All I Want for Christmas is Health Care Reform.
Well, it appears as though we will have a healthcare reform bill by Christmas no thanks to Republicans.
Healthcare reform entered the inevitability stage in the Senate during the wee hours of Monday morning as Democrats came together on a party-line vote to all but lock in passage of the legislation on Christmas Eve.
Though only a procedural vote, the 60-40 tally represents the first opportunity for Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to demonstrate the he united his entire caucus of 58 Democrats and two independents in advancing President Barack Obama’s signature domestic policy initiative.
With watered down reproductive rights for women, no public option and no expanded Medicare benefits, it’s a far cry from what most Americans voted for in the last election. Names like Joe Lieberman, Ben Nelson, Mary Landrieu, and Blanche Lincoln will go down in history as those who prevented reform that would have saved thousands of lives. They will have to live with that, and we will have to live with something that is much less than what we deserve as a nation.
But all that said, we will have something. There are good things in this bill, and like a seed crystal that serves as a promise of a beginning point from which something more beautiful will grow, Democrats have decided to take it. And after Christmas Eve we will tackle other issues, knowing that things on the health care front will be better than they were. And as the 2010 election cycle looms, we must work doubly hard to have fewer Liebermans and Nelsons, and more Sanders and Feingolds.
And remember Alaskans, which of your senators voted to care for you and your neighbors, and which one voted against you. (If you need a hint: Begich good, Murkowski bad)
“Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” Martin Luther King, Jr.
I sent a scathing email to my asshole senator Mitch McConnell tonight and copied it as an open letter to the editor to our state’s biggest newspaper.
I am pissed beyond words that McConnell thinks his actions are something to be proud of.
Well said and well written AKM.
This isn’t an end or even a middle, it is a continuing battle. We don’t have a bill yet, and we don’t have Democrats yet who believe that everyone in this nation deserves health care, no matter how poor or wealthy, or whether they have a job or do not, no matter how old they are nor how young.
You don’t expect Republicans to give a rats ass about that, but you certainly expect Democrats to, especially when they came to a majority based upon those very same issues and voted in by those same people that today, they had to be bribed and cajoled into actually supporting.
Some should not be holding their heads very high and some should be hanging their heads somewhere down below the soles of their shoes.
I suppose it is good. It is a pretty hollow win, IMO. A lot of tinsel and very little tree. I hope we get a public option or a Medicare expansion in the final bill. I hope we get to single payer eventually and get those profitiers out of personal health and well-being needs. I hope we begin to quash the control of corporates over our “leaders”. I’m still hoping we’ll get a progressive here in Arizona to step up to the plate. McCain is starting to smell really bad. I hope Obama starts cleaning house from the inside as we can hope to clean it from the outside. Lots of hoping! Merry Christmas!
Alaska’s own Eddie Burke on twitter:
@SaberToothedPie im ready to fight to protect our constitution.. thats just the truth
about 1 hour ago from mobile web
60senators declare war on freedom loving americans we must fight bac #tcot #gop #war #obamacare
about 1 hour ago from mobile web
@GreatGrey good that libs dont hav guns so cons can win next civil war
about 1 hour ago from mobile web
@FeistyShelia we may need all the con women to help keep us men locked and loaded 2fight for rights
about 1 hour ago from mobile web
@ReconChesty after 2nite vote we may need u 2 stay locked and loaded
about 1 hour ago from mobile web
@Patrioticameric im ready! i just need the word to proþect my rights as our founders fought and died for
about 2 hours ago from mobile web
santa i need AR 15 to protect my values from socialist and commies trying to take it all away #tcot #spwbt #gop
about 2 hours ago from mobile web
nation 1step closer to communisim.. this is worth civil war #war #obamacare #palin #gop
about 2 hours ago from mobile web
This is the attitude we are up against.
And ‘fewer’ to include John McCain!
AKM: Our health reform bill wasn’t great to start with.
Over time it improved. I still see the doctor of my choice.
I am Aussie
Ment to say it cost me nothing as he Bulk bills
I just read Eddie Burke’s twitter messages and find them absolutely horrid! I knew this guys years ago, when he had the gas station on Arctic and Tudor and you could not have found a nicer guy….that was years ago when his children were babies. What happened to him to become so angry and ready to start a civil war? He is one angry fellow today and he should be aware that libs do in fact own guns. He needs to settle down and get a life…like he use to have years ago.
I was watching the Eddie Burke twits tonite, and wondering how anyone can be that vile?
And yes, libs DO own guns. Even here in FL
Eddie Burke’s tweets @ # 4 are abhorrent. Several months ago, I stumbled upon an online radio broadcast the Eddie Burke show that featured Sarah’s dad, Chuck, and Piper Palin. There appears to be some deep seated violent xenophobia associated with Eddie Burke. I was surprised that Piper was on the show and IMO, she sounded reluctant to be there as Chuck cajoled her to talk. Odd and unseemly indoctrination.
Lord have mercy on Sarah’s children.
Hmm, Murkowski voter against it. Well, she supports the Republican Health Care Reform Bill, which I think reforms how insurance companies can screw you over for more money. Well, this vote is just par for the course. Check out vote number 381, the cloture vote on the Defense Appropriations Bill. She voted against it. Now I know when the bill comes to the floor for final passage, she will probably vote for it, so in other words she was against the troops before she was for them.
I’m having a very hard time getting excited about this.
It doesn’t get the health insurance industry profits or the outrageous amounts of money the insurers or big pharma spend lobbying our legislators each year redirected into providing actual health care.
I thought the goal was to provide affordable health care for all, but it appears that goal has been abandoned in favor of adding to insurance company profits and lobbying funds by mandating that those who haven’t been able to find the money to buy coverage at the current rates somehow tighten their belts yet again and magically find enough cash in their empty pockets so they can hand it over to the insurance companies at whatever rate those companies decide to charge their new captive audience.
We can do better, Mr. President, and we need to do better.
Obama should grow a pair and not sign this bill. All this does is pat the insurance companies on the back.
I too have been frustrated at some of what went into the senate bill, and some of what came out. But it’s not over, the house and senate bills need to be reconciled so there’s more work to be done and more chances for additional good reform to happen.
So while I’m feeling disappointed at some of the bargaining that happened in the senate, the disappointment at seeing this happen would have been so much greater-
“If we’re able to stop Obama on this it will be his Waterloo. It will break him.”
This one’s for you Jim DeMint- “Today, the Senate took another historic step toward our goal of delivering access to quality, affordable health care to all Americans”
I am so thankful that we are moving forward in our quest for affordable health care for all. This is definitely a baby step, but it is a step. I just pray that the Democrats continue to vote AYE as the bill is reconciled with the House version.
I understand the anger that we did not get a better bill. Both of my sons have no insurance. BUT, we’ve got to start somewhere and there was more transparency in getting this bill to the floor. We were able to watch the process and see those who’s pockets are lined from the Health Industry, the Republicans back track on issues just to be against ANYTHING, and those who have learned that if you hold things up, you get perks.
Thank goodness for Rachel Maddow and her intrepid group of researchers. Just watching her show showed me how to backtrack on the internet and find out who really is thrusting money to make this all go away.
Let’s hope that we all keep that in mind when voting for our representatives comes up again.
#
9
trish in S’W FL Says:
December 20th, 2009 at 11:44 PM
I was watching the Eddie Burke twits tonite, and wondering how anyone can be that vile?
And yes, libs DO own guns. Even here in FL
Yes, we DO also, too, own guns. Why do they think we don’t? Or that we wouldn’t also, too, use them to protect our country? They are like school yard bullies who think they can scare everyone with their nonsense. I am not afraid of them.
A great baby step has been taken. I still support the President I helped elect. All the rhetoric they can throw out will not change that.
I need coffee.
No, it’s not all we have hoped for, but it’s a good foundation to build upon. It puts an end to some of the most egregious practices of the insurance industries, and we can keep after our legislators to further refine it as time goes on. We must not sit back and think it’s over. Not by a long shot. Please let us not fall back into the familiar apathy of those eight long years.
As for those idiots chafing at the bit for “revolution” and “civil war” I have a couple of things to say.
Liberals have guns too, and we love our country just as much as you do – maybe more because we believe in our democracy with all our hearts even when it’s not working to our liking.
You have just witnessed, first hand and probably for the first time, the actual process of democracy in this land due to teh Internets, Google, Faceborg (as I like to call it), Twitter and every blogger in cyberland. You don’t get to “overthrow” a legitimately elected administration because your nose is out of joint at the way our democracy is working.
You lost. Suck it up.
It’s not over yet, some a-hole could vote no, but I am thrilled!! Even Krugman says:
“Count me among those who consider this an awesome achievement. It’s a seriously flawed bill, we’ll spend years if not decades fixing it, but it’s nonetheless a huge step forward.”
This is how I see it. The GOP wanted nothing, no change except in your right to sue bad doctors, so getting SOMETHING is amazing.
Valleyindependent: I believe the bill says that 85 cents out of every premium dollar must go to care, so that does limit their profits.
Eddie Burke: How does helping people afford healthcare from the same insurance companies with NO public option, become a threat to their guns?
Canada started with one or two provinces when they got universal healthcare, and these stories are the same in every country, nothing is EVER perfect but you need a foot in the door.
The GOP wanted to deny us even the foot in the door, so this is great news.
Your comments @18, Lilady, are right on. It is ironic that so many who claim to believe in and support our constitution and our country are advocating the trampling of the constitutional rights of others and the overthrow of our government. Those of us who believe in the vision of our founding fathers and the democratic republic they established, even when we don’t get our way, clearly love our country more, and are just as prepared and determined to save it as they are to destroy it. As you so succinctly put it, “You lost. Suck it up.”
4 EyeOnYou Says: December 20th, 2009 at 11:23 PM
Alaska’s own Eddie Burke on twitter:
@SaberToothedPie im ready to fight to protect our constitution.
——–
Eddie the Asshat can best “protect our constitution” by turning off his microphone and getting a real job.
8 Jodie Clarke Says: December 20th, 2009 at 11:32 PM
I just read Eddie Burke’s twitter messages and find them absolutely horrid! I What happened to him to become so angry and ready to start a civil war?
——
The x-lax stopped working?
His wife made him sleep on the couch?
Dog pee’d on his leg?
There is a really dark and dank recess in his soul?
@ Lilybart, you are right, it isn’t over yet, and we need to continue to advocate for something better. Thanks for the thought @20, but I’m still worried that individuals and companies that can’t afford it will have to come up with whole dollars they don’t have, that there won’t be a limit on what the insurance companies can charge, that the insurers will do the math and realize that 15 percent of a higher number means more profits for them than 15 percent of a more affordable amount, that individuals will have to forgo groceries for health insurance, and small and mid-sized employers will have to eliminate desperately needed jobs for some employees to pay for health care for the rest.
Does anybody have a link to the bill as it now stands?
As for Eddie Burke, are we really surprised by anything he says or does anymore? Limbaugh, Beck, Palin, Burke, and the like – it’s not about facts or logic – it’s about airtime, ratings, and cold, hard cash. They should all do us a favor and follow Sauerkraut’s suggestion to turn off their microphones for the good of the country.
I have a question and genuinely can’t figure the answer myself (well Almost Cant) ” Why did’nt President Obama and the Dem.Senate insist on Reconcilitation ? I’m not Trolling I’m serious in wanting to hear some logical answers.
I seem to be a one-person truth squad when it comes to the “arc of the moral universe” quote. MLK lifted it without citation from the writings of Theodore Parker, 19th Century abolitionist and Unitarian minister. Not the most admirable action of a generally admirable gentleman.
Dr. King also appropriated another of my favorite quotations, “A time comes when silence is betrayal,” from a newspaper ad by Clergy and Laity Against the War (in Vietnam.)
good nym, LadyM!
It is from the first verse of “The Bonnie Earl O’ Moray” that the term mondegreen, meaning misheard lyric, came into popular use.
Ye Highlands and ye Lawlands,
Oh where have you been?
They have slain the Earl O’ Moray
And layd him on the green.
The final two lines had been heard as “they have slain the Earl O’ Moray, and Lady Mondegreen.” The American writer Sylvia Wright coined the term “mondegreen” in an essay “The Death of Lady Mondegreen,” which was published in Harper’s Magazine in November 1954. In the essay, Wright described how, as a young girl, she misheard the final line from the ballad.
–Wikipedia [of course]
@LadyMonde #28. If a person takes bits of wisdom here and there to express a point to help the whole of humanity as opposed to self aggrandisement, I’m more than thrilled to listen to him. Attributed to Honest Abe: “Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.
Happy Holidays!
It ain’t over yet. The Senate still needs to vote on this in 72 hours. If it passes (fingers crossed), the bill goes to be “reconciled” with the House bill.
Now that should be interesting. A reconciled bill will still need to be voted upon by both bodies. Lots can still change.
I feel the bottom line in all of this is, we need to work hard in 2010 to defeat the dark forces in Congress. Far to many are bought and paid for by corporate interests. We also have the ones from the fanatical, loony right.
Let’s not fall for the “blame Obama” game that is being pushed by the GOP. It’s not Obama’s job to write the law, it is the job of Congress. Until we have a functioning Congress we won’t get the law we need.
Watching this whole thing unfold over these months has convinced me more than ever that all politics are local. The religious right has understood this well. We Dem’s are still expecting Change to trickle down from the top. This has failed in our economic life and it will fail in our political life, too.
We need to get behind Obama more than ever and get him a Congress that can deliver Change we can Believe In. That is my Christmas wish this year.
Did you see this Kaiser Healthcare Cost Chart — with and without reform legisation?
http://girldujour.wordpress.com/2009/12/21/kaiser-healthcare-cost-chart-with-and-without-reform-legislation/
@A fan from CA — you are spot on.
Eddie Burke needs to STFU and go back to banging his Sarah blow-up doll.
Almost all said they supported health care as many the many options were being presented. But one by one there seem to be no plan that the Republicans would support.
But take a look at this little girl and ask yourself. Is this just what the Republicans had in mind from the start. That is, sure you can have health care, but they did not say you could use it.
Take a look at the little girl and I’m sure you will agree it so fits the Republican response to health care.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWo-vDVajns
A Fan from CA: I agree whole heartedly!
“We need to get behind Obama more than ever and get him a Congress that can deliver Change we can Believe In. That is my Christmas wish this year.”
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
@a fan from ca……………i hope we the people will do just that. that’s great wish.
My brother has been unemployed since early April and is scared of getting sick. My older son and his wife are uninsured. I paid for her dental care and eye check-up before they got married. Our own insurance may be cancelled depending on whether the congregation my pastor husband serves decides to keep paying the premium or to cut him off with the new year (they keep pleading poverty as members buy expensive vehicles and go on expensive cruises and vacations). I’m a diabetic, he has sleep apnea – do you think we can find affordable coverage on our own? Hah! I’m so darned sick of the Republicans in the Congress and of all the idiot “conservatives” in my community and their tea parties and other activities against our nation’s President and against the majority of people in our nation. I keep hoping that health care reform will happen, and that it will continue to improve. But I ain’t holding my breath …
Gotta start somewhere. So, it’s a start.
And a lesson learned.
We need more good Democrats in the Senate.
Lisa, you have been no help whatsoever on this very important issue for Alaskans. Harry Crawford, your turn.
eddie burke it’s hard work to stay blood spitting mad all the time .it must suck to be you .me I don’t have the time. i’m liveing the dream babe .
@30 Mo: “‘Scuse me, while I kiss this guy.”
nekolibrarian, hugs to you……it’s a sad time for some in religious communities. They want to be part of a flock, spiritually led and nourished, but they want their cake too. I am so sorry. Basic needs should always be met, especially here in America.
#42 Strangelet, the site for misheard lyrics “kissthisguy” is a favorite of mine. People should check it when they need to laugh.
@32 A fan from CA:
You’re dead right that it ain’t over yet. Unfortunately, history tells us that in conference (1) the Senate usually prevails, and (2) bills usually get watered down to the lowest common denominator. Now, neither of these are absolutes, but I’ll be happy if the final bill isn’t any worse than the current Senate bill (which, BTW, I don’t much like).
It is, of course, true that Congress “writes legislation”. However, Congress is a relatively disorganized bunch. For at least the 20th (21st) Century, significant legislation has been prompted and marshaled by the executive branch. The Senate’s Health Care Gang of Six Bozos was an uncommon approach to drafting critical legislation. In my opinion, it was a terrible idea — it gave the control of the fundamental legislative bottleneck to a group that collectively represent 3% of the national population.
It was the President’s idea, but to me it was still a bad one. Now, I know that he’s a smart person (although if his IQ is really 142, I may have him by a couple points), and I’m willing to consider a certain amount of belief in “11-dimensional chess”. But the thing about any-dimensional chess is that eventually there are exchanges and results, and the results are what count.
It may be that the final result of the Health Care bill will be exactly what Team Obama calculated was possible to achieve. They will no doubt feel good about that, and, hopefully, so will I. However, unless something extraordinary happens in conference (go, Nancy), I will continue to believe that the final result could have been significantly better if the Administration had been willing to risk a bit of its “political capital”.
Why can’t we have 5-dimensional hold ‘em?
With the Rs so united that none dare vote against the party line and a sizable number of Ds willing to put something ahead of health care… i.e. loyalty to insurance company lobbeists, loyalty to their bishop, minister, or RtL chapter, I think this was the best that we could do right now. I would love a single payer, or robust public option… Hell, just let everyone aged 55 or 60+ buy in to medicare, even make medicare available to these folks for free if they will retire and free up a job for a younger unemployed person who wants to work, or…
Anyway, lots of things I would have liked were never going to make the bill given the way things are in congress now. I wish we could find a dozen sane R’s in the senate and convince them to help the American people out so we wouldn’t have had to compromise with the likes of Leiberman, Nelson, et. al., but I’m not convince there are a dozen sane R’s left in the country, still yet in the senate.
My opinion of the current health care bill is similar to so many others who have been working and calling for health care reform for the last decade: the current bill – which will only get worse after the House and The Senate iron out their differences – DOES MORE HARM THAN GOOD. That’s why the few Democrats with any guts have called for the defeat of the bill and most of them have gone to castigate Obama for climbing into the sack with representatives of corporations that currently profit from health care and by doing so Obama and those loyal to him have actively ignored the progressive base that elected him. Shame on Obama, Shame on The Democrats.
Ralph Nader hits the nail on the head:
click here
CityKid. I’m sorry, but to say this bill does more harm than good is just silly and naive TeacherKen says it much better than I ever could, especially at this hour of the day. http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/12/22/817832/-Health-Care-BillEugene-Robinson-is-for-it,-even-with-its-flaws
I agree, many dems (and republicans too) have been sadly lacking in guts lately. Moreso when the patriot act and two wars were authorized with little dissent. But I can’t see how guts would have helped with health care. The opposition was simply to united, and we just don’t have the numbers to override a filibuster. So you do what you have to do to get people on board. The Rs know that passing a health care bill helps the dems. They have been desperate to kill it, because killing it all but kills the Obama presidency.