Reid Faces The Test Tonight: Enough Votes to Block Filibuster?
By Susie Madrak Saturday Nov 21, 2009 9:00amCan Harry pull it off - without giving away the store? Of course we'll be covering today's events here at C&L, so stay around for updates:
Nov. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid tonight faces the first big test of whether he can keep his Democratic colleagues united behind health-care legislation.
Senators plan to take a vote at 8 p.m. Washington time that would clear the way for debate on the most sweeping changes to the U.S. health system since the 1965 creation of the Medicare program for the elderly and disabled.
With every Senate Republican opposing the legislation, Reid can’t afford a single defection from his 60-member caucus to enable the chamber to take up the bill when Congress returns from a weeklong Thanksgiving recess. By late yesterday, Democrats had locked up almost all the votes they needed.
“We’re not assuming a thing,” Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, the No. 2 Senate Democrat, told reporters. “We’re working hard to bring all Democrats together.”
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so we can win something for change.
Anyone that doesn't vote for needs to be challenged in the next election and thrown out. The back stabbing pos Lieberman should be at the top of the list.
it takes to give the war-weary the illusion of a 'victory.'
Somehow this bill feels unhealthy.
I can't get too excited about it. (fingers crossed)
It will pass or fail. Watching the minute details at this point of the process is just too much roller-coaster ups-and-downs for me.
Pass or fail - what really matters is how things are working around election time or early next summer.
Corporate media is massaging us to expect nothing until the State of the Union address.
Derren Brown - Subliminal Advertising
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyQjr1YL0zg
Not a hugely scientific report but I bet my bottom dollar the magicians on Madison Ave. use the same things with regard to politics and political issues.
Add the fact that major defense contractors own the media and we have a perfect storm of insanity and mass media manipulation.
How else could the M$M get anyone to watch Faux? (as one example)
Is what they are all about. How else could they get half of the crap they push on the public without the idiot box and the rest of their propaganda apparatus?
True.
I am still (and always will be) dumbfounded about 55 million people voting for Bush in 2004.
staying up late that election and Dubya mysteriously pulling ahead of Kerry. It was a fraud, mostly based on rethug run Diebold machines. I'll never believe Junior was legitimate either time he "won".
"I'll never believe Junior was legitimate either time he "won"."
Me neither.
But . . .
That also gives me some hope. I figure there were efforts to steal votes for Grampy Insane and Caribou Barbie so they lost by a larger margin than was reported.
for most corrupt and dysfunctional empire?
Sheesh
It's clear that the Alexandrian Empire was much more corrupt.
More people should read history more attentively, don't you think?
sick and tired of being force-fed pabulum/lowest-common-denominator mindless sitcom and survival slop yet.
....more people.
still for longer then 30 seconds.
.........the vote will be to decide whether to debate the issue, or not. Of course the issue will be debated, question is: What the hell they'll end up with AFTER the debate. I feel sick already!
that should be obvious by now.
However, Harry really should consider talking to Joe Lieberman in the same way LBJ used to discuss issues... behind closed doors, with a bat behind his back, and some juicy photos "just in case."
Maybe something like this: "Okay, Joe, if you go with the Republicans, I'll take away your chairmanship!" It's only right, you know. Joe's supposedly still a part of the Democratic Caucus, with the priveleges and protections that presupposes.
Dear ACLU Supporter, (from an email)
Thank you for taking action to voice your opposition to the Stupak-Pitts Amendment.
Can you take a moment to ask your friends to add their voices to our effort as well?
*****
Subject: Protect all women's right to make their own health decisions.
Hi,
On Saturday, November 7, 2009, during debate in the House of Representatives on the health care reform bill, lawmakers voted to adopt the Stupak-Pitts Amendment which would impose unprecedented restrictions on women's access to abortion care.
It's imperative that we stop the Senate from adopting a similar or identical amendment and we must ensure that no such amendment appears in a final bill that goes to the President for his signature.
Will you take action too?
http://action.aclu.org/StopStupak
turning to Bukakke at sundown...
This is ginned-up hype designed to disguise that they're going to be "deciding" just how putrid the piece of shit legislation that eventually comes out--for "thePrez'" signature, at half-time of the SuperBowl, with fighter-planes streaking o'erhead and thousands of scantily-clad cheerleaders leading the choruses of ecstatic cheers of the grateful citizens--will be.
This whole exercise, all the drama, all the coverage, all the hype, has been to camouflage that they're deciding HOW LITTLE to change things, and how to get away with doing the least possible injury to their paymasters...
only $1787 - $8213 !!!!
Cheaper than healthcare insurance.
And more fun for the fans.
I'm going to use my tumor as a seat cushion.
Face value two years ago started at $400.00. I know. I had them lined up, but the Packers lost in the NFC Championship game.
Keep blowing everything out of proportion, Chicken Little.
http://www.tickco.com/schedule/super-bowl/feb...
http://www.stubhub.com/super-bowl-tickets/
And highly speculative scalpers' prices at that. If the Super Bowl ends up a meeting between the Cardinals and the Bengals- two small market teams with little following outside of their markets, scalpers' prices will be a shade above face value.
whatever
smoke and mirrors. Camouflage, as you say, while they work on defrauding us out of what's left of our wealth.
I expect the 'next shoe to drop' in the fiscal/financial crisis before ANY "Insurance Company Profit Protection & Enhancement Act" is ever signed.
in bailout money. I wonder what they will do with it.
on PEOPLE, not fuuking corporations for bonuses to the fucking robbers who stole us blind already in the fucking first place.
the purpose of "government' is to preside fairly and dispassionately over the orderly and fair distribution of the goods the people own in common, the common-wealth, that is...
CNN is suggesting Mary Landrieu is on board and Blanche Lincoln is the last holdout. However, if Lincoln climbs on board I am still expecting Joe Lieberman to stab the Dems in the back in what shouldn't be a surprise move on his part. Should be an interesting day.
don't go away and stay tuned!
to learn from the dramatics and posturings and endless hype accompanying this sterile, staged, pre-digested, media circus?
THis is just window-dressing, friends, a puppet show, staged for the distraction and delusion of the rubes and proles...
Instead of accomplishing the useful goal of providing health care for as many Americans as possible (a government-run, socialist system), Harry Reid and his gang substituted a false goal - health care "insurance" reform.
At best our proud congress will deliver a pathetic insurance mandate that will confuse and enrage citizens, does not deliver anything substantial until 2013 (oh, you thought it would happen NOW? Hahahahaha), costs a trillion bucks over ten years, and still doesn't afford reasonable health care to more than 10 million of the 40 million Americans that have no health care at all.
"Epic fail" hardly covers it.
This pooch croaked in the kennel. This rocket exploded on the launch pad. This ship sank in the harbor. This beaver drowned in his own dam. This rat climbed back onto a sinking ship. This antelope attacked a pride of lions. This Trabant has no wheels. How many can you make up? Congress just beat every one of them with this soulless turkey of a corporate giveaway.
What's clear from what we will NOT get in this bill is that the liberal and progressive base of the Democratic party must wreak primary vengeance on those that have betrayed our trust. Most Democrats thought they were voting for Democrats, but it now appears that was not true. What they got instead was a bunch of double-talking, self-serving political opportunists that had no intention of delivering anything really liberal or progressive. Instead, they got Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and gang.
If we can do no better in primaries, we will get no better than what we see today.
whatever garbage they push through?
Remember: If Americans don't have real healthcare reform, it's not because of anything the GOP did, it's because of what the Democrats FAILED to do. Ya hear that Harry, Nancy, Barack? If healthcare reform fails (which is pretty much a done deal I'd say) it's all on you bitches!
a huge majority of Americans would have figured out that Corporate America is not a friend, and will screw you every chance they get.
Yup.
Here’s a thought…
I don’t want the government involved in regulating for-profit insurance carriers. Let them deny coverage, raise rates, create their own “death-panels”, and rip off consumers until their coffers over flow. All this is fine with me. Leave them alone.
But I also want an alternative.
Let the market dictate? Sure – when the monopolies are dismantled, and the costs of care are controlled, and every American can be assured that unalienable right to AFFORDABLE health…the market WILL decide. It will decide that the for-profit insurance carriers are just not necessary. They add nothing. Leave them to their demise.
So tonight we have a vote to debate...
Really? A vote to “talk about it”? This is the news?
We have the best health-care in the world – but only the very wealthy can afford it without insurance. We also have the worst insurance system in the world – and only the wealthy can afford that, even though it may not cover anything.
It is astounding that U.S. Government Single Payer Health Coverage for ALL Americans would cost 1/10th of what we currently spend on killing… errr …defense. Killing is necessary, but healing is too expensive.
Unbelievable.
I understand this vote is a procedural roll-call of sorts. It does not bode well, however, that there is such consternation in Congress over a vote to talk about what they may or may not do.
Democrats have promised an agenda that includes withdrawing from the war in Iraq,[65] raising the minimum wage, implementing all of the 9/11 Commission recommendations, eliminating subsidies for oil companies, restricting lobbyists, repealing tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, lowering interest rates on college loans, expanding stem-cell research, investigating political appointees for actions taken during and leading to the war in Iraq, allowing current tax cuts to expire,[66] and negotiating Medicare prescription drug prices. They planned to legislate these issues within their first 100 legislative hours of power in January 2007.
what happened?
or is it 20%
As the healthcare debate is coming to a procedural head on the floor tonight, news this week that the U.S. Postal Service lost money for the third year in a row—a staggering $3.8 billion, versus a loss of $2.8 billion last year—should give Middle America real concerns about government’s ability to effectively insert itself into individuals’ lives and deliver quality, affordable healthcare.
Government is not a bad thing. For those who think differently, view government as a necessary evil, whose purpose is to serve the people, not vice versa. As we were reminded by Abraham Lincoln in the Gettysburg Address in 1863, “. . . this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. . .” Like it or not, government belongs to the people and it is here to stay.
The speed with which politicians are moving to rush a 2074 page healthcare bill through Congress with little debate leads Middle America to ask the obvious question, “What’s the hurry on an issue of such great importance?”
Well, the hurry is that this week Middle America picked up the scent of the rationing of healthcare with confusion over when and what women should get mammograms and pap smears. As time drags on, Americans are becoming increasingly concerned about how healthcare might be rationed, which has Democrats are as nervous as long-tailed cats in a room full of rocking chairs.
If ever there was an issue that touched every American personally, healthcare is it. Clearly, something has to give—there has to be some sort of healthcare reform, like the ability to shop for healthcare across state lines, a prohibition against rejecting pre-existing conditions, a requirement that every American have health insurance, etc. However, the need to get healthcare reform right greatly exceeds the political demands to just get “something” done and declare victory.
Middle America has been betrayed in a way, since every word of every page of the 2074 page bill isn’t being discussed and publicly debated in great detail by this administration, which campaigned on “transparency.” Sound public policy requires a lucid and thorough examination of this legislation, but it appears that once again, sound public policy is being traded for political expediency.
Obama’s advisors and Democratic consultants know that time is their enemy—the longer Congress takes to pass healthcare legislation, the less political capital they have to pass anything at all, and the more likely Middle America will thoughtfully consider how it might impact its own mammograms, pap smears, and healthcare needs.
The honeymoon period typically extended to new presidents is now coming to an end, if it hasn’t already come and gone. Unfortunately for President Obama and Democrats, they campaigned on delivering “healthcare reform” and staked their political future on it.
Middle America is not naïve, and will not allow itself to be played like a Stradivarius violin. Making healthcare reform their lynchpin issue was a very calculated decision by Democrats, not done hastily, but after much polling and many focus groups. Democrats have made healthcare a political football and Middle America is increasingly concerned about it.
Understandably, Democrats exploited the issue of healthcare reform for maximum political value during the campaign, but now the campaign is over and the wolf is almost at the door. Democrats know they have to deliver something, and this “something” really needs to be thought through with great deliberation and debate. If given a choice, Middle America would be better served with nothing, rather than “something” hastily rammed through Congress.
A. Muser
http://americanmuser.wordpress.com
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