Senate Fight Starts: GOP Says Senate Parliamentarian Will Kill Fix-Its Bill

A bluff?

Or will tomorrow's T-shirt be "I attacked anybody who dared speak the truth (even Democrats), and all I got was this Senate bill".

That would be the Senate bill that was passed months ago and all the Blue Oregon cheerleaders, who don't know their butts from a hole in the ground, were assuring would be "improved" by the House, and the bill whose said improvements today consist of minor changes and 23 million uninsured.

Stay tuned. Next up on these stations, CBO scores on all the things in the Manager's Amendment which the Senate hasn't had a crack at yet.

It's time to call for the 'question' and take the vote! Republicans will bager anything and everything that stands between control of the legislature and the White HOuse. It's a beginning and it will be adjusted over the years...but the general provisions of this domestic needed is long in coming. It's time to do the right thing and PASS the Health Reform for the 32+Million without insurance and those who can not get it due to lack of income OR pre-existing conditions. PASS the Bill

One of the bizarre though typical aspects of this "debate" is the procession of politicians on one side saying the bill will do this and that and politicians on the other side claiming with equally straight faces the opposite will be the case. At least half of them must be lying or don't know what they are talking about.

Al Jazeera has an interesting take on what a victory on health care would mean for Obama and the Middle East.

This is the most amazing thing to happen in my lifetime! This will strengthen the American economy and ensure that our children will have a stable country to live in for generations to come!

The Repuglicants should be ashamed of themselves for trying to shoot this down.

It begins. The fight for Medicare for all starts the day after this bill is signed into law!

It begins. The fight for Medicare for all starts the day after this bill is signed into law!

And in what parallel world in the Inter-Tubes where mirror versions of the large number of Democrats who fought Medicare-for-all to give us this abomination must exist are you reaching us from?

Is Ron Wyden, who has led that opposition for several years in our universe, still a basketball player in your universe and did he pass the Bar the first time?

Over!

Al Jazeera has an interesting take on what a victory on health care would mean for Obama and the Middle East.

As nice as optimism is, methinks the reporter may not quite grasp the geometry of political forces behind the health care bill and foreign policy issues.

Why would this not weaken the O's hand because he expended some of that there "political capital" the B-2 talked so much about, and so now actually owes a lot of Congress D-critters who took a hard vote for him and have to mend fences with their own constituencies the rest of this election season?

Dateline D.C.: Leave that bottle of white-out alone. It's meant for fixing type errors, not inhaling.

Dateline D.C.: Leave that bottle of white-out alone. It's meant for fixing type errors, not inhaling.

Wow, must be a full moon (just one or are there two?) somewhere in the parallel Oregons somewhere out there in the Inter-Tubes.

At least we can tell from T.M.'s comments that Blue Oregon not a progressive blog, nor have well-informed commenters in crazy parallel world, just like here.

Over!

Stupak redeems himself to the Democratic Caucuss and supports the passing of the bill as life affirming, and the Republican motion to be political theatre.

Rachel Maddow owes him some time! I love her. She would be terrific in a forum with the Congressman. Where does this put him with the rent issue on C street. Something for better minds than mine.

I know that last sentence is going to cost me.

Update 7:30 pm: Finally, the second vote is underway. And it's official! The final vote is 219 to 212. The bill now moves to the President for his signature.

Next up, the third vote - on reconciliation.

It's up, and it's in! And Max Baucus wins! He did it! He did it! Well fans, Baucus was an unknown when he took on health care reform. And when he thumbed his nose at the Democratic base and wouldn't even allow any discussion of a public alternative, no one thought he could get away with it! Who knew that the P-O dynamic duo actually had his back every step of the way?! But he brought them off the bench when he needed them and boy-o-boy, did they deliver! This a Cinderella story that will go down in the history books!

Coming up: In the re-match, can Senate Democrats with the help of Republicans and the CBOers of the bench defend this great victory and block the Reconcilers? Stay tuned, much more DoubleCross Ball to come!

Mandate to insure your health means the cheapest, safest, smartest method of coverage for all Americans is to offer Medicare for all.

If this were to be considered before the 2010 midterms in the form of lowering Medicare Eligibility to 55yrs of age, that would insure huge turn-out for the Democrats.

55yrs old people VOTE!

When the prospect that this age group would add valued premiums and help to shore up Medicare, there will be Republicans sounding like their Democratic colleagues.

To my mind, this is an opportunity to melt the freeze that is the American Gridlock.

Whoo hoo! BTW, for a wonderful illustration of what it means, go look at the clip of Boehner at TPM. I think he just finally realized what it means to be in the minority. It really, really sucks, and the joy he took ramming legislation down Dems' throats when he was in the majority reversed itself on him.

Wow, now that's grace in "victory"!

And this just in: High fives all over corporate America! With this historic victory over progressive forces for real reform, they are already thinking about how they are going to spend their welfare checks! Long overdue upgrades of corporate jets and suites, and bonuses! Woo hoo, happy days are here again in corporate America!

Man, DC be a part of the fight. Take your victories as they come, and push on for better.

The Messy process that is Democratic Governance is best when good policys take steps toward a final goal. This way of progressing change is far more effective as the policies passed become refined until the next step.

The voters get a chance to see the results of marginal change, and arguments to the contrary will sound just that, contrary.

Letting the public see good policy work in what is marginal in this reform will wet the apetite for real reform.

Rep. Peter DeFazio is reported as a "Yes" vote for Health Care Reform Bill.

Told ya so, Ha!

Grace? She left the building when teabaggers dropped the N bomb on John Lewis.

Wow, that blazing analysis melted my screen!

Before you get all excited over the health care bill you may wish to read this NYT article from today.

“The answer, unfortunately, is that the budget office is required to take written legislation at face value and not second-guess the plausibility of what it is handed. So fantasy in, fantasy out.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/21/opinion/21holtz-eakin.html?src=me&ref=homepage

It's a start... I'll celebrate when we get medicare Part E.

According to the Washington Post, one of the Representatives out on the balcony of the House today, inciting the gathered mob of unruly teabaggers to even less civilized public behavior was Oregon's own, Rep. Greg Walden.

If Bush were still President and these were Democrats, Karl Rove, Fox Not-News and the entire republican media apparatus would be calling them traitors and terrorists.

Talk about a double standard.

Way to stay classy Greg.

Yes, President Obama spent a lot of his political capital to get this passed but....... I think after this his political capital might be self regenerating. He had disappointed allot of his strongest supporters in his first year by not getting this done and by not fighting hard enough for the Public Option or Medicare for All.

Healthcare Reform was deemed dead in the water by the CW of all the pundits.

Somewhere in all of this President Obama found his inner LBJ and managed to get the bill passed. Incredible.

I have the feeling and the hope that the President and the Democrats in Congress finally have gotten a handle on how things need to get done and that they've found the spine to get them done.

"According to the Washington Post ..."

Congratulations to the Dem. Party! You've proved you can govern on the most contentious and serious issue of our time. No small accomplishment. It's the beginning of a new era of extending adequate health care to all Americans, unfinished but a new beginning. Thank you.

And the support for Democrats in 2010 and 2012 keeps poring in:

NOW: President Obama Breaks Faith with Women

Hmm, sometimes reality is stranger than fiction:

Posted by: Date Line DC | Mar 21, 2010 11:35:34 PM

And the support for Democrats in 2010 and 2012 keeps poring in:

NOW: President Obama Breaks Faith with Women

Posted by: Steve Maurer | Mar 21, 2010 11:35:55 PM

All I can say is this: somewhere Teddy Kennedy is smiling.

Today is a sad day. Socialism has been tried and failed many times before. Apparently the Democrat/Communist party is either ignorant of economics and history, or is actually willfully committing treason against our country and their oaths of office.

That Democrats had to resort to pressuring, arm-twisting and outright bribery of fellow representatives - not to mention a liberal interpretation of congressional rules - despite a super-majority shows how truly unpopular this bill is.

To the traitors - Obama, Pelosi, Hoyer, De Fazio, etc, I quote Thomas Jefferson: "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." We simply cannot afford 3 more years of Obama's regime - let's take back our country from these traitors!

You can get full Medical Insurance coverage at the lowest price from http://ow.ly/1ivST

Update 9:00 pm: President Obama hailed the final passage by the House:

"This isn't radical reform, but it is major reform," Obama said. "This isn't going to cure everything that ails our health care system, but it moves us decisively in the right direction. <b>This is what changes looks like.</b>"</i>

www.onlineuniversalwork.com

Today's our life become very fast so that we need a good health care program,who help us to mention our health.

http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/top-grade-acai-review-where-to-buy-top-grade-acai-1970281.html

As the guy who worked his butt off to put himself though college and grad school and put in the 60 hour weeks to position himself to pay for people who didn't make these sacrifices just let me say thank you. I now plan to stop contributing to the best of my abilities and cut down my work time drastically and position myself on the receiving end and not the giving end. You'll not get a pound of flesh from me slackers. If you can't beat them, join them. Worked for USSR, should work well for us.

Dateline DC:

And this just in: High fives all over corporate America!

Bob T:

Something's not quite right here. The Repubs are labeled as the corporate shill party, yet this bill was supported by Big Pharma and Big Insurance and received not a single Republican vote.

Didja hear Pelosi's dishonest rhetoric last week? She whipped up a crowd by calling out that she was "fighting" the insurance companies because they were against this bill (?!). Well, whatever it takes. Keep repeating the lie often enough and.....

Bob Tiernan Portland

Obama Leaves Assembled Scratching their Heads

Washington, D.C. - Speaking to the nation after the House voted to pass the Senate bill scored by CBO as one of the biggest corporate windfalls in history, President Obama hailed the action:

"This isn't going to cure everything that ails our health care system, but it moves us decisively in the right direction. This is what changes looks like."

Industry spokesmen across the country were ecstatic: "This is something we've been waiting and working for so long. Every American a paying customer by law! Yes We Can! Yes We Can!" said one as she fist-pumped the air.

Another shouted: "2010 has been a great year. First the Supreme Court upholds our right to buy elected officials. And now the Congress and President makes it law people have to do business with us. Now that's An Investment You Can Believe In".

"We were a little nervous whether it would actually happen, but when the President showed us he still had that Obama head fake move at GMU

We have incorporated the best ideas from Democrats and from Republicans into a final proposal that builds on the system of private insurance that we currently have. The insurance industry and its supporters in Congress have tried to portray this as radical change.

What are all you teabagger/trolls going to do when the world doesn't come to an end just because this modest bill has passed? You don't want the words socialism, communism and fascism actually mean. If you did, you wouldn't be repeating Fox-not-the-news talking points word for word.

This is a modest step in the right direction, not the end of life as we know it. Get a grip.

Excuse me, I meant to type the word 'know' in the second sentence instead of 'want.' Not enough coffee yet. Sorry.

I am left wondering when the first shots will be fired at those who just supported a new form of multigenerational slavery. The "individual mandate" yoke is bound to drive some folks to pulling the trigger on some of these governmental thieves.

I doubt it will come to that though. The individual mandate of the "reform" monstrosity is unconstitutional.

"Hello?, Testing!, Testing!. The Inter-Tubes do connect parallel universes!

Bob T: Something's not quite right here. The Repubs are labeled as the corporate shill party, yet this bill was supported by Big Pharma and Big Insurance and received not a single Republican vote.

Running sophisticated time-shifting location based-software, scientists may have discovered the Inter-Tubes connect our universe with a parallel universe in which the Democrats are apparently the "progressive" party of the working people. National security officials went on high alert at the danger. An unnamed White House official said that there was concern that contact had been made through the Inter-Tubes with someone who claimed to be in a United States where Democrats were the party of the people.

Democrats here immediately denounced this as a crafty Republican trick just intended to shift a little more corporate sponsorship their way in the upcoming November political playoffs. To accentuate their point, they announced another mass denunciation, to be carried live and on the Inter-Tubes, of people they said were claiming to be Democrats who claim to remember a time when Democrats could have been the party of the people, but who the Democrats say were really Republican Coffee Baggers pretending to be Democrats.

Death panel vans are driving around as we speak! Hide Granny!

If the right wing is upset because they believe this will cost a lot of money, just pretend it's for another unnecessary war. You'll feel better immediately.

Thanks, Kari!

The article shows that Frum may be right wing (and sometimes arrogant) but he is not blind.

Most people are not ideologues. Many people I know fall into the category of those who believe life is about logistics and problem solving, not theory or the "team sport" approach to politics.

"As the guy who worked his butt off to put himself though college and grad school and put in the 60 hour weeks to position himself to pay for people who didn't make these sacrifices just let me say thank you."

I'll raise your 60-hour weeks by my 70-hour weeks over most of my last ten years before retirement, but I don't have a problem with some of the taxes I paid going to people who were less fortunate than I was. It is really tough for people born into poverty to get out of it, especially when people who should know better oppose raising the minimum wage. Admittedly, some people in the lower economic brackets are malingerers and freeloaders if they can get away with it, but they are in a minority. Where I do have a problem is how my taxes going for wars, slaughter, destruction and ripping off underdeveloped countries so that we can eat cheap agricultural produce and drink inexpensive coffee.

Then there are the "Christians" who scream about undocumented aliens getting free care with the new health plan. They must have redacted the parable of the Good Samaritan from their version of the New Testament.

Barbara Ehrenreich once said that the working poor are the biggest donors of charity. If you want a needed shock about how the poor in Latin America help us enjoy our much better life style, read "Open Veins in Latin America," the book Hugo Chavez gave to Barack Obama.

Before those of you get overly carried away with how great this health care bill will be, just as some of you did with your blind faith when Candidate Obama came to Portland, take a sobering check of this article by Chris Hedges: The Health Care Hindenburg Has Landed

Time will tell who is more in touch with reality. In the meantime do what you can to stay healthy.

I served as a Mess Specialist Petty Officer Second Class from '77-'83 Honorably, and have spoken to many Vets during War, and in Peacetime. The common denominator I have noticed is their respect, and devotion to Democracy, and our constitution.

I find more Democrats from Vietnam's Era, and on. I may not know of what I speak, though I spend these days knocking on doors canvassing. I hear their voices, and hear their resentment bubbling up about the lines of bull they have been fed for a decade.

When I see the Democratic Nation Party slighted by the slur of Communism, or Socialism for having passed reforms on insurance companies, I remember that most of those saying these things have little to offer as service to their fellow Americans.

Are they in the realm of Alice in Wonderland?

"When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean, neither more nor less.’

‘The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things.’

‘The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘which is to be master – that’s all.’

Kari:

Personally, I concur with this analysis - by David Frum, former speechwriter for George W. Bush:....

Bob T:

Yeah, I believe you're correct that this is a good analysis. There was another I heard this morning from a Fox News guy who said that the Repubs had plenty of time to put together their own version from assorted individual ideas many months ago instead of relying on plain opposition to ObamaCare and relying on a relatively unknown congress-critter (Ryan) to reveal his good plan pretty late in the game. Republicans have not been well served by their leadership (McConnell, Boehner etc) who have become party hacks. They also had plenty of time since the HillaryCare attempt to introduce and really fight for targeted reforms, but then that is not what they stand for. Some of them should have pushed for these so that the problems would not get worse and lead to HillaryCareII coming up and coming closer to passing (or actually passing). This is why so many free-market types left the Repubs and joined the Libertarian party, and then the Repubs said please come back and help us get majorities in both houses and then we can do something, and ZZZZzzzzzzz.........

Bob Tiernan Portland

take a sobering check of this article by Chris Hedges: The Health Care Hindenburg Has Landed

Well, that's good, isn't it? The Hindenburg was considered progressive, until it blew up. At mooring, it's impressive. As opposed to "Health Care Hindenburg: Oh the Humanities!"

Posted by: LT | Mar 22, 2010 12:20:07 PM

Are they in the realm of Alice in Wonderland?

Interesting that you made that comment right before the "Tea Party" cartoon.

The Unrepentant Liberal:

Somewhere in all of this President Obama found his inner LBJ and managed to get the bill passed.

Bob T:

Are you kidding? He doesn't even have an inner Barney Fife to find when he needs to get tougher.

Bob Tiernan Portland

I guess one of the republican candidates for CD1 is a Wu protege! So for all you liberals, you have a RINO option if you have had enough of David Wu!

Hillsboro Argus

Rob Cornilles, a Tualatin businessman seeking the Republican nomination to challenge Wu this November, said he was disappointed in Sunday night's vote.

"When it comes to creating public policy, good intentions aren't enough," he said. "(Sunday) night, we saw the change of how one-sixth of our economy work."

In a Sunday night press release, Cornilles criticized the bill but stopped short of saying he'd seek its repeal. In an interview Monday, he said he'd support repealing "anything that's wrong with this bill."