Nancy Pelosi held a conference call today on health care and spent about 30 minutes discussing what's happening now and taking Q's. (I think it's important to get these conference calls up to our readers.)
The HOUSE does not trust the Senate and will not move forward unless Harry Reid gets the Senate rolling first. She's not alone. The Senate has lost the trust of the American people completely. She reaffirmed that the Senate bill has no chance of passing the HOUSE as is.
Pelosi has insisted for some time now that the Senate health care bill can not pass the House unamended, but that she can probably round up the votes if the Senate and the House both pass a sidecar bill making a number of pre-emptive changes to it.
"Don't even ask us to consider passing the Senate bill until the other legislation has passed both houses so that we're sure that it has happened, and that we know that what we would be voting for would be as effected by a reconciliation bill or whatever parliamentary initiative they have at their disposable," Pelosi said on a conference call this afternoon.
Senate aides have complained that her plan presents them with a big parliamentary difficulty: they don't know if they can pass legislation amending a bill that hasn't been signed into law yet.
Pelosi says that's simply not true.
"No. It is not an obstacle to this path forward."
She talks about repealing the anti-trust exemption, fixing the excise tax and the public option, "reconciliation' as well as some other issues about HCR. I didn't have time to write up a detailed review on today's call so please listen to the above audio.
She was surprisingly confident today about getting something done and says we're close. We'll see. She didn't want to talk for the Senate at all either.
And the operator was awful handling the call because a lot of us had questions and she didn't translate that to the Speaker so it appeared that there were hardly any questions coming in for the Speaker, That led to question hogs.(LOL) I was going to either ask about the public option or the Stupak amendment.
A giant legislative game of "show me yours and I'll show you mine". This should be interesting.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
Waddya bet as soon as they pass something, everyone in Congress will be checking into Betty Ford?
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Is she still kinda hot or sumptin'?
;)
I'm just hopin' they pass a kidney stone.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Restore Democracy!!
When will government of the people, by the politicians, for the corporations perish from this Earth?
Not soon enough!
Sidecar? What? After she's done making the beds she's off to the bar?
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
Go Nancy, kick Harry in the nuts!
If I were a psychopath, I would join the republican party, and get in on the gravy train taking the Teabircher morons to the cleaners.
or are you taking up with the fist and feet fighting Jeebus bunch
Liberalicious is posting about on the next thread?
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
He allows republicans to indefinately filibuster. All it takes is some backbone by democrats to change this.
Republicans are liars and simply cannot be trusted.
or is it Baucus, Maximum Bullshit wants to work on (stall) the jobs recovery package next.
Anyone who thinks Pelosi is doing a good job is either ill informed, just plain stupid, or both. Mind you the Repugs think she is doing a good job for other reasons. For one she is helping to blow the next election for the spineless Democrats. Remember, "impeachment is off the table". She's like a jack in the box. She pops up every so often with profound statements then goes back in the box with Emanuel to cuddle. A while back she popped up and said the public option was alive and well, then back in the box she goes. Now she declares the option is dead. Always using cheap sleazy tactics to make you think she is busy like a bee, working for the common citizen. Wake up Dems she is a flip flopper.
The Republicans used this tactic to ram through every piece of legislation on which they refused to compromise. Of course, their noise machine will cry foul and make a big stink if the health care bill is passed through reconciliation. But how else can needed legislative action be accomplished if determined opponents refuse to deal in good faith?
The Democrats need to have faith that the bill will prove to be successful and that, in time, the majority of voters will recognize that a positive outcome has been achieved. Once passed, thay need to counteract the fear that will be generated by the Republican propaganda machine with the truth. Once the majority realizes that the program serves a good moral and econmic purpose, they will not care how it got passed.
Like a majority of Americans, I have completely lost faith with ALL senators. Republicans are only a sliver of the problem that exists in the senate. Democrats who are nothing more than republican plants within our party are the biggest problem! Liebermann, Nelson, Baucus, Conrad, Bayh, and the rest of the conservadems are a far bigger problem for democracy and effective governance than the republicans. We can be sure that very little of true benefit to the middle class and poor will be allowed to pass muster by these infiltrators of our party. Business (the rich) have been very busy the past 60 years insuring that whichever party controls the senate that their interests and their interests alone will be considered the American people be damned!
Even with reconciliation, it is highly doubtful these whores to the insurance industry could come up with the votes necessary to enact a public option much less single payer which is what is most beneficial to the people, the country, and Americas future prosperity.
Our fates were sealed a long, long, time ago and I am losing hope that anything can ever be done to rid ourselves of this criminal influence on our lives.
In view of the fact that Congress & The Senate wasted a year of precious taxpayers' time on a document that is thousands of pages long, that works right into the pockets of the insurance industry & the pharmaceutical companies, held closed door sessions, & we still don't know what they have proposed and also many of us do not sleep at night because of foreclosures, unemployment & basic service cut backs I believe that:
All US Senators & US Congressmen, the Executive branch, the Cabinet, & the Judiciary should take responsibility for themselves by paying their own health insurance & life insurance, take a 15% cut in pay, a 25% cut in pensions which will only be good for ten years.
While you waste time we are falling into a worse economic situation everyday.
George Washington stayed on the front lines hungry, cold, & wet with his troops. What do you do? Live a decent life with guaranteed salaries & lifetime benefits that We the People pay for.
When John Kerry said he wanted the US citizens to have the same insurance he had George W Bush snickered right to our faces. That is what you do.
Has it not occurred to any of you that "affordable" mandatory health insurance is on affordable to many of us? I think you should walk the walk you want us to walk.
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