Fixing The Health Care Bill
Health reform, remember, is a long game. The Senate Finance Committee will not write the health reform bill. They will just write their version of it. Then it will merge with the HELP Committee’s version. Then it will be amended on the floor of the Senate. Then it will be merged with the House’s health reform bill in a process called “conference committee.” Then that bill will return for a final vote.
So here’s a question that few have asked, and that virtually no one knows the answer to: How important is conference committee to the way the White House is looking at health care? I’ve heard it’s pretty important. Heard the same thing about Harry Reid, actually. If that’s true, then this is what the Democratic leadership is thinking: The overriding imperative right now is to keep health reform alive. That’s all that matters. Get it out of the Finance Committee. Get it off the Senate floor. If it’s cut down to half a loaf, fine. You don’t fix it now. You fix it in conference. Or you let Henry Waxman do it for you.
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It passed because it’s hard to filibuster bills emerging from conference. You can’t change them, for one thing. No amendments are allowed. Nor is there time for debate. You vote for the bill, you vote against the bill, or you filibuster the bill. Those are your options. Democrats are likely to walk out of conference committee with 60 senators in their party. Ben Nelson will not be able to ask to change this bit he doesn’t like, and Evan Bayh will not be allowed to offer an amendment weakening that piece. They stand with the White House or against it. And it is, in the estimation of most observers I’ve talked to, hard to imagine them literally filibustering the final vote on health reform. The White House would torture them until they lost reelection. And if no Democrats are willing to filibuster, then the White House could lose as many as 10 of them and still pass the bill.
Count me as one of the people who thinks that there will be health care reform this year. Obama knows that this will be his legacy, this will be what he is judged on. It’s in his best interest to get the best bill possible. The process of making legislation is very messy, as we’ve seen before. I think that Obama is just beginning to up the pressure on lawmakers, so we’ll see what happens.
Tags: Health Care, President Obama
Late night TV infomercials will just not be the same:
http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/article1014018.ece
RIP Billy
I agree with Ezra. Obama has always played the long game.
It’s not a good week to be 50 years old.
John’s link leads to a story on TV ad man Billy Mays, who apparently died last night.
maybe if he had better healthcare…….
“Count me as one of the people who thinks that there will be health care reform this year.”
There might be health care legislaton to mask as some kind of reform but we’re a long way off from real health care reform. What ever legislation passes this year you can rest assure the middle-class will carry the $$ burden.
Between my wife’s and my employee payroll deductions and deductibles we’re now over $10,000.00 a year before the plan pays a penny (just went up this year and had to drop dental). Now don’t forget I help pay for Markell’s, all the federal and state legislators, the poor , the lazy. the scammers, teachers, police and other’s health care. The reward for be a hard worker and following the rules is more state taxes and more state taxes. on top of this heath care burden.
FYI Kilroy’s has moved to WordPress.
http://kilroysdelaware.wordpress.com/
Will someone at DL adjuster the blogroll link to Kilroy’s? thank you
Your link is revised in the Blogroll, Kilroy.
And in case you haven’t looked now, the middle class is carrying the burden now. The real legacy of the trickle down theory. And if some change doesn’t start now, the burden for all of those health care plans you help pay for just gets bigger and bigger and bigger.
cassandra_m
“And if some change doesn’t start now, the burden for all of those health care plans you help pay for just gets bigger and bigger and bigger.”
Yea and it may come a time when I can’t afford mine. Shelter and food comes first. But I’ll still be require to provide Kilroy sponored health care for all.
I say starting here in Delaware we end all free health care for state legislators or at least pay 50% the cost. Perhaps if they feel the pain they might act on real health care refrom.
Thanks for updating the blog link.
Obama has ceded the bill to Congress and it will be a failure. Yes, he wants a bill but so far nothing he has signed has worked as advertised in any way.
“And in case you haven’t looked now, the middle class is carrying the burden now. ” A comment so far off the mark it is clueless at best.
In what respect are the middle class carrying the burden? Certainly, you don’t mean taxes?
Mike Protack
Last year when we had high gas prices did we have a government gas station?
How about groceries, they are expensive. Why not a government grocery store?
Why nust there be an overpowering presence of government in health care?
Mike Protack
Ummmm…..we do provide government assistance for food. It’s called WIC. There are also other programs. We also provide many farm subsidies.
We had high prices for gas AND massive subsides to the oil and gas industry for exploration. We had high prices for gas AND we had massive subsides to the corn growers and ethanol makers. So you were paying for that gas and ethanol twice, actually.
Military folks get government grocery stores.
Kilroy wrote:
Even if we do single-payer, that would be the case.
Whether you want national healthcare or not, one thing is certain: we do not have the money to attempt it right now.
The real burden is our fake money system. How can we ever truly get out of debt if what we have is worthless.
Military folks in the least deserve grocery stores. But rest assured, they are being screwed over in a multitude of other ways.