

[HalfLotus]

Helen Thomas and some other WH press dude destroyed Gibbs on Obama's controlled"town hall" meetings.

And the CSPAN network itself is challenging the president. That is very interesting.

[Drake Tungsten]

A ray of hope?

U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln on Tuesday said a political deal that benefits Nebraska and may have clinched a lawmaker's support for health care legislation should be removed from the bill.

The Democratic senator from Arkansas said she was disappointed about a provision in the Senate's health care bill that will require the federal government to permanently pay the entire cost of Medicaid expansion in Nebraska, while only paying the costs of expansion in the other 49 states for three years.

Conservative Nebraska Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson lent his crucial support to the bill only after winning the provision for his constituents.

"The people of Arkansas didn't send me to Washington to be a horse trader," Lincoln told reporters before speaking at a Kiwanis Club luncheon in downtown Little Rock.

Lincoln did not say whether she would support a final version of the health care legislation if it included the Nebraska agr eement. Lincoln, who voted for the health care legislation on Christmas Eve, faces a tough re-election battle this year and has faced criticism from Republicans over her support for the bill.

"We'll see what happens, whether it comes out or not. I think it's appropriate that it should," Lincoln said.

http://www.arkansasbusiness.com/article.aspx?aid=0.0.131581

Come on, Blanche. Make them remove the Cornhusker Kickback for your vote.

[Drake Tungsten]

So scratch that thing about cozying up to the White House. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, in California's perpetual budget hell, blasted the elements of health care legislation that impose new burdens on the states in his State of the State speech today:

Now Congress is about to pile billions more onto California with the new health care bill.

While I enthusiastically support health care reform, it is not reform to push more costs onto states that are already struggling while other states get sweetheart deals.

Health care reform, which started as noble and needed legislation, has become a trough of bribes, deals and loopholes.

You’ve heard of the bridge to nowhere. This is health care to nowhere.

California's congressional delegation should either vote against this bill that is a disaster for California or get in there and fight for the same sweetheart deal Senator Nelson of Nebraska got for the Cornhusker State. He got the corn; we got the husk.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0110/Arnold_blasts_health_care_bill.html

[DinoDoc]

Dare I hope its removal kills the bill?

[Drake Tungsten]

If Obama's lost Jack Cafferty on healthcare reform, who's left to defend it? He already lost Olbermann...

[Drake Tungsten]

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Stealth Care Reform
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

[Guynemer]

I was actually just polled yesterday by Pew; fourth night in a row they called, I figure I'd finally answer the damn phone and be done with it.

Mark me down for "disapprove".

[Drake Tungsten]

Mark me down for "disapprove".

Doesn't matter. Congress couldn't care less about what the public thinks on this issue.

[Darius871]

If Obama's lost Jack Cafferty on healthcare reform, who's left to defend it? He already lost Olbermann...

Thanks Jack, can't believe I missed these gems: