baucus, snowe, conrad and nelson the four fuckedskateers

Well, Snowe doesn’t really count as one of Nelson’s musketeers, since she’s not a member of the Democratic caucus. But I’m sure that among, say, Bayh, Lieberman, Lincoln, Pryor, he can find at least two more friends.

good eve Eli……Nelson Baucus,Conrad,Liarman

Does Ben Nelson Have Four Friends?

The Four Whores of the Alpaca Lips.

Not even Baucus can filibuster his own bill. Not only would he look like a fool but that is a bridge so far he could possibly lose his chairmanship.

Good eve, sadly.

We will have much work to do in NE to whip his ass in primary.

Glenn Beck’s recent in studio town hall covered everything from indoctrination to public option. Watch these wackos below.

This is what rational people from “Glenn-Beck-istan” sound like!!!

http://progressnotcongress.org/?p=3027

Yeah, I’m inclined to agree. Baucus may be a tool, but he’s Harry’s tool. Although if Lieberman didn’t lose his chair for campaigning against Obama, then Baucus only has reason to fear if he thinks he’ll have a new Majority Leader in 2011.

How about Senator Barack Obama, Senator Rahm Emanuel, Senator Nancy-Ann DeParle, etc?

Robert Reich has been saying for a while now that the White House made a backroom deal with industry that there would be no Public Option. If that’s true maybe Ben Nelson and his posse are just shillin’ for the O-man.

It’s possible, and I certainly don’t have much difficulty believing that the fix is in, but creating a Democrats In Disarray story doesn’t seem like the shrewdest way to go about it. Although I guess that’s not much of an argument against that possibility…

Countdown and Maddow have completely stopped pursuing the truth that the Senators who are obstructing meaningful reform are doing so to protect the insurance companies which have donated so much “re-election campaign” money.

Good reporting otherwise, but Rachel Maddow and David Shuster have taken their eye off the ball. Probably ordered to do so by GE.

To trigger the reconciliation process, Congress passes a concurrent resolution [simple majority] on the budget instructing one or more committees to report changes in law affecting the budget by a certain date. If the budget instructs more than one committee, then those committees send their recommendations to the Budget Committee of their House, and the Budget Committee packages the recommendations into a single omnibus bill. In the Senate, the reconciliation bill then gets only 20 hours of debate [i.e. no filibuster], and amendments are limited. Because reconciliation limits debate and amendment, the process empowers the majority party.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reconciliation_(United_States_Congress)

No no, it’s *bipartisanship*. Because senators on both sides love money.

So I’m *not* the one who’s confused. Thank God.

“Nelson said health care legislation should be bipartisan and supported by at least 65 senators because it would have more credibility with the American people.”

Nothing these folks do can have credibility until the “tax code” is utilized to control the behavior of health insurers which practice discrimination under the color of law. Control the behavior of predatory health insurers, not the lives of Americans!

How about we start with controlling the behavior of predatory people in Congress and go from there? :)

The fact is that all these Senators are tainted by corrupt monied interests.

Why are a handful of corrupted individuals like Max Baucus, Blanche Lincoln and Conrad Nelson permitted to kill healthcare for all Americans when the majority of Americans want a Public Option?

Bowers:

Because Democrats are not going to pursue reconciliation for the public option (see why here*), the next step…

*

…Senate Democrats are not going to use reconciliation. If they attempt to do so, either in the Budget committee that is merging the HELP and Finance committee bills or by splitting the bill in conference, Senate Republicans will propose points of order requiring 60 votes to pass reconciliation. Since Senate Democrats have already ceded this procedural territory through their unwillingness to use the nuclear option, they will need 60 votes to pass anything. As such, they might as well just target 60 votes for cloture.

Arrrgggh WTF. Why even talk about reconciliation in the first place, then?

On the other hand, the way the delicate dance of reconciliation was described, it was pretty clear that there was no way an incompetent like Harry was going to pull it off, even if he wanted to.

He’d do it if the insurance lobbyists promised him enough of anything, including money to pay off that house of his in the DC area.

beats me. it’s above my pay grade to understand these machinations.

The only thing Senate Democrats want to reconcile are their relationships with the nervous lobbyists they are scaring by pretending to promote a real Public Option.

I hope our progressives stand firm and kill a piece of shit bill that is simply a money grab for insurance companies.

Obama is a disgraceful liar. I’m embarrassed to admit I voted for him. But McCain? Jesus Christ. What a choice.

Ben Nelson
Landrieu
Conrad
Lieberman
Lincoln
Baucus

There you go.

How depressing is it that the *Republicans* are the ones pushing to kill the mandate? *That’s* really going to help the Democratic brand in 2010.

I will never reconcile with ELI, not even for 65 votes.

Senate Republicans will propose points of order requiring 60 votes to pass reconciliation

I am at a point where I see killing the current giveaway to insurance, medical, and drug companies as preferable, but I rather doubt that Senate Republicans could do what Bowers says unless the Democrats acquiesced to it. If they blew by the Republicans, that would not be the nuclear option. That option involves a change in Senate rules involving the number of votes needed to end debate and move to a vote.

I would probably drop Baucus and/or swap him for Bayh.

Throwing myself on the grenade… I’m still watching the mark-up, and
Hatch is proposing restoring funding for abstinence-only education.

Because only the stuff that doesn’t work is worth it.

It’s very difficult for me to envision any scenario with Democrats playing hardball against Republicans. Progressives yes, but not Republicans.

If these shitbird Democrats don’t get a solid Pubic Option in the bill and ram it thru by any means, they are fucked.

Third Party Time.

If we can’t have abortion funding, then they shouldn’t have abstinence funding. At least abortion is an actual medical procedure.

ya killin me

agreed that nuclear option is a misnomer

i hope you are right

Llama Manuel spits in our general direction…. :~)

reptillians. demtillians.

they are the same horses on the carousel of corruption.

their fealty is to those corporations that the supreme court[an honest body-sic] has identified as “persons”. “persons” that buckley v vallejo said could translate their “cash” into “speech”.

until these doctrines are repudiated, the citizenry of the usa has been enserfed, will continue to be enserfed.

venceremos?

He and Nelson are vidkuna quislings.

must see teevee

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…..r_embedded

betcha Norway has better health care coverage than we do.

Baucus, last seem wearing a soft (money) cash-smear sweater.

As a Canadian I find this discussion really weird.
A majority wants a one payer system. Most politicians say that the one payer system is not in the cards. WTF!
Do you have any politicians who actually represent their constituents?
Do you actually have any honest politicians?
We don’t.

A question occurs to me – do the Republicans on the Finance Committee have two Democratic friends? IOW, can two Democrats be persuaded to vote against the bill in committee if it doesn’t have a public option?

I think I know the answer to this one, given my cynical nature, but I’ll throw it out there.

playing CASHtenyetts

byrd rule or points of order?

As a Canadian I find this discussion really weird.

Not a prerequisite, I assure you. It’s been completely surreal to watch Obama and the Democratic party repeatedly profess their commitment to healthcare reform and the public option as they back farther and farther away from it.

When he wants to, Harry Reid can work wonders for the benefit of Republicans. In such instances, he is a master of Senatorial procedures.

Republican holds are recognized, where D holds are not. Joe Lieberman is with us on everything but the war.

Reid handled FISA masterfully. With the netroots watching every move, Reid singlehandedly insured that Dubya and the Rethugs got exactly what they wanted. It took a few tries but Harry got ‘er dun.

/rockinJay Wyden ?

An overwhelming majority (70+ percent) wants some form of public option. That’s not making a difference, either.

It looks weird on this side of the border, too.

If they blew by the Republicans, that would not be the nuclear option. That option involves a change in Senate rules involving the number of votes needed to end debate and move to a vote.

the nuclear option is something different than changing the rules (for example, the number of votes needed for cloture or other filibuster rule changes). kagro x gave the best analysis i’ve seen of the nuclear option in a series of posts a few years ago (22 posts, iirc). i’ll get the link…

And Jello Jay. Let’s say I’m not too hopeful.

and we havent taken to the streets in significant numbers…think of the French strikes

aux barricades, citoyens!

storm the Bastille,bring it down,brick by brick

i still have my Les Mis..t-shirt…a little ripped but…………g

“A trigger, if you will.”

A zinger, Eli! That’s gonna leave a bruise. :o) And this little laugh is about all I got, today.

Shorter Blueroaches:

“We think that there are so few people paying close attention to this issue which will directly affect their well-being, that we can sell them out to the Health Insurance industry like so many indentured servants, and no one will be able to do a fucking thing about.”

Unfortunately, I think the assumption is correct.

kagro x’s series on the nuclear option (i was wrong, there are 23 posts):

http://thenexthurrah.typepad.c…..ar_option/

in post 22, for example, it gets to a bit on the difference between the nuclear option (which destroys the filibuster) and changing the senate rules (which can been done at the start of each congress).

http://thenexthurrah.typepad.c…..he_nu.html

It would be appropriate to refer to the democratic party as a school of jellyfish, but there is a species of jellyfish named a “Man of War”, and our jellyfish are only “Men of War” in the literal sense of helping to enable and sustain George Bush and the GOP’s war(s).

No warriors in sight, when it come to protecting the amurkan people from the Great White Predators of the Health Insurance industry and Big Pharma.

And everyone will be “Oh yay, healthcare reform!”… until they realize that “universal coverage” means they’ll be forced to pay for shitty insurance or else pay a penalty.

Scuse the multiple posts, but I have to say, the thinking that the democrats might go against their own leadership and invoke “reconciliation” as a way to get a public option, seems to me to be a fantasy.

Why on earth would they risk the wrath of Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck?

I think what looks different this time, even more clear than FISA time, is how bought and paid for they and the whole system are and how it all operates. Just like W and the absurd drug plan..there is no illusion of sanity or public interest. Just them that has the gold, etc etc etc,

Technically, the Portuguese man o’ war is not actually a jellyfish.

sadly sadly..yes

Jeez.
From an earlier thread:

selise’ original comment

if the reid et al don’t force a cloture vote so the public can see who votes with the gop, that means the party leadership want to protect those would vote against cloture from citizen action.

pow wow epu’d

Absolutely bang-on, selise – your point and Jane’s, both.

Baucus’s transparently bad faith excuse for keeping a public option out of the Senate Finance Committee bill (which has been his unstated objective for months now) is called a self-fulfilling prophecy.

What Max Baucus just explicitly did with his No! votes on the public option amendments, and with his accompanying incredible explanations for those votes, mirrors what he’s been doing for Obama, the Emanuel Brothers, fellow corporatist Democrats, and private industry throughout this fraudulent process: Baucus today deliberately provided cover for those in Congress and the White House opposed to what Baucus professes to support (a cost-saving public option), which Baucus is instead clearly actually attempting to prevent by trying to keep it out of a final bill.

Thus, Baucus just helped a bipartisan public-option filibuster to succeed – before it even began – by, he hopes (and expects), obviating the need for Senators to launch an actual on-the-record filibuster against that provision, on the Senate floor.

Further exposing the deceit in Baucus’s claimed 60-votes-for-cloture objective is the fact that the preemptively-successful bipartisan filibuster of the public option, that Baucus just ensured his committee supported, will simply be substituted for with different filibusters, using the excuse of other provisions of the merged Senate bill. Because, as has become too obvious for words, the sole purpose of Congressional Republicans at this point is to prevent a final vote on any health insurance reform legislation for which a Democratic President (or Party) could claim credit, regardless of its content.

So Baucus, to use selise’s word, just tried to protect every Republican, and particularly every wayward Democrat, who would be exposed and held accountable on the public record for their support of filibusters aimed at preventing the Senate from moving health insurance legislation containing a public option, at least – first to the floor for debate, after months of committee work, and then, after ample floor debate and amendment, to a final simple majority vote, without the reconciliation process.

All this while Baucus continues to profess to be in favor of a critical cost-cutting public insurance option which he, however, voted against (acting on the courage of your convictions is for other, lesser beings); the failure of which will likely not convince one Republican vote to change to support moving the question/ending the guaranteed filibuster-to-come on this legislation, regardless of its final content. As a result, those Democrats who oppose what Baucus (like Obama) claims to support, if Reid follows the lead of Baucus, may avoid acccountability for their opposition to even a figurehead public option – accountability that Lincoln and Conrad were unable to avoid in committee thanks to Rockefeller and Schumer, despite the best efforts of Baucus.

Considering that Baucus has been successfully lying to the American public for months, with impunity, he obviously assumes that he can keep right on doing it, penalty-free, with the full (backroom) support of Harry Reid and Barack Obama, aided by the helpful obfuscation of conglomerate profit-dedicated corporate media subsidiaries, and their obedient employees.

It’s been quite a day.

With no PO, the best we can hope for is to kill the bill. Perhaps a focus on killing the bill.

We can say that Republicans are right. The goddamn thing is loaded with death panels and rayshunning care. Plus the French have it so it sucks.

Technically, the Portuguese man o’ war is not actually a jellyfish.

i did not know that. what is it?

Eli !

Was anyone surprised by the vote results from Senate Finance ? I wasn’t but what I really enjoyed was Jay Rock (H/T Marcy) doing a number on all the Reichwing talking points.

look ben and his republican, bud. Are assholes.We need a good old 10,000,000 voters march on d.c. Lets do this”

It’s a siphonophore, a kind of colony of microorganisms.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P…..n_o%27_War

Petro!

Yes, hooray for Jay. Not that it did any good.

i left a note for pow wow on that thread, asking for assistance here to help us understand the reconciliation process. if pow wow can’t help me understand, i figure it’s hopeless.

Yep,sorry you had to agree with;) I’m outta here. Does O have any idea how many folks are disappointed? I wish we had Southern around tonight for thoughts about critters. g’Night

yeah. but it would be funny.

Not in that Committee, but I think it will hold sway with the other Committees, who are all in favor of a robust PO.

Baucus & Nelson will eat sh*t when this is all sewn up … mark my words.

way cool, thanks! used to see them sometimes after a storm when i was a kid (and living on a little island).

G’nite Bev. Call about 50 Senators tomorrow and shred their reichwing talking points, I guarantee you’ll feel a whole lot better. *g*

Full Nelson?

I know they make the rules.

Well, it still appears that bipartisanship is spelled “If you agree to do it our way, that is bipartisan.”

From the Democratic side, that is just how it is, so it is just boring to complain about it anymore.

As I have said before, enacting it with reconciliation opens the door to having it altered or rolled back by reconciliation in the future. There won’t be a leg to stand on if the GOP uses reconciliation to substantially change it.

In fact to me, it opens the door to nearly anything being done by reconcilation and wild swings back and forth as one party or the other takes control.

Besides that, it is just odd that with Democrats having full control with no chance of Repubs filibustering anything that the blame for this not going so well is laid on the GOP. Better to blame the Democrats as they are the ones REALLY holding things up.

Or, even more true, blame a bad plan in the first place. The Max Tax, no public option for 4 years anyway even if passed, forcing everyone to buy insurance and on and on.

sweet dreams……reality suks right now

I really hope you’re right – that would make me so very happy. It really does all depend on the progressives’ willpower, because Obama *must* have a bill, no matter what.

yah…and thats to good for em!

wait! I found Ben’s friends – caught them in the act, so to speak.

You mean Baucus hasn’t already lost his chairmanship? How in the world do these rules work?

Isn’t it criminal enough that Liarman kept his?

I’m not around the news anywhere near as much as you are, but I saw Harkin issue a guarantee, along with Sherrod Brown & Speaker Pelosi’s previous statement committing to a PO.

Being a hopeless optimist, I feel very strongly that the House has the advantage in this effort and they will ram a robust PO down Baucus & Friends’ throats.

Of course, this is no time for complacency, we must continue to call every Senator’s office and shout at them until they understand that dropping the PO is no option; neither is a weak Bill.

I’d like to add that Harry Reid must go, as Senate Majority Leader !

LOL !!!

Your comment @ 4 above was splendid !

Bowers had a post at OpenLeft about how Harry’s precarious electoral position potentially gives us leverage against him. I have to admit that accepting six more years of Harry’s “leadership” in exchange for a public option is a pretty unpleasant choice to make.

Although there’s no guarantee that his replacement would be any better – after all, I thought much the same thing when Daschle got bounced. Durbin would be a very small improvement, but Schumer could potentially be a big one. He may be a wanker at times, but he’s at least progressive on *some* things, and a hell of a lot more combative than Harry.

hey Petro, I hope your optimism is rewarded…

Agreed, Chuck would be a very good Senate Majority Leader.

I hope so too … *g*

I’ve actually given my daughters the die quickly rule for me. I’ve worked too damn long and hard to have everything I’ve worked for go to hospitals and doctors and especially insurance companies.

I ain’t gonna stay alive for a few extra months only to wipe out their inheritances.

Lisa Derrick is upstairs!
Late Night: Fox & Friends Have No Clue About School

Marcy’s now calling him Jay Rock instead of Jello Jay after his performance today.

He was wonderful.

People, let’s face it; poll numbers showing that 70% of americans want a public option, do not a groundswell of outrage make. I think the dem blueroaches are doing what the repubs are so good at, which is, calculating the price-point for NOT making meaningful change, regardless of any inherent need for it, or the morality of it.
That is, Baucus et al, with their juicy health insurance industry entitlements have decided that the threat of voter retribution is much less unpleasant than is risking the ill will of BlueCross/BlueShield, & Co.

As someone pointed out upthread, the Senate dems didn’t punish Lieberman for campaigning against Obama and they, so why on earth should the Healthcare-pimps-r-us like Baucus, worry about the terrible rod of retribution from Harry Reid? Aint gonna happen, as we have been seeing for lo, these years.

It’s no consolation, but it looks like we are going to have ringside seats for the demise of:

The democratic party….

Any limitations on the GOP’s recurrent dream of having us on a perpetual war footing…

The effort to have some meaningful degree of regulation for the giant corporations who have practically taken over our government…

and incidentally, the making of Barak Obama into a one-term preznint.

No butter on my popcorn, please?

Schumer could be a good leader – he’s got enough ‘tude if channeled in the right direction. Could be the anti-milquetoast antidote we so need.

You have got to be drunk:

the wrath of Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck

That’s a badge for the democrats.

Do we have the votes in the House to shoot down a mandate-bill without a public option?

That is the question now, it seems to me.

If the Health Care Bill passes without a public option, the Democratic party loses by a landslide in ‘10 & ‘12.

Now, let’s get to the Phones every day and remind them of that !

Loo, surely you recognize snark when you see it? Right?

If it’s a badge, then why are practically none of the dems willing to wear it?

The more outrageous american conservatives get, it seems the more the democrats fear them. It should be the other way around. To wit:

I will be delighted if Palin runs in 2012. She has the “tools” to tear the republican party apart, and rupture the unholy alliance between Wall St. and the bible zombies…perhaps beyond repair.

Currently, yes. If no one wavers. As I have said in comments before, the progressives must be the path of most resistance.

OMG. No Kidding! I love you Petro. For not even being *officially* an American, you are my brother.

Let’s cut to the chase a bit, shall we?:

Obama won the election because a lot of people admired him for his willingness to speak SOME truth to power, and because he embodied some real hope for change.

As is known, a clear majority of american voters recognize the need for some kind of direct government healthcare program for people too young for Medicare. But now, for some reason, Obama (and the democratic leadership) are pussyfooting around, if not slyly opposing the move toward this, instead of speaking forcefully and repeatedly about what the republicans are doing in their efforts to throttle real change in american’s healthcare system.

More and more, he’s looking like just another political pawnbroker, and THAT is what will ruin he, and us, in the next round of elections.

Good.

I truly cannot imagine why the dems are behaving so badly.

Glad you were being snarky. I’m paranoid I guess!

Eli @ 101: “…if no one wavers…”

Perzackly. My fear is that it’s going to be like a political convention, and Rahm and Co. are going to start picking off the…waverers…and pretty soon, it will be a bandwagon in the wrong direction. I hope I’m wrong. :o)

Loo @ 104:

Along with the “if you’re not angry you aren’t paying attention” should go:

“Also, if you’re not paranoid, you’re not paying attention.” :o)

I’m not depressed by what happened today because I knew it would happen. I’ve been looking ahead thinking that the Democratic Party is basically dead and we now have a wonderful opportunity to start a new party with the progressives deserting the Democratic Party.

I know I’m committed to putting my efforts and money, should I ever have any, behind a progressive third party. What do y’all think of a wedding between the Green Party & Progressive Democrats?

Do I hear a second?

I’d second it, Mason, but I think we should be realistic. All it will do is help the republicans regain power. Are things so screwed up that we WANT them back in power? Could that work?

I happen to believe that settling for half-a-loaf (the fucking heel?) of trying to salvage something from all the years of bloody-handed arrogance, greed, and lunacy, for Obama and we, is a prescription for political failure. I think that’s what we’re looking at, as we speak.

Right now, as we progressives are blinking at each other in the dark, underneath the Graydog transaxle, the best thing we have going for us is the insanity of the republicans. Despite the fact that our elected reps all seem to be scared shitless of the asshat wing of the GOP, I firmly believe that, at the least, the batshit-crazy platoons of republicans make a lot of democrats and independents very nervous,and some silent repubs, too.
It’s why i wanted Obama to join the battle, with them, as soon as he came out of his first trip to the white house loo. I think that the people who voted for him would have indentified with him and supported him, if he’d walked into the bar like Jean-Claude van Damme and started kicking ass from the gitgo.

Now, he’s “reached out” to the point that he seems like a wimp, and that’s something that, I’m sorry to say it, culturally, we cannot abide.

Is it too late? Perhaps not, but now it’s not just the healthcare issue that’s bearing down on us; bush’s twin clusterfucks are moving back on the front burner, and since they are, basically unsolvable, at least in terms of a happy ending for US, he is going to have some political dues to pay for those that will make the nut for losing the healthcare fight seem miniscule. What he should do, or have done, is put up a good, strong P.O. bill, let the GOP and the blueroaches vote it down, and then KEEP PUTTING IT UP.
It’s not rocket science; the people who gave us 8 years of unending clusterfuckery, topped off with one HELL of a recession, don’t have the political slack to oppose anything that looks like an honest effort to make some change for the better. All they have is “no!”
Let them shout it; if Obama would have stuck to his guns, they would have broken and run, I guarantee it.
I still think it’s not too late, but the clock is ticking, and the honeymoon is over. Now it’s time to get into the trenches, and that brings me back to you, Mason.

It’s like this; I feel like a damn fool defending him while he bails on us.
Personal frustration and anger could lead to that third party, and just maybe, it’s time for it. We’ll know more about that by next spring, if not sooner.

No.

High praise indeed, thanks Loo Hoo !

*mwaah*

Blanche Lincoln is celebrating her 49th birthday September 30th. Call her up, wish her a happy birthday, and tell her what’s on your mind.

Washington Office: 202-224-4843
Little Rock Office: 501-375-2993

Bingo! You are on the verge of being correct. Another week of congressional/WH shenanigans, and you’ll be beyond the verge.

Criminally corrupt politicians are the reason the U.S. is ranked near the bottom of every catagory when ranked next to other modern, industrialized nations. Time for publically funded elections.

The Congress is back in session and doing the dirty work for the Medical Industrial Complex.

mcconnell $3.3M, hatch $2.9M, baucus $2.8M, grassley $2.7M,
lieberman $2.6M, burr $2.4M, ensign $2.4M, cornyn $2.2M, kyl $2.1M,
conrad $2.1M, cantor $1.8M, boehner $1.7M, coburn $1.2M, j wilson 800K
were paid by the Medical Industrial Complex to kill Health Care Reform.
(Source: OpenSecrets.org)

Co-Author Dr. Steffie Woolhandler of a Recent Harvard Study on Annual Deaths of America’s Uninsured, says the lack of coverage can be tied to about 45,000 deaths a year in the United States. The only way to affordably cover all Americans is through a Medicare-for-All, Single-Payer System. A Single-Payer System would generate $300-$400 billion in administrative savings annually, enough to cover all of the uninsured, and to plug the gaps in coverage for Americans with only partial coverage. Obviously, Medicare-for-all is anathema to the insurance industry. What politicians are doing is saving insurance industry profits, by sacrificing American lives.

12 Million Americans were denied health care coverage by the Medical Industrial Complex because they had a pre-existing medical condition. 12K Americans are denied insurance coverage everyday by a for-profit Insurance bureaucrat. (Source: WaPo Article 05′ by Harvard Prof. E. Warren)

Medical malpractice lawsuits are a hot topic but, are they? Tort Reform is such a “Red Herring” and is easily disproved. A 2004 report by the Congressional Budget Office said medical malpractice makes up only 2 percent of U.S. health spending. Even “significant reductions” would do little to curb health-care expenses, it concluded.

bush(43) economic speech writer david frum, at least, is willing to admit the idea about selling insurance across state lines is a crock:

New Jersey health policies cost more in large part because New Jersey hospitals and doctors charge more. If I buy a cheaper Kentucky policy that reimburses my providers at Kentucky rates, leaving me to pay the balance, how much good does that do me? And if the Kentucky policy is made to pay New Jersey rates, there vanishes my low Kentucky price.

These are some of the easily refuted arguments bought and paid for by the Medical Industrial Complex to derail any chance of their criminally massive profits being reduced.

Follow the Money: Link

Call Congress and demand, Single-Payer Health Care for All!

(Toll Free # House and Senate)
1-866-338-1015 _____ 1-866-220-0044
1-800-473-6711 _____ 1-866-311-3405

Sign Single-Payer Petition: Link

Don’t let the Medical Industrial Complex steal your Health Care from you and your family by donating huge sums of money to Crooked Politicians in order to maintain the Status Quo. Keep up the good fight.

SEMPER FI!

I thought it was all Obama’s fault. Oh yes, that’s right we have this thing called the Senate. Sorry, I forgot about that in my anger over the public option fight.

Rachel Maddow took on the “conservadems” last night. She hits Ben Nelson up side the head

Ben Nelson “any health reform would need 65 votes in the senate”

Ben “anything less than that would challenge its legitimacy”

Then Rachel has Howard Dean on to say “you vote with your leadership”

Senators set bar higher than necessary

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#33080841

The Diane Rehm show on (what took place yesterday) this topic. Now… 10 est
Send in your questions comments, tweet etc. Flood her program with questions comments
http://wamu.org/programs/dr/
drshow@wamu.org
800-443-8850

10:00Healthcare Overhaul: A Public Option
Five Democrats join with ten Republicans in the Senate Finance Committee to kill two proposals for a government-run heath-care option. Proponents of a public plan vow to keep up the fight: The latest on heath-care overhaul efforts

Guests
Susan Dentzer, Editor-in-Chief of Health Affairs, and an on-air analyst on health issues with The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS)

Julie Rovner, health policy correspondent for National Public Radio, author of “Health Care Policy and Politics A-Z,” and contributing editor for National Journal’s CongressDaily.

Mary Agnes Carey, senior correspondent with Kaiser Health News. She most recently served as associate editor for CQ HealthBeat, a daily report on health care policy. She has also served as Capitol Hill Bureau Chief for CQ.

If the bill is defeated in committee, then the only bill surviving in the Senate is the HELP bill, so I guess the better question is do the Democratic Senators supporting the PO have enough Republican friends to join them in defeating Baucus’s bill in committee. I hope so.

I’ve been seeing that claim of $300-$400 billion in administrative savings annually if we pass Medicare for All for some time. I think it’s actually much less than that, about $207 billion. On the other hand, I also think the total savings due to such a shift would be about $711 billion, which is way more than enough to pay for all of the uninsured given the reduced per capita annual cost for insurance projected for Medicare for All ($5816 per capita, using 47 million total cost would be $273 billion annually). My assumptions and other calculations are here: http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/8488

way in epu land, but to follow up on senate process re healthcare bill, here is kagro x’s latest explanation:

http://www.congressmatters.com…..-procedure