"Health overhaul may ride on tactic; Seldom-used rule could thwart GOP, Democrats would need only 51 votes" by Lisa Wangsness and Sasha Issenberg, Globe Staff | Globe Correspondent | September 2, 2009
With bipartisan efforts to pass a health care bill sputtering, Democrats are increasingly looking at Plan B: a politically risky, last-ditch “nuclear option’’ designed to ram their proposals through over the objections of the other party....
And the AMERICAN PEOPLE I might add!
For Democrats, it might be better than risking a crippling defeat for Obama on a signature issue....
So it is ALL ABOUT POLITICS, NOT about YOUR HEALTH, 'murka!!!
If negotiations fall apart....
Senate Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus, a key Democratic negotiator on health care, told the Associated Press this week in Montana that....
Democrats will resort to the “nuclear option’’ of trying to pass legislation without Republicans, using the special rules.
Also see: National Health Care: The Baucus Raucous
Yeah, you are going to have to take out everybody, Max.
Passing a partisan health care bill is unappealing for Democrats because it promises to be politically dangerous and procedurally messy. After a furious conservative backlash against a health overhaul this summer, moderate Democrats are desperate for even a few Republicans to lend their support.
So when are they going to DO WHAT is RIGHT and NOT POLITICAL?
Oh, right, then we would have had single-payer a long time ago!
Republicans would consider the use of reconciliation a declaration of war, and they’re warning that any attempt to do so would mean political devastation for the majority party. “I think that would wreck our health care system and wreck the Democratic Party if they did that,’’ said Senator Lamar Alexander, a Republican from Tennessee, in a conference call with reporters yesterday.
I no longer find the s*** political fooleys appetizing, either.
Alexander said that Democrats have been going about solving major problems such as health care, climate change, and economic reforms all wrong by attempting comprehensive rather than gradual change and that the White House has not engaged in a credible attempt to reach across the aisle.
“Either the White House doesn’t know how to do it, or they don’t want to do it,’’ he said.
As they warn against Democrats trying to push health care without getting 60 votes, they also are working to turn public opinion against change....
Well, they HAVE NOT HAD to WORK TOO HARD since we ARE NOT GETTING ANY!!!
Ah, I've had it with the bias and insults, folks.
--more--"
P.S. I will be back later tonight with some war reporting.
