Great news. Why not invoke the same process for EFCA?

And everything else. There is no point in preserving a mechanism to respect a responsible opposition if there is no responsible opposition.

Thin skinned? That’s the best they got? They got nuttin.

I’m giving Obama his props for this.

I can get reconciled to reconciliation. Use it for everything.

Obama reminded the minority that the last time he reached out to them, they reacted with zero votes — twice — for his stimulus package….

Obama also offered payback for that goose egg.

with the release of the torture memos, the torture photos, his quick disclaimer that and prosecution back on the table for those war crimes and his clear strategy to prove the republicans are obstructionists I am again happy with this man

I am such a weeny wuss

Let me mention again that KKKarl Rove is a twitter-er. You want their talking points in real time? Get on KR’s twitter. (IANAT)

I think you’ll have to get used to that pendulum. :)

We need to push Obama left as hard as we can on health care, getting off oil, and climate change. It is the only hope we have for jobs in this country.

kkkarl and rustyballs are the biggest reason the repukelicans lost their seats in power

does this mean we can expect single payer to be put on the table? or is this kabuki in support of an insurance company centered “reform”?

GObama!! This is great news!

Do people think the shifting stance on prosecuting whomever for the torture debacle really indicates poor leadership on Obama’s part, or a developing stance, that is based on sound, non-ideologic analysis?

It is amazing to watch these whiners, who are so pissy that the era of GOP lies is coming to an end!!

Rove and Cheney should be detained for questioning!

Don’t be deceived by the push to get something done. Baucus described his reform plans today and emphasized that those self-insured businesses can retain their plans, and downplayed any public plan option. He did suggest that a public plan would give people the option of choosing from private insurances and compared it to the Federal plan he gets as a Senator. This is moving the furniture, but without any change.

what do you all think?

i think is very good news and we should now push hard for single payer if we want health care reform that can work to control costs and provide anything close to universal coverage.

AMY GOODMAN: And healthcare? He’s called for universal healthcare, but he does not call for single-payer healthcare.

JOSEPH STIGLITZ: I think that there are some fundamental problems in the efficiency of our healthcare system. And what we’ve seen is that the private healthcare insurers do not know how to deliver an efficient way.

AMY GOODMAN: Do you support single-payer healthcare?

JOSEPH STIGLITZ: I think I’ve reluctantly come to the view that it’s the only alternative. You know, we’ve tried a lot of other things. And we’ve been—you know, I was in the Clinton administration, and we debated a lot of alternatives, and I’ve watched things as they’ve emerged and, you know, evolved over the last twelve, sixteen years, and I think there’s a growing consensus that the private market exclusion is not going to work.

i was looking at the latest on the regulation that apparently would come with any “public option” – the “risk adjustment” alone sounds more complicated (and therefore more easily gamed) than anything geithner has proposed.

does this mean we can expect single payer to be put on the table? or is this kabuki in support of an insurance company centered “reform”?

I agree we should parse both what Republicans and Democrats say. Obama can call what he is doing healthcare reform but that doesn’t mean it is healthcare reform. From what I can see of it, it looks more like healthcare for the insurance industry.

I agree too that if reconciliation is being used on this then why use it on what Obama says is the rest of his agenda. Oh right, forgot this is all about kabuki.

Aren’t there two bills already introduced? I believe they are HB 676 and 1140 both of which have public health care

These people just luvs to bring the man’s skin into everything, don’t they?

But I do like Obama’s tactical shift, also his telling the gopers that they’re the reason he’s doing it; hope I like the actual proposals as much.

I stumbled upon the Baucus plan by accident and I went back to find it for this post, but haven’t found it yet. I thought of you, because he spoke about trying to recreate a Connector like agency to make private insurance available to those who don’t have it, and he mentioned the Mass plan.

Please do not interpret my presentation of his ideas as anything more than reporting in on what the devils have been doing to destroy our hopes for single-payer.

So the GOP sez Obama’s ”thin-skinned?”

That’s just pathetic. And *merely* ad hominem by the way.

Thin-skinned & sensitive = unmanly, girly. Also, you know — black.

I’m so glad. When I get discouraged about U.S. politics, the feelings don’t last. Always, I can look back on the past 100 days and draw hope from the huge successes President Obama has had so far.

via pnph:

Propaganda And Prejudice Distort The Health Reform Debate

By Merton Bernstein, the Walter D. Coles Professor of Law Emeritus at Washington University
Health Affairs Blog
April 22, 2009

Science does not permit ideology to foreclose inquiry; it requires facing facts and following where they and logic lead. Hence many cheered when President Barack Obama announced that science is back, that predisposition will no longer be permitted to trump reality…

… the Obama, Baucus, Grassley, CBO, and other playlists exclude consideration of Medicare-for-all. With rising discomfort with the price tag of recovery programs, those desiring comprehensive health care cannot afford to disregard a program with such enormous savings. If Medicare-for-all gets “on the table” before the Senate Finance and House Ways and Means committees, the CBO must report its vast savings and its greater efficiency and effectiveness compared with more expensive alternatives. Only by censorship — only by treating Medicare-for-all as nonexistent — can lesser alternatives be discussed with a straight face.

And censorship is not compatible with science.

So Obama tells the rethugs their days are numbered and that makes him thin skinned.

……and he mentioned the Mass plan.

ack!!!!!!! no!!!!!!!!

ok. breathing deep. trying to pull myself together here…..

thanks, i would like very much to look at a real plan we could actually evaluate to see what they have in mind.

yep. also bernie sanders introduced a senate version last month and our own BargainCountertenor compared them for us: Single Payer Bills in Congress: First Impressions

if the Ds are cutting the Rs out of the loop on healthcare reform, then the Ds have no excuse (other than their own corruption) not to consider a single payer alternative.

Why not invoke the same process for EFCA?

amen.

I am expecting an insurance-based plan.

No! Not the whining!

Can your nation withstand such a fiendishly diabolical strategy?

;>)

I am still looking for the article I used as a reference. Sorry about passing along bad news.

OK, I found it. Here’s the link:
http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmsp…..0003102689

thanks, i’ll check back later in case you find it again.

nothing has been passed yet, so i’d prefer to agitate for something that can work rather than to pre-concede to an insurance industry handout marketed as comprehensive health care reform.

Half the D’s are Republican-lite. Blue Dogs, New Dogs, New Way or whatever they call themselves, they are completely beholden to lobbyists, special interests and large corporations.

Only when their re-election is at stake, will these so-called Democrats (DINOS) do the work of the people.

The MSM must be forced (nudged?) into exposing the truth about the cost savings of national single payor health care (medicare for all) and how it can save the American auto industry and make all American enterprise (other than the Death-inducing Health Insurance Industry) more competitive in the global marketplace.

The only thing that has protected people from the insurance co. vultures has been state AGs. If insurance companies are allowed to operate across state lines the exact same thing will happen as when CITI took state usury laws to the supreme court to have them removed.

Here it is;

http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmsp…..0003102689

Sorry to be the bearer of sad tidings.

On topic point: good for Obama!
Off topic point: passing legislation doesn’t constitute healthcare reform. Baucus is clearly intent on taking the only sensible, scientifically based fix for the financing of healthcare off the table. The current direction the “reform” is headed is towards the continuation of our fragmented, inefficient, inequitable and antiquated method for financing healthcare to be preserved.

Ladies and gentlemen of the GOP, that is what we call “Chicago Style. You just got kneecapped.

Of course it’s going to be half-assed “reform.” Why would the U.S. model a truly universal healthcare plan as that found in GB, France or Canada? It will be a piece of shit and the so called liberals will hail it as a truly momentous piece of legislation.

Why would the U.S. want to do a truly revolutionary health care reform when they can take the half-assed approach and call it revolutionary? The U.S. has become the home of the half-assed solution, in the name of bipartisanship of course.

when did you last run for office?

Always willing to accept mediocrity out of expediency. Well done.

My view of Obama is mixed: Half the time I LOVE what he’s doing, 1/4 of the time I hate it, and 1/4 of the time is “WTF???”. Still, FAR better than the last 8 years split between “AAAAARRRRGGHH!” and “WTF?@!?!?!??!” Oh, and the total breakdown of the Mighty Righties is just the gravy on the cake. So to speak.

I wish the terminology universal healthcare could be reserved for single payer and the other crap be accurately labeled as universal insurance.

the other crap be accurately labeled as universal insurance.

it’s worse than that — that other crap is less than universal insurance.

and that’s not all. just read this over at kargro x’s place: Reconciliation danger to entitlements gains some currency

thanks. i’m going to wait until tomorrow to read it (see my comment @44 for why).

EFCA is important, but it isn’t about huge dollars like budgetary items and this health care reform. It also isn’t something Dems have fought to get for 50 years.

I don’t know what the final package will look like, but if you watched any of the Baucus hearing (round-table discussion) it appears there will be a lot of detail stuff aimed at improving service and cutting costs. I think I also heard him utter that it’s highly unlikely single-payer will come out of this Congress.

You have such a dark humor. Heh.

Oh Lord, save us from the whining and please return our brethren to their usual silliness. LOL

Sorry, remind me, who was calling for ‘revolutionary’ health care reform?

That’s why I really hate Obama! but still, he’s our president.. wooot! :)

Jeezus, you guys are getting fucked hard. This is probably the only chance this generation to put a decent health system in place and you’ve been conned into electing a corporate shill who has no interest in doing it.

And what’s worse is that you are going to have the partisan brawl, the kicking, screaming and whining, all to bring in something the Republicans won’t much mind once it’s there.

By removing the threat of a filibuster, the position of the House is greatly strengthened in dealing with the Senate in Conference Committee. Unlike the Stimulus Conference Committee, where Nelson and Collins used the filibuster to batter House negotiators into accepting the Senate version, Baucus and Conrad won’t have that club and will have to negotiate on equal footing with the House. The House version of Health Care will be far more progressive than whatever the Senate comes up with, so the final bill should also be more progressive.

By forcing Reconciliation on Health and Education, Obama was sending a message to Conrad, Nelson, Bayh, Lincoln and friends as much as to the Republicans. Conrad may be talking tough, but you can be sure he got schooled.