It is most entertaining and interesting to watch and read of the frenzy the Republicans are getting their shorts in a knot about regarding the potential legal and traditional moves on the passage of the health care bill. This is especially so as the Democrats are employing the SAME tactics the Repuklians so freely exercised when they had the control. What a farce….
I hope the Democrats are successful all the way and once the R get control again some day they will never be able to cancel the programs for they will become as popular as Social Security, Medicare etc which they railed against, also the Dept. Education all vigorously opposed but so entrenched in the popular acceptance that all the R’s can do is bitch and moan and groan. Once in….it is in…
Gor for it Mr. President.
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It is interesting if not typical to hear the republicans complain about the use of self executing rules when they used it themselves, 200 times in the 13 years they were in control of the house.
And why did the Republicans use these rules? Oh, Yeah, to circumvent the opposition. Also weren’t the Republicans in the Era of “W” waging a major PR show complaining and railing against the filibuster? My how times change, almost as clearly as McCain totally reversing himself on issues he once championed. Let’s enjoy the show, because it is going on no matter what……
I believe there is something wrong with this webpage as i cannot access it directly as in the past.
Gizmo. I guess the only question here is….if this bill is so popular among the people (as streeter has always maintained) why don’t they just pass it the old fashioned way?
Don’t they have the votes?
The Dems have to adapt a play out of the Republican playbook to circumvent the disloyal opposition. Come on the present Republican agenda consists of one thing: If Pres.Obama is for it– they are against it – even when the “it” is something they once championed.
the “old fashioned” way worked only when there is an attitude of working together and compromise. The present modus operandi for the Republicans is total and complete opposition to the President no matter what: pure political posturing not focused on what is good for America.
The bill is much more popular than the media is showing, it is just that the opposition is so loud and unruly and blindly aggressive that what makes the news is their positioning. I am impressed with Mr. Obama pushing forward on those touchy items that others seem to avoid in deference to their plans for re-election and not tailoring his Initiatives to his re-election. He said prior to being elected that if tackling Americas major challenges means he is a one term President – so be it. He is aiming for a better America for all.
We shall see- we shall see.
Wait until the lid is off the Immigration issue. wow then you will really see the s#@t fly….
Viva Obama!!!!!!!!!!!
From Think Progress:
GOP To Kill Health Bill For Nonexistent Abortion Coverage, But Provide Abortion Coverage To GOP Staff
Rep. Cathy McMorris-Rodgers (R-WA)
Republican lawmakers, as well as Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI), have falsely claimed that the health reform bill allows taxpayer funded abortions. At a press conference yesterday, GOP members of Congress convened to again hammer the lie home that health reform will provide taxpayer funds for abortion.
Rep. Cathy McMorris-Rodgers (R-WA), a member of the GOP leadership team at the press event yesterday, blasted Democrats for trying to pass a health reform bill with supposed funds for abortion coverage. ThinkProgress spoke to McMorris-Rodgers after the event. According to disclosure reports, McMorris-Rodgers’ state Republican Party provides health insurance through AWB Health Choice — a consortium of benefit packages including Lifewise Health Plans of Washington, which covers abortions. McMorris-Rodgers assailed the nonexistent abortion coverage in the health reform bill, while brushing aside her own campaign dollars going towards plans which cover abortion. Eventually, the congresswoman relented and admitted that her campaign dollars funding abortion coverage is “not” okay:
TP: But at the same time, Lifewise Health Plans, which is what the Washington State GOP uses to provide health insurance to their employees, they cover abortion. So when you fundraise for the Washington State GOP, aren’t you providing dollars to abortion?
MCMORRIS-RODGERS: Uh, we’re talking about federal taxpayer dollars.
TP: Yeah, but isn’t this kind of like, you know, “do as I say, but not what I do?”
MCMORRIS-RODGERS: Um, I think the issue at hand is whether or not federal taxpayer dollars should be used to fund abortion –
TP: But your fundraiser dollars are used for abortions. … But campaign dollars are okay, Republican campaign dollars that you raise?
MCMORRIS-RODGERS: No, that’s not.
McMorris-Rodger’s initial indifference to her own state party funding abortion coverage reveals the partisanship of her ploy to lie about the health bill and claim that it covers abortions. Like McMorris-Rodgers, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) and Newt Gingrich have health insurance plans for their campaign employees which provide abortion coverage. And until recently, even the staunchly anti-choice Republican National Committee provided abortion coverage to its employees.
The Catholic Health Association and a group of 59,000 Catholic nuns recently endorsed health reform, noting that the bill in Congress does not provide taxpayer funded abortions. Additionally, T.R. Reid, writing in the Washington Post this week, explained why anti-abortion activists should support health reform. “Increasing health-care coverage is one of the most powerful tools for reducing the number of abortions — a fact proved by years of experience in other industrialized nations.” Regardless, partisan hypocrites like McMorris-Rodgers are plowing ahead, hoping to exploit a polarizing issue to kill reform.”
hmmm..details, details!
Gizmo, you touched on a very important point here about public opinion on this issue- the media (which takes a LOT of cash from the many facets of the health care industry) has been saying off and on that the majority of Americans are not happy with this bill (conservative talk radio seems to fluctuate the number from a high of 95%, to a low of 75%). Yes, a lot of people aren’t happy with this bill, in it’s current form- me included. But when you poll a broad spectrum of Americans, and you ask them about how this bill compares to those that were originally suggested, you still have a majority of Americans that are demanding genuine health care reform, and they are looking at this current proposal as the first step towards that. This includes things like a true public option, and single-payer coverage.
The medical professionals have also been painted as being solidly against this by the media, but the American Medical Association, PNHP, and the nursing organizations of most states all agree that we are long over due for this, and that this bill is the right direction to go. The AARP is also onboard supporting complete reform.
I was just listening to a “christian” radio station that had a call in show going, taking comments about health care reform. One lady said she wasn’t sleeping at night, because she was worried “about death panels” and “all of the babies that would be killed under Obama’s plan”, so the host said we should all stop and pray immediately for the plan to fail, and for all of the President’s plans to fail. The next caller tried to comment about how we already have “death panels” working to keep insurance company profits up and patient care down, and that there was no provision to fund abortions in this bill- the host cut him off before he could finish his comment.
50,000 nuns have come out in support of this despite the fear of abortion language. It’s time to pass something that is a starting point for medicare for all.
It was and has been the democratic party that has brought you Social Security, Medicare and now access to affordable health care. Charles Kuralt said it best:
“I think liberalism lives the notion that we don’t have to stay where we are as a society, we have promises to keep, and it is liberalism, whether people like it or not, which has animated all the years of my life. What on Earth did conservatism ever accomplish for our country? It was people who wanted to change things for the better.” Kuralt to Morley Safer in the May 5, 1994 CBS special, “One for the Road with Charles Kuralt”
don’t you feel sorry for the health insurance industry for spending so much money in trying to defeat the health care bill? Perhaps the republicans will realize “what goes around comes around” and their leadership needs to be changed. Their Kanter, Ryan and Boehner relied too much on misinformation and out and out lies. By the way, remember when tom Delay used his high handed methods during the Part D medicare plan passed in 2003 when he delayed the vote for 2 hours to allow arm twisting?
David Frum said the right has shot themselves in the foot
…We are encouraging a mood of radicalism in the party that is not just uncivil, that’s not the problem, the problem is it makes you stupid. It makes you make bad decisions, it leads you to think that President Obama with 53% of the vote is as beatable in 2009 as President Clinton with 42% of the vote in 1993, and that’s obviously not true.