Obama To Republicans: Go Ahead And Vote Against HCR
Today President Obama drew the line on where HCR will go. (Via Ezra Klein – full transcript posted there)
And so Obama gave no quarter today. Gone was the pretense that Democrats and Republicans basically agree on health-care reform. “Many Republicans in Congress just have a fundamental disagreement over whether we should have more or less oversight of insurance companies,” Obama said. “And if they truly believe that less regulation would lead to higher quality, more affordable health insurance, then they should vote against the proposal I’ve put forward.”
Gone was vague language and gesturing coyness Democrats have favored on the path forward. “The United States Congress owes the American people a final vote on health care reform,” Obama said. “We have debated this issue thoroughly, not just for a year, but for decades. Reform has already passed the House with a majority. It has already passed the Senate with a supermajority of sixty votes. And now it deserves the same kind of up-or-down vote that was cast on welfare reform, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, COBRA health coverage for the unemployed, and both Bush tax cuts.”
So that’s it, then: The health-care reform bill that Congress will vote on will be a close relative of the health-care reform bills that Congress has already passed. No Plan Bs, no starting over, no accommodation with continued obstructionism. “I have therefore asked leaders in both houses of Congress to finish their work and schedule a vote in the next few weeks,” Obama said. “From now until then, I will do everything in my power to make the case for reform.”
Can’t get any clearer than that. Bet Republican heads are exploding.
That was really an awesome speech. He’s basically saying we’ve talked enough, now let’s vote.
I have to add that obviously Obama has to do this to get the Congressional Democrats to act. They apparently can’t get anything done without a lot of handholding.
Obama comments:
• “My understanding of the Senate is, is that you need 60 votes to get something significant to happen, which means that Democrats and Republicans have to ask the question: Do we have the will to move an American agenda forward, not a Democratic or Republican agenda forward?”–CBS-TV election night interview, Nov. 2, 2004
• “The bottom line is that our health-care plans are similar. The question, once again, is: Who can get it done? Who can build a movement for change? This is an area where we’re going to have to have a 60% majority in the Senate and the House in order to actually get a bill to my desk. We’re going to have to have a majority, to get the bill to my desk, that is not just a 50-plus-1 majority.”–Change to Win convention, Sept. 25, 2007
• “You’ve got to break out of what I call the sort of 50-plus-1 pattern of presidential politics. Maybe you eke out a victory of 50 plus 1, but you can’t govern. You know, you get Air Force One–I mean, there are a lot of nice perks, but you can’t deliver on health care. We’re not going to pass universal health care with a 50-plus-1 strategy.”–interview with the Concord (N.H.) Monitor, Oct. 9, 2007
• “You know, one of the arguments that sometimes I get with my fellow progressives–and some of these have flashed up in the blog communities on occasion–is this notion that we should function sort of like Karl Rove, where we identify our core base, we throw them red meat, we get a 50-plus-1 victory. But see, Karl Rove doesn’t need a broad consensus, because he doesn’t believe in government. If we want to transform the country, though, that requires a sizable majority.”–Center for American Progress, July 12, 2006
Well we have already gotten 60 votes on healthcare reform, romeo. and if we give it an up down vote and it passes with 300 votes in the House and 55-45 in the Senate, then we aren’t really talking about 50+1 are we?
What planet has romeo been on for the past year? Pathetic.
the take away lesson from this? the republicans (for now) but the Right Wing always… will NEVER fight fair. they will ALWAYS apply i double standard and and try to divide the nation in an attempt to place themselves on the bigger side. They know that if most americans knew their true motives, they’d have maybe 20 seats in the house and a few in the senate. We should never work with them ever again.
I was reading that Republicans are going to run on a full repeal of health care reform. Yep, the Republicans are going to run on the return of pre-existing conditions exclusions, no cap on out-of-pocket expenses and the return of recission. Good luck with that one!
BTW, I love the Republican concern trolling on this – we’re just trying to keep you from passing this really unpopular bill. RIIIIIGHT. Republicans are always worried about the Democrats’ electoral prospects.
That was really an awesome speech. He’s basically saying we’ve talked enough, now let’s vote.
And he could not have made that speech without first going through all the bullshit we have been through in the last year, some of which came from myself and others here.
If Obama lays his cards down right, we will not only have HCR but we will throw drowning Republicans an anchor.
I still say everybody is going to hate the individual mandate, though. Dems will pay a price for that.
I don’t think individual mandate kicks in until 2014.
they will pay me? whew! at least ‘ll get income outta this.
And if the immediate reforms are as popular as I think they’ll be then the public will want more not less HCR. Call me crazy, but I still think this is a good starting point.
Yeah, Barry, go right ahead and do this.
After all, we’ll be able to keep the Democrats from power for a couple of decades if you flip the bird at the American people this way.
ooo SOMEONE is a little testy tonight. Worried it is gonna pass and your wingnut utopia will never come to be? or did you not get invited to the victory cross burning for new Confederate darling Gov Perry. (how are those stimulus funds he accepted doin down in BIg Texas?)
I think it’s time we differentiate between the “American people” and the “Am’r’kin people”… cause honestly i couldn’t care less about the latter.
Mandates without a public options is extortion. This isn’t HCR; it is a pocket-picking by the government for private corporate profits. It forces people to line the pockets of insurance company executives before any other expense, including food, housing, transportation, and healthcare.
HCR 2010 = WMD 2002. Obomba lies while real HCR dies. No public option = kill the bill.
Hey, a.price — document the existence of a “victory cross burning”{ or admit that you are a liar and a bigot. And as for the latter part of your comment, thank you for admitting that you are all about dividing this nation and provoking a civil war.
By the way — I voted for Kay. http://rhymeswithright.mu.nu/archives/298875.php
well, im a satirist .. much like the Buddha of the Tea, El Rusho. so no, i don’t think Grand Cyclops Perry is part of the KKK. Second, it should be obvious to you now that your … and i mean this sincerely.. even tempered, fair minded (albeit wrong to me), brand of conservatism is not what most conservatives are. Maybe this win by a wing-nut could show you that a lot of the people who vote for the people you vote for do so because they are stark raving mad.
Look the Repuk’s have said they are going to run on repealing Health Care so let’s call their bluff. Pass Single payer let in go into effect tomorrow with a limit till 2013 at which time it must be renewed and see if the balls are there to not renew it.
The main reason the Repuk’s are against reform is that they are done if it is a success and if it’s going to wreck the Dem’s as they claim then they should not be standing in the way of the shipwreck.
Remember, remember, remember the Republican strategy is ALWAYS to turn your strength into a seeming weakness. This bill is good for Americans and great for Democrats. Ya called it — concern trolling. The tried and true Republican strategy that the media just loves since it sets up a he said/she said dialogue. Hold on Dems and see this through, man or woman up, grit your teeth and do it. You’ll be so glad you did.
“if you flip the bird at the American people this way.”
Umm, that’s a retarded statement (Sorry Sarah Palin). The American people voted these folks into office in the first place. They voted overwhelmingly for Obama. The Democrats have never hid their desire to make healthcare a right. I don’t see how you can make the claim that you do with a straight face. The Republicans are not ruling and should not rule with a 41% “majority” in one house of Congress…
Smart Democrats (wasn’t sure they existed a year ago) to Obama: “We’re not voting for healthcare!”