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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.
Good evening, West Virginia Blue readers. This is your open thread to discuss all things Hill-related. Use this thread to praise or bash Congresscritters, share a juicy tip, ask questions, offer critiques and suggestions, or post manifestos.
President Obama has finally started twisting some arms to get his health care reform bill passed.
Whether or not the public option will be included is still a big question. Apparently there are plenty of Democrats who still don't understand that Scott Brown won Massachusetts because voters don't like their universal health care without the public option.
Research 2000 poll(ed) voters immediately after the Election ended: Even Scott Brown voters want Democrats to be bolder and they want healthcare reform that includes a public option.
You read that right. By a margin of three-to-two, former Obama voters who voted for Republican Scott Brown yesterday said the Senate healthcare bill "doesn't go far enough." Six-to-one Obama voters who stayed home agreed. And to top it off, 80% of all voters still want the choice of a public option in the bill.
The message is clear, there is only one way out of this mess if Democrats want to win in 2010. It's time to pass healthcare with 51 votes in the Senate using the budget reconciliation process. And it must include the most popular piece of bold reform: the choice of a public option.source (bold italics added)
Having said that, here's a graph that illustrates that there is hope for change without the public option.
The problem with the CBO figures, as as Republicans are quick to point out, is that the CBO numbers for Obamacare are accurate if the data provided to them is followed to the "T". I think we can all agree that health care providers will figure out ways to wangle around federal regs pretty quickly.
That's exactly why the competition of a public option matters so much. It's the real change America voted for.
Good afternoon, West Virginia Blue readers. This is your afternoon open thread to discuss all things Hill-related. Use this thread to praise or bash Congresscritters, share a juicy tip, ask questions, offer critiques and suggestions, or post manifestos.
On a programing note, you still have time to kick in a vote for this series. We are up for a kOscar (it really was an honor just to be nominated). You can vote for this series here nominated in (#7) "News or Political." The other diary for more categories is posted here. Many thanks to Laughing Planet and Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse for their work on this.
but he isn't saying he would support it either. I mentioned yesterday that our Senator Rockefeller's office said he would issue a statement regarding reconciliation. That statement is out and can be read by clicking here.
“I do not oppose reconciliation, and have long made the case for exploring all avenues available to pass health reform.”
Come on Senator... sign on to the group of Senators that are specifically asking for reconciliation to pass HCR. Our Senator makes it clear that he supports a public option, but makes no strong statement of how strongly he would work to get the job done
“I will continue to support viable options for enacting a robust public plan. Right now, however, there is no value for the American people in diminishing a meaningful public option so substantially that it exists in name only — and that is why we must focus our attention on the many great private health insurance reform ideas on the table today.
Give him a call... let him know that he really needs to support the people of West Virginia and the nation by pushing for both a public option and reconciliation.
Beckley 220 North Kanawha Street Suite 1 Beckley, WV 25801-4514 (304) 253-9704 (304) 253-2578 Fax
Charleston 405 Capitol Street Suite 508 Charleston, WV 25301-1749 (304) 347-5372 (304) 347-5371 Fax
Fairmont 118 Adams Street Suite 301 Fairmont, WV 26554-2841 (304) 367-0122 (304) 367-0822 Fax
Martinsburg 217 West King Street Suite 307 Martinsburg, WV 25401-3211 (304) 262-9285 (304) 262-9288 Fax
Washington, DC 531 Hart Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510 (202) 224-6472 (202) 224-7665 Main Fax
I just talked to Senator Rockefeller's office a few minutes ago. This was his Charleston, WV office as I could not get through to the Washington or Beckley, WV offices.
Evidently a statement will be released this afternoon regarding reconciliation. Since the statement had not been released I was not able to ascertain where he stands. I was told to call back tomorrow by the receptionist, and she would read the statement to me.
Hopefully some good news will follow, but who knows.
Good afternoon, West Virginia Blue readers. This is your afternoon open thread to discuss all things Hill-related. Use this thread to praise or bash Congresscritters, share a juicy tip, ask questions, offer critiques and suggestions, or post manifestos.
Some of the Hill news that's fit to blog is over the fold...
Until the filibuster is ended in the not so much a gentleman's club in Washington, the US Senate, our nation will never come out of the dark ages of the Bush years. Every day that goes by requiring 60 votes to bring righteous legislation into law insures that nothing will be done to bring hope to those whose lives are made so difficult by allowing those that have so much to keep the rest of our nation behind. I think that there is nothing so selfish as the behavior of the blue dog democrats and their partners in crime all of the Republican Senators that have brought President Obama's promise of hope for our nation to an absolute standstill because the Senate has the archaic and absurd filibuster. Their co conspirators in the medical industrial complex and the financial industry are no less guilty as they make it possible for the aforementioned elected officials to ignore the needs of their constituents by handing them campaign contributions that reward them for bringing us bad government.
We have watched health care, bank reform, and wall street reform weakened or defeated either by the greed of these Senators or by the absolute Bull S**t financed by the corporations that permeates the airwaves because it is so easy to buy off media. That media isn't just Fox or Rush Limbaugh it is every person that calls themselves a reporter who fails to report the lies and deceptive stories for what they are.
Now we have a whole new category added to the fray with the actions of Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama who feels that he has the power to keep good Presidential nominees from being confirmed by putting a hold on their nominations until he gets earmarks for his state passed and signed into law by the President. What he is looking for is best described in New York Magazine (HT Balloon-Juice) in an article published on Tuesday...
So why exactly has Shelby taken such drastic action? Because he wants some pork for Alabama. Specifically, one earmark for a $40 billion contract to build air-to-air refueling tankers, and another for a $45 million FBI testing lab. It's a $40,045,000,000 ransom demand to the United States government. When did Dr. Evil become a senator?
Note that the contract mentioned involves an aircraft built by Airbus, a European company with facilities in Alabama that is competing with an American company, Boeing, with facilities all over the United States.
Time to call Senator Rockefeller and Senator Byrd and tell them point blank that the filibuster must go and tell them that it is necessary to do this so we can have true representative government back in Washington.
Good afternoon, West Virginia Blue readers. This is your afternoon open thread to discuss all things Hill-related. Use this thread to praise or bash Congresscritters, share a juicy tip, ask questions, offer critiques and suggestions, or post manifestos.
Some of the Hill news that's fit to blog is over the fold...
The party of dirty tricks (Republican) is working overtime to confuse our citizens... now they have an official looking mailing that portends to be an official census document. It is amazing to me that Politico actually posted this story that can be read by clicking here.
Officials of both parties are sharply criticizing a fundraising mailing from Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele they say could be confused with official correspondence regarding this year’s census.
The fundraising letter comes in the form of a “survey,” a frequently used device for partisan fundraising, but this one has a twist: Calling itself the “Congressional District Census,” the letter comes in an envelope starkly printed with the words, “DO NOT DESTROY OFFICIAL DOCUMENT” and describes itself, on the outside of the envelope, as a “census document.”
They do these kinds of mailings called standbys on a fairly regular basis. They did this once before in 2000 during the census. Members of Congress as well as the Census Bureau are concerned.
News outlets in Wyoming, New York, Tennessee, and Minnesota have printed complaints about the mailers, with the director of the Census Bureau's regional office in Kansas City, Dennis Johnson, criticizing the letter in the Pioneer Press.
"My biggest concern is that it might be confusing to some residents who get this and then get the real one in a couple of months," Johnson said.
Evem Yahoo has this posted as a front page story tonight. The MSM media must have missed the party talking points today. You can imagine the bigger furor if this had been done by the DNC.
I have personally created several corporations in my time, and never once have I thought any of them to be separate "people" - if I had I would have been granting myself more than the "one man, one vote" concept of our Constitution and all related laws.
Now we have the Supreme Court allowing Corporations (and, yes, Labor Unions - also not separate "people") the ability to spend unregulated amounts of money on elections... because they are "people" within the law.
The move by President Obama to follow the ideas of Paul Volcker seems to push directly into the face of heretofore financial advisor Larry Summers.
Summers was not in favor of ANY of the things Volcker has brought into view. He did not want to regulate the banks. He did not want all things happening in the open. And he certainly didn't want to put any size restrictions on banks that become "Too big to fail."
So what will be Summera' position now? Certainly he can't be trusted with getting anywhere near the economy. And Bernanke is getting hit by Bernie Sanders who is standing in the way of his reappointment to the Fed. To quote Sanders:
"There is a growing understanding that our economy is in severe distress, a greater appreciation that people are disgusted with the never-ending greed on Wall Street, and a better recognition that we need a new direction at the Fed."
And underneath all of this is Geithner, who is trying to get Congress to do more TARP money... which they are now not likely to do.
This seems to call for a real turnover which would be in Obama's best interest... and might lead him back to his campaign promises.
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