Whether or not the bill passes that is true. ER will cover them. That has nothing to do with the health care reform bill.
Yeah, it beats the primary alternative: cynicism, hopelessness & watching the nation continue to decline while each person just tries to get his. Basically, my response to that outlook is: never. Whoever's president, I'm going to have hope every time I get up, even before coffee. Otherwise, stick a fork in me.
Actually there has already been change. I'm happy about that. Sadly it hasn't been enough change. I see you still like the idea of people wanting better as something negative. Good luck with that.
You'll be excited to know Specter signed onto the public option letter, and more importantly, Reid has said he's fine with putting a public option into a reconciliation bill as well if there are the votes.
And then there were 22 Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) has signed the letter urging Senate leadership to pass a public option through reconciliation,
30 and counting 30! Five More Democrats--Including Durbin--Say They Support a Public Option Through Reconciliation
I think the problem is that the other side is growing too. Once you hit 10 Dems saying no, it's done. I think 4 or 5 were already opposed to the public option, and a few hardcore public option supporters like Rockefeller have said no to adding it through reconciliation. I think its worth taking a vote on to see what happens, but I have a feeling it's going to fail. I think Rockefeller was a huge loss.
I don’t get what is up with Rockefeller. He was a huge proponent of the OP and now he’s against it? It doesn’t make sense. It seems that when there was no way for it to be included, he was for it (even 3 months ago) and now that there’s a chance for it to be included, he’s against it. Weird major who are the dems that have come out against it?
My guess is that he's attempting to maintain the traditions of the Senate, although I freely admit that's just a guess. We had the same problem in Texas when redistricting was rammed through. The decades long traditions of the Texas Senate, designed to promote comity and the participation of the opposition in the process, were tossed out the window by the Republicans, even over the opposition of several of them, with a big push from the "outside" by DeLay. These traditions, even when they bite the party in power, are not something to be tossed aside lightly. When the Democrats return to power in the Texas Senate, I fully expect the Republicans to be repaid for their deeds with interest. That's the risk they took and, personally, I hope they choke on it. Food for thought. I'll add that the Republicans in the US Senate have filibustered 80% of the major bills that have come up for consideration. That is a staggering number. That is also not how the Senate is supposed to work. The intent of the GOP is clear. Campaign against the Democrats using "gridlock in Washington" as a weapon, gridlock they produced themselves. Hypocritical in the extreme? Yes, but possibly effective. It may also drive the Democrats to use reconciliation. One could draw the conclusion that the Republican leadership doesn't really care.
Health care cost around the world. http://www.visualeconomics.com/healthcare-costs-around-the-world_2010-03-01/
Yeah, it seems to be a process thing for him. I do wonder if they get to 49, if he would stay in his current stance or he'd cave. I think you have Lieberman, Nelson, Lincoln, and Landrieu for sure. Begich has come out against reconciliation with the public option (or at least, he said he would not sign that letter). Add Rockefeller and you're at 6 so far. I don't know what to expect from people like Hagan who really had to be worked on to support the public option in the first place. And I suspect Baucus/Conrad are going to cause trouble simply because they seem to have been very reluctant every step of the way with health care reform. My concern is that it seems if you were really for it, you'd happily sign that letter to create force behind it. So the easy votes are already there in that 30 that have already signed. They need to get from 30 to 50 before the opposition gets from 6 to 10.
I agree - I think that's his logic, but I think it's totally misguided. Reconciliation is used all the time to pass stuff. The Bush tax cuts were definitely directly budget-related, so one could argue that it's different. But reconciliation was used to pass COBRA and S-CHIP as well - those are purely health care things similar in principle to the public option.
