Archive for January, 2010
Health Reform Passes Graveyard, Might Stay Awhile..
In what can be described as the least surprising turn of events since another war broke out in the Middle East President Barack Obama’s health care appeal failed to garner and stifle the congressional deadlock on Thursday, which basically is ending all the hopes of the uninsured Americans who were hoping for some kind of support from Washington. Will the Democrats pay a price for causing the last year tumultous health reform bill and debate and then passing nothing? If Massachusetts is a signal of the mid term elections the answer is surely yes.
The bleak news from Washington is not hampering the conjecture and lies coming from Democratic Congressional leaders who are still insisting health reform will get done which can only lead to one guessing that they are sitting in a garage somewhere with the car running. Where are the votes?
“It’s very possible that health care is just a stalemate and you can’t solve it this year,” said Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark.
So what does no health bill mean to the economy and our mounting deficits? Probably the same thing as having health reform, the main difference would have been more people would have had access to medical coverage.
Medicare and Medicaid would still be going bankrupt, health care costs would still be rising, and deficits would keep increasing.
The State of the Union
Obama still pushed lawmakers to advance health reform, but there can be no doubt that it no longer tops his domestic agenda. More importantly he provided no course of action to lawmakers who have no idea how to pass health reform with no votes and no plan.
Still the Senate Democrats have been huddled all week trying to chart a course and were promising to have some sort of strategy by weeks end.
Senate Democratic leaders huddled Thursday afternoon to try to determine how to proceed, emerging to report progress, and the White House remained engaged in the negotiations. A Senate aide said lawmakers were hoping to decide on a legislative strategy by the end of next week.
Republican senators said senior White House officials had reached out to several in their ranks, including some conservatives, despite the unanimous GOP opposition to the far-reaching bill.
Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., who last year said stopping Obama on health care could be his Waterloo, said Thursday, “What I was saying was if he continued to push this massive takeover that it could be his Waterloo, and now it very well could be.”
In a sign of how far health care had fallen since Obama campaigned on it, Senate Democrats devoted a weekly policy lunch Thursday to discussing jobs, not health care. In a letter to supporters outlining Democrats’ 2010 agenda, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer didn’t even mention health care, although a spokeswoman said the e-mail was sent by Hoyer’s campaign team and was not meant to be an exhaustive list of priorities. House and Senate leaders insisted success on health care was still in reach.
“We’re going to move forward on health reform. We’re going to do health care reform this year,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi acknowledged in her weekly news conference that plenty of work remained if the House was to agree to changes to the Senate bill.
“We will go through the gate. If the gate is closed, we will go over the fence. If the fence is too high, we will pole vault in. If that doesn’t work, we will parachute in,” Pelosi said. “But we are going to get health care reform passed for the American people.”
Just two weeks ago House and Senate leaders were working round the clock at the White House, with Obama personally involved, to merge legislation passed separately by each chamber and finalize a bill for Obama to sign in time for his State of the Union speech. That effort was upended when Republican Scott Brown claimed the Senate seat long held by the late Edward M. Kennedy.
Since then Democrats have struggled to find a way forward. The leading strategy is for the House to pass the Senate bill along with a package of changes approved by both chambers, but that idea is fraught with difficulties both political and substantive. Some Democrats favor retreating from a comprehensive overhaul and taking a less ambitious approach with a series of individual initiatives or a smaller bill.
“Is there a gate someplace to get through and try to save some common areas of health care reform in both the House and the Senate bill? We’ll see,” said Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D.
The powerful seniors’ lobby AARP weighed in Thursday, urging lawmakers in a letter to “continue to work together to enact comprehensive health care reform legislation this year.”
As Democratic leaders sought a way through the health care logjam, they reminded the rank and file that there are no easy solutions, politically or otherwise.
Two unpleasant choices face Democratic lawmakers who voted for the health care changes last year and who now worry about their re-election prospects this fall.
If a bill becomes law, they will have to convince a doubting public of its benefits, and conservatives are bound to keep up the attacks. If no bill passes, it’s possible that public anger over the health care issue will subside a bit. But many Democratic strategists say GOP challengers will constantly remind people of the incumbents’ votes, and Democrats will seek re-election with nothing to show on health care despite controlling the House, Senate and White House — and with hefty majorities.
Compounding the problems was growing distrust between the House and the Senate.
While lawmakers struggle, Wall Street is celebrating the sinking prospects for a sweeping overhaul that would put new taxes and requirements on insurance companies. Insurers have opposed the overhaul even though it aims to insure more than 30 million people over the next decade with a new requirement for nearly everyone to be covered.
Health Reform Passes Graveyard, Might Stay Awhile..
In what can be described as the least surprising turn of events since another war broke out in the Middle East President Barack Obama’s health care appeal failed to garner and stifle the congressional deadlock on Thursday, which basically is ending all the hopes of the uninsured Americans who were hoping for some kind of support from Washington. Will the Democrats pay a price for causing the last year tumultous health reform bill and debate and then passing nothing? If Massachusetts is a signal of the mid term elections the answer is surely yes.
The bleak news from Washington is not hampering the conjecture and lies coming from Democratic Congressional leaders who are still insisting health reform will get done which can only lead to one guessing that they are sitting in a garage somewhere with the car running. Where are the votes?
“It’s very possible that health care is just a stalemate and you can’t solve it this year,” said Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark.
So what does no health bill mean to the economy and our mounting deficits? Probably the same thing as having health reform, the main difference would have been more people would have had access to medical coverage.
Medicare and Medicaid would still be going bankrupt, health care costs would still be rising, and deficits would keep increasing.
The State of the Union
Obama still pushed lawmakers to advance health reform, but there can be no doubt that it no longer tops his domestic agenda. More importantly he provided no course of action to lawmakers who have no idea how to pass health reform with no votes and no plan.
Still the Senate Democrats have been huddled all week trying to chart a course and were promising to have some sort of strategy by weeks end.
Senate Democratic leaders huddled Thursday afternoon to try to determine how to proceed, emerging to report progress, and the White House remained engaged in the negotiations. A Senate aide said lawmakers were hoping to decide on a legislative strategy by the end of next week.
Republican senators said senior White House officials had reached out to several in their ranks, including some conservatives, despite the unanimous GOP opposition to the far-reaching bill.
Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., who last year said stopping Obama on health care could be his Waterloo, said Thursday, “What I was saying was if he continued to push this massive takeover that it could be his Waterloo, and now it very well could be.”
In a sign of how far health care had fallen since Obama campaigned on it, Senate Democrats devoted a weekly policy lunch Thursday to discussing jobs, not health care. In a letter to supporters outlining Democrats’ 2010 agenda, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer didn’t even mention health care, although a spokeswoman said the e-mail was sent by Hoyer’s campaign team and was not meant to be an exhaustive list of priorities. House and Senate leaders insisted success on health care was still in reach.
“We’re going to move forward on health reform. We’re going to do health care reform this year,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi acknowledged in her weekly news conference that plenty of work remained if the House was to agree to changes to the Senate bill.
“We will go through the gate. If the gate is closed, we will go over the fence. If the fence is too high, we will pole vault in. If that doesn’t work, we will parachute in,” Pelosi said. “But we are going to get health care reform passed for the American people.”
Just two weeks ago House and Senate leaders were working round the clock at the White House, with Obama personally involved, to merge legislation passed separately by each chamber and finalize a bill for Obama to sign in time for his State of the Union speech. That effort was upended when Republican Scott Brown claimed the Senate seat long held by the late Edward M. Kennedy.
Since then Democrats have struggled to find a way forward. The leading strategy is for the House to pass the Senate bill along with a package of changes approved by both chambers, but that idea is fraught with difficulties both political and substantive. Some Democrats favor retreating from a comprehensive overhaul and taking a less ambitious approach with a series of individual initiatives or a smaller bill.
“Is there a gate someplace to get through and try to save some common areas of health care reform in both the House and the Senate bill? We’ll see,” said Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D.
The powerful seniors’ lobby AARP weighed in Thursday, urging lawmakers in a letter to “continue to work together to enact comprehensive health care reform legislation this year.”
As Democratic leaders sought a way through the health care logjam, they reminded the rank and file that there are no easy solutions, politically or otherwise.
Two unpleasant choices face Democratic lawmakers who voted for the health care changes last year and who now worry about their re-election prospects this fall.
If a bill becomes law, they will have to convince a doubting public of its benefits, and conservatives are bound to keep up the attacks. If no bill passes, it’s possible that public anger over the health care issue will subside a bit. But many Democratic strategists say GOP challengers will constantly remind people of the incumbents’ votes, and Democrats will seek re-election with nothing to show on health care despite controlling the House, Senate and White House — and with hefty majorities.
Compounding the problems was growing distrust between the House and the Senate.
While lawmakers struggle, Wall Street is celebrating the sinking prospects for a sweeping overhaul that would put new taxes and requirements on insurance companies. Insurers have opposed the overhaul even though it aims to insure more than 30 million people over the next decade with a new requirement for nearly everyone to be covered.
Health Reform Bill Shows No Pulse
Health Reform is DOA, and President Obama can look forward to a State of the Union address where there is more apologies than a wedding full of blind people.
Democrats Put Lower Priority on Health Bill, File Documents Right Next to Area 51 Report
The New York Times quoting a few big name Senators and House members including Senator Harry Reid, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Evan Bayh, Blanche Lincoln, and others, are all saying pretty much the same thing, and that thing is changing the subject.
Health Reform has now officially reached back burner status, and with no clear path forward for the legislation, the brakes have been slammed on President Obama and his agenda. After months of missing health reform deadlines the representatives in Washington no longer feel pressure to advance health reform.
This is neither surprising nor good. When the Senate Majority leader comes out and says, that “we are not on health care now,” it is time to pack up and go home. I only wonder what kind of things I will be blogging about now that we are doomed to higher health care costs and people dying from lack of medical care.
Perhaps I will blog about about all the health insurance industry abuses that go on everyday and uncover all the pain and suffering caused in the name of profits. Or maybe I just won’t give a hot damn anymore because it is more than a little obvious that America could give a bleep.
Why did you abandon me?
Two Democrat Senators who just happen to be up for re-election are promising to vote against any bill that is rushed through with reconciliation. For the record they are Blanche Lincoln and Evan Bayh two midwestern state representatives who will for sure lose the mid term elections if they push this bill through. On the other hand maybe they would get a good night sleep, but who am I to advance the notion of a clear conscience. They would most likely end up as health insurance industry lobbyists anyways when they lost.
All of this of course dates back to last Monday when the Democrats lost their 60th vote in Massachusetts to a Republican in what was considered a Democratic stronghold state.
What does this mean for the Presidents State of the Union?
Shame certainly comes to mind, as it is becoming more and more apparent that besides rescuing Wall Street from its own self inflicted demise, Barack Obama did nothing with his first year in office.
“I would be surprised if he says specifically exactly how he hopes to get health care done,” said the House majority leader, Representative Steny H. Hoyer, Democrat of Maryland.
Of the various options available to lawmakers, including the use of budget reconciliation, none seem viable at the moment. Some lawmakers said they expected that Congress would try to adopt a vastly pared-down bill once they returned to the issue.
“Frankly, we’re trying to figure out what is possible,” Mr. Hoyer said. “Senator Reid needs to determine what is possible on his side of the aisle — you know, what kind of support he can get. And we’re trying to figure out as well what we can pass.”
Speaker Pelosi has said House Democrats will not simply vote to approve the health care bill adopted by the Senate on Dec. 24, and send it directly to Mr. Obama for his signature.
But a plan to win over House members by adopting changes to the Senate bill through the budget reconciliation process ran into substantial resistance on Tuesday.
Mrs. Lincoln, who faces one of the toughest re-election bids among Democrats, said, “I am opposed to and will fight against any attempts to push through changes to the Senate health insurance reform legislation by using budget reconciliation tactics that would allow the Senate to pass a package of changes to our original bill with 51 votes.”
Mr. Bayh said, “It would destroy the opportunity, if there is one, for any bipartisan cooperation the rest of this year on anything else.”
Even if Democrats could agree on using reconciliation to adjust the health care bill, the House and Senate have yet to resolve major policy differences between the House and Senate measures, including a dispute over a proposed tax on high-cost insurance policies, and provisions related to insurance coverage of abortions.
Senator Sherrod Brown, Democrat of Ohio, said he favored a two-step process, under which the House would pass the Senate bill and Congress would then revise it using fast-track budget procedures that would require only a simple majority in the Senate. Republicans adamantly oppose that approach.
Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut, urged caution. “The White House and Democratic leaders should reach out one more time to Republicans to see if they can find a common ground,” Mr. Lieberman said.
Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, said Democratic leaders were assessing their options on health care.
“It’s a timeout,” Mrs. Feinstein said. “The leadership is re-evaluating. They asked us to keep our powder dry.”
Mrs. Feinstein said Congressional leaders should simplify the gigantic health care bill and try to pass parts of it that would be understandable to the public. But she also acknowledged that the odds were long for a far-reaching measure.
“I think big, comprehensive bills are very difficult to do in this environment,” she said.
The Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, said White House comments on health care suggested that President Obama was not listening to the American people.
In Elyria, Ohio, on Friday, Mr. Obama said he was not going to “walk away” from the fight for major health legislation. If the bill becomes law, White House officials said, Americans will see its benefits and will embrace it.
But Mr. McConnell said, “This a clear sign that the administration has not gotten the message, that it’s become too attached to its own pet goals, that it’s stuck in neutral when the American people are asking it to change direction.”
The Republican leader said Mr. Obama should “put the 2,700-page Democrat health care plan on the shelf” and “move toward the kind of step-by-step approach Americans really want.”
Republicans, however, have not come forward with any new proposals, and Mr. McConnell has said he hopes the health care bill is now dead.
