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WASHINGTON
Democratic Party chairman Tim Kaine said today he expects the health care overhaul will be passed and he's not worried about Republican threats to make it a premier issue in this year's midterm elections.
In a nationally broadcast interview, the former Virginia governor said, "If they want to run a campaign of bring back the day of kicking people off because of pre-existing conditions, I relish it."
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., had declared Tuesday that Democrats will enact the medical system reset at their own political peril, vowing to make it an issue in every congressional race this fall.
Asked about this, Kaine said he considers the picture of "Republicans fighting health care" to be a political asset for Democrats as they try to retain their control of Congress.
Kaine, who has been a close ally of President Barack Obama and helped him carry the state in 2008, also defended the fast-track parliamentary process that majority Democrats in the Senate plan to use to get the health care bill passed.
"The reconciliation is every bit as much a rule of the Senate as filibuster," said Kaine, noting that Republicans relied heavily on the expedited procedure to muscle through a series of substantial tax cuts during President George W. Bush's administration.
Typically, Senate rules can require a supermajority of 60 members of the 100-member body to advance legislation to passage. In that scenario, 41 members can effectively stall legislation or even kill it.
Under the so-called "reconciliation" process, first devised principally to help facilitate appropriations and budget bills, a measure can be passed by a simple 51-member majority.
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Health care reconcilliation
I'm not going to get into the argument about whether we should have a government-sponsored health care system. I will, however, say that it seems to me that Democrats are missing the obvious here when they decide they'll by-pass regular debate and simply force the bill through using the reconciliaton technique. All the opponents have to do is filibuster the bill before the reconciliation package or the two bills before reconciliation, etc., to achieve the same delay they seek and to force an ultimate compromise on the health care bill. I expect Mitch McConnell is already prepared to do this, and if he's not, then Republicans need a new leader.
I have to agree with this gentleman on the " nuclear option "
I believe this gentleman nails the argument against the " nuclear option "
Mr. President, I sense that talk of the nuclear option is more about power than about fairness. I believe some of my colleagues propose this rules change because they can get away with it rather than because they know it's good for our democracy.
Right now, we're faced with rising gas prices, skyrocketing tuition costs, a record number of uninsured Americans, and some of the most serious national security threats we've ever had, all while our bravest young men and women are risking their lives halfway around the world to keep us safe.
These are challenges we all want to meet and problems we all want to solve, even if we don't all agree how to do it. But if the right of free and open debate is taken away from the minority party and the millions of Americans who asked us to be their voice, I fear that the already partisan atmosphere of Washington will be poisoned to the point where no one will be able to agree on anything. That doesn't serve anyone's best interests, and it certainly isn't what the patriots who founded this democracy had in mind.
We owe the people who sent us here more than that. We
continued
We owe the people who sent us here more than that. We owe them much more.
Sen. Barack Obama 2005
http://www.barackobama.com/2005/04/13/statement_of_senator_barack_ob.php
Every other industrialized country in the world
Every other industrialized country in the world has national health insurance, and they pay HALF per capita what we pay for healthcare. The healthcare corporations and their puppets, the Republican Party, are ripping us off, my friends.
Let me correct this with the truth...
Every SOCIALIZED industrialized country in the world has national health insurance... THAT IS WHY THEY COME TO THE U.S. FOR HEALTHCARE - SO THEY AND THEIR CHILDREN DON'T DIE AT HOME WAITING 6+ MONTHS FOR TREATMENT.
It’s a shame to see how far socialism has taken root in our society. Our socialist/communist president has made fools out of most of those that elected him. Unfortunately, there are some that will propagate his treachery blindly.
let's get it on
Kent Conrad(D) said that owing to the Byrd rule, which states that non-budgetary sections of a bill must be removed before consideration.
no insurance company reforms
no pre-existing condition reform
no public option - can't reconcile items not already law
no exchanges
no mandates
no subsidies - again can't reconcile items not already law
no drug re-importation or renegotiation
no abortion funding
however, amendments like increased limits on HSAs can be inserted, they are already law
a private plan would be exempt from any federal or state requirement related to quality improvement and reporting if the community health insurance option is not subject to the specific requirement
requires members of Congress and their staff to enroll in the government-run health insurance program
protect pro-patient plans and prevent rationing
establish an auto advisory council to make recommendations to the Secretary of the Treasury regarding how best to represent the taxpayers of the United States as the majority owner of General Motors
Did you read what you wrote?
What point were you trying to make?
consolation prize for Republicans
democrats won't vote for glenn nye because he voted against healthcare
republicans wont vote for Glenn Nye because he is a democrat
most of the independents want health care reform and wont vote for glenn nye because he voted against healthcare.
So, the take home message is...Glenn Nye will lose his seat in November. I get that.
Now, since a republican will win Virginia's second congressional race, would you PLEASE nominate something better than Ed Scrock (remember his audio?) or (choke puke), Thelma Drake?
Obama lies and others swear to it...Democrats are unreal
Obama promised in 2006 to NOT use the BUDGET reconciliation process to transform (ruin) health care. Now he appears to be on the verge of asking the Senate to do just that. If the House of Representatives votes it up to the Senate, the Democrats may succeed--for now. This new promise broken by Obama eventually will be repealed piece by piece if necessary. Otherwise, the health care system of America will collapse within a couple of decades, if not sooner.
you saw it didn't you?
I sure did...right after he was elected, before he was even sworn in, he started his pathological lying. He thinks the rest of us who DIDN'T VOTE FOR HIM are stupid and will fall lockstep in place with the rest of the sheep (the ones that LOVE welfare) who did vote his sorry rear into the whitehouse.