John Boehner says ‘no’ to scaled back health bill

[TomCADem]

Source: Politico

House Minority Leader John Boehner says Republicans won’t buy into an incremental, scaled-back approach to health care reform, and he’s urging his Republican members to say "no" to Democratic overtures on a watered-down bill.
* * *
“This bill is dead,” he said. “Maybe It’s not quite as dead as I want it. But until it’s dead. … Republicans are not going to work off this monstrosity. There’s just not enough common ground.”

The Republican leader said Democrats are taking the wrong message from Republican Scott Brown’s win in the Bay State.

“Listen, what we’ve learned in Massachusetts is this: The Democrats aren’t listening to the people,” he said. “Republicans are listening.”


Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0110/31796.html

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Well, there you have it. The Republicans want to pass health care reform, but the Democrats are just getting in the way. :sarcasm:

[Skink]

1. so we just pass the good parts.

Makes sense. Make em filibuster each thing individually.

[Toots]

18. What Republicans consider "good parts" and what we consider "good Parts" are worlds apart

To a Republican Tax Cuts are the good parts. To a Democrat insuring folks is the good part

[Grand Taurean]

2. Bi-Partisanship is dead.

Actually, it never was.

[aquart]

4. That zombie was always dead.

[Guilded Lilly]

3. They say no to everything...what's the news here?

"Republicans are listening" and IGNORING it anyway.

[Mithreal]

6. True, not news, party of no

[Mithreal]

5. Bold and fast action to benefit powerful corporations. Slow incrementalism for average Americans.

Bailing out Too Big To Fail Banks and Insurers is such a winning strategy.

Republicans are not listening, but neither are the New Dems who have shown they will sell us out in a heart beat and then spin they could do no better and we should be happy with what we are offered.

[Iowa]

11. Well said Mithreal. I agree.

[Sherman A1]

15. Agreed

[liberalpragmatist]

7. Pass the fucking Senate bill

I know everybody on these boards seems to disagree, but this is slipping away and if we let the Senate bill go we're NOT going to get a more progressive bill.

Pass the bill, and include the fixes (excise tax, Nebraska deal, increased subsidies, maybe a national exchange) in the next budget. Pass it and move on.

[Mithreal]

8. Right, Too Big To Fail Insurance bailouts are slipping away

People pushing that idea never get tired of it do they? Then they tell us to just pass this and we will make it so much better. Where were we going to get the votes to make it better? They come up with all sorts of rationalizations and predictions then.

We don't need 60 votes. That is a lie. Even elected Dems admit we don't need 60 votes in the Senate but I didn't need them to tell me. What we do need 60 votes for is a pragmatic bill that meets the needs of PhRMA and Big Insurers while holding the rest of us hostage and promising indentured servitude for generations to come.

Every day now that phrase liberal pragmatist sounds more and more like an oxymoron too, no offense.

[YewNork]

20. What if Medicare hadn't passed because it originally had no drug coverage

Left wing Democrats refusing to vote for the Senate bill as is are shooting us in the foot.
They'd rather no win than a partial win.

And note, I said that they are shooting US in the foot, because they have health insurance.

[jtylerpittman]

36. The tax on union plans is not a partial win. To be honest the senate bill is worst then no bill.

[YewNork]

38. Tell that to someone who can't get insurance because they were born with a pre-existing condition

And then get back to me.

[frylock]

9. time to ramp up the ass kissing..

cmon dems, don't let me down! continue to act like you actually give two shits as the repubs run roughshod over your sorry majority asses.

[wisteria]

10. What else is new. We will find a way to force them into having to vote for

some HCR. He is just relaying the current party strategy of obstruction. A**hole with a fake tan.

[Vehl]

12. if not for the horrid blue dogs we would have had this passed

leave it to these so called "conservative" ( :puke: ) Dems to screw up the best chance we ever had to pass this bill!
if not for them, none of this would have happened.


PS: also the blame rests partly on a segment of American voters who want "results" immediately.
They ought to try growing some trees and getting the fruit within a year!

some things don't bear fruit for a while! that does not mean we should not plant any trees!

[Mithreal]

14. Immediate results does seem to get overused.

Results matter but Dems could earn more time and patience if average Americans thought the fight was for them. It took 30+ years of conservative economic policy to get us here, continuing more conservative economic policy only sews more trouble.

The one who promised to keep lobbyists out, make the process transparent, broadcast all HCR negotiations, and not sign a bill without a public option made backroom deals with PhRMA and Big Insurance. Adding insult some tried to spin the President as powerless and hands off and bait and switched Health Care Reform for Health Industry Bailouts.

My garden brings me peace, joy, and satisfaction in exchange for hard work, patience and time. I absolutely appreciate your reference to planting trees. That said, the bill did not have to be over 2000 pages long or take 60 Senate votes. To make it so complicated and let it drag on so long has done nothing but shorten tempers and lose support. The New Dem leaders did not plant the trees we wanted and they certainly did promise fruit the first year. However, they also promised the industry they would receive most of that fruit. I cared less they promised fruit the first year than they actually addressed the needs of ALL people.

And I have grown bare root trees and gotten fruit the first year, still appreciate your parable.

[valerief]

13. Mr. Orangehead should be immediately scaled back. nt

[Smashcut]

16. How's that bipartisanship workin out?

[Mithreal]

21. The snake oil centrists are out in force. I concur.

[proudohioan]

17. John Boehner, go fuck yourself!!!!!!

You're an embarrassment to my state.

[YewNork]

19. Here we go again - the Party of No.

[Jefferson23]

22. On one level, he is absolutely correct. He just isn't honest about the obvious

elephant in the room which we all know is the fucking capitualtion that has been going on by enough phony Democrats.

[No Elephants]

23. Ya know my position about elephants in the room, right?

[Jefferson23]

25. LOL, good one my friend! n/t

[high density]

24. In other words: please water it down more, we'll say no again, water down again, no...

Then we are left with nothing at all, which is exactly what the GOP wants and what has been going on over the last few months.

[groundloop]

26. Go ahead and filibuster a bill that prevents exclusion due to pre-existing conditions

Explain that to the American public Mr. Boner. I think most Americans could grasp the significance of that.

Then explain why you're blocking the vote on a bill which mandates that appeals be heard by an independent third party instead of by the insurance company.

While you're at it, face the American people and tell them why you don't want a vote on a bill which prohibits the practice of dumping patients when they get sick.

This is EXACTLY the way to go. The repugs wouldn't have the guts to block any of these individual initiatives, and Americans can certainly understand each of these core issues, as well as others that need to be addressed. Keep it simple.

[alsame]

27. Exactly. nt

[kiranon]

28. Agree. Time to call the Repubs bluff and make them stand for something

other than "No."

[wordpix]

35. +1

[24601]

41. Boehner isn't filibustering shit - he's in the House where it's strictly

majority vote. The House republicans aren't blocking a thing when they have only 178 members in a 435 member house. We have 257 members and at most (when everyone is present) it takes only 218 to pass a bill.

[ChicagoSuz219]

29. OMG! John Boehner said NO!

What else is new?

[wordpix]

34. yeah, it's such big news when Bonehead leads his party of NO

[Vinca]

30. Republicans are listening? I don't think so. Those voters were saying "public option,"

not "don't get in my way of paying thousands of dollars a month to big insurance every month for nothing."

[chelsea0011]

31. Exactly, what do any of them say yes to?

[Unvanguard]

32. Um, obviously. House: PASS THE FUCKING SENATE BILL. n/t

[wordpix]

33. Bonehead better end his chain-smoking ways or it'll look bad when

his insurance co. continues to deliver health services to him for his emphysema/lung cancer, when they're kicking others like him off the rolls.

He isn't looking too healthy these days, either.

[BlueIdaho]

37. Congress is dead.

When a minority party can halt all law making simply by choosing not to participate in the governance of the nation - Congress is dead. Today's Senate resembles the Circumlocution Office in Dickens' "Little Dorrit" more than the muscular legislative body imagined by our founding fathers and the House is paralyzed by an endless election cycle, their needs to not offend and raise massive war chests.

Frankly, at this point our nation would be far better served by a parliamentary form of government.

[Johnny Harpo]

39. What We Learned in Massachusetts Is This....

If your not going to do the peoples business then we will vote for the other guy.

And if the other guy does not do the peoples business, we'll elect still another guy.

And so on and so on until we elect someone who 'gets it'.

[izquierdista]

40. "Republicans are listening"

Yes, we've heard all about your wiretapping.

[classysassy]

42. The American public

are the losers when it comes to health care for all americans,can't the people that are buying the republican crap see beyond their narrow minded view of whats going on in this country?.Listen up Mr and Mrs America,the republican and some of the democrats don't care about you just your vote.They continue to use the old divide and conquer shell game that has worked so well in the past,so why should they change.You're been sold out once again,the big business guys and their bought congresscritters are going to give you the business again.But your eyes and ears are on fox news and the EIB (radio network),the Rush shit news.When you go to the emergency room you want find any of the fox news fakes there,nor will you see Rush,the bill of goods(bullshit)they sold you will more than pay for their health care,so continue to follow the fools and you'll suffer because you didn't listen.

[Kablooie]

43. Does he have any other words in his vocabulary, other than 'no'?