Jul 17 2009
Senate Centrists Derail Obamacare
Just as when senate centrists defused the useless judicial appointment showdown between the partisans under President Bush with the Gang of 14, we can all now thank senate centrists for derailing the liberal rush to destroy our health care system because the new Gang of 6 have stopped the thing in its tracks:
A bipartisan group of centrist and conservative senators sent a letter to the Democratic and Republican leaders on Friday urging delay in consideration of health care reform.
The letter, obtained by the Huffington Post, was drafted by Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) and is also signed by Democratic Sens. Mary Landrieu (La.) and Ron Wyden (Ore.). Independent Joe Lieberman (Conn.), who caucuses with Democrats, signed on, as did Maine Republican Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins — moderates heavily courted by President Obama.
The organized effort to slow down the process is a blow to the reform effort. Obama has pushed hard for a final vote before the August recess, arguing that delaying until September could slow momentum and risk missing a historic opportunity.
A delay to September will kill it in its current form. As far as I am concerned the government better keep their damn, greedy hands off my healthcare. At least now I can relax on this matter for the rest of the summer. Here’s the letter itself. Basically it was the CBO’s shot across the bow of the liberal congressional leaders which was, as I suspected it would be, the final straw.
Update: Now 21 freshmen dems (who also must be centrists) are revolting against Pelosi in the house:
Twenty-one freshman Democratic House members have signed a letter opposing their leadership’s plan to raise taxes to finance a healthcare overhaul.
Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) circulated the letter, saying that the income surtax on the wealthy would place an undue burden on small businesses, some of which pay taxes in the same way as an individual. The letter had 22 signers, all freshmen except for Rep. Paul Hodes (D-N.H.), who is in his second term.
Seems one good thing came out of the liberals’ failure on job creation – no one has the stomach to see them do the same to health care.
I’m sending a thank you letter to the six.
Lets not go counting chickens yet. This is a major priority for the Obumblers.
Kathie, a letter should help. CP is right. They may not be able to do much and if they do, the changes may be minimal.
Pelosi may still bribe these blue dogs into voting for the bill even with minor changes.
“The organized effort to slow down the process is a blow to the reform effort. Obama has pushed hard for a final vote before the August recess, arguing that delaying until September could slow momentum and risk missing a historic opportunity.”
If this bohemith does not get passed in August most likely will never be because people will be able to read and decipher it.
I was reading some interaction on rightwingnuthouse.com where they were actually discussing the text of the bill. It is amazing the depth of the legalese. I hope it comes with a secrete decoder ring!
Here’s how Pelosi bought the crap and trade vote:
http://www.politico.com/blogs/glennthrush/0709/Big_Dem_cash_dump_on_eve_of_climate_vote.html?showall
Why would anyone think she won’t do it again?
This is not over… From Dick Morris … Seeing his popularity draining away rapidly, President Obama has cynically decided to ram through the complex health care legislation in two weeks, without debate or amendment. He is going to give up the attempt to win sixty votes in the Senate and will use the budget reconciliation procedure – which is only used for budget bills – to push it through with fifty votes.
Obama needs ony 50 votes not 60…. http://www.dickmorris.com/blog/2009/07/17/urgent-action-needed-on-health-care/#more-611
I clicked on the link to the HuffPo piece to read the comments… I wish I hadn’t. The nerve of those people to slander senators that want to know all the facts before voting on such an important topic as this bill is. And to defend Obama’s plan by pointing at procedures that private insurance refuses to cover? These people are not ever worried by Obama’s words? Obama has pretty much implied that some people would not receive care under his plan.
marksbbr,
It is pathetic how people are swallowing this turd. To have some bureaucratic drone making my medical decisions is one of the scariest thoughts that come to my mind.
My wife is a cancer survivor, she had latter 3rd stage breast cancer at 27, so we have been dealing with insurance companies for the last 10 years. It can be frustrating at times to get paid for various procedures but we found for the most part they can be reasoned with – a procedure they say they will not cover they often can be convinced to cover if the doctors support you. For example we wanted testing done to see if my wife had genetic disposition toward breast cancer. If she did we would perform more surgeries to remove those parts of her body where the cancer was more likely to appear. The procedure cost about $4,000 but after spending time on the phone, having all three of our doctors involved and writing our own letters they finally agreed to pay, even after we had paid out of our pocket.
If he have a bureaucrat making these decisions you can forget about something like this. They will robotically open their 1000 page manual, go to Point 4, section 7, sub-subsection, 4f paragraph 45 where it says, “No genetic testing for 3rd stage breast cancer” and that will be the end of it. No force on this earth short of a congressional mandate will allow for them to pay for this procedure.
Wouldn’t you love to be a fly in the wall when they threaten those congress people who have signed these letters? They brazenly threatened Arizona in a thuggish Chicago style letter open to the public, imagine what they say behind closed doors with no recording device present. I bet it would make a great novel or movie. Obama must be howling in the Oval Office – I think he grew very accustomed to unbridled power very quickly. I for one will boycott his presser on Wednesday and watch reruns of NCIS…
Montana – Baucus and Tester-202-224-2651* 202-224-2644
North Dakota – Dorgan and Conrad 202-224-2551; 202-224-2043
South Dakota – Johnson 202-224-5842
Nebraska – Nelson 202-224-6551
Arkansas – Pryor and Lincoln-202-224-2353; 202-224-4843
Louisiana – Landrieu- 202-224-5824
North Carolina – Hagan 202-22-6342
Indiana – Bayh-202-224-5623
Connecticut – Lieberman 202-224-4041
Maine – Snow and Collins -Snow:202-224-5344; 202-224-2523
Call, call, call, please! Our country is at stake!
I’ve been thinking about the House plan making new health care insurance policies illegal and have begun to think that it is unconstitutional.
Frankly, it’s time that all opponents of Obamacare to embrace “Roe v Wade“.
Don’t think of it as having anything but a cursory attachment to abortion, but rather think of it as a proven endorsement of health care privacy from the intrusion of the government into your health care decisions.
Obama is planning another presser on Wednesday to try and shove this down our throats.
It has be right now, this very minute or we shall all perish.
That is where Obama and his minions screwed up. It is as if they are trying to get away with something by not debating the details, which of course they are.
max:
I don’t think Obama can get this past the Senate. It won’t be that easy. If that was all it took, no one would ever use the filibuster.
I don’t know. The article seems to indicate that Sen Nelson still supports the bill; but, just wants more time to evaluate the cost. This delay may not do anything if the media also stays quiet. There is a chance that the delay may turn more Americans against it. But, since when did that stop this Congress from making bad decisions?
Rank-and-file House Democrats resist health care reform plan
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/25064.html#ixzz0LcsG26UM
Desperation from the White House on Health Reform: the DNC Targets Democrats with TV Ads
http://www.redstate.com/dan_perrin/2009/07/18/desperation-from-the-white-house-on-health-reform-the-dnc-targets-democrats-with-tv-ads/
The purpose of Obamacare is to eliminate Medicare which is going to bankrupt Social Security. Rather that eliminating Medicare outright which would be extremely unpopular, Obamacare will basically place the entire nation on it. Then they can refuse service for the aging while promising service to the large number of healthy people who don’t really need a lot of service. So the no votes from the aging are outnumbered by the yes votes from the healthy who think they are getting “free” medical care. Until they become a net expense, that is, and are themselves denied service.
Democrats are despicable.
You and your wife have my sympathies, Alert. The people that so adamently support Obama’s plan- like the posters on HuffPo, don’t seem to care about all the horror stories we hear about Canada’s system, or the UK’s NHS. Waiting months for an appointment or for a necessary operation, sometimes dying as a result.
My basic premise is this: I never trust any entity that can mismanage it’s own pograms, and bankrupt them (Social Security), or that can misplace tanks that are the size of a ranch style home. The federal government is such an entity, and the way they have handled Social Security and other programs, it’s a curiosity of why anyone would want them in charge of their health.
The fundamental problem with Social Security is that they failed to index the retirement age with life expectancy. And “65” became a default retirement age while life expectancy and people’s quality of life at that age changed greatly over the years.
The Social Security retirement age SHOULD now be 80 if it were to be equal to what was envisioned in the 1930’s.