Democrat Says Health Overhaul Needs GOP To Pass

[Purveyor]

Source: Associated Press

(07-26) 11:25 PDT WASHINGTON (AP) --

Senate Democrats alone cannot pass President Barack Obama's ambitious overhaul of how Americans receive health care, a top lawmaker acknowledged on Sunday. Republicans said they will continue their opposition to a plan they say is simply a government takeover of private decisions.

Both sides said they want to improve the system and provide care for almost 50 million Americans who lack health insurance coverage, but they remain deeply divided over how to reach that goal. Republicans said the longer the delay, the more the public understands the stakes of a policy that has vexed lawmakers for decades.

"Republicans want to protect the right of Americans to make their own health care decisions, to pick their own doctors and their own plans," said Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C. "We could have a plan in a few weeks if the goal is not a government takeover. We've never seen the government operate a plan of any kind effectively and at the budgets we talked about."

Democrats countered that their plans — and there are many iterations on Capitol Hill, as committees in both the House and Senate work on versions — would expand coverage without adding to the deficit. Even so, they are likely to leave for an August recess without a vote.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said they are "80 percent" in agreement on what a final version will include and are making progress.


Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/07/26/national/w071424D62.DTL#ixzz0MPevFN1n

[Hawkeye-X]

1. See my thread - Nuclear option needs to be invoked ASAP.

Time to put the GOP into their corner and take their blue dogs with them too and whine some more.

Hawkeye-X

[Warpy]

2. Yes, it does. GOP will never vote yes for any plan

and this is too vital to this country to be allowed to fail.

Allowing health care to fail--AGAIN--will produce a repeat of 1994 when the ineffective Democrats were swept out and the Young Turk Republicans swept in. We all know how that worked out and it's going to happen again if the party doesn't do the hard work and make the hard choices to get it to pass.

The Republicans know all this. I don't know what the hell is wrong with our party that they don't realize they got their asses kicked in 1994 because they failed us so miserably and that it will happen again if they fail us again.

That's how important this issue is.

[bkkyosemite]

4. They have been paid for by good ole Mr. Insurance man.........bastards.

[foginthemorn]

9. So have many of the Democrats.

[bkkyosemite]

12. That's who I was talking about! The whole lot of them in DC

[ohio2007]

3. supermajority won't like the fact that healthcare will be tweeked by the other side of the aisle

majority rules.....

but this majority whimpers

[bemildred]

5. Bullshit, a majority in the Senate can do anything it likes to the Rules. nt

[Betty]

6. if the dems had 99% of the seats in both houses

they'd still bend over and assume the position for their repuglican masters.

[Stumbler]

19. Ditto

Unless my memory is severely flawed, We just spent 6 of the past 8 years in which the (R) majority in the Houses, backed by a (R) White House was able to push through 95% of their agenda W/O "the need for bipartisan support." Granted, more often than not they got that support, though they never had to go on Our air-waves plead for it. Even if there was only 30% or so public support, they got their job done.

Now We have "a super-majority" in the Congress, and We have a (D) White House that supports Our demands, and our "representatives" still want the support of those whose policies were voted against in the two most recent elections?? Sweet FSM! A number of polls show over 70% public support for a public option, and yet Our "representatives" are still tell Us to wait for a compromise? WTF?

Like I've said before, if We tied the public option or a full single-payer plan to another supplemental war-spending bill, it'd pass without delay. Also it wouldn't hurt if We took a page out of the (R) playbook and called it the "Keep Everyone Healthy Act" or "Stay Alive America..." Instead we'll get some "strategist" to repeat the "SCHIP" debacle, so the average Joe-six-pack has no idea what the Hell is being debated...

[FormerDittoHead]

7. Dems will compromise everything important, then Reps won't vote for it any-fucking-way!

No public option = bullshit.

I'm dropping out at that point.

[DaLittle Kitty]

11. You ARE Going To Have Lots Of Company! Will Need To Form An Independent Party For The People!

Fuck 'em ... Both Parties Are One in the SAME!

[Iowa]

16. You are right. I have already changed my registration from Democrat to "no party"...

I won't be voting for these sell-outs again.

[sirgates]

20. independent party...?

Kitty,

There are many who have already come to this conclusion you
have as we already
have third parties for the people...and most people who are
involved in any of these third
parties are aware that the 2 parties are very much one in the
same when it comes down
to the major decisions made in this country...we are
witnessing it with this health care issue..
we heard obama say all we need is the WH, the house and the
senate and we will get health care done...
now that we have it they are saying we need the gop to make it
happen...wtf..?
Washington is under a strangle hold by corporate America..what
can we do as individuals cause it doesn't EVER SEEM TO MATTER
WHO WE VOTE INTO OFFICE..WE STILL GET SCREWED EACH AND EVERY
TIME....
the 2 party system is BROKEN....did I say BROKEN...

now for me we can correct this problem of corporate control
without ever leaving the house...all we need to do is identify
ANY corporation or business that has or is lobbying congress
for things not in our, the people's best interest, and then
simply let the country and the business know that we as
Americans are not going to put up with it and BOYCOTT every
business and corporation because the reality is these
business's...well where do you think they get their money that
they in turn use for lobbying against us..if we are their
customers well they are getting the money FROM US..so we are
complicit and are we so stupid that we continue to give
AT&T and VERIZON our hard earned money so they can in turn
let the govt wiretap us and read our emails...why do we
continue to give them OUR MONEY...so they can use it to
lobby...WTF is wrong with us anyway....this could be pretty
simple really...a corporation goes against our needs and so we
stop being their customer and then they run out of funds and
maybe even out of business...I dropped Verizon when I found
out what they had done...if 80% of Verizons cust dropped them
what do you think would happen..would they be able to lobby
congress...would they be able to help wiretap and read our
emails...one thing is for sure...the shareholders would be
furious and would be cautious about purchasing shares for ANY
business that might end up on the wrong side of America...we
can do this if we all get together...it will take a majority
of people to be involved..but heck..how simple can it be to
stop giving any corp OUR MONEY?
that is far easier then waiting for congress to wake up...they
are bought and paid for before they ever reach office...most
of them anyway..

[foginthemorn]

8. that Democrat is......

.............It's a reality a key Democratic senator acknowledged. Even though the Democrats enjoy a majority in the Senate, some are skittish about the financial or political costs of the proposals.

"Look, there are not the votes for Democrats to do this just on our side of the aisle," said Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., the chairman of the powerful budget committee.

Or even their side of the Capitol.

Rep. Jim Cooper, a Tennessee Democrat and a member of the fiscally conservative "Blue Dogs," said he doubts the Democratic-controlled House could pass a proposal.

"We have a long way to go," he said. "David Axelrod is right; we have agreement on 70 or 80 percent of the legislation, but it is important we get the other details right, too."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, meanwhile, insisted she has the votes in her chamber to move forward with the plan despite the same concerns among fiscally conservative fellow Democrats.

"When I take this bill to the floor, it will win. We will move forward, it will happen," Pelosi said.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/07/26/national/w071424D62.DTL#ixzz0MPopARRV

[high density]

10. GOP wants nothing to pass

They love the status quo. They are staking their future on the status quo, in fact.

[bkkyosemite]

13. If we do not get Single Payer than the hell with all of them.

[galileoreloaded]

14. This seems like a D problem much more than an R one.....

we SHOULD have the votes......

Logically, how do Republicans figure here??? Are they threatening to filibuster???

No, I think we have rats in the nest.

[Stumbler]

21. Exactly!

With such "loyal" (D) supporters as Lieberman and Specter, there's no need for a threat of (R) filibusters. Regardless, many on the (D) side, especially the Blue Cross, er, "Blue Dogs" have allowed their elections to be paid for by those in the insurance and pharma industries. It seems these dogs have learned not to bite the hand that feeds them.

[Lorien]

22. Is this a surprise?

It wouldn't matter if Dems had EVERY seat in the House and Senate, they would still muck it up because most ARE NOT DEMOCRATS. They are corporate whores who put a (D) behind their names to get elected in liberal leaning districts. We need to find ways of unseating these bastards and replacing them with true Dems.

[galileoreloaded]

24. Not a surprise at all, just trying to distill it down for those who

seem to think Republican obstruction is the reason things aren't getting done.

[santamargarita]

15. Bullshit and Hell No it Doesn't - fuck the GOP

Goddamn right-wing assholes!

[Laelth]

17. The GOP wants it to pass.

In front of the cameras, of course, they must oppose anything that a Democrat proposes to do, but the Republicans' insurance buddies are laughing all the way to the bank and pushing the GOP to allow the planned reforms to become law. After all, who wouldn't want a national law that forces every American to buy your product or, if they don't, become a criminal?

Forcing people to buy insurance is no more the solution to a failed health care system than forcing people to buy houses is the solution to homelessness.

:dem:

-Laelth

[DonCoquixote]

18. RE: Democrat Says Health Overhaul Needs GOP To Pass

No, on the contrary, Health Overhaul needs to drive over the GOP like a Sherman tank driving over a Rat.

[depakid]

23. Cowardly Democrats trying to sell everyone out again

[harun]

25. We won't get any Puke support and we don't need any. If we "needed"

the Pukes to pass Healthcare reform we wouldn't have even tried it.