Healthcare Reform Thread II

[DaShi]

Let's look at the rhetoric:

He better have meant that - the issue of health care is more complicated than just "Democrats versus Republicans."

Ooh, so insightful.

The otherside seems to be the American people themselves at this point.

The American people have had little influence on this bill for good or ill. Their poll responses demonstrate that they haven't a clue what is going on. A big part of this is the misinformation on the right and the lack of information from the left.

Yes, the american people will get screwed just because OBAMA wants to claim any type of victory on health care at this point. Unfortunately he's going to screw us for decades for that victory.

Thank you for the Fox News talking point.

[DinoDoc]

Thank you for proving my point. You people don't even know what part of the health bill you aren't supposed to like.

He's not alone: http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cf...y-000003558164

[DaShi]

Oooh DD posts a link that barely touches on the subject matter. Big surprise. How do you feed yourself?

[Drake Tungsten]

Pelosi better ram this home and stop worrying about the final CBO score on the reconciliation bill if she wants to get this done...

House Democratic leaders are still struggling to produce a final health care overhaul bill at an acceptable official cost estimate, but Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer said Tuesday they continue to plan a final vote this week. House leaders were to huddle late Tuesday afternoon, following a noon session of the full Democratic Caucus. There were reports they are having trouble drafting a bill that meets their budgetary targets….

Rank-and-file Democrats did not talk about the details, but said that the CBO scores had come up short. “They were less than expected” in terms of deficit reduction, said Rep. Gene Green, D-Texas, who plans to vote for the bill.

http://spectator.org/blog/2010/03/16/dems-still-dont-have-the-cbo-s

[DinoDoc]

Bill Killer?

[DaShi]

Is there nothing you say that you don't copy from someone else?

[Drake Tungsten]

Bill Killer?

Of course not. If Pelosi isn't going to let the fact that she doesn't have enough votes for the Senate bill stop her, then I hardly think a poor CBO score is going to do the trick. She'll either keep tweaking the reconciliation fix until she gets the score she wants or she'll just ignore the CBO altogether.

[Boris Godunov]

I assumed that "otherside" included some dem or they wouldn't have to do it the sleazy way.

What's "sleazy" about it?

[DaShi]

Filibusters are honorable political manuveurs.

[Theben]

Not sure which is worse, the repugs forcing this road, or the dems taking it anyway.

[DinoDoc]

Bill Killer?

Of course not. If Pelosi isn't going to let the fact that she doesn't have enough votes for the Senate bill stop her, then I hardly think a poor CBO score is going to do the trick. She'll either keep tweaking the reconciliation fix until she gets the score she wants or she'll just ignore the CBO altogether.

Tweaking and retweaking the bill takes time which I'm not sure they have if they are wanting to avoid the Easter recess. I also don't think they can afford to avoid the CBO given that some of the people they need to court for votes are demanding that the bill meet certain spending targets.

[Drake Tungsten]

Not sure which is worse, the repugs forcing this road, or the dems taking it anyway.

How exactly are the Republicans "forcing this road"? The problem is that the Democrats don't have enough votes to pass the Senate bill in the House, which has **** all to do with the minority party. Jesus, you guys are so ****ing stupid...

Tweaking and retweaking the bill takes time which I'm not sure they have if they are wanting to avoid the Easter recess.

Who cares about the Easter recess? It's just another artificial deadline made up to try to build a sense of urgency and get the bill passed. If they don't make it before Easter, they'll just start again when they get back and Republicans will be hoping for yet another "bill killer" to come along.

The simple fact is that the Democrats have huge majorities in both houses of Congress and can do pretty much whatever they want so long as they can bribe enough people to keep their caucus together. There's no way for the Republicans to "kill" this healthcare reform process. They can only hope that the Dems give up, but they show no signs that they'll be doing that any time soon.

[DinoDoc]

The closer it gets to the elections the less likely imo a bill this radioactive with the American people is to pass.

[Drake Tungsten]

The Dems have already convinced themselves that not passing an unpopular bill would be worse for them in November than passing an unpopular bill. It's completely stupid, but that's why you can't count on public outrage stopping this bill.

[Guynemer]

On the contrary, the Dems only hope is to pass the bill despite current public opinion. The GOP is going to hammer them either way; either they do nothing, and health care continues to suck, or they pass it, and health either continues to suck, or sucks in a different way, or actually improves for some people (ie, no preexisting condition bull****, etc). The odds aren't great, but a 1-in-10 chance is better than zero.