Two Down, One To Go: Final Health-Care Vote Scheduled for Christmas Eve
The Senate got past the second filibuster on the compelling video game that is health-care reform, with one level left. While the final vote is theoretically scheduled for Christmas Eve, I saw Sen. Claire McCaskill on my teevee this morning saying that Republicans are trying to drag it out so that members won't be able to spend Christmas with their families.
Now, Claire, while I'm sympathetic to a point (yes, the Republicans are obstructionist scum), if this legislation is really a historic achievement (albeit one that will force many Americans to stretch their finances to the limit to comply), I don't especially care that your holiday schedule is mildly inconvenienced.
But that's just me!
The Senate cleared the second of three key procedural hurdles on President Obama's health-care legislation early Tuesday with another party-line vote, continuing the effort to pass the bill before Christmas.
All 60 members of the Democratic caucus supported the measure to finalize amendments to the health-care package, while 39 Republicans opposed it.
A third procedural vote is expected Wednesday, with final passage of the bill likely to come late Thursday -- Christmas Eve.
Although they lack any obvious way to torpedo the bill at this point, Republicans remain bitterly opposed to the legislation and have shown little indication that they are ready to relent in their increasingly negative standoff with Democrats.
On Monday, hours after a crucial 1 a.m. vote to end a Republican filibuster, the American Medical Association officially endorsed the legislation, while Democratic leaders defended the dealmaking that has brought the $871 billion package to the brink of passage.
Lacking the votes to block the bill, Republicans heaped scorn on the many concessions made to wavering Democrats in the quest to advance the package. GOP critics warned that support for the effort could mean the demise in 2010 of vulnerable incumbents, including Sens. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) and Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzldEuOVKxo
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Health Care which is triggering yet another great heist. These payments/taxes will not be collected by the government, but by private corporations, who will now have the means and access to determine what percentile of your income should be transferred over. This can be as high as 10% for an earner making $50,000 before taxes. These are astonishing developments and another historic transfer of wealth from public to private industry. What is even more disturbing is that government is not even pretending to use this transferred wealth to solve the myriad of government funding problems and has instead chosen to have it go directly to the private corporation. Government will now only serve as the enforcer.
Yet, there are still people who think this whole scam is a great idea because the uninsured will now get Health Insurance.
in the Dow, all are beneficiaries of less taxes, more government contracts, and a number of other subsidies too complex to write down in this post. What continually astonishes me is that the channels the money must pass through get less complicated with time. Yet the population has been so dumbed down they can't revolt against the shyster lawyers who wrote the stuff. And apparently it is still too complicated for educated journalists to understand even though the money trail is as clear as day. The United States has more lawyers then the rest of the planet combined. And the pile of paper keeps getting higher and higher while the money moves more simply and more directly to the chosen few.
The health and drug companies have been given a Christmas present they could not receive.... 30 to 40 million force new policy holders...
They have paid Santa Claus well for receiving a Christmas gift they could not have received on their own over 30 million new customers..
Can not say The democrats are not bi-partisan the all corporations..
The banking , auto , Halliburton , Blackwater and now the health & drug companies..
Wonder what was left in the so called democrat stocking for Christmas....
One thing for sure the American citizens have become the losers with a lump of coal in their stocking... Wait a minute it was left on the door step , because after the American citizens has been forced to transfer their wealth to all these Global giants they can not afford any stocking..
None
-It is a great big present, wrapped up in bejeweled golden paper with platinum ribbons, for the Insurance Companies. The really strange, mystifying thing is: how Congress & the President don't and can't understand that The People know they're being screwed!
Any person who doubts it will find out very quickly that congress & the admin are plotting a course for complete collapse of our country's economic system. I am sure the Fascist Collective of Business-Government think they can keep control of things and shape the result to benefit themselves even more.
Well, they're in for a BIG surprise.
When Republicans are in power, they attempt impeachment, and the Democrats can't wait to be collegial and friendly to them after the hubbub is all over.
When Democrats are in power, they declare that "impeachment is off the table", and then suffer through years of being called radical extremists by Republicans.
And now Republicans are praying that Sen. Byrd dies so he can't make the last Senate vote.
Republicans are assholes, scumbags and authoritarian cultists. Yet they have more power, it seems, than the principled among us. RIP, USA.
If the Rethuglicans had something to ram through into law, they would deem all opposing the measure traitors and unAmrerican... standard operating procedure for them.
A$$holes.
had already made the deals with the Drug and health companies...
They went through all this BS to make us believe they were debating and this is the best they can do...
How about all these progressives stating that they could not vote for a health bill without a public option..
Now they are telling us the devil made them do it...
I say to them at the voting polls that their devil made me do it to..
None
..they act as one not like three or sixty. They put the interests of their party first, the corporations paying them second and maybe if you're a big enough contributor, then you. As far as America or the American public goes, its "FU".
Mickey: "It was an epiphany. Do you know what an epipany is?"
Keoni: "NOT NOW MICKEY!"
Corporate Welfare paid with draconian Medicare cuts that kill the one social health program that works.
Low income people will now have subsidized defective health insurance that will still, because of deductibles, force them into bankruptcy if they have a major illness.
Poverty level and below into Federal Medicaid the rolls of which will swell. Many providers will not take it.
This is a seriously flawed piece of legislation.
Glenn Greenwald with his latest:
here
Luke Mitchell in Harper's:
here
The Nation:
Gaming Healthcare here
Healthcare's Defining Moment Katrina Vanden Huevel here
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
"Obstructionist Scum"???
Eh, Susie?
"The US has an army of 90,000 soldiers in Afghanistan and is spending $100bn a year, but has still been unable to defeat 20,000-25,000 Taliban who receive no pay at all." - Patrick Cockburn
you are an Obstructionist. And that is the least of their faults.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dbF73oPPbM
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Uses parts of other people's speeches for his..
Obama uses what he called the health plan of McCain....
The bait and switch and tax the person where their companies pay part of their health policy
Do you know how John McCain pays for his $5,000 tax credit? He taxes as income every one of you out there, every one of you listening who has a health care plan through your employer." The ad continues with the text, "Taxing health benefits for the first time ever," followed by a third clip from the debate in which Biden says, "Taxing your health care benefit. I call that the 'ultimate Bridge to Nowhere." The ad concludes with the text, "The McCain health tax: What they can't explain."
http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/he...
Every day Obama and Emanuel looks more and more like a republican//
They tell you anything they wish to deceit you into believing their BS///
None
It is with disgust I read that the 'senators' have got 60 votes to pass a piece of shit on to the public so they get their bribes.
Since they have spoken plainly and clearly to each of us, we must assume that they are trying to kill us, and bankrupt us.
Never voting for a democrat again. They don't vote for me, I see no need to vote for them.
Who ya gonna vote for?
Christopher Dodd got a sweetheart deal from Harry Reid that will supposedly lube up the Connecticut voters next year:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/...
And here's but one other way the "medical industry" is gouging people. Ever heard of "facilities fees"?
http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-he-...
We need the federal government to work for the average American, not their current corporate masters.
The question is, what on Earth will we do to stop the "gouging of America"?
We obviously need a clean sweep of the federal government.
I think the only way to accomplish this is to form a new progressive party.
The Republican and Democratic parties are beyond redemption.
"The US has an army of 90,000 soldiers in Afghanistan and is spending $100bn a year, but has still been unable to defeat 20,000-25,000 Taliban who receive no pay at all." - Patrick Cockburn
..health care legislation? What has he done to take ownership of this legislation? Wishy-washy comments about how great the Public Option would be do not make this Obama's. While I applaud the House and Senate for trying to do something to help the millions without health care, we should've waited until more Progressives were in power or at least until there were a few more democrats like Ted Kennedy out there doing what needs to be done to pass legislation that means something, that isn't a pay-off to health care corporations. I wish I didn't have a conscience and did have a little money so I could invest in health care companies about to make record profits.
Mickey: "It was an epiphany. Do you know what an epipany is?"
Keoni: "NOT NOW MICKEY!"
I think the mandate is a good thing. There are deadbeats who make plenty of money who choose not to buy insurance. These are people who need to participate or let them pay a fine. Low income or poverty stricken will be subsidized. It isn't the way I would design a system nor is it the best way to go about it in an ideal world but it does address more than a few of the problems doing nothing would bring.
If the bill doesn't do any good or people get PO'ed about paying a fine we'll know before the next presidential election.
"I know that there are people who do not love their fellow
man, and I hate people like that! " ~ Tom Lehrer (1928 - )
Health care is not AFFORDABLE.
No amount of Health Insurance is going to change that basic underlying "catch".
Part of the Democratic Party SCHEME for anyone who gets DUMPED into Medicaid will include an ESTATE RECOVERY.
This means if the person happened to inherit grandma's old house in Alabama and the person gets sick and needs to be hospitalized that the state will TAKE HER HOUSE IN PAYMENT.
If this legislation passes, it will only be a matter of time before what is left of the Democratic voters turn on the party and the backlash will be ugly.
Once the high premiums, the fines/penalties/jail terms/the high deductibles/co-pays/estate recoveries kick in, not to mention continued foreclosures/homelessness/joblessness etc., I believe it will spell out the death of the Democratic Party.
Good freakin' riddance to it.
"The US has an army of 90,000 soldiers in Afghanistan and is spending $100bn a year, but has still been unable to defeat 20,000-25,000 Taliban who receive no pay at all." - Patrick Cockburn
Are finally showing their true colors:
Officials: House Democrat will switch to GOP
There's no 2-party system anymore...it's all RW BS.
In Alabama it is the same thing.
"I know that there are people who do not love their fellow
man, and I hate people like that! " ~ Tom Lehrer (1928 - )
"I don't especially care that your holiday schedule is mildly inconvenienced."
Obama will delay vacation over US healthcare
(great minds think alike and all that)
"I know that there are people who do not love their fellow
man, and I hate people like that! " ~ Tom Lehrer (1928 - )
It’s not just the uninsured at risk for medical bankruptcy. The underinsured and fully insured are also vulnerable. Warren reports that three-quarters of the medically bankrupt had health insurance. As a result of high premiums, deductibles, and co-pays - as well as uncovered services and policy loopholes - out-of-pocket expenses become insurmountable. Even families with superior coverage find themselves filing for bankruptcy.
Ironically, members of Congress are covered by the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program and do not have to worry about being financially ruined by illness, which might explain how they could pass the act with so little regard to its impact.
That none of us know whats in it. Or whats going to end up in it.
It still has to go back to the House.
I know HR676 was booted along time ago.I'm still very leery of what they are doing. This isn't what I wanted. Or expected.
But I'm going to try to keep an open mind to this outcome.
I know I'll probably be disappointed . But ya never know.
The House will have something to say about this bill in it's current form.
What is your conceptual, continuity?
of Arizona, co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, say that the caucus will be issuing a press release tomorrow announcing that their members will NOT be supporting the bill in the current Senate form without there being a Medicare buy-in and a ROBUST public option.
He said the Progressive Caucus members are disgusted with the fact that the Senate bill has NO COMPETITION BUILT IN and that they are having problems with other areas as well.
So, stay tuned....
If they grow a spine (and I personally would be shocked to hell if they did), they could kill this bill yet.
"The US has an army of 90,000 soldiers in Afghanistan and is spending $100bn a year, but has still been unable to defeat 20,000-25,000 Taliban who receive no pay at all." - Patrick Cockburn
forcing a bad bill, making backroom deals, padding insurance companies bottom line, rampant corporatism...
all for a political victory for the dems and faux'bama
beyond disgusted
"What's costing the president are three things: a laissez faire style of leadership that appears weak and removed to everyday Americans, a failure to articulate and defend any coherent ideological position on virtually anything, and a widespread perception that he cares more about special interests like bank, credit card, oil and coal, and health and pharmaceutical companies than he does about the people they are shafting." Drew Westen, Leadership Obama Style
I think it is more that last of the three than anything else, and explains the others. Obama is captive to special interests, as are many of the key members of the Congress, and the Obama Administration, and the Federal Reserve. And I should add his two predecessors.
It explains why he cannot articulate a coherent ideological position and make it stick. Make no mistake, he is a smart and verbally adept individual, a gifted person intellectually. But he cannot adhere to principles because he has abandoned whatever principles he may have had to serve a variety of corrupting interests. And he appears laissez faire and distant because he is a figurehead, a household servant, and not in control.
What makes Obama a greater failure than either Bush or Clinton is that he was elected on the promise of reform, a promised change, a political renewal in a country sickened by the erosion if not betrayal of its republic by men who view the Constitution as 'just a goddam piece of paper.'
Obama fails in 335 days?
lol
"I know that there are people who do not love their fellow
man, and I hate people like that! " ~ Tom Lehrer (1928 - )
thanks for summing the situation up so well.
"The US has an army of 90,000 soldiers in Afghanistan and is spending $100bn a year, but has still been unable to defeat 20,000-25,000 Taliban who receive no pay at all." - Patrick Cockburn
and just posted: "I don't really know what I'm talking about." Now this particular part of your comment, "And he appears laissez faire and distant because he is a figurehead, a household servant, and not in control." is quite revealing. Household servant you say? Would that be because he's the right color for that job?
Hasa Diga Eebowai
The point is this "right" is being controlled by for-profit, private, monopolistic corporations who have a long history of screwing their policyholders and customers.
We're being asked to pay more for our "rights" without a say in the matter.
The GOP Party of Pointless Obstruction finally has nothing to offer. The train of history is about to leave the station, and these clueless idiots are still arguing about who's going to tip the porter.
Add me to the list of people who will never vote for a democrat again.
Lets see... our country -Titania- is heading full speed for an iceberg, a BIG iceberg visible to everyone; while the Captain and crew obsequiously serve the rich passengers caviar and champagne, laughing, toasting one another and applauding their wonderful speeches. For They have the Captain's word that
ifwhen the ship hits the iceberg They will escape in the intentionally limited number of lifeboats. The lazy and stupid lower classes can fend for themselves making rafts from the Elite's abandoned furniture, or drown. It's up to Them.So- there they'll be, in the middle of the North Atlantic in their luxurious lifeboats, sipping fine wine and congratulating each other on their miraculous escape, laughing at the lower classes teetering on their precarious flotsam rafts, and knowing they are the deserving ones.
Then what happens? Tune in next week.
(hint
it involves Climate Change)
This is more about putting a feather in the Democrats and President Obamas' cap and less about meaningful Health Care Reform, which it isn't...cuz we gettin' screwed folks.
Government + the Federal Reserve = organized crime
But it aint. Our Emperor and his minions aren't wearing clothes.
(They don't know it, but the feather is really Macaroni!)
"Bush administration created executive pay loophole"
on the 11th hour or very, very last minute, before the so-called $750 Billion dollar banking bailout was to be signed?
here is the article:
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Bush_Administra...
The senate bill, and the turncoats who swore to vote against any bill that did not include a robust public option proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that the democratic party is also bought and paid for by the rich and powerful. They are traitors and in a different time, they would have been tarred and feathered and run out of town.
Now though, the corporate media immediately busy's itself brainwashing the public, and in short order we will all return to acceptance of the status quo.
It amazes me that these scum sucking pigs like Nelson and Lieberman, Baucus and Conrad, Landreau and Lincoln smile, speak their nonsense with straight faces, and sleep like babies after screwing the public, abandoning the American people, and selling their soul to the highest bidder.
Aetna, Wellpoint, UnitedHealthcare meanwhile are wringing their greedy hands in glee and their CEO's bonus's of the future will get bigger and bigger whilst the rest of us continue to suffer and struggle.
Americans should be ashamed of themselves for being deluded into believing we are a democracy. Our government is evil, evil, evil, and this legislation proves it! The same people who oppose helping the American people won't hesitate at all spending a thousand times that much in the next decade building bombs, killing people, fighting wars, giving un-necessary contracts to Halliburton, KBR, Blackwater, and foreign governments with oil we want to turn into gold to line the pockets of Exxon/Mobile.
-that THEY are Entitled. Everything they do is right and Good, it must be, otherwise they wouldn't be Entitled, would they? Why, they'd be lowly proletariats, like people who shop at WalMart, or people who shop at Macy*s and think They are entitled. Hahahaha!
Another reason The Entitled are against 'the people' being given (allowed) "entitlements": We are not worthy.
No that's not just you. Its me too.
According to Wikipedia entry, the American Medical Association (AMA) adamantly oppose any single-payer legislation.
I want to say the Hardball today in the first half hour has been pretty good. Of course there is still a half hour for Tweety to put his foot in his mouth but until now it is pretty good. The show will be repeated in an hour and a half and would suggest you watch it if you can stomach Teevee.
it could mean the demise in 2010 of vulnerable incumbents, including Sens. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.)
Good Riddance!
is getting old. she gets all "i'm mad as hell and i'm not gonna take it anymore" in some posts and then completely folds in others. it's called talking out of both sides of one's mouth. this post is a great example of folding--if you think this bill sucks, and i'm pretty sure madrak thinks it sucks, why would she want senators to stay and get the job done by Christmas. you're either against the bill or youre for it. well which is it, madrak?
by the way, heather and nicole are much better at staying true to their beliefs.
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