Centrist Dem Leader: Has Committee Votes To Block Health Bill

[Freddie Stubbs]

Source: Dow Jones Newswire

WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- U.S. Rep. Mike Ross, D-Ark., a leader of fiscally conservative House Democrats, said Wednesday a House plan to overhaul the U.S. health-care system is losing support and will be stuck in committee without changes.

"Last time I checked, it takes seven Democrats to stop a bill in the Energy and Commerce Committee," Ross told reporters after a House vote. "We had seven against it last Friday; we have 10 today."

Three House committees are slated to begin considering the $1 trillion-plus bill this week, but the Energy and Commerce looms as the biggest challenge. That's because it counts among its 36 Democratic members seven members of the Blue Dog Coalition, a fiscally conservative bloc that is opposing the House Democrats' effort.

Ross said the bill, introduced Wednesday by House Democratic leaders, doesn't include provisions adequate to curb rising health care costs, including what the government spends on healthcare.

Read more: http://www.nasdaq.com/aspx/stock-market-news-story.aspx?storyid=200907151403dowjonesdjonline000758&title=centrist-dem-leaderhas-committee-votes-to-block-health-bill

[sinkingfeeling]

1. Why do all the Blue Dogs have to be from Arkansas? We've got Ross and Senators Lincoln and Pryor.

[blm]

2. Because WalMart owns BOTH parties in Arkansas. Jackson Stephens made sure of that in the 80s.

.

[No Elephants]

56. Thanks. that explains a LOT.

[liberalhistorian]

8. Oh, not all of them. I have one right here in my own fair state

of SD. Our only congresscritter is a proud Blue Dog.

[pattmarty]

14. Yep.

[Hestia]

19. Boy ain't that the truth SF - plus you will be dismissed for even thinking

about calling the office down here. Pricks everyone of them. We know Pryor is a member of The Family, is Ross also? Do we need to start showing up with signs? And just think, for 50 years Arkansas was the leading progressive Democratic state in the nation - Fulbright, Mills, Joe T Robinson, Hattie Caraway,

from wikipedia:

McClellan served as Senator from Arkansas from 1943 to 1977, when he died in office. During his tenure, he served as chairman of the Appropriations Committee and served 22 years as chairman of the Committee on Government Operations. McClellan was the longest serving United States Senator in Arkansas history. During the later part of his Senate service Arkansas had, perhaps, the most powerful Congressional delegations with McClellan as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Wilbur Mills as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Oren Harris as chairman of the House Commerce Committee, Senator J. William Fulbright as chairman of the Senate foreign relations Committee, Took Gathings as chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, and James William Trimble as a member of the powerful House Rules Committee.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_L._McClellan

We need men and women like that again, as long as they bring Ark up instead of down [thank god/dess for Mississippi is NOT good economic policy}.

[Freddie Stubbs]

45. They are not. There are Blue Dogs from South Dakota, Indiana, Louisiana, North Carolina,

Pennsylvania, New York, California, Georgia, Oklahoma, Florida, Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, Texas, Tennessee, Arizona, Maryland, Utah, Maine, Kansas, Virginia, Minnesota, Idaho, and Ohio.

[No Elephants]

57. I only wish that Ross, Lincoln and Pryor were all the Blue Dogs. Unfortunately, therre are more,

too many more.

[stuball111]

3. How?

How do these Republicans wind up getting voted in as Democrats? Seems to me it's a planned infiltration because they certainly are not liberals, nor do they sound like Democrats in any way. Fiscally conservative? That is a Republican term!

[Freddie Stubbs]

4. Not all Democrats are liberals, particularly in the South and in rural areas

[Name removed]

Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[stuball111]

21. What's "DINO"?

Huh?

[SomeGuyInEagan]

24. "Democrat In Name Only"

[stuball111]

27. Thanks... Sorry for being Canadian

And I kinda resent that guy calling me a "DINO' but I guess one can expect a few jerks here. Truth is, I can't vote because I am a permanent resident (legally) but I did contribute to the Obama campaign. And Being from Canada, I am a passionate supporter of Universal Health Care. I belonged to the New Democratic party up north, which is further left than the Dems here. What else can I say, If I can't join the party or vote yet, then I guess it's true, I can only be one in name. I'm a Union man, believer in Green Energy, and the environment, and am a SOX fan. What else does one need to be a "REAL" Democrat here? I mean, is there some kinda test? LOL

[stuball111]

25. Oh Yeah?

Well, sorry, I see no need to prove it to you..

[stuball111]

34. Sorry

I thought you were talking to me...gotta watch the "threads" closer...

[Freddie Stubbs]

35. Only a Republican would try to exclude people from the party for ideological impurity

[Zorra]

50. You can't blame Democrats for being upset at republicans that have infiltrated

the Democratic party for the purpose of rendering the Democratic party as ineffective as possible.

Most of us that are here are Democrats because we believe in democratic principles. When republicans infiltrate our party for the purpose of promoting wealthy corporate interests over the interests of the overwhelming majority of people, which is definitely not a democratic, nor Democratic, principle, we have a tendency to get a little upset. Well, OK, we get really pissed off.

Unfortunately, some republicans that pretend to be and call themselves Democrats are elected to office through the sponsorship of wealthy economic interests. Their job is to insure that any meaningful, effective legislation that threatens corporate interests is defeated. They get voted into office by deceiving their constituents, pretending to have cliched "conservative" values when in reality they are nothing but political mercenaries hired by corporations to maintain or advance the interests of corporations in our country.

Many, perhaps all, Blue Dog "Democrats" advocate for and support the desire of the insurance industry to make enormous profits over the well being of the majority of the American people. Even if it means that many non-affluent Americans will suffer and die because of this support.

That is what Blue Dogs do; it's what corporations paid them to do, and will continue to pay them to do as long as they keep voting the corporate line when necessary. In this way, Blue Dogs are exactly the same as republicans.

Blue Dog "Democrats" aren't really fooling most Democrats (including their constituents). They only get elected because their constituents have no real choice. They are in office solely because some business interest wanted them in office, and they had the corporate money and power behind them to eliminate effective competition from genuine Democrats. People are then left with what are basically non-choices:

Either don't vote, vote third party, vote for the republican that pretends to be a Democrat, or vote for the republican.

The Blue Dogs pretty much only exist because of current campaign finance conditions. Unfortunately, they will continue to exist because they are now entrenched and will never vote to change a campaign finance system that would engender a much more genuinely democratic electoral system. Their corporate sponsors will never allow it.

[stuball111]

52. Thanks for that info..

Nice to learn things like that...kinda too bad that they get away with that shit once elected.

[Freddie Stubbs]

53. The constituents of Blue Dogs do have a choice, as evidenced by Mike Ross last year

Voters in his district had the option of sending him back to Washington or electing a Green party candidate. There was no Republican in the race, so those who wanted the Green candidate did not have to worry about a Republican getting elected. Guess what happened? 86% of the voters chose Blue Dog Ross over the Green Party candidate:

http://www.arelections.org/index.php?ac:show:contest_statewide=1&elecid=181&contestid=12

Your argument that Blue Dog only get elected due to campaign financing is bogus. Have you ever noticed that the Blue Dogs tend to come from rural districts, and that urban districts tend to elect liberal Democrats? Why would that be? Do urban district have different campaign finance laws? Or could it be that people who reflect the political nature of their districts are more likely to get elected as opposed to people who are not reflective of those districts?

[No Elephants]

61. You cannot compare a third party candidate with a major party candidate

in one election and come to a supportable conclusion about anything.

[No Elephants]

60. Baloney. No one is excluding anyone from the Party. .

[stuball111]

23. Ain't that the truth!

There ought to be party guidelines or you can't join.

[PassingFair]

29. Hell all Democrats, particularly in the south are not even Democrats!

They just have D's after their names.

[Freddie Stubbs]

36. And yet they keep getting nominated by the Democratic voters

[PassingFair]

44. And FUNDED by the DCCC, the DSCC and the DLC.

:puke:

[No Elephants]

62. Exactly.

[stuball111]

46. Yeah but...

is that by chance? Or is it planned, I mean the south did vote mostly republican and it seems to me that there might be some sort of infiltration by the right going on down there. It happened to the National Party in Canada. A guy named Mel Hurtig started the party with his own money,and it was a great Party, except the Liberals ( a little more right than the Dems here)up there infiltrated it, gutted the funds, and shut it down. Seems to me that these guys are planted just to throw a monkey wrench into things.

[Deadric Damodred]

64. It's not by chance.

Blue Dogs get voted in because the people who vote for them want the Blue Dog to win in place of an anti-gun liberal that will vote for another "assault weapon" ban. Every Blue Dog that wins is one more vote against another stupid ban and one less for it. Blue Dogs would not win so much if the extreme left side of the party would stop trying to take a shit on the 2nd Amendment every chance they get.

[stuball111]

31. Yes....

I am finding that out. I moved here from Canada a few years ago, so excuse me for being not too "up" on American politics,but I am learning. In politics up north, members are expected to vote along party lines, or else they get shuffled to the back benches. This can be good, except when the conservatives have a majority like Mulroney did in the Reagan era, when they just ploughed through every right wing ideology they could come up with. Free trade, giving big business free reign and gutting heath care. But when things are a bit more balanced, the lesser parties have a bit more clout because they can gang up on the majority and stop them

[No Elephants]

59. No kidding. But Blue Dogs are more like Republicans than they are moderate Democrats.

When the neocons call them "moderate," they may as well call them homies.

[rhett o rick]

74. No some Democrats vote with the republicans. They are right-wing assholes. nm

[Alcibiades]

11. It may be a Republican meme

but they just talk the talk. When push comes to shove, Republicans are all about borrow and spend. When the banks cried wolf last year, Paulson/Bernanke handed them $7 trillion right away. Far more expensive than any health care proposal, and health care has the benefit of making our economy more competitive and helping real Americans, versus the Paulson/Bernanke plan, which is the economic equivalent of throwing money into a pit and burning it.

Spend some time at DU, and you'll certainly find lots of Democrats who are not liberals. I'm a big-time liberal myself, but I'd rather be in a big tent that's in the majority than a tiny little ideologically pure tent that's composed of a fringe group of ideologues.

[No Elephants]

63. You are a liberal and calling liberals ideologues?

[mvd]

30. Welcome to DU!

Zhade was talking to someone else and not you. Sometimes the sub-threads can be seen incorrectly :hi:

[stuball111]

33. Thanks

I see that now, Still getting used to DU, great place, I feel right at home here, very stimulating....

[and-justice-for-all]

5. Fucking DINOs! nt

[high density]

6. Well buddy, you're up for re-election in 2010 like all your partners in crime

What is the voting record of these "fiscally conservative House Democrats" when it comes to war spending?

[Freddie Stubbs]

32. Ross beat a liberal 86%-14% last November:

http://www.arelections.org/index.php?ac:show:contest_statewide=1&elecid=181&contestid=12

[No Elephants]

65. Without knowing anything about his opponent, that is not surprising. Ross was an

incumbent. He had won four electtions before that. Name recogniion alone is huge in a candidacy. So is incumbency. And then, there is the financing.

But, Ross replaced a Republican. In freakin' Arkansas. And that says something.

[sinkingfeeling]

7. Just got off the phone with Ross' Washington office. I asked that they explain how the Blue Dogs

demand for HIGHER payments to public option providers would help the people of rural Arkansas. That increasing provider payments to equal those of the insurance industry would drive the cost of premiums up and cause people more pain. The lady asked for my address and said she would send me his statement. His district is rural with high rates of the uninsured. I told her that his position will cost the Democratic Party of Arkansas and that I would withhold contributions because we need a Democrat in the House.

Edited to add this link to a good article on what the Blue Dogs are up to:
http://blog.healthcareforamericanow.org/2009/07/16/what-is-mike-ross-holding-up-health-care-for/

[tnlefty]

17. Thanks for the link.

What they're doing doesn't make any sense.

[liberalhistorian]

9. You know, they couldn't wait to give out TARP funds to those

poor, hurting (gag!) banksters. But when it comes to something, anything, for us little people, it's fuck it.

So I humbly suggest that for every day they delay on this (and hell, congress has only delayed for seventy fucking years now on this matter), they be denied access to THEIR health care plan that WE pay for regardless of whether WE have health care or not. And they need to explain to us why THEIR plan isn't "socialized" medicine. Gag.

[Alcibiades]

12. That's right

Seven trillion. They are willing to throw money at Wall Street, but fuck over the poor and the sick.

[sfwriter]

10. I agree about curbing spending though...

Let's see what they work out. I'm worried that if we don't encourage enough wellness in this overhall, we'll soon just be eaten alive in rising costs.

[Alcibiades]

13. Here are the blue dogs

on that committee.

Rep. Baron Hill (IN-09)
Gordon, Bart (TN-06)
Ross, Mike (AR-04)
Matheson, Jim (UT-02)
Barrow, John (GA-12)
Melancon, Charlie (LA-03)
Space, Zack (OH-18)

Looks like we need to peel off a few.

[No Elephants]

66. Pelosi should make some new committee assignments. Fast.

She and Hoyer should have seen this coming and done that sooner. Tepublicans are better at that kind of thing. I hate to admit it, but they are. Maybe it's because they were in the minority in so many Congresses until Reagan.

[Odin2005]

15. YOU BASTARDS!!!

:grr:

[democracy1st]

16. this proves that these guys are really republicans

[Name removed]

20. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Freddie Stubbs]

39. Nope. I'm a Democrat

Try again.

[Libertas1776]

18. And these asswipes

are Democrats HOW? Fuck them and their corporate masters ! ! ! SO ANGRY :grr: :nuke: :grr: :nuke: :grr: :nuke: :grr: :nuke: :grr: :nuke: :grr: :nuke: :grr: :nuke: :grr: :nuke: :grr: :nuke: :grr: :nuke: :grr: :nuke: :grr: :nuke:

[Freddie Stubbs]

38. They are Democratic members of Congress because the Democratic voters of their districts nominated

them. Perhaps many Democratic voters don't hate corporations as much as you do.

[Deadric Damodred]

55. No, that's not it.

It's because many of the Democrat voters that support the Blue Dogs are pro-gun. They are making sure that gun banners like Carolyn McCarthy are in the minority and can't get their anti-gun legislation passed, so they vote in someone they know will vote "no" on another "scary looking gun ban". If the extreme left of the party would stop their non-stop attacks on the 2nd Amendment and trying to ban all firearms that look cool (military look, which is a badass look), they might actually get some of the people they want voted in to pass the other stuff they want. But no, the extreme left keeps screaming about so-called "assault weapons", so they keep losing out to Blue Dogs.

[Enrique]

22. who the fuck is Mike Ross?

Mike Ross is the "leader" of jack shit.

[democracy1st]

28. a gop plant

[Freddie Stubbs]

37. He apperently has more pull than you do

[GinaMaria]

71. thanks to the voters...

it would take an alert and interested electorate to reduce or eliminate any pull he has. He gets his power from the people. We are wise to remember that. elected officials need to be more afraid of us than they are of corporations.

[Downwinder]

26. Where does Ross get his health care?

Why should we as employers not be entitled to the same benefits as our employees? Do all of his constituents qualify for his group plan? Why not?

[Freddie Stubbs]

40. Centrist Dem Leader: Has Committee Votes To Block Health Bill

Source: Dow Jones Newswire

WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- U.S. Rep. Mike Ross, D-Ark., a leader of fiscally conservative House Democrats, said Wednesday a House plan to overhaul the U.S. health-care system is losing support and will be stuck in committee without changes.

"Last time I checked, it takes seven Democrats to stop a bill in the Energy and Commerce Committee," Ross told reporters after a House vote. "We had seven against it last Friday; we have 10 today."

Three House committees are slated to begin considering the $1 trillion-plus bill this week, but the Energy and Commerce looms as the biggest challenge. That's because it counts among its 36 Democratic members seven members of the Blue Dog Coalition, a fiscally conservative bloc that is opposing the House Democrats' effort.

Ross said the bill, introduced Wednesday by House Democratic leaders, doesn't include provisions adequate to curb rising health care costs, including what the government spends on healthcare.

Read more: http://www.nasdaq.com/aspx/stock-market-news-story.aspx?storyid=200907151403dowjonesdjonline000758&title=centrist-dem-leaderhas-committee-votes-to-block-health-bill

[Alcibiades]

41. Perhaps their committee assignments should be reevaluated

That's what the Republicans would have done. If they are so anxious to act like Republicans and work with Republicans, then they can be treated as Republicans treat members who vote against their leadership are.

[No Elephants]

67. I just wrote almost the same post, before reading yours. We must be geniuses.

BOTH be geniuses! :toast:

:rofl:

[Name removed]

42. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Enrique]

43. never heard of him

My advice to Obama and congressional leadership, ignore Mike Ross, whoever he is.

[damntexdem]

47. What would the House need to do to force it out of committee?

Any options?

[Kingofalldems]

48. I see Karl Rove's DU pal is at it again

[Umbral]

49. Of course, Democratic electoral prospects rise or fall with health care reform...

the crypto-republicans are best served by doing everything they can to derail the effort.

[TankLV]

51. Fucking ASSHOLES!!!

we need to get RID of these DINOS!!!

[SOS]

54. Mike Ross...

Voted yes on invading and occupying Iraq. Cost: $1 trillion
Voted yes on TARP bailout for crooked Wall Street banks. Cost: $750 billion.

Suddenly he's "concerned" about costs.

Where was his concern for flushing our money down the toilet in 2003 and 2008?

[knixphan]

58. Throw these bums out - please!

[Occulus]

68. And you're just so very smug about it, too

Let me ask you a direct question: why are you so very much against single-payer health care for all Americans?

It is how you come across, and I'm sorry, but it doesn't make you look or sound like a Democrat. You come across like that every time you post on this subject. You even have a blue dog picture in your sig line- a direct slap in the face to the supporters of a single-payer system. You even come across as being against the bill currently under consideration.

I can't help but to ask why, mostly because without this, people will continue to die because of the system we currently have. Please, explain your position.

[nonsequitur]

69. not every democrat wants single payer,,,,

I've voted Democrat candidates in every election, even local elections and I don't want single payer either. we're happy with our doctors and i want more affordable health care, regulations on insurance companies. I don't want Canadian or UK style health care and I don't want complete government control over my health. sorry, i really don't.

[Occulus]

70. Under a properly implemented single payer system,

you would keep the doctor you have, and your bill would already be paid. There wouldn't be an intermediate party denying this or that treatment. We already have violations of those principles under our current system. Those violations are markedly reduced under a single-payer system.

How did you conclude that that wouldn't be the case? In what way is such a system a bad idea?

How, as a fellow human being, can you possibly deny the concept of comprehensive, necessary health care for all?

[GinaMaria]

72. It's DemocratIC Candidates

nouns don't modify nouns in the English language... not even if you are gop.

[rhett o rick]

73. Blue Damn Dogs vote republican. They side with the extreme right wing. Throw the bastards out. nm

[Blue_Tires]

75. true to form, doing the bidding of his corporate masters...

if this doesn't get done properly i know who to hold responsible...

i also love how vague and closed-door the blue dogs have been on exactly what they think should be done...

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

76. These are your douche bag friends. How do you like 'em now?

I love how people like you were always bitching about the so called left but look who is sabotaging the president now.

[Kingofalldems]

77. He loves them AND repubs IMO

That's the whole point of the thread---to rub it in DU's face.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

78. Oh but he's reeeeally clever and winks a lot like a certain airhead from Alaska. nt