Health Care Reform Dead - Page 43

Waluigi · #**1051** 02-09-2010, 07:22 PM

Filibuster is overrated. It's just an excuse that the Senate leadership hides behind.

You don't need a supermajority to pass legislation. If the Republicans want to filibuster, then let them. Make a Senator stand up at the podium and talk, and talk and talk and talk, and train a TV camera right on his big fat head and broadcast it on C-SPAN 24 hours a day.

I bet after a couple of days of looking like a bunch of asses on live TV, essentially telling citizens that they're not worthy of being healthy, the Republicans would sit down and shut up.

Garnet · #**1052** 02-09-2010, 07:29 PM

Yeah, I've said that a couple of times. Let them fillibuster and be damned. Pass the damned thing already.

Jug Pilot · #**1053** 02-09-2010, 07:37 PM

Dingfod · #**1054** 02-09-2010, 07:39 PM

ON?

godfry n. glad · #**1055** 02-10-2010, 05:21 PM

IS

Jug Pilot · #**1056** 02-11-2010, 01:38 AM

Republicans just sent Obama this Ransome note

Garnet · #**1057** 02-11-2010, 01:52 AM

Garnet · #**1058** 02-13-2010, 07:37 PM

Administration Rejects Health Insurer’s Defense of Huge Rate Increases - NYTimes.com

Quote:

Anthem Blue Cross, the California health insurance company that was criticized by the Obama administration for raising its premiums, said Thursday that the increases of up to 39 percent were driven by rising health care costs.

But Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, declared the explanation inadequate, especially in light of the profits made by Anthem’s parent company, WellPoint Inc.

“It remains difficult to understand how a company that made $2.7 billion in the last quarter of 2009 alone can justify massive increases that will leave consumers with nothing but bad options,” she said. Those options, she suggested, were to pay more for coverage, cut back on benefits or join the ranks of the uninsured.

Dingfod · #**1059** 02-13-2010, 08:42 PM

It's like they're daring him to do something about it.

Garnet · #**1060** 02-13-2010, 08:46 PM

Or they're convinced that nothing will be done.

Dingfod · #**1061** 02-13-2010, 09:06 PM

Profiteering off people's ill health seems decent justification for pulling the rug out from under their feet to me.

Jug Pilot · #**1062** 02-13-2010, 10:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Garnet

Or they're convinced that nothing will be done.

Or they KNOW nothing will be done.

viscousmemories · #**1063** 02-23-2010, 02:34 PM

It's hard to keep up with this drama but I think this proposal is new news.

Also, http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/...-plan-and-when

Garnet · #**1064** 02-23-2010, 03:31 PM

I like the call out to the Republicans to publish their much vaunted plan. As closely as I've been following this, I haven't seen anything out of them except a call for tort reform for medical malpractice and the idea that insurers should be able to sell their products across state lines. Everything else I've seen from them has been a mass of distortions, flat out lies and simply hollering "NO!"

freemonkey · #**1065** 02-23-2010, 04:18 PM

JFK Speaks About Universal Health Care

Can anyone point me in the direction of finding a short history of how other countries got there? I've been wondering about this for some time.

D. Scarlatti · #**1066** 02-23-2010, 04:55 PM

Now Republican governors want in on the federal legislating, and Fox reports horror among political observers that Congress might dare to pass a bill with a majority of 50% plus one.

Ensign Steve · #**1067** 02-23-2010, 05:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by D. Scarlatti

Now Republican governors want in on the federal legislating...

Yeah, what's up with that? When I saw the Oxendine for Governor web page and it was all "together we can stop Obamacare", was I out of my mind for thinking, "Why don't you just deal with your own state and let Congress take care of Obama?"?

Watser? · #**1068** 02-23-2010, 05:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by freemonkey

Can anyone point me in the direction of finding a short history of how other countries got there? I've been wondering about this for some time.

Don't know about that, but in Germany the Iron Chancellor Bismarck introduced it, so that must have been in the late 19th century. And, oh irony, the Nazis introduced it here during the occupation in WWII.

Ensign Steve · #**1069** 02-23-2010, 05:58 PM

So Obama really is Hitler? :chin:

Watser? · #**1070** 02-23-2010, 06:00 PM

That seems a lot more likely now :unnod:

(I have to admit I didn't even know that.)

Crumb · #**1071** 02-23-2010, 11:33 PM

- Salon.com

Garnet · #**1072** 02-24-2010, 12:02 AM

Ugh. I wish I could disagree with that article but I can't. The Dems have made such a bloody ham-fisted mess out of this that I began wondering some time back if it wasn't actually their strategy all along.

godfry n. glad · #**1073** 02-24-2010, 12:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Garnet

Ugh. I wish I could disagree with that article but I can't. The Dems have made such a bloody ham-fisted mess out of this that I began wondering some time back if it wasn't actually their strategy all along.

The monied interests in this scenario have been careful to taint both sides of the aisle. We've even been known to refer to one of our US Senators as "The Senator from Blue Cross/Blue Shield"...and he's a 'Democrat'. Lately, since he married that publishing heiress, we've taken to calling him "New York's third senator".

Dingfod · #**1074** 02-24-2010, 02:35 AM

Smart money buys off politicians on both sides.

godfry n. glad · #**1075** 02-25-2010, 04:04 AM

Who said health care reform is dead?

Just today, steps were taken...

I guess we'll just have to watch, see if the requisite Justice department is adequately funded and purposed to actually have some positive effect. Expect pressure at the Senate level and full-scale whining at the Executive level ("We had a deeeeeaaal, Barack!")

As I've noted before, don't expect the rest of the insurance and finance lobbys to sit by idly while this goes down. They are going to see this as a "camel's nose".