Comments on: Senate Finance Committee Ends Amendment Process; Next Stop Reid’s Office

By: bmull

bmull — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 01:50:23 +0000

I’ll go out on a limb and say the final finance committee vote is going be 12-11 with Lincoln and Snowe voting against. The was the vote on the Cantwell amendment, which is really a microcosm of the whole health care reform question: Should the government have an administrative role in controlling costs?

It will be interesting to see what becomes of the Cantwell amendment as the process moves forward.

By: Knoxville

Knoxville — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 00:10:29 +0000

Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin said today Republicans will not be at the table when the Senate merges the health-care bills from two committees before sending one to the floor.

Harkin, a Democrat and chairman of one of the committees, also said any bill that passes Congress will include a government-run insurance option for Americans to buy.

“We will have a bill on the president’s desk before Christmas, a health-reform bill. It will have a lot of good stuff in it. It will have a lot of prevention and wellness programs in there that I’ve been fighting for,” Harkin told reporters in a morning conference call. “And it will have a public option.”

Hope returns!

So how is it possible that one of the best Senators and the worst of the worst Senators come from the same state?

By: Teddy Partridge

Teddy Partridge — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 21:17:18 +0000

Reid won’t bring a bill to the floor without a Max component. If the bill doesn’t get out of FinComm, I think the process will end. Our only hope is the merge when Reid sends it to the Budget Committee.

Chaired by Kent Conrad, one of the most virulent Public Option opponents in FinComm. Reid will need to tailor the merge to suit Conrad.

Remember FISA, when Reid send the worse bill to the floor, thus requiring 60 votes to amend and strip immunity? That’s the playbook here: bring a non-PO bill to the floor (or a pretend-PO bill) and require 60 votes for a strong(er) Public Option. Won’t happen.

“We’ll fix it in conference” being the order of the day.

By: billybugs

billybugs — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 21:16:57 +0000

The public option ain’t dead yet ,there is hope still

By: Sufilizard2

Sufilizard2 — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 21:04:31 +0000

I guess we’re one step closer to seeing what they’re actually going to do to us.

Lube up.

By: realworld

realworld — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 16:15:11 +0000

So it seems the upshot of this http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/9/17/104746/414 is that the finance parts of the bill have to come from the finance committee. But these SUCK in the bill so what do we care. Better the senate only takes up the HELP bill and then merges in finance from the house in conference. My guess is that this means it can’t be done through reconciliation but that isn’t going to happen anyways so who cares.

By: letsgetitdone

letsgetitdone — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 16:11:38 +0000

I agree it’s not different and it may be better if they just start from HELP. My worry in either case though is that Republicans, Conservadems, and blue dogs can pass Amendments over progressive objections and then the Republicans would vote against the final bill, leaving the progressives with the “responsibility” for either defeating “health care reform” or passing a “health care reform” that is no reform at all.

Everything in Congress is distorted by the filibuster. We really need to make getting rid of it a major issue.

By: letsgetitdone

letsgetitdone — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 16:05:27 +0000

Thanks. This was really good stuff.

By: realworld

realworld — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 16:00:30 +0000

Why is this different then if Harry packages the two bills together first? It seems things would be better starting just from the HELP bill. No?

By: cbl2

cbl2 — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 15:37:55 +0000

tejana – Senator Harkin as you know is an old school Humphrey type progressive – and his record is pretty solid – my only proviso is he’s been around a long time, is a veteran sausage maker and knows it’s all about the deal