Yep. The 'Party of No' Blocks War Funding To Delay Health-Care Bill.
UPDATE: Dems broke the filibuster at 2 a.m. EST.
You know, I'm beginning to wonder if the refusal to operate in good faith isn't a form of official malfeasance. Because voters should impeach these senators for simply refusing to do their jobs - like voting for this bill, which funds their unemployment benefits:
Senate Republicans said Thursday that they would try to filibuster a massive Pentagon bill that funds the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, an unusual move that several acknowledged was an effort to delay President Obama's health-care legislation.
Late into the night, Democrats emerged from a huddle confident that they would muster the 60 votes needed to thwart the GOP effort at blocking the military spending bill. An antiwar liberal said he would set aside his reservations and support choking off the filibuster to keep the chamber on a timeline of holding a final health-care vote before Christmas. The vote on the defense spending bill was to occur after 1 a.m. Friday, too late for this edition.
The maneuvering came as Democrats were still trying to round up a 60th vote on the health-care legislation. Sen. Ben Nelson (Neb.), the last holdout in the Democratic caucus and the focus of an intense lobbying campaign by White House officials, rejected an abortion compromise aimed at bringing him on board. Nelson has said he would not support the package unless it explicitly bars the use of federal money for abortion services.
If Nelson's support can be secured over the weekend, Democrats are hopeful that they will be able to begin clearing the parliamentary hurdles that would allow final passage of their version of the legislation by Christmas Eve. That would meet their self-imposed deadline to pass the measure and begin negotiating with House Democrats to craft a final version to send to the president.
Republicans have said their goal is to block the bill and force Senate Democrats to go home and face their constituents, hoping for some supporters of the measure to return after New Year's too fearful to back the legislation.
If the filibuster on the $626 billion defense bill succeeded, Democrats would have to scramble to find a way to fund the military operations, because a stopgap funding measure will expire at midnight Friday. Such an effort might have disrupted the very tight timeline on health care.
Republicans have provided the backbone of support for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and many have praised Obama's troop increase in Afghanistan, so the plan to oppose defense spending Friday morning put them in an unusual position. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) cited the thousands of earmarks in the bill in explaining his opposition, and others cited factors not related to health care.
But Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) was blunt in explaining his support of a filibuster. "I don't want health care," said Brownback, a member of the Appropriations Committee, which crafted the Pentagon funding bill.
[...] Democrats were furious. They believed they had a deal with Sen. Thad Cochran (Miss.), the top Republican on the Appropriations Committee, but by Thursday night Cochran was saying he was unsure how he would vote.
UPDATE: Dan Pfeiffer at the White House blog makes the following acute observation:
The depth of the hypocrisy involved is stunning. Back in 2007, when Congress was debating how to bring the war in Iraq to a responsible close, many of these same folks launched blistering accusations about Democrats' commitment to our troops. Here are just a few of the things they said:
"Playing politics with the critical funding that our troops need now is political theater of the worst kind." – Sen. John Cornyn, [Press Release, 4/26/07]
"We have plenty of time and plenty of opportunity to have political debates... but it’s just unconscionable to me to tie the hands of the very troops that we all say we support." – Sen. John Cornyn, [Transcript, Senate Republican News Briefing, 4/10/07]
"Every day we don’t fund our troops is a day their ability to fight this war is weakened." – Sen. Mitch McConnell, [Press Release, 3/31/07]
"No way to treat the troops, and it is entirely inconsistent with [Senators’] expressions of support for the troops." – Sen. Mitch McConnell, [Congressional Record, 10/4/07]
"I don't understand this attitude of, ‘We can play with; we can risk the lives of these troops by waiting until the last possible minute to get the funding to them." – Sen. Jon Kyl, [FOX News Transcript, 4/10/07]
"Our obligation to those troops must transcend politics." – Sen. Jon Kyl, [Press Release, 11/8/07]
Now though, as we debate not foreign policy but health care, the Department of Defense funding can wait? Incredible.
Blocking war funding is bad how?
Not passing Obama's travesty of a health care reform bill is bad how?
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
push it through late tonight when American's are watching American Idle or whoring around in the bars.
to git Health Insurance and at the same time helping Afghanistan modify it's 13 century culture.
these same congresscritters were solidly behind every freakin' war funding bill put forth by W, no matter how much it cost or how many earmarks were in it. I don't agree with the bill, either, but the hypocricy here lies with all those Rethuglicans who, during the Bush Administration, were first to excoriate any Dem who voted against war funding as a matter of principle. It just perpetuates the fact that no matter what Obama puts forth, Rethugs will vote against it. If he declared free admission to the Superbowl, the Rethugs would refuse to go!
“The greatest evildoers are those who don’t remember because they have never given thought to the matter, and, without remembrance, nothing can hold them back,”
I understand the point perfectly.
The Republicans are warmongers.
But the Democrats are also warmongers.
Obama is the Warmonger in Chief.
The health care reform bill is a travesty of Corporate welfare.
Who are you going to defend in all of this?
THAT is my point.
There is no defending the indefensible.
In trying one either looks silly or sinister.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/bl...
It's bad because it would be a reslug victory. Obama and the Dems need a victory.
If you look at the history of the civil rights campaign, you'll see it came in small steps, fought tooth and nail by the same types of Neanderthals. This bad bill is a step in the right direction, whether it looks like it or not.
As long as we have Dems in office to pass the next step after this...
Spoken like a true Democrat.
The obscenely bloated Defense bill and the perpetual war machinery must be ended.
I don't care who does it.
If the Republicans do it let them explain to their constituents why and try to pass the giggle test there. I won't worry about them.
Let them see what sort of victory that will be.
Let them proclaim their adherence to the universal rights of man and see who believes them.
The greater problem is that the Democrats say such things and people believe them, when it clearly [is] not true.
As for the health care travesty:
Requiring citizens to purchase private for-profit health insurance and using public money to subsidize it while eviscerating Medicare and increasing the Medicaid rolls is utterly unconscionable.
Calling this reform is an utter travesty.
You will never convince me otherwise.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
We're a sick country.
It sure makes me sick.
Ok so there are actually enough democrats that support this bill to get it passed? I'm scared. Good luck to the republicans and their obstructionist ways. This is a bill we definitely don't want.
Politics makes strange bedfellows. Let's roll around in the sack with the repub scumbags while our democrat whores are out cheating on us with the lobbyists.
Senate Advances $626 Billion Pentagon Bill, Defeats GOP Stalling On Health Care
"I know that there are people who do not love their fellow
man, and I hate people like that! " ~ Tom Lehrer (1928 - )
Aw you're no fun handypants. Some people haven't even had a chance to comment on this temporary matter.
The war mongering Republicans were out-maneuvered by the war mongering Democrats.
Among the tagged on items the surveillance state/indefinite detention loving Republicans were out-maneuvered by the surveillance state/indefinite detention loving Democrats.
I hope I have straightened this out.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
Take it away from him.
It is shocking, shocking I say, that all those serious people with grown-up opinions on the health care issue have employer provided health care plans.
..for brownback to say what he said, I expect whoever he tries to run against when he's up for re-election should campaign on that alone. and nelson, since no one wants to have the government stick their nose into health care, why does he want to prevent a woman from having an abortion but will allow old farts like him to have viagra?
Mickey: "It was an epiphany. Do you know what an epipany is?"
Keoni: "NOT NOW MICKEY!"
"The day that Senator Obama cast a vote not to fund my son when he was serving sent a cold chill through my body, let me tell you."
Cindy McCain
I've seen some stuff, man. And some thangs...
If Democrats ever talked about delaying a military funding bill, or even talked about attaching amendments to it, the GOP screamed "treason" and "traitors".
But now it's okay? B/c they love the troops so much?
..in the bedroom last night?
Mickey: "It was an epiphany. Do you know what an epipany is?"
Keoni: "NOT NOW MICKEY!"
"But Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) was blunt in explaining his support of a filibuster. "I don't want health care," said Brownback, a member of the Appropriations Committee, which crafted the Pentagon funding bill."
Ok then Mr. Brownback. Will you personally give up your taxpayer funded, single-payer health care? Will your fellow republicans do the same? I think not. If HRC fails because of GOP obstructionism, then someone needs to bring forward a motion to remove Congress' health benefits and ram it through using reconciliation. You won't find too many constituents making a fuss about that......
They're all corpo-rats who love war. The lone voice of sanity, Dennis Kucinich, is insulted by all but the most informed progressives. What a f%&*d up country.
Is it the 21st century yet?
beyond hope.
"I would ask members to remember this is a vote about our willingness to support our servicemen and women and not about other policy issues."
He voted "no" on the current bill.
I've seen some stuff, man. And some thangs...
Health Insurance Premium Assistance "health care reform". Anyone figured out that logic yet?
Why is the Republican party doing more for me (attempting to defeat the sham health care reform) than the guys I voted for? Because victory for America (defeating health care reform in its present form) would be perceived by the ignorant and uninformed (i.e., the majority of Americans) as a defeat for Obama while defeat for America (passing the health care bill) would be perceived by the ignorant and uninformed as a victory for Obama. This stuff is so disconnected from reality it's ridiculous!
couldn't even have imagined it. A bunch of insane people skittering back and forth like talking wind up dolls in a Nations Capital.
So how are the Republicans doing more for you? Saying no to everything means doing nothing.
Because here, when the one alternative that the Dems are offering us makes us less well off than we are at present, nothing happens to be more than less.
Actually, the bill passed according to a story on the huffington post. Take that idiot republicans!
Let me get this straight:
The war mongering Republicans were out maneuvered by the war mongering Democrats.
I understand now.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
Yeah, but unfortunately for the country all the democrats have succeeded in "winning" is a defeat!
So basically, their hatred of Americans exceeds their love of blowing up brown people?
It even exceeds their love of blowing the military industrial complex.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
What an awful party. Who else but a bunch of uneducated, inbreds, and teabaggers would belong to a useless party like that? Morons!
And these are the same jackasses we're bending over backwards to be all "bi-partisan" with? Sheesh. We should have gone all-in and really given these do-nothings something to freak out about- single payer healthcare. Too late now. You and I are going to be FORCED to pay for private health insurance, no matter how crappy it is. I'm done. Try and make me. I will refuse.
I'm pretty much through with both parties. War mongering corporatists. Obama has sold us down the river. I don't even consider myself all that liberal, and I can't believe how inanely stupid this whole process has been. What a crock. And I keep getting emails from Obama saying that the healthcare industry is trying to stop what we're doing. Please. They're laughing all the way to the bank. They are about to be handed a money making press courtesy of you and me. And there's not a damn thing we can do about it. Thanks a lot, democrats. From now on I'm voting straight green party or anything other than this god damned tragedy of a party.
make them ACTUALLY do it
stop caving into simply the threat of one
would LOVE to see a bunch of repugs talk about NOT funding a war
If Democrats pulled this BS, Republicans would be on every major network saying "The Democrats hate the troops." Then the "liberal" media would echo that sentiment like it was FACT and eventually, the polls would reflect that the people believe it as FACT.
Can we just get rid of the Senate already? It seems to me to be a waste of space and 90% of the people that occupy it aren't representing the voters of their state if their interests end up contradicting the Senator's own self-interests.
I know the same is sort of true in the House, but THOSE people have to run every 2 years and it's easier to dig up what they've done in the last 2 years, so it's easier than trying to recall everything a Senator did in the last 6.
I'm just so underwhelmed by what's going on so far in the Obama era it's not even funny and it's making me think apathy isn't such a bad idea in order to maintain my sanity. No matter what this man and the Democrats do, they'll be tagged as "far left" or "liberal", so why not go that route? They act moderate or center right, still get labeled liberal, and lose their jobs anyway, so why not lose it for being who you truly are rather than... oh screw it, we all get it, I don't think they ever will.
I can't believe we allow this to happen. I know they are scum of the earth...but are the American public that passive to allow this sort of shit to happen?
Sour grapes anyone? It's time to get the peoples' work done. Where the hell is the media on this story??????
Arguing that since everybody hates them they must be doing something right.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/enter...
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
"Will eliminate all income taxation of seniors making less than $50,000 per year. This will eliminate taxes for 7 million seniors -- saving them an average of $1,400 a year-- and will also mean that 27 million seniors will not need to file an income tax return at all."
Good one!
"From both a moral standpoint and a practical standpoint, torture is wrong. Barack Obama will end the use torture without exception. He also will eliminate the practice of extreme rendition, where we outsource our torture to other countries."
Right!
The GOP pushes the bill back past Christmas, then all of the dems and progressives have to make an all-out push to get into the faces of their senators and reps and make them afraid NOT to pass the bill.
To reduce bills rushed through Congress and to the president before the public has the opportunity to review them, Obama "will not sign any non-emergency bill without giving the American public an opportunity to review and comment on the White House website for five days."
To achieve health care reform, "I'm going to have all the negotiations around a big table. We'll have doctors and nurses and hospital administrators. Insurance companies, drug companies -- they'll get a seat at the table, they just won't be able to buy every chair. But what we will do is, we'll have the negotiations televised on C-SPAN, so that people can see who is making arguments on behalf of their constituents, and who are making arguments on behalf of the drug companies or the insurance companies. And so, that approach, I think is what is going to allow people to stay involved in this process."
LOL
they overcome a veto and approve nearly 700 BILLION for a ONE-YEAR defense spending bill, but continue to flagellate themselves and stall and complain about spending roughly that same amount OVER 10 YEARS (!!!!!!) for health care for all... ??
Why do republicans hate the troops?
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Although most of us are pretty much disgusted with both parties at this stage,the fact remains that a majority of Americans put the Democrats in power.They were given a mandate for change.(I know,I know)
Americans at this crucial time in history deserve a working government and a real opposition party not these radical lunatic tea party shit heads calling themselves "conservatives" who have decided to bring everything to a grinding halt in a disgustingly blatant act of serial obstructionism.Americans also deserve a real leader who knows when to say "enough is enough" and "the buck stops here".If Obama doesn't call them on this shit soon...well you know the rest.
"To me, truth is not some vague, foggy notion. Truth is real. And,
at the same time, unreal. Fiction and fact and everything in between,
plus some things I can't remember, all rolled into one big "thing."
This is truth, to me. "
-Jack Handy
Let's face it people, our system of government is irreparably broken. Absolutely nothing meaningful can be achieved under this corrupt, dysfunctional political process. It's time for the U.S. system of government to go through a radical transformation. We need proportional representation just like they have in Europe - multiple political parties, no one or two parties dominating the process, everybody being kept (relatively) honest. The day of rule by the party of rich white guys vs the party of not-quite-so-rich white guys has got to end.
If you have selfish, ignorant citizens, you're gonna get selfish, ignorant leaders.
George Carlin
but the Dems have become the party of "No? Okay."
Senate Republicans said Thursday that they would try to filibuster a massive Pentagon bill that funds the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, an unusual move that several acknowledged was an effort to delay President Obama's health-care legislation.
This would be great for the Democrats, because it would show the entire country who the Republicans really are.
That they would filibuster funding the troops, to keep US citizens from getting healthcare would drive the stake through the party of fake patriots.
They have been hiding behind the troops for so long that it would be a good idea to force them out into the open and show the world where their real loyalties lie.
I don't want any of our tax money going to these corrupt enterprises in Iraq and Afghanistan.
If the Democrats haven't got the courage and moral sense to refuse funding these horrors, let the Republicans do it for whatever reason.
Send Obummer a message.
I wonder if there's enough in it to cover this. yep. That there is sum ceereeus twuble
Remember a few weeks ago, Iraq said they were opening up oil production to foreign investors. Well, Iran seems to have different plans.
What is your conceptual, continuity?
"Senate Republicans said Thursday that they would try to filibuster a massive Pentagon bill that funds the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan"...
This is one bit of Republican stupidity I can stand behind.
If the choice is no war or health care, I'd be happy if we sacrificed a national health plan to end the war. After all, we have no national health plan anyway (other than Medicare), so nothing to lose.
Later, when the troops are pulled out, we can bring the health care bill back and tell the Republicans to shove it.
Hmmm. I'm a lifelong left coast liberal. Now the GOP wants to block funding for two horrendous wars, and also seeks to kill the just-as-repulsive healthcare bill. What's not to like? Go, elephants!
.
Only when the last tree has died
and the last river has been poisoned and the last fish has been caught
will we realize we cannot eat money.
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