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I listened to a Congressman from Alabama give the Republican's weekly statement (after the President's weekly statement) on NBC this morning and was told that despite what Pelosi and Reid want, despite the threat of using reconciliation to push the Health Care bill through, the American People don't want the Health Care bill as it has been debated and argued over the past year. He said the American People want Congress and The President to "start over on a new page."
Here in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia, about as American a location as you can find, I sit watching this knowing that I WANT a Health Care bill to be passed NOW. I know that if the government starts on a NEW PAGE it will be in the face of a rate-raising, highly profitable private insurance system and a 10-to-1 ratio of lobbyists who are NOT starting on a new page, who will work day and night to weaken any progress.
Perhaps you may have read it. Perhaps you have not. But via Dana Milbank in the Washington Post
At 4 p.m. Sunday afternoon -- nine hours before the 1 a.m. vote that would effectively clinch the legislation's passage -- Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) went to the Senate floor to propose a prayer. "What the American people ought to pray is that somebody can't make the vote tonight," he said. "That's what they ought to pray."
It was difficult to escape the conclusion that Coburn was referring to the 92-year-old, wheelchair-bound Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.V.) who has been in and out of hospitals and lay at home ailing. It would not be easy for Byrd to get out of bed in the wee hours with deep snow on the ground and ice on the roads -- but without his vote, Democrats wouldn't have the 60 they needed.
It's like we're in a Saturday morning kids scifi show... the goodguy robot (in this case MSNBC) is telling us that the Repubs are getting ready to attack the Senate's vote on a Health Care Plan any way they can.
To start with, more than one of the Repub Senators (led by Lamar Alexander - R, TN) have called for new "Town Hall" meetings, like the ones the House members had in August - and it looks like the groups of lobbyists are ready to bus the same people in.
My voice is getting hoarse from yelling at the television today when the Republicans debating the Health Care Bill make statements which are patently untrue. The primary statement is one Boehner and his biddies keep making, that the majority of Americans have come out against this bill.
Now where is it that this has been shown, John? The various polls for weeks have shown the majority of Americans for this reform. Especially, they have shown a strong favor of the Public Option, something you keep saying all Americans are against.
Here's the latest news on health care reform from FDL Action.
1. Teddy Partridge reports that "Senator Olympia Snowe (R-Reid) reiterated her opposition to [the] Public Option," calling it "problematic" and claiming that "government's not gonna do it better and it's gonna be more costly." All of which raises an important question for Harry Reid: "Why have you agreed to elevate to power Empress Snowe instead of requiring Democratic caucus members not to block cloture and allow a bill containing a strong public option to come to vote?"
2. Jon Walker writes about "most of the major unions in America" essentially "declar[ing] war on [the] Baucus bill in defiance of Rahm." Walker adds, "The fact that many labor unions strongly object to the Baucus bill should not be a surprise. The new excise tax on health insurance benefits would disproportionally hit middle class union members. The new tax is highly middle class regressive." Other than that, of course, the unions love the Baucus bill! (snark)
3. Jane Hamsher announces an arts contest by POP (Public Option Please), FDL's health care reform advocacy campaign. Judges for the contest will include Arianna Huffington, Marshall Ganz, Jesse Dylan (directed the "Yes We Can" video), Arlene Holt Baker (AFL-CIO), and Aaron Rose ("film director, art show curator, musician and writer responsible for the Beautiful Losers art movement and world tour"). The contest runs until October 31, and offers cash prizes and publicity to the winners. Check it out here.
4. Jon Walker reports on another new "'study' [PDF] out today, this time paid for by the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association." Shockingly, Walker writes, "[t]he Blue Cross Blue Shield conclusion is that premiums would increase even faster with reform, unless we do exactly what they want...A larger government fine for anyone who does not buy their product, the ability to charge older Americans dramatically more, and to have what qualifies as minimum health insurance scaled back even farther." It's amazing how it works that way, huh?
6. Finally, Jane reported this morning that Rahm Emanuel would be "meeting with Harry Reid to tell him what the White House wants in the final Senate bill." Jane quotes Emanuel from his appearance last night on the NewsHour, where he told Judy Woodruff, "Senator Snowe has the idea of a trigger, that, in case that price isn't achieved or that competition isn't achieved, there be a trigger that then the option, a public option, would come available." For FDL Action's opinion on the "trigger," see item #5 above.
The past decade, which allowed the Bush Administration, American corporations and the great financial giants to turn the country into a dispeptic ulcer, which was mostly Bush and some Obama administered, has left us in a slump. It has taken so much energy to try and turn things around that we wonder if we can summon up more just to keep going.
I had touched on this before, but after meeting at the White House, Sen. Rockefeller leaves no doubt where he stands on the public option and the use of co-ops as a substitute.
The proposed co-op model is untested and unsubstantiated - and should not be considered as a national model for health insurance. Both the USDA and the GAO agree there is not sufficient analysis and data for health care co-ops, and the National Cooperative Business Association - the leading association for co-ops nationwide - believes that more research must be done before such a plan can be considered.
The consumer health insurance cooperatives identified by the USDA and NCBA operate and function just like private health insurance companies. There is no evidence that co-ops would bring costs down or make insurance more affordable.
I have said all along that we need a public plan option in health care reform to drive down the insurance costs that are pummeling working families. I urge my colleagues to seriously consider this troubling new information before hanging their hats - and most importantly the livelihoods of millions of Americans - on an untested concept. We can do better.
So he asked for these to be studied, just to be fair, and coming full circle is back where he started, with a scold.
I believe it is irresponsible to invest over $6 billion in a concept that has not proven to provide quality, affordable health care, when we know that a public health insurance option will rein in costs and save taxpayers billions of dollars.
To start with, PhARMA, the big pharmaceuticals lobby, is spending 12 million bucks right now on ads promoting the Baucus bill, and they've set aside a total of 150 million bucks for the rest of the campaign. This is part of the 80 billion that the industry has pledged over ten years to reduce pharmaceutical costs (although how this 12 million reduces costs, I don't know... surely they will find a way to bill this expense to the consumer).
As I wait for Obama to give his speech to the joint houses of Congress tonight, I am seeing ads all over the place pushing every possible view on reforming health care. I've seen late-night ads by independent (although obviously right-wingnut) organizations pushing every lie that has been raised on Health Care Reform, from Death Panels to to a statement that the majority of Americans are happy with what they've got. I've seen the AARP come out pushing reform in Health Care and not to shy away from changes that have to be made.
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