Kucinich To Vote Yes
Rep. Dennis Kucinich held a press conference to announce that he will vote yes on the the health care reform bill, despite previously announcing he would vote no.
Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) announced this morning that he will in fact vote for the Senate health care bill. Kucinich’s switch was a major pickup for Democrats who are clinging to a razor thin majority on health care reform and have been struggling to find the votes to get it passed.
“This is not the bill I wanted to support,” Kucinich said. “However after careful discussions with President Obama, Speaker Pelosi, my wife Elizabeth and friends, I decided to cast a vote in favor of the legislation.”
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“I know I have to make a decision not on the bill as I would like to see it but as it is,” Kucinich said, noting the Senate bill at least gave health coverage to 31 million more Americans. “My criticism of the legislation has been well reported. I do not retract those criticisms. I incorporate them into this statement.”
This is a big deal. Kucinich is a leader of the progressive block and had come in for a lot of criticism for saying that he would vote no. Obviously the pressure helped to flip his vote. I would like thank Rep. Kucinich for doing the right thing, though I don’t doubt that it is painful for him.
I think we all agree that this bill is not as good as it should be. In my opinion, it’s a big step forward. It’s establishing health care as a right guaranteed by the government and it will provide subsidies to help uninsured people purchase insurance, people who couldn’t afford insurance before. It’s also making the government responsible for absorbing the rise in health care costs, which I hope will lead to a better health care system in the future. It also helps to curb the worst abuses of health care providers.
I plan to keep on fighting. I think the next step is to support Rep. Grayson’s Medicare buy-in bill.
because everyone loves a sell out
BWAH HA HA HA HA
Hey BWAHAH-Boy….
By holding out, Kucinich got two things: One, he probably got something that made the bill better, or got a promise for some future concession – we’ll find out soon enough. And two, if nothing else he got a national spotlight on the progressive point of view, and got to give Obama an earful of “progressive.” Either way, that is pretty damn “effective.” Name one legislator apart from Pelosi who has done any of those things.
But of course, I am speaking to the folks who wanted to just pass the Senate bill without any changes, so the concept of “negotiating” may be lost on you. I bet you also buy the undercoating on your new car, and the extended warranty at Best Buy.
BTW, the Kill the Bill contingent on the left is now 3%.
Kucinich says he didn’t get any special deals, either:
Pelosi will go down as one of the most effective Speakers in history after this vote. Kucinich’s switch gives a lot of cover to other progressives in the no camp. The path to 216 got a whole lot easier.
Great!! Kucinich gets face time and we get a bigger broken stick.
Gee, U.I., a huge majority were for going to war with Iraq, too. How’d that work out?
Bush threatened a “mushroom cloud” and Obomba lies about insurance rates going down “3,000 percent.” Both are liars.
Fools argument a1.
What’s this 3000% crap, did I miss something? Or was that a simple slip like when Obama said there were 57 states?
and Bush says strategery–which I’ve hated, because now I say it, instead of the other.
OK, I looked it up… Obama said 3000% when he meant to say $3000 dollars.
Sheesh.
OK, I looked it up… Obama said 3000% when he meant to say $3000 dollars.
I figured it was either a gaffe or a misfire on hyperbole. Not quite the same as pushing a war based on non-existent WMDs.
BTW, Kucinich is returning the donations of progressives who have given in the last few days because he said he’d vote no on HCR. That’s a classy move, so I’d like to thank Rep. Kucinich for his integrity.
All I can say about this is wow. Teabaggers mock a man with Parkinson’s because he favors passage of health care reform.
3000 percent or 3000 dollars, besides the ridiculousness of the former, both are flat-out lies. Just like the “mushroom cloud” based on non-existent WMDs, Obomba’s claims are based on non-existent future reductions in insurance premium projections:
“There’s no question premiums are still going to keep going up,” said Larry Levitt of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a research clearinghouse on the health care system. “There are pieces of reform that will hopefully keep them from going up as fast. But it would be miraculous if premiums actually went down relative to where they are today.”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100317/ap_on_bi_ge/us_health_overhaul_fact_check
But, what the heck, Obomba is your guy so you’ll believe his lies any day of the week even though he is leading the country off an economic cliff by flat-out lying about an HCR bill that isn’t HCR at all.
WMD 2002 = HCR 2010 Obomba lies while real HCR dies. Kill the bill.
You know, I wasn’t even a Kucinich fan until Dems started attacking him for his lack of centrism. Now he has become a symbol of what ails Democrats.
Ever since Medicare Part D Dems have become incapable of helping anybody without cutting corporations in on the action. That my friends is the Third Way and you are well down the path and don’t even know it. Well we know how that movie ends.
Don’t forget there are a couple dozen other Dems who said they are voting against the bill and AREN’T changing their minds.
Oh what a surprise – Faux News was pushing a fake survey about health care reform.
I just got a text message from Bart Stupak, urging me to contact Tom Carper and not support the bill. What the hell is Bart Stupak doing robo calls in Delaware for? Anyone else get one?
Kucinch may not be giving away all his cards. If he was able to make the deal to “permit states to adopt their own health care plans”, we win, feds loose.
Moveon should be held to account for taking money from liberals and air ads in Cleveland to support a challenger against Dennis Kucnich. Those democratic whores will never get another dime from me. They wouldnt no a progressive from a neo con.
The language to allow states to adopt their own plans is already in the Senate bill.