Dems Go It Alone

So why push through a bill now, the week after twin gubernatorial losses in New Jersey and Virigina…
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Nice framing, Jay. The govs don’t vote on this (although the TWO reps the ‘D’s picked up – in CA and NY – do get to do so).
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You are assuming that, if we just wait, the GOP will come out with ther own version of a health plan?
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Hasn’t happened yet… and I’m NOT holding my breath.

Sorry.. my bad. They DID come out with a plan recently.

Yes, why would the Dems want to go it alone, after they won NY 23rd, and after the GOP has made it perfectly clear that they won’t support any health care bill.

Also, with unemployment north of 10% and climbing, more and more Americans should be happy with their employer-provided health insur … crap, what was my “frame” again?

And what a plan!

Guess the Dems really need their liberal base to get fired up and come out in 2010…

On the other hand, I have it on good authority that expanded health coverage == Dachau.

What is there to fear? Two years service and they get lifetime benefits, I simply do not understand why they don’t perform they have nothing to lose but their vanity.

I think the effort at bipartisanship by the leadership of the Dems has come to it’s end, and they are now deciding that it is best to act and accomplish, so that in 2010, they can say a) we tried to be bipartisan b) we accomplished alot.

Maybe Jay it’s because all this time Dems have been afraid of the dreaded GOP filibuster.
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Now, since having found out they are getting blamed for inaction, they have realized that maybe, just maybe, the dreaded GOP filibuster may not be the worst thing that can happen.
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Let’s just take this puppy out for a spin on “just suppose” lane and see what happens:
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1. We put it to a floor vote with 54 or 55 votes locked up.
2. The GOP filibusters.
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Ok, cruising now, time to tromp on the mental gas here as we put her though her paces:
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Just who, Jay, do you think would be held up for blame due to inaction then?
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I’ll just park her back in the driveway and let you take the wheel.
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If you dare…

JNS writes–”Citing his concerns for the impact on the federal deficit, Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut told Fox News on Sunday that “if the public-option plan is in there, as a matter of conscience,” he would not support the bill.”

Not only not support but… “as a matter of conscience, I will not allow this bill to come to a final vote,”

Can we start a drive to demand that the healthcare plans for Congress be abolished until such time as they can actually, SERIOUSLY, address the problems for the rest of us?
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I have a feeling that, if they were having to jump thru the same hoops we are, a solution would not be long in coming.
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Just a hunch…

Also, I think the Dems approach to managing the Senate is to force it to act by having the House go first.

It also might have something to do with the fact that the HCIC lobby’s work was totally undone by the industry “reports” a couple weeks ago.

There is no “GOP filibuster”, there are 60 Democrats in the Senate.
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There is only the dreaded “Democratic filibuster”.

Jay, thanks for linking your own article. (Can you ask Amy to post / link her own TIME pieces too? I’ve begged but no results.) Is Snowe an “official” lost cause for a yes vote …or just for now? Are you hearing top secret whispers of approaching another R? Maybe Voinovich (retiring, a fiscal hardnose but has occasionally voted outside party lines) or others? re: your House Passes HCR post all the way back from …yesterday, do you think votes from swing districts may change in final roll call, such as Melancon? (political swinging of course, NOT …the other… kind of swinging, of course!) thx

True – and “Spineless Harry” already said it may not pass in 2009. As long as they’re sitting on their hands, they might as well force Lieberman and McConnell to camp out on the Senate floor reading “Left Behind” novels into the Congressional record. Doubt it will happen though.

It also might have something to do with the fact that the HCIC lobby’s work was totally undone by the industry “reports” a couple weeks ago.
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53_3,
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Never underestimate the value of a “self-inflicted” gunshot wound by your opponent.

But Stuart, isn’t that par for the course?

Do you think you could remind 2/3rds of a nut about that?
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He didn’t just shoot himself in the foot by ranting at Shepardwong on JK’s LOL blog, you know…

The NE branch of Scrooge & Sons, Limited must not have closed for the day,or Rusty and Spoob would already be here.

I’m hoping against hope here that Stuart isn’t right, Art. At one point or another, they have to realize that they are getting nowhere with the GOP.
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The longer they take, the more votes get peeled off.
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I’m hoping that they are really going to play chicken. I guess that Reid’s post-election backbone has kind of flickered in and out of existance. I’m just not sure what it’s status is right now, but they have got to realize that they play into the GOP’s hands if they wait.
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After all, the GOP has clearly stated that their intent is to delay it as long as possible!

Labeling the filibuster as a creature of the GOP lets centrist Dems off the hood for their euphemistic “It just doesn’t have the votes to overcome a filibuster” pronouncements.
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It’s a Democratic filibuster, par for the sh*tty legislative course or not, isn’t it?
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Shouldn’t the Democratic party have to own up to its obstructionist, centrist membership?

oh please, a bit battered? that’s just silly. HCR is popular.

“off the hood”
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That should have been “off the hook”, obviously.

Congress doesn’t seem to care about protecting the people. It seems the legislation is written to support the idea without really being effective.

Does anyone really think this non-robust bill will do anything to bring down health care costs? I see it as a big win for health care insurance companies. We will be forced to buy insurance; the insurance companies will set the price. They will have to accept people with pre-existing conditions, but will we be able to afford the premiums and the co-pays?

It looks a lot like credit card reform. The language is there but Congress forgot to put limits on interest rates and other safe guards to protect the people.

The HCR that people would like to have is popular, but what they’re getting from this process…?
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That’s another question.

oh please, a bit battered? that’s just silly. HCR is popular.
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You’ve got to remember the playbook the MSM is working from – “HCR is unpopular and not wanted by the American people.” Repeat that to yourself until it is burned into your memory.
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Read a poll that states otherwise? Just remember that “some people say it is unpopular”. Keep repeating.

I think by now that Obama, and Reid also, should realize that 2010 reactions on the left will be tepid at best if he stays on this course.
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In my opinion, the Dems are not going to gain anything by continuing to play to the right of center, as those votes are being fenced off by the GOP far right.
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At this point, given that the bipartisan strategy has been foiled by the GOP right, it makes the best sense for Obama and the Dems to get back to basics and play to their core.

53_3:

In my opinion, the Dems are not going to gain anything by continuing to play to the right of center, as those votes are being fenced off by the GOP far right.

When we start to do anything about it, establishment Dems will issue talking points to reporters like Jay Newton-Small about how “the far left” is doing the same thing to them that the lunatic popular rightists did to Dede Scozzafava.
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Because we all sat around and cheered Rachel Maddow & Co when she was all concern troll-y about the political advisability of the right demanding accountability from the GOP, we’ll be forced into defending a position that’s obviously inconsistent.
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Democratic losses will be blamed on us.
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That’s what centrist Dems always do; blame electoral defeats on the “uncompromising”, “ideological purists” in their “far-left” “activist liberal base”.

“it makes the best sense for Obama and the Dems to get back to basics and play to their core”
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But Fitty, what is their “core”–is it their base or the noxious centrists who wield far more power at both ends of PA Ave? Do you think Rahm considers the netroots a welcome segment of the party? Do you honestly think Obama is more concerned about his base than Lieb/Snowe/Blue Dogs? As we await the announcement of troop expansion in Afghan, one is left to wonder: can a single, boldly progressive step ever be expected from this admin?
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[This] shows how far liberals have to go in America, how they are chronically incapable of forcefully espousing what they (ostensibly) believe in:
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“Health care reform is extremely likely to pass in some form. But let’s not kid ourselves that it’s passing because the Democrats and the public have seen the light and understand that we need to be a more decent society. It’s passing because medical industry has been greedy to the point where it’s now unsustainable. That presented an opening for liberals to enact some policies they have believed in for a long time. But they didn’t do it by making the liberal arguments straight up and have created some kind of strange hybrid system for which the best argument is that it might lead to opportunities for more reform. It’s better than nothing. But it isn’t liberal and it wasn’t designed to be. And just in case, the powers-that-be stuck it to the pro-choicers to make sure nobody got the idea that it was.”

I would be in favor of that idea. It is all well for someone like McCain to be against Health Care reform. Does anyone really believe there is an insurance company out there that would enroll him given his medical history? He would be SOL without his government insurance plan and wealthy wife. Meanwhile It’s okay by him for the rest of us working stiffs to face what he will never have to. The whimsies of the private insurance market.

Battered? Yes, I sit here wandering why we have trillions of dollars for fighting unnecessary wars, saving commercial banks, and bailing out failed industries, but there no funds to support services for the common people.

I guess we the people have been brain-washed to accept the crumbs with gracious thanks.

Thank you gigantic corporations for allowing me to give you what little assets I have. I will do my best to support you in the future. Thank you for the wonderful crumbs.

can a single, boldly progressive step ever be expected from this admin?
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Not with “Rahm the Impaler” as the WH COS. I am firmly convinced that, as long as he is “directing traffic” for the WH, nothing really good is going to happen.
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He’s too much of an insider and “player”.

My “True” was in response to 53_3 @ 4:13 pm (TIME Standard Time)

I’m counting Lieberman as “not a Democrat” — the Dems don’t have 60 seats.

If Lieberman filibusters, wouldn’t it take 58 Dems + Bernie Sanders + 1 Republican to break it?

BREAKING:
Health care reform is popular with us rubes who don’t live in D.C. or have our own TV Shows.
In contrast, Congresspeople who don’t ever pass any legislation are very unpopular.

I asked a lot of members over the weekend: why pass the bill now?

Yes, it’s not like people are dying or anything. Sheesh.

After the August protests there had been much speculation that the House would wait for the Senate to act.

…And here I thought that ordinary folks engaging in political activism and protesting did less-than-nothing to sway the government in contemporary US politics.
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This is a welcome change!

“Fired up!! Ready to go!!”

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Problem is, now they go home. I just faxed a signed letter to my dear Senator from Pennsylvania, Robert Casey Jr.
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“Dear Sen Casey,

I have reviewed the legislation and proposals for health care reform from both the Senate and the House of Representatives. I strongly urge you to vote “no” on either of these two bills or proposals that would have any type of public option contained within the language of the final bill.

I believe that a public option would jeopardize not only my insurance that I receive from my employer, but that of my family. When I say jeopardize, I simply mean that the current insurance that I have will succumb to great pressure from an unfair government backed insurance program. My employer has already informed us that if a government option is passed, he will discontinue our insurance. This is not satisfactory to me or my family.

I believe that we need to first attempt other reforms before we tackle the insurance industry, and attempt to yet again set up an unsustainable entitlement program. We already have Medicare and Medicaid. Both of these entitlement programs cost the tax payers of this great State, massive sums of money. We cannot afford another entitlement program such as the ones Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are proposing.

I also believe that more regulation, or actually the breakup of the monopoly the insurance industry now has on health care insurances would be a great first step. I urge you and your staff to begin investigation of this situation immediately. The health care insurance sector is but one of two industries that enjoys shielding from anti-trust laws. We must also insert language into the legislation that will give State to State competition of insurance a chance. There are over 1300 health insurance companies in the United States. I only get to choose from about 6 of those companies in Pennsylvania, why?

Competition has always been the best solution for anything that has a high cost. Creating an environment where fair competition can thrive is always the best option. I have completed hours of investigation into this issue. We are making a grave mistake if we allow any legislation to pass that will not address the cost of health insurance first.

If all of the non-government funded options are tried, and fail. Then I am in agreement to have a “government option” enacted to bring down the cost of insurance, and afford individuals more choices.

Sincerely,”

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Enough said. Now you shall be voted out if you pass this rediculous crap called “Health Care Reform”.

2000 pages!!!!@iwdf Blarggghhhh. Harry Potters!!!ksdf Kenya!!@31

Can someone please tell me why the media is acting like losing 2 governors’ offices and gaining two seats in the house is the end of the world for the dems? Jeez. Passing healthcare reform just got 2 votes easier in the house but the way the media is acting you’d think it was 1994 midterm elections all over again…

[...] Time’s Jay Newton-Small, writing on the Swampland blog, gives an on-the-other-hand view. He wonders whether House leaders asked too much of their Democratic rank-and-file followers by demand ing a vote now: “After the August protests there had been much speculation that the House would wait for the Senate to act….So why push through a bill now, the week after twin gubernatorial losses in New Jersey and Virigina and a day after the country hit 10% unemployment? Most members said, the leadership felt the time for debate had come to an end — after all (House Speaker Nancy) Pelosi had originally wanted to pass the bill before August recess but deferred in deference to anxious freshmen. They worried if the process wasn’t jump started, the Senate might falter and fail. But, having forced her vulnerables to take a hard vote on climate change, was it rash of Pelosi to rush a vote on health care — espeically if the Senate ends up not including a public plan in their bill (though as it stands right now Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says it will be in)? Many vulnerable Dems headed home this weekend feeling a bit battered and fearing what it means to go it alone, as Dems clearly are these days. ” [...]

Can someone please tell me why the media is acting like losing 2 governors’ offices and gaining two seats in the house is the end of the world for the dems?
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charlie,
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See Wisdom, Conventional and Issue, Framing of, by MSM. See supplemental information listed under Republicans, It’s Always Good News for and Conflict, Creating.
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They really can’t help themselves.

“Time’s Jay Newton-Small, writing on the Swampland blog, gives an on-the-other-hand view. He wonders whether House leaders asked too much of their Democratic rank-and-file followers…”
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Jay, if you’re reading this, would you email Gerald Seib at the WSJ and let him know YOU are a woman? (I tried but need an acct. there to post) Wow, the WSJ’s standards have fallen, what a ding-dong Seib is for being so sloppy. If you include pics in case he gets snippy and “demands proof”, could you post the pics here too? Thank you!

What, precisely, is the purpose of this post? The Bill passed. Why now? When? Looks like make work to me.

” ..Yes, it’s not like people are dying or anything. Sheesh.”

Yea!
Sheesh!