Is today the day that health care gets passed?
It looks like the vote is coming down finally. Ezra Klein is saying the vote should come down at 9:00 pm Eastern/6:00 pm Pacific. You can watch the streaming video of the vote on C-Span. I'm totally exhausted and let's face it---the whole country is exhausted. Obama gave a good speech yesterday and hit the republicans as he should. You can read the entire transcript here.
In what the New York Times called "an extraordinary session," President Obama began his speech by quoting Abraham Lincoln. "I am not bound to win, but I'm bound to be true," he said. "I'm not bound to succeed, but I'm bound to live up to what light I have."
"You have a chance to make good on the promises you made," Obama told the House members. "This is one of those moments. This is one of those times where you can honestly say to yourself: 'Doggone it, this is exactly why I came here. This is why I got into politics. This is why I got into public service. This is why I made these sacrifices.'" Washington Post media columnist Howard Kurtz described Obama's address as "the most emotional speech I've ever seen him give."
I agree with Digby though. These "mission accomplished" speeches are a bit much.
Can I just say once again how much I hate these little "Mission Accomplished" press conferences? I realize that it's human to want to celebrate the (apparent) end of a hard fought battle and that they all loved to be stroked by each other in public, but it's unseemly.
Instead of telling each other how wonderful they all are, perhaps they could spend time time explaining why the bill is important and thanking the American people for their forbearance. They can give each other big smooches and hearty pats on the back when the cameras stop rolling.
If the President had started out the process as forcefully as he has been lobbying now, the bill would have been finished before the dog days of last summer. Glenn Greenwald's take here is understandable. He wants the bill to pass too, but with tepid support and is miffed at the politics of it all.
As liberals, we have fought hard for what we believe in, but building a powerful liberal/progressive coalition in Congress is going to take time. And we need a strong ground game to go along with them. Many of us are somewhat disappointed in the final bill, but it does have some important changes that have been discussed endlessly already and I won't rehash them all now.
Remember, conservatives have been actively building their movement since Barry Goldwater and then it continued with the rise of Jack Abramoff, Grover Norquist and Ralph Reed. Having the backing of billions of dollars from overzealous corporations and wealthy families that the left doesn't have access to has been a major obstacle for progressive change and will continue to be one. And we know all about the right wing noise machine that is allowed to permeate our airwaves while traditional journalism goes out of business, which will slowly turn all news into opinions.
The liberal blogosphere is still in its infancy. Kudos to the many interest groups that have been fighting the good fight for decades, but I think bloggers can build "Movement Progressivism " better in the long run because it encompasses all of our special interests and combines them.
Both on substance and politics, better to pass it than not. It does not do the important work of sowing the seeds of the insurance industry's destruction, leaving the skimmers in place, and only takes baby steps towards moving them to the regulated public utility model. It also doesn't get rid of their anti-trust exemption, leaving the effective monopolies in place.
This leaves us open to continued abuses by the industry and fails to do the most important cost-cutting measure, cutting out the paper pushers who serve no useful purpose in the economy. But there is good in the bill, too, and one has to be a bit Hopey that over time demands by the public will make the bad and unpopular stuff less bad and less unpopular.
As it pertains to the politics of it all, the President needs this bill to pass. If it does then I believe the MSM will hail it as a great achievement on his part.
I'll have a lot more on this after I get some much needed rest.
and the retarded religion he whored in on.
Cue the Kabuki....
http://scribalterror.blogs.com/scribal_terror...
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
I would have prefered a full expansion of Medicare to cover everyone- but I'll take the plan the Democrats are passing over the status quo.
But i won't be shocked if the Democrats fall to their knees in the 11th hour and give in to the Republicans
Here is a question- if it passes, how long before right wingers engage in acts of domestic terrorism?
If I were Rep. Grayson, I'd attach his Medicare Buy-in bill to every bill before Congress until it passes.
* There are two types of Republicans: millionaires and suckers.
"Mugsy's Rap Sheet": Recording history for those who seek to rewrite it.
This law will force American citizens to pay money to corporations just for their very existence. I don't see how anyone in their right mind could see anything good in that idea. It was bad enough that liberals thought private corporations should be allowed to seize your property under eminent domain. Now they think everyone who is alive should be forced to pay money to a corporation. What are these Democratic gangsters going to do next, pass a law declaring your DNA the property of corporations?
I'm sorry to see that Obama is anti-choice and will do what he can to limit a woman's access to legal abortion services.
continue to play the game of saying that reaffirmation of the status quo is anything other than what it is.
This is like saying Obama caved on Death Panels.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
Hyde's been on the books since 1976. It bound Carter and Clinton as well as Obama. Let's be clear here: By merely affirming to Stupak that he would uphold current law that bans Federal funding of abortion (with exceptions for rapes, incest and the life of the pregnant women), Obama guaranteed the rights of women to have privately funded abortion procedures.
And what do you think would happen right now if the Congress attempted to repeal Hyde? Do you think they'd strip off Kildee and Stupak from the opposition?
Don't try to confuse the issue with half-truths and gorilla dust.
I just read the executive order.
Personally, I find any restrictions on what a woman wants to do with her own body reproductively extremely distasteful, especially when they come from an extreme moral or religious viewpoint. In my view, abortion should be free, safe and legal.
How ironic, then, that the final issue of the health care reform bill is abortion - an issue that the Republicans would like to think they solely own. Well, Stupak just destroyed that image.
I completely agree that a woman should be able to control her own body.
And, you know, there's always been an anti-choice caucus within the Democratic Party. If there wasn't, Hyde would have never passed in '76, or it might have been repealed in '93 or '94.
Don't try to confuse the issue with half-truths and gorilla dust.
...."perhaps they could spend time time explaining why the bill is important"
Jesus H. Christ, we HAVE BEEN DOING THAT!!! FOR A FUCKING YEAR!!!!! If the American people are that stupid then screw 'em.
John, take a break and enjoy the Cali weather buddy.
I'll be talking with David Waldmann of the Daily Kos on BlogTalkRadio at 8 pm this evening. Check it out!!
BTW, Stupak is the worst. We need to make sure that we vote help get him voted out of office this year!!
Maybe they looked at it from the standpoint that there will be less need for abortion anyway because so many Americans are gay.
Such a long time , so much horse shit and this is it ? Oh well , it'll be fun to watch Beck , Fox and all of the wing nuts go berserk at least , I don't know what they're so excited about , the Health Care Insurance "providers" and Pharma came out smelling like a rose . So this ( if it passes ) will be a victory for Obama and the Dems , BFD , it sure isn't health care "reform" .
Insanity , it is what it is , there is no understanding it .
it's not a victory for anyone except maybe the insurance industry.
They must be ready to pop the champagne corks.
The monopoly is theirs and enshrined in law.
The bill might pass - but the democrats look like the idiots that they are - allowing anything remotely resembling a public option to be squashed.
The republicans always manage to look like idiots - but I feel sorry for some of them because they are the only ones left objecting to this p.o.s. The liberals - even Kucinich - have jumped ship and adopted the "save Obama" and "it's a first step" mantras.
obama stated the reason the representatives should vote for the bill was their duty within the context of our government as a democracy. that is untrue, especially when the entire thrust of his speech was at it's core explaining why the officials must perform their duties in a federal constitutional republic, and at times those duties must needs overriding the political tides being generated by their constituents and doing what is true as their representatives for their ultimate benefit.
The GREATEST DECISION by a US President since our Brilliant decision to invade Iraq. This should pretty well finish us & I think we deserve to be put out of our misery. Good-Bye USA
please support your argument's assertions. cite references using unpartisan commissions and sources of cbo caliber.
and minah birds to waste time.
One thing everyone should realize about the way Obama, Pelosi and Reid determined was the best way to get this reform started is that the health care cost reduction measures (which are most definitely in the bill) had to get past the military guard protecting those rising health care costs. That would be the health insurance industry, who would rather eat worms than see health care costs be reduced.
And THAT is why this initial bill appears to so many critics on the left to be far more helpful than harmful to health insurance companies. The idea is we get those cost reduction measures through the gate by enlisting the health care insurance industry Palace Guards to join us and start enjoying the benefits of working as our employee rather than as the protectors of rising health care costs.
Think of the difference it would have made if Bush had orginally enlisted, hired and rewarded the Iraqi Militia for joining our side rather than disbanding it to fight us on 100 new fronts.
Yes, this bill "adds 32,000,000 new customers to the health insurance industry", which, believe it or not, turns out to be the best way to gain access to the ultimate culprit of rising health care costs.
There are no price controls in the bill at all. It also bans the importation of cheaper Canadian drugs. The whole thing is clearly nothing but a giveaway to wealthy doctors and insurance companies.
but it has little to do with healthcare.
It is about insurance.
A bonanza for the for-profit insurance companies and the pols that depend on them.
Passage of this bill has become about making Obama and the Dims look good.
The media will say, "My, my. Lookie that. They're not such wimps after all."
And all the Dims had to do was let the insurance industry write the bill for them..
Now - how can we please end the wars?
THIS IS NOT HEALTH CARE REFORM!!!!!!!!!!
it is barely health insurance reform....but it does reform the health INSURANCE system a little bit
the wh, congress and most progressive blogs effed up from the start by labeling it health care reform
that allowed the wingnuts to scare the crap out of the great unwashed masses that obama wanted socialized medicine
single payer is not socialized medicine...doctors would not be employed by the state (unless they work for the va or other state or federally run facilities)
and so, because of the fear mongering, we get a bill that only accomplishes one thing....mandates that everyone be forced to hand over money to private insurers....while we all hope and pray that they become good little girls and boys and stop effing over their customers
not gonna happen
so the wingnuts have won again...while they will continue to scream that obama has destroyed america
to watch the same people fall for the changewecanbelieveinyeswecanhopewe'retheoneswe'vebeenwaitingforhistoric garbage all over again.
Tears in eyes.
Roosevelt. Johnson. Even Lincoln is back.
Then - comes the morning after.
People read the bill...
And gnaw their arm off to escape their bed-mate.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
As in no thanks, I'll pass?
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
I only want this crap sandwich passed so we can finally, if we're lucky, and all of the stars line up, move on to some other piece of the people's business.
We need to give the rethugs, tea baggers, and jesus freaks some other piece of angst to tear the country apart over.
trying to get these bozos to end the wars?
That would be interesting.
Progressives would want the wars ended.
Conservatives would start out wanting to keep them going.
Here comes bipartisanship.
They finally agree to end the wars by 2029.
The Liberals will say that it's not perfect - but it's a start.
some bleary eyed DINO would refuse to be the deciding vote and hold the media transfixed while that same DINO is given ample time to pontificate on why they are an asshole, I mean, patriotic American.
There is NO BILL, NO SPIN that would prevent the wingnuts from "scaring the crap out of the great unwashed masses that obama wanted socialized medicine." To suggest that if the Dems had just presented it this way or referred to it that way the wingnuts would have been left speechless just doesn't conform with known reality.
More than any other time in U.S. history, the health insurance industry will be beholden to We, The People to decide what an insurance policy will look like. This time around, if we were ever going to achieve this first step, we had to enlist them and show them they would benefit from the change. Once they're on the We, The People dole and complacent about Americans obeying a mandate to buy their product (at better rates for better coverage), then we can start introducing public options that will ultimately destroy them or render them irrelevant.
This was truly brilliant Art of War levels of political strategy. We've just captured, enlisted and hired to work for us the best funded, best armed impediment to cutting health care costs. To these cynical old eyes, that looks like a major initial victory. One that no other president or congress has achieved.
It's the exact opposite of socialized medicine, and it's totally dishonest to say this law will make the health insurance industry *beholden* to the people. There is nothing in the bill that controls prices, and in fact, when it passes, every American citizen will be forced - under threat of serious financial penalty - to buy insurance from private interests at the prices they set. No doubt doctors and health insurance executives will be crying all the way to the bank over this law.
Of course there are insurance price controls in the bill:
Health Care Reform Bill: Cost, Details, Changes Released
The Associated Press | 03/18/10
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/18/heal...
[[INSURANCE MARKET REFORMS: Major consumer safeguards take effect in 2014. Insurers prohibited from denying coverage to people with medical problems or charging them more. Higher premiums for women would be banned. Starting this year, insurers would be forbidden from placing lifetime dollar limits on policies, and from denying coverage to children because of pre-existing medical problems. Parents would be able to keep older kids on their policies up to age 26. A new high-risk pool would offer coverage to uninsured people with medical problems until 2014, when the coverage expansion goes into high gear.]]
There is no way any bill would have gotten 60 votes in the Senate if we had dumped every Single-Payer/Medicare For All wish into it this time around. But once that mandate kicks in, the health insurance industry is effectively working for the U.S. Government.
Insurers will still be allowed to charge what they want, they simply can't charge some people more than others. Obviously they will just raise premiums across the board in order to compensate for the high-cost patients they will be required to cover.
The insurance companies can charge all they want...as long as they don't risk pissing off their new mandate-collecting federal government bosses. They're on the government payroll now. Price controls don't have to be explicit in the bill to be real.
Ultimately, the lowest rate anyone needs to pay, legally, yet still receive medical care in the USA now (once all provisions in the bill are set) is whatever the annual fine is for not buying insurance when and if your income and employment conditions require it. Which, as it is spelled out now, happens to be only a few hundred dollars per year per individual for all but very few people in the country.
How can you call this a mission accomplish speech? There is no comparison between the eloquent and modest words spoken here and the bombastic, arrogant, delusional event that gave birth to this term. You really do a disservice to this man and the attempts of a congress to do the right thing under impossible conditions.
Sometimes I think the left wing has a death wish for this country.
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