With No Republican Support, Waxman's E&C Committee Passes Compromise Bill
When I lose patience with the pace of healthcare reform, I remind myself exactly how much detail work is involved. (Via MSNBC: Above, House Energy and Commerce Committee Special Assistant Mitch Smiley, center, thumbs through boxes of amendments to the America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009, on Friday.) So stay patient and keep calling, we're getting closer all the time. All three major committees have finished their version and will vote in September:
Reporting from Washington -- President Obama's ambitious plan to overhaul the nation's healthcare system got a major boost when a pivotal House committee passed a compromise bill Friday night, clearing the way for a floor vote this fall.
The bill was approved 31 to 28, with five Democrats and all of the Republicans on the energy and commerce committee voting against it. Despite the defections, enough liberal and conservative Democrats were able to come together to break the deadlock that had stalled the bill for weeks.
"We are a diverse caucus with many points of view," said committee Chairman Henry A. Waxman (D-Beverly Hills). "We've agreed we need to pull together."
To reach agreement, Waxman earlier this week had accepted conservative lawmakers' demands to limit the bill's price tag to $1 trillion over 10 years, exempt more small businesses from the employer-provided insurance mandate, and reduce the number of low-income people who would qualify for subsidized coverage.
But those changes provoked a backlash among liberals. To win them back, Waxman crafted a compromise that would restore low-income subsidies. The committee also added a major provision that would limit the premium increases that insurers could impose, and another that would let the government negotiate pharmaceutical prices under Medicare's prescription drug program -- a goal long sought by liberals as a way to reduce drug costs. (The idea was bitterly opposed by Republicans when the program was established in 2003, as critics questioned whether the government would secure discounts.)
The bill is designed to provide insurance for the 46 million people in the U.S. who now go without it; to curb healthcare costs; and to make it harder for companies to deny coverage or increase premiums.
"We have a historic opportunity to transform our healthcare system," Rep. Mike Ross (D-Ark.), a leader of the panel's conservative faction, said ahead of the vote.
But Republicans said that despite changes made to address conservative Democrats' concerns, the legislation remained a costly, intrusive expansion of government power over medical care. Conservatives did little more than "pick the color of the lipstick on this pig," said Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.).
The vote came just as House members prepared to leave town for a monthlong recess.
but the given excuse of:
is not what this supposed "reform" is about at all. That is what average Americans want it to be about. The push is coming from the insurance industry and the healthcare industry. This is about the continued fleecing of Americans under the disguise of healthcare.
cash confiscation industrial complex.
we can only hope that reed gets some BALLS
and puts the heath reform bill through
with the 51 vote option and not spend time
of energy trying to negociate with the fucking
gop or bluedog dems who only represent the insurance
and pharmaceutical corporations.
these self-interests corps. and the gop and bluedogs
have had their day....they can drive off a cliff...
care to push them? let your congressmen know now!!!!
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
So what do you call the process where you get suckered into making sausage filled with rat droppings and then your negotiating partners don't eat it because they're too busy laughing at you because you got suckered into making sausage with rat droppings? Maybe it's time to focus on a plan that actually works instead of rat-dropping sausage that won't be served until 2013.
Medicare for All!
How many times will the Democrats step on the same rake? They have done it so many times I now have to assume they are doing it on purpose.
At this point we should sweep this fringe group out of our government and bring some real progress to America. America's history has always been the same, the progressive liberals think up ways to advance the country and our people and they have to drag the conservatives along kicking and screaming and yet the repugs still get to enjoy the benefits of the same measure they opposed, this goes back to ending slavery, bringing about a minimum wage, the 40 hours work week, giving women and black people the right to vote, and it goes on and on.
So I seriously ask: Why do we keep the repugs around?
Was that a slam against Sarah Palin?
No, she's the Pitt Bull with lipstick who quit in the middle of the dog fight. The kind Michael Vick would slam on the floor by the hind legs for not performing very well.
My thoughts exactly. Why is this guy calling Sarah Palin a pig?!?!?!?
Just so I'm clear on this - why do they need to impose limits on premium increases when the insurance companies have promised to work on maybe sometime later possibly decreasing heath costs?
"Conservatives did little more than "pick the color of the lipstick on this pig," said Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.)."
Give me a fucking break. What a big Pharma/Big Insurance tool this RePug clown is. Watch Sicko, then you'll know who the pigs are if you didn't already. It's this guy and the big Pharma/Insurance puppeteers who are pulling his strings.
I wasn't aware this took place in the House of Commons. We have only two parties, and neither of them is called Conservative. Committee seats are apportioned by the party you belong to, not your ideology. Perhaps Rep. Rogers should examine his own loyalties for the reason he and his ilk are backbenchers right now.
We are keeping score and are going to defeat them at the polls. How can the word be spread if the names of the defectors are not listed?
a vote, no one who votes for or against it will have read it. Even if they get superhuman abilities to read it, it would take hundreds of experts to decipher the loopholes. This is all a huge waste of time and energy based on blind hope.
This should be take one step at a time without all the bullcrap additions and subtractions and rewording. And anyone who says our system doesn't work that way has NO right to EVER complain about the fallout.
Why the Democrats even accept Republican amendments is beyond me. Since they are not going to vote for the Bill, don't even listen to them. I said it here before that they will not get 1 single Republican vote, and the final Bill still won't. Forget the Republicans already and move forward with a Bill that helps out the American people!!!
I agree , why are the Dems even bothering with the Repugs ? It's senseless . They are a rotten bunch of psychopaths , why make deals with the devil , why give him an inch when you do not need to ? Any compromise or deal with those A holes means we the people get screwed , we lose . All the Republicans will be doing from here on out as long as Obama is in office is sabotage and obstruct and lie their asses off , write them off and stop playing games . Chris (not the troll) wrote "How many times will the Democrats step on the same rake? They have done it so many times I now have to assume they are doing it on purpose." I think you are right Chris , outside of Bernie Sanders , Waxman , Kucinich and just a few others I don't trust or believe any of them , we have an absolutely corrupt government , both sides of the isle but the Repugs are in a league all their own , no doubt about that .
Comments are closed on this entry