"In Case I had Not Made Myself Clear Before"

more goodness (0.00 / 0)

mcjoan has more here

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by: Clem Guttata @ Thu Sep 17, 2009 at 00:35:57 AM UTC

Ed and Rachael are one of the few reasons I regret no cable (4.00 / 2)

Jay released that letter after his meeting with the White House. He really calls out Baucus and Grassley. That particular post was to point out the process he went through to look at the co-op idea.

I saw that mcjoan also quoted other portions of the same letter. She thought it was bad politics and policy. I was going after process. I thought the record Jay built was smart, very smart.

NFTT: Support My Team or I Will Dance

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by: CA Berkeley WV @ Thu Sep 17, 2009 at 02:09:40 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

good points (4.00 / 2)

As you've brought up before, Rockefeller is chair of Finance sub-com on Health. Baucus made two huge errors:

1. Freezing out chairman of the Finance sub-committee  on Health -- that moved pissed off the sub-committee members and esp. their chair

2. Calling for cuts in SCHIP -- this is Sen. Rockefeller's baby.

Sen. Rockefeller has always been a strong proponent of gov't health care programs and improved health care access. He's right up there with Sen. Kennedy on this issue, even if he doesn't get quite as much press.

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by: Clem Guttata @ Thu Sep 17, 2009 at 08:02:50 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

He also points out that tax on benfits (4.00 / 1)

which was Pres. McCain's initiative, so I understand completely why Sen. Baucus is doing this, would hurt the coal miners, who like a lot of the rest of the labor force since WWII, gave up wage benefits in exchange for health benefits.

NFTT: Support My Team or I Will Dance

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by: CA Berkeley WV @ Thu Sep 17, 2009 at 17:02:16 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Jay/Baucus/cap and trade (0.00 / 0)

I read somewhere that this dust-up after Baucus released his much anticipated bill is his "chickens coming home to roost" - I thought that was very accurate. Jay and the other committee members have every right to raise hell over this convoluted process that Baucus setup.

I can't tell what Baucus' agenda is either. I think it is too simple to shrug it off as him being a conservative Dem and trying to water the bill down. I think he will go along with whatever passes at the end - even public option, but he seems to be enjoying the spotlight far too much.

Now he wants to take the Cap and Trade bill http://www.politico.com/news/s...  Regardless of where you stand at on that issue, I think he will be bad for the process period.

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by: jcsaunders @ Thu Sep 17, 2009 at 17:15:44 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

jcsaunders (0.00 / 0)

If he did it for the attention, he certainly got the spotlight alone since not a single senator stood by him at his announcement of his DOA bill.

Of course the GOP weren't going to join him. A good plan destroys them.

Baucus, however, was working to satisfy the insurance lobby and not the public or fellow Democrats.  

When a man embarks upon a crime, he is morally guilty of any other crime which may spring from it. Sherlock Holmes.

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by: Carnacki @ Thu Sep 17, 2009 at 17:54:26 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Unfortunately, his committee has jurisdiction over lots of things (0.00 / 0)

wanting negative attention is not the sign of a healthy individual. He jsut seems incapable of closing a deal. Sen. Grassley got his AMT fix in the stimulus bill, usually taken care of at the end of the fiscal year, 10% of the total "stimulus" for something that is not, and then the corn did not vote for the final bill. There is a difference between a cooling saucer and the deep freeze.

I am glad the Jay and Max are such good friends. But, so what. So what if Max and Chuk work together if the result is alwasy a crappy piece of legislation, negotied for one damnable senator, who never votes for the thing on final passage.

His ex-wife beat up another woman at the neighborhood nursery over position in the mulch line. They divorced in April. The late Sen. Tsongas would be very disappointed with both of them.

NFTT: Support My Team or I Will Dance

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by: CA Berkeley WV @ Thu Sep 17, 2009 at 18:37:14 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Time for Baucus and Reed to be replaced! (0.00 / 0)

I'm sick and tired of all the posturing in the name of protecting the health insurance industry, we're wasting precious time and money and both are in short supply.  I think it's time to think seriously about leadership change in the senate and we can start with Baucus and Reed, both are doing a terrible job at the moment and we need scapegoats to show the American people we Dems are serious about REAL change.  I'm not sure who is next in line to suceed Reed or Baucus but let's hope they would present a more palatable alternative to what we have now.

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by: JBdem4usa @ Thu Sep 17, 2009 at 14:05:00 PM UTC

Look a the polls (4.00 / 1)

The good voters of Nev. may replace Reed, like Daschle was retired.

NV-Sen: Another Pollster Piles on Reid in the Silver State
Every pollster that has come into the Nevada Senate race has seen similar results: Harry Reid is hurting. Hurting bad. It should not come as a shock, therefore, that GOP-friendly Rasmussen gets results that are even more favorable for the GOP than the other pollsters that have entered the field.

NFTT: Support My Team or I Will Dance

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by: CA Berkeley WV @ Thu Sep 17, 2009 at 14:19:21 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Jay touched on the subject of chairmanship replacement (4.00 / 1)

on the Ed Show earlier in July and said he was not afraid on review of his Commerce position. And he was against co-ops then.

NFTT: Support My Team or I Will Dance

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by: CA Berkeley WV @ Thu Sep 17, 2009 at 14:23:14 PM UTC

[ Parent ]