Democrats Slam Brakes on Health Care Overhaul

Source: New York Times

WASHINGTON — With no clear path forward on major health care legislation, Democratic leaders in Congress effectively slammed the brakes on President Obama’s top domestic priority on Tuesday, saying that they no longer felt pressure to move quickly on a health bill after eight months of setting deadlines and missing them.

The Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, deflected questions about health care. “We’re not on health care now,” he said. “We’ve talked a lot about it in the past.” He added, “There is no rush,” and noted that Congress still had most of this year to work on the health bills passed in 2009 by the Senate and the House.

Mr. Reid said that he and the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi of California, were working to map out a way to complete a health care overhaul in coming months. “There are a number of options being discussed,” Mr. Reid said, emphasizing “procedural aspects” of the issue.

At the same time, two centrist Democratic senators who are up for re-election this year, Blanche L. Lincoln of Arkansas and Evan Bayh of Indiana, said that they would resist efforts to muscle through a health care bill using a parliamentary tactic called budget reconciliation, which seemed to be the simplest way to advance the measure.

The White House has said in recent days that it would support that approach.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/27/health/policy/27health.html

Out of touch with reality.. wow, these people really have no idea what is reality out here in the real world.

I could not see a clearer path if it were displayed as a map on Harry Reid's forehead.

What a sad point we are in. Massachussetts could have been such a learning lesson for everybody. This is turning into a worst case scenario. Why are democrats such PUSSIES?!??!?!?!?! The Democratic party is like a very close friend who is addicted to crack. You wonder why they are making such odd decisions and it is so painful to watch them self-descruct. Maybe Meth is a better analogy. Right now the Democratic party has a horrible case of Meth Mouth.

"odd", or "baffling", or "confusing", or "out of touch".

They aren't "Spineless".

They aren't "Pussies".

They are kinder, gentler versions of the other side of the fake political paradigm.

They are no more on your side than the bastards in the other party.

This. Is. By.

DESIGN

Theater.

There is no Representative Government left.

And We The People had better wake up to that.

And Soon.

Kabuki Theater,
and I've already seen this one.
It ends badly for the Working Class.

By Design


The DLC New Team

(Screen Capped from the DLC Website)

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Nope, no hurry, no rush.

and that's ok?

medicare for all. if it takes ten years, it takes ten years.

:P

Source: Associated Press

Two centrist senators on Tuesday threw up a roadblock to salvaging President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, as Democrats agonized over whether to push forward or shift to idle until political resistance subsides.

Sens. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., and Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark. — both face re-election this year in Republican-leaning states — said they would oppose the strategy Democratic leaders are considering to reconcile the House and Senate bills and put comprehensive legislation on Obama's desk.

That approach involves using a special budget-related procedure to go around Republican opponents in the Senate, a calculated risk sure to inflame critics on the political right.

"There are no easy choices," acknowledged House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md, insisting that the goal remains the same: to pass far-reaching legislation that would expand coverage, reduce costs and improve quality.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_health_care_overhaul

since we ALL know they don't stand for crap.

the screenplay is already written and now the players are delivering their lines.

totally predictable.

improving the Senate bill was never going to be something that a handful of Senate Democrats would go along with and here's proof.

fools from the Red states. Why not just call yourself Repubs and get real.

We only need 50 for Reconcilliation and the House to pass the Senate Bill (and the Reconcilliation Bill).

They obviously are seeing this as a popular thing to do. Maybe if they heard their constituents - especially those the bill would help - it could change their position.

MAYBE if you had actually fought Obama, you'd be in a better place than you are today.

...and there is no more Democratic majority come November

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Do you remember when the Republicans controlled everything and rammed through things like the bankruptcy bill?

The carcass is cold and lifeless, but the family still can't let it go. No one wants to be the first to admit its no longer with us.

Evan Bayh and Blanche Lincoln, for playing Repubs in Dems clothing, or Harry Reid, for saying there's no rush. Not for him, maybe- he has health insurance. For those of us who either have no insurance, or are stuck in jobs we hate because we couldn't get insurance otherwise, there's plenty of rush.

edited for grammar

DON'T!??? And who are already sick, or on the verge of getting sick (diseased)?

pretty dang important and a bit of a RUSH there!



If they blow this, and we don't get real and decent reform, they will lose millions of vote in 2010 and potentially 10 million in 2012! They appear OWNED by the corporations - and it won't matter (with health care, at least, even if greatly matters on MANY other issues) who is in power, they're all owned by insurance...

thanks for your post Bette.

will probably lose 10 more so it won't matter what happens about a majority leader.

unless you want to be SOL. :eyes:

:shrug:

Trust, but, verify...some guy once said. :shrug:

Tell that to a diabetic who can't afford insulin. Me.

Everyday they delay brings me that much closer to blindness, kidney failure and amputation. Sure, no rush here. :mad:

Study this site, may people with diabetes have found it helpful, anyway getting this stuff in check is better then conventional treatment that just treats the symptoms anyway

http://robbwolf.com/

Who do these assholes think they are? Did they not learn their lesson last week?

The further they wimp out and cave to the right, the bigger they are going to loose.

If you not in a rush to save lives, then we won't be in a rush to save yours (political life).

No rush for me. I have had this virus for years, and by the time I got health care, I was already in stage IV cirrhosis. So no hurry for me, Harry!

Fucking assholes.

Because my own sanity depends upon it.

and gonna ignore the rich bastards with govt health care not giving a sh*t about people who are suffering all over this country.

Why try to fit a round peg in a square hole? I'd rather have a good health care bill with public option even if those senators lose their seats for introducing "socialized medicine" than a crummy one with the Democrats still in control.

Just when the corporate whores were ready to celebrate too

Every day we come here and read about one outrage after another perpetrated by Democrats. We read about outrages committed by Republicans too, but we know what Republicans stand for and we expect them to be evil. Here we have the Democratic leader of the Senate telling millions of Americans without access to health care, many who are literally dying because of it, that there is "no rush". George Carlin provides an alternative to outright hatred. What he has to say describes the effect that the current occupants of Congress and the WH are having on the party's base.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7f0GStBCeUU

Move to the Center when the the polls say move to the Left. Compromise on HCR when the base says hold firm.

Continue Bush policies when people are sick to death of them.

They could have struck while the iron was hot and passed everything while the nation was distracted.

But no, they move firmly and steadily to the Right.

MM was right. They're disgusting.

I knew that these people were weak, but this is beyond the pale.

The GOPers and right wing media have succeeded. Sickening... literally.

What a bunch of losers. I have to blame Reid.

No politician up for election wants to touch HCR now.

so forget it. It's dead.

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:eyes:

I can't access it for some reason. We all know Reid wants to table this for a while so he can focus on his own reelection. However, I doubt Pelosi shares the "no rush" sentiment. And Obama may not either.

Bayh and Lincoln are, as others have noted, not part of this process and are completely irrelevant.

...universal healthcare through this Congress is impossible , then we'll push this impossible Congress out of office....

....the healthcare problem remains huge and must be dealt with immediately....the path is clear; we must elect true Progressives at an accelerated rate....we can't continue to let this corporate elite and their schills kill us in the name of profit....

....now is not the time to quit or be discouraged, now is the time to draw political blood....