WASHINGTON - The glow from a health care triumph faded quickly for President Barack Obama on Sunday as Democrats realized the bill they fought so hard to pass in the House has nowhere to go in the Senate. . . . .
. . . ."The problem is that the Senate won't run with it. The government health insurance plan included in the House bill is unacceptable to a few Democratic moderates who hold the balance of power in the Senate.. . ."
. . "If a government plan is part of the deal, "as a matter of conscience, I will not allow this bill to come to a final vote," said Sen. Joe Lieberman, the Connecticut independent whose vote Democrats need to overcome GOP filibusters. "The House bill is dead on arrival in the Senate," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said dismissively."
. . ."Democrats did not line up to challenge him. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has yet to schedule floor debate and hinted last week that senators may not be able to finish health care this year.. . ."
. . . "In the Senate, the stumbling block is the idea of the government competing with private insurers. Liberals may have to swallow hard and accept a deal without a public plan in order to keep the legislation alive. As in the House, the compromise appears to be to the right of the political spectrum. . . . (I think they should gut the whole thing).
"Lieberman said he opposes the public plan because it could become a huge and costly entitlement program. "I believe the debt can break America and send us into a recession that's worse than the one we're fighting our way out of today," he said. . ." Of course it will!
I like Amy Goodman. But it hurts my soul for my tax money to pay for abortion, the death penalty, or a war unless ALL other options have been exhausted.
House Passes Landmark Healthcare Bill with Amendment Backed by Anti-Abortion Lawmakers
The bill has been described as the biggest overhaul of the country’s healthcare system since the Medicare and Medicaid Act of 1965. Among those who voted no was Ohio Democrat Dennis Kucinich, a leading proponent of a single-payer, Medicare-for-all healthcare system. Reproductive rights took a hit Saturday night when the House also passed an amendment to establish limits on the funding of abortions within the new framework that would be established by the Affordable Health Care for America Act. Guests: Rep. Dennis Kucinich, Democratic Congress member from Ohio. He voted no on the healthcare bill that just passed the House.
…AMY GOODMAN: We’re going to go now to Cleveland to the home district of Congress member Dennis Kucinich. Congress member Kucinich, you voted no on the healthcare bill, one of the 215. Why?
REP. DENNIS KUCINICH: Because it’s not the best we can do. It mandates people purchase private insurance. It is a $70 billion giveaway to private insurance companies and locks in this system that’s the problem, not the solution. …
…So what you have here is people continuing to be at the mercy of the insurance companies, except in this case the government is going to subsidize the policies. People are still going to have premiums, co-pays and deductibles to deal with. And, you know, there’s really a great deal of question here as to what in the world we’re doing in creating a healthcare system that’s really based on the premises of private insurance….
…We’re told that the only choice we have is to buy private insurance, and with the robust public option being gone, it makes sure that there’s little competition with the insurance companies. This bill doesn’t effectively moderate what they can charge for premiums or co-pays or deductibles. It just says people have to have insurance. Well, insurance doesn’t necessarily equate to care, and care comes at a cost….
… Our whole economy is being organized in a way that takes the wealth of the nation and sends it right to the top. And this healthcare bill is no different. And we’ve got to fight back, and that’s why I could not vote for this. If we were able to get a single payer—to protect the right of states to have a single-payer plan, maybe the bill would have been worth voting for. But that was taken out. So what are we left with? Private, for-profit health insurance, with the government subsidizing it.
AMY GOODMAN: Do you see, Congressman Kucinich, a way to get from where you’re talking about from here?
REP. DENNIS KUCINICH: Yes, if we are able to get back in the bill a provision that says states will be shielded from legal attack by insurance companies if those states go with their own single-payer plan. …
"The under-30 crowd that clamored for Barack Obama last year needs to brace for a change they won’t believe in: The return of income tax “bracket creep,” according to The Wall Street Journal’s editorial page.
“Buried in Nancy Pelosi's health-care bill is a provision that will partially repeal tax indexing for inflation, meaning that as their earnings rise over a lifetime these youngsters can look forward to paying higher rates even if their income gains aren't real,” the editors write.
This is budget trickery at its worst . . . . . . " :angryfire
Democratic Party Out of Bounds Would I have voted for the House health reform bill? Probably, although I'm not sure. Would I have celebrated its passage with a festive party atmosphere, as some Democrats did? Definitely not. And here's a word to the House Dems who reportedly chanted "Fired up! Ready to go!": This isn't a pep rally. You guys traded more than you needed to trade, partially as a result of the White House's laissez-faire approach to this process, and you're gonna pay for it eventually….
…This situation calls for a little less partying and a little more party leadership, a few less amendments and a lot more amends. And forgive me if I'm not bringing much "health analyst" gravitas to this discussion, but Democrats need to understand how deep the reaction is likely to be among the base voters -- the same voters who failed to show last week in Virginia….
Here is my justification for codifying access to health care as a civil and human right.
We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, (Access to health care) insure domestic tranquility, (access to health care and medical care for all) provide for the common defense, (A country can be neither free nor safe with an unhealthy population) promote the general welfare, (Establishing a healthy citizenry as a goal for all) and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves (ill men are not free men) and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes;
To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof.
While it is true that health care was not specifically addressed within the constitution Jefferson recognized the need for government to address access to health care with his bill to establish the seamans hosptals. Add in the commerce clause and a very strong intellectually consistent argument can be made for treating health care as a right for all. It doesn't guarantee equal outcomes but basic access is a right of citizenship...
How do you equivocate the meaning of "insure domestic tranquility," to mean "(access to health care and medical care for all)"???
Or that "provide for the common defense," means "(A country can be neither free nor safe with an unhealthy population)" ?????? "secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves (ill men are not free men)"?????????
It is the TWISTED interpretation of people like this that ruin the United States. Next thing you know, we will be paying for people's car insurance, because, after all, isn't "secure blessings of liberty to ourselves" (as you interpret it to mean), next include providing for housing, house insurance, a car, a cell phone, food, etc.? When does it stop?
You misinterpret the meaning of the Constitution as a whole, by picking pieces and fitting it to what you want it to mean. The proper role of the government is not to provide for equal things, but equal opportunity. And this opportunity, includes not only a way to make a living, but the opportunity, not the right, to health care, cars, cell phones, homes or anything else. No one said life is fair.
"On every question of construction (of the Constitution) let us carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed." (Thomas Jefferson, letter to William Johnson, June 12, 1823, The Complete Jefferson, p. 322)
Re: HR 3962 Has Passed the House.
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