Editor’s Pick
SEPTEMBER 29, 2009 1:21PM
UPDATE: Senate Finance Public Option Vote Results
In about 45 minutes you can join the fun at C-span 3. Senator Rockefeller and Senator Schumer are offering a Public Option amendment to the Baucus plan.
I watched in rapture. These are the take aways for me, from this morning session:
1. A man called Rockefeller is arguing for the Public Option and how it will help working class and poor Americans. Imagine that.
2. The Rockefeller proposal would save us the taxpayers 50 Billion dollars. This does not seem to be important to the "fiscally responsible" Senators from the Republican party.
3. Republicans in their discussion against the Public Option made the following convoluted arguments:
- Guns kill a hell of a lot of people in Americs: America would have better outcomes were it not for guns and cars. So, take than NRA.
- Choice is ok for some things and not for others. Republicans are adamant supporters of choice, giving people choices on which corporation, of the usually just two corporation in their state to buy insurance from. Choice as we know, is not a virtue in other arenas, sexual orientation, reproductive rights.
- Competition is really a dodgy thing when someone offers a lower price, people will choose it and that is not good for capitalism. If we know that someone can offer a lower price to the American people, then they are not allowed to compete with our Insurance companies. We have to make sure that only expensive options are available to Americans so that they will not be able to afford living.
- Insurance corporations are not large bureucracies, they are nice fuzzy personable entities that have my individual interest at heart, only government is a bureaucracy. Problem is that government has public oversight and a public process for discussing policies and procedures, corporations have a private board of directors not accountable to any public purpose.
- Public option is the entry drug to socialism. A public option is nothing but a ploy, plot by the lefties to eliminate the insurance industry. Medicare is part of our social fabric, only the generation of WWII is afforded the benefits of such a system, everyone else, go fuck yourselves.
Grassley on Medicare: Part of our social fabric. Damn, we are socialists?
Update on the votes:
Baucus (D-MT), Conrad (D-ND) and Lincoln (D-AR) vote NO Schumer’s public option.
Sens. Max Baucus (D-MT), Kent Conrad (D-ND), Bill Nelson (D-FL), Tom Carper (D-DE), and Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) vote no on Rockefeller amendment.If you are from those states,let the dunderheads know you are not happy. We are making a list and we are gonna check it twice.
Wish we could do joint post Wakingupslowly
Waking knows what she speaks of. Do not give up, must keep the fight going
It's all on the HELP committee now and how they blend the two Senate bills. Harkin says he's committed to a public option in the bill, and he is now Chair of HELP. So, when the bills are combined there really could be a public option that goes to the Senate floor. If that passes and if we can get a public option in the the House final bill and voted out of the House, we'll be in good shape when we go to conference committee .
What I'm saying is, it's past the SF committee now. Baucus blew it, but maybe Harkin won't.
What I'm saying is, it's past the SF committee now. Baucus blew it, but maybe Harkin won't.
Remember, it's all about saving you money when the mandate comes around.
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Martha Nichols
Jeanette DeMain
Amalias
Ken Honeywell
Patton Lee Beaugus
halfof42
Salon.com
Comments
Guns....guns...!!! It's not the exact one I wanted, but this is good.
On a personal, that affordable housing job here is up for grabs, again...;) Who knows -- can I deal with the extremely Republican dominated local government? Not sure, now...
They also remind me of the Monty Python line from the Spanish Inquisition skit. “Amongst our weaponry are such diverse elements as: fear, surprise, ruthless efficiency, an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope, and nice red uniforms ”
If you have a mandate, you have to offer a low cost solution. I am amazed at all the people who are not paying attention to this issue. When it hits them on the head, like when the war started they will be crying uncle.
2013???
Medicare schedules only for two years - then "negotiation"????
My senator was concerned that having someone in charge makes any plan "government run"?????
I heard Ensign (the philanderer) during a coffee break and wondered how much help he had coming to that conclusion??????
Isn't it great that these highlights are already available to anyone who missed the mark-up live!!!!!
Yes, going to C-SPAN.org to catch more. Eeew - Cornyn. What a tool!
If you believe this, I have some swamp land in New Jersey for sale.
The Schumer version will now be voted on, not tied to Medicaid.
I preferred the Rockefeller.
Puke!
Not once, not once did they talk about the financial impact on families without a public option. God bless Rockefeller. The lies about Medicare were beyond imagination.
What I'm saying is, it's past the SF committee now. Baucus blew it, but maybe Harkin won't.
Send the bastard your message. And get him OUT of OFFICE.
Stellaa, This statement is far to logical. There is no place in politics for logic. You of all people should know that. ;-) A public option WOULD open the door to finally get rid of big insurance. For me, that's the whole point.
Fucking Bill Nelson. I've voted for that ass for YEARS!
Ensign should be in jail instead of protesting on Capitol Hill. And his point in the video still doesn't address the 45 million without insurance. What an assboil.
And the Grassley video, funny how the Rethugs have been raging about the evils of Medicare for forty years, but all of a sudden want to sound like they've been supporters of it since it's inception. Just who ARE these people?
Here is the link to the SF committee amendments. Have fun!
http://www.finance.senate.gov/sitepages/leg/LEG%202009/091909%20AHFA%20Coverage%20Amendments.pdf
I've been pissed at Conrad and Baucus ever since they voted to affirm Alito and Roberts.
WHY DOES THIS FUCKING PARTY NEVER ENFORCE PARTY DISCIPLINE?
As I've written on my own posts, it's all too apparent the fix is in, and "healthcare reform" ala Max Buttkiss is a half-trillion dollar boon-doggle and gift for ever-rapacious insurance giants. The only change we're going to see is the change that's left in our pockets after Congress and Corporateers are thru fleecing us.
At least Ensign Blowhard isn't from Texas, the only state in the Union where more people die by gunshot than car accident. Does this mean that Jerkwad Johnny is going to come out in favor of gun control?
I am fervently writing, emailing and twittering and clicking for the public option, but I think they don't give a rat's ass. But I won't give up. Health care reform without it is like mowing your lawn in a drought and hoping it turns green again because it's shorter.
Thanks for this Stellaa - much appreciated.
Conrad certainly had a chance to tell Ensign he was wrong but based on the video posted here, he apparently didn't feel up to that. Conrad actually says that the US healthcare providers "do very well" in response to Ensign saying that survival rates are better in the US. While it is close, the reformers are still losing this debate.
Harkin is saying he'll do pass a public option with 50 votes - read Filibuster. At this point, Harkin is much stronger than Baucus (always has been) and he should win as to what goes into the final Senate bill and is voted on on the floor.
The other issue, BTW, that we're working (advocates for health care) is to make sure that all of this ends up being AFFORDABLE for all people, even very low-income people. And, that the benefits are substantial to truly give people what they need in health care coverage. Not just sham benefits. Those things also have to be fought for.
I'm going to a three day conference tomorrow about this issue and and then next week I'll be in DC with 20 other child health advocates from other states. So far I have four Hill visits scheduled. The topic? Health reform.
Keep calling your Senators, all of them, but if you have one on the HELP Committee, contact them now about the public option.
HELP COMMITTEE MEMBERS
Democrats by Rank
Tom Harkin (IA) - Christopher Dodd (CT)
Barbara A. Mikulski (MD)
Jeff Bingaman (NM)
Patty Murray (WA)
Jack Reed (RI)
Bernard Sanders (I) (VT)
Sherrod Brown (OH)
Robert P. Casey, Jr. (PA)
Kay Hagan (NC)
Jeff Merkley (OR)
Al Franken (MN)
Republicans by Rank
Michael B. Enzi (WY)
Judd Gregg (NH)
Lamar Alexander (TN)
Richard Burr (NC)
Johnny Isakson (GA)
John McCain (AZ)
Orrin G. Hatch (UT)
Lisa Murkowski (AK)
Tom Coburn, M.D. (OK)
Pat Roberts (KS)
Thanks again, Stellaa. I'll be unable to be online and to comment over the next few days. Leaving it all in your very capable hands. :)
Sorry. Long day.
The point you make about affordable is key. A mandate without an affordable option will result in a catastrophe.
I will stay tuned with Harkin and thanks for all your help.
Keep up the fight.
A second example is that Obama feels the need to go on national TV and exaggerate that Americans have never been less secure (a ridiculous assertion) plus spread false stories about cancer victims dying from insurance denials when in fact the patient he uses as an example got his treatment and lived for a number of years. That pesky ol'survival rate gettin' in the way again. If only that guy had died sooner then maybe Baucus would vote for the public option. (sarcasm)
The argument for reform is so disconnected from common sense facts that average Americans experience that people can spend all day making jokes about it. In fact they do... on hundreds of talk radio stations around the nation.
But, given the gerrymandered Congress, there is still a chance it will pass so no rest for us fans of limited government.
I take it you're dismissing the polls which consistently show a majority of Americans (65% in the latest CBS poll) in favor of a public option? Even where I am in the ultra-conservative mountains of East TN people are sick to death (literally) of being shit on by insurance companies. They may not be clamoring for a single-payer system, but they want something to be done about keeping insurance companies honest -- which they clearly ain't.
Once you realize that, things become a lot easier to understand.