Froma Harrop Democrats shouldn’t give up on health care reform Froma Harrop is a nationally syndicated columnist.
The miracle in Massachusetts was made possible through a bigger miracle four years ago. That’s when the commonwealth became the first and so far only state to guarantee near-universal health coverage. The Republican winner of the Senate seat long held by Ted Kennedy, Scott Brown, voted for the legislation as a state senator. In vowing to be the key 41st vote against the Democrats’ health care reforms, Brown carefully added that Massachusetts voters should not worry about their own health care security: They already have it through the state program. Thus, Massachusetts was the worst state in which to test the wider public’s feelings about national health care reform. Polls showed people in Massachusetts, as elsewhere, unhappy with the legislation in Washington. But those numbers include many who thought the reforms too weak or were simply disgusted by the legislative sausage-making. And whether these proposals were better than nothing is a meaningless question to people who already have something. The foes of health reform have long used a divide-and-conquer strategy in crafting an anti-reform coalition. They pit those who have government-guaranteed health care, such as the elderly, against those who don’t. Rest assured that if there were no Medicare, the older folk with tea bags stapled to their hats would be on the other side of the barricades. Medicare is the most socialized element of the American health care system. ...............>>>>>...................>>>>..........http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r00701&AppName=1
Re Jan. 21 article, “Senate seat loss drives changes in Obama plans”: It occurs to me that the good populace of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts have spoken their communal minds on the subject of President Obama’s health care plan — their latest and, thus, most accurate mind. In this statewide and well-attended referendum, Scott Brown put the question to them. They agreed with Scott and said “no!” Decisively, given the circumstances. Was not Teddy’s Senate seat thought of as the most secure in the nation? Therefore, if the state’s interim senator should vote “yes!” on a hastened presentation of the issue in Congress, I will have to wonder exactly who he thinks he must represent. The concerned people of Massachusetts, his constituents however briefly, or the partisan interests of that cabal known as the Democratic Party? Such a thing should not be allowed, but if it is, there will be repercussions.
If the Dems follow the advice from Froma there will be many seats lost by the Dems in Congress. What she doesn't yet understand is the people in Mass. and in the rest of this country aren't opposed to health-care reform just the bill that the Dems wrote that is filled with pork, exemptions for unions, taxing of health-care plans, deals for drug companies, and even better deals for some states that the rest of the country wouldn't get. There was no tort reform and no buying health-care across state lines in the bill but there was a big cut in Medicare program. The bill gave the federal government way too much control of our health-care and finances and created a massive bureaucratic structure to administer the plan.
They're not going to "ram" healthcare. In fact, they're going to take the slow road to socialism as U.S. Rep Scott Murphy, D-Glens Falls, announced this morning in the Times Union.
Murphy says shrink health care bill Congressman looks back on year since announcing candidacy By LEIGH HORNBECK, Staff writer First published in print: Monday, January 25, 2010
U.S. Rep. Scott Murphy, D-Glens Falls, would like to see the health care reform bill broken into "bite-sized" pieces, starting with abolishing lifetime limits on health insurance.
... Murphy, who will turn 40 on Tuesday, has proven to be a careful, conservative Democrat. With an eye on his agricultural constituents, he sought changes in legislation to reduce carbon emissions -- the ''cap and trade'' bill -- before he voted in favor of it. He voted against the second Cash for Clunkers program because he didn't think there had been a proper accounting of how the money was spent in the first round.
... In December, he introduced legislation that aims to curb fraud in Medicare, Medicaid and other federal health programs by forcing government screenings in cases where there is "a significant risk of fraudulent activity" by providers or other program participants. The legislation also would pave the way for stepped-up oversight of some providers, including unannounced site visits and inspections. The bill is in front of the House Ways & Means Committee.
Voting against the House health care bill -- Murphy was one of only 39 Democrats to do so -- put him at odds with the White House. The congressman no longer drops President Barack Obama's name as he did on the campaign trail. When asked about the plight of his party in light of Republican Scott Brown's stunning U.S. Senate win in Massachusetts, Murphy talks about bipartisanship. ...
As the health care negotiations drag on, consider the latest reported agreement between the White House and organized labor: insurance plans that are the product of collective bargaining (union) agreements will be exempt from any “Cadillac-plan” taxes until 2018. If this is in the final bill, you will have the situation where two Americans making the same money with the same-level health insurance plan will be taxed differently simply because of whom they work for. How can our politicians look us in the eye and say this is good for America?
Danny Williams going to U.S. for heart surgery Last Updated: Tuesday, February 2, 2010 | 7:21 AM NT
Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams is set to undergo heart surgery this week in the United States.
CBC News confirmed Monday that Williams, 60, left the province earlier in the day and will have surgery later in the week.
The premier's office provided few details, beyond confirming that he would have heart surgery and saying that it was not necessarily a routine procedure.
Deputy Premier Kathy Dunderdale is scheduled to hold a news conference Tuesday morning.
She's expected to provide more details about Williams's condition, as well as how the provincial government will function during his absence.
CBC reporter David Cochrane said Williams appeared to be in good health recently. He described the premier as "fairly active," playing pick-up hockey at least once a week when work permits.
This article doesn't state where, but I have heard that he's going to somewhere in New Jersey for the surgery.
Well someone should tell her to move to NYS where we give the farm away at taxpayer's expense. MEDICAID FOR ALL! Or perhaps she could move to Mass., where there everyone HAS TO BE covered. Or perhaps she could try to apply for SSI.
Listen....don't be swayed by these bleeding hearts, as horrible as they may be. We do not need universal health care. We need insurance reform, tort reform AND open state boarders for more competition aka lower prices.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
True Bumble, but it says in the progressive hand book that once you get control of health-care and energy you will have control of the whole country and that's what this is all about power and control. Health-care should be done in small pieces and not to try to reform 1/6th of the nations economy all at once during a deep recession.
fear of death via starving/freezing/anarchy.......the BEST podium pucks.....oh dear oh me oh my......how in the hell did we even populate the planet....
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
W.H. plans televised health meeting By: Carrie Budoff Brown and Mike Allen February 7, 2010 04:58 PM EST
President Barack Obama is planning to host a televised meeting with Republican and Democratic congressional leaders on health care reform.
The Feb. 25 meeting is an attempt to reach across the aisle but not a signal that the president plans to start over, as Republicans have demanded, a White House official said.
“I want to come back [after the Presidents Day congressional recess] and have a large meeting — Republicans and Democrats — to go through, systematically, all the best ideas that are out there and move it forward,” Obama said in an interview with Katie Couric during CBS’s Super Bowl pre-game show Sunday.
Obama said he wants to “look at the Republican ideas that are out there.”
“If we can go, step by step, through a series of these issues and arrive at some agreements, then, procedurally, there’s no reason why we can’t do it a lot faster the process took last year,” he said.
In a statement, the official said, “What the president will not do is let this moment slip away. He hopes to have Republican support in doing so — but he is going to move forward on health reform.”
Obama first suggested reopening talks with Republicans during his State of the Union address last month, and reiterated the call at a Democratic fundraiser Thursday, but the White House had kept details of his plan under wraps until Sunday.
The idea has been met previously with skepticism by the congressional leaders of both parties. Republicans say they see little room for compromise because the bill should be scrapped, while Democrats argue they have already tried a bipartisan approach, but failed.
But since the Democratic loss in the Massachusetts Senate race, Obama has been forced to rework his legislative strategy – both by striking a more bipartisan tone, and returning to his campaign pledge of providing more transparency. He’s been dogged by questions about why he failed to live up to his campaign promise of televising the health care negotiations on C-SPAN. .............................>>>>...............>>>>................http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0210/32646.html
Obama didn’t need GOP, still he couldn’t get anything done
Re your Feb. 7 editorial, “They won’t join, so fight ’em”: To paraphrase, you state Obama’s biggest mistake regarding health reform and other initiatives was holding out for bipartisan support, which, you said, was “admirable,” and that Republicans’ behavior toward Obama has been “most unsettling.” Those statements ignore the facts that: 1) Obama had a super-majority in both houses and they could do whatever they/ he desired without the Republicans; 2) Obama stated, soon after being elected, “I won, you lost”; 3) Republicans were totally shut out of the formation of both health care bills — [they] were written entirely by the Democrats; 4) the Republicans and the press “CSPAN” were shut out [of] the reconciliation process; 5) the Republicans had no hand in the back-room deals made with Democratic Sens. Ben Nelson and Mary Landrieu and Independent Joe Lieberman. Yet you further state that “it’s been clear for months that Republicans were determined to obstruct him [Obama] at any cost.” [Columnist Charles] Krauthammer was right on target [Feb. 6 Gazette] when he stated, “The dim, led by the malicious, vote incorrectly.”
NYS mandated insurance companies to offer dependent health coverage through age 29! I guess the only requirements is that they are unmarried and has no access to insurance at their job.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Democrats say that despite all the bad-news polls, it would still be better to pass a sweeping bill than make small changes or none at all.
WASHINGTON -- Congressional Democrats cautiously embraced President Barack Obama's new health care plan as their last hope for enacting a comprehensive overhaul. Republicans trashed it, dimming prospects for any deal at the bipartisan health care summit that Obama has scheduled for Thursday to try to jump-start the debate.
A year after calling on Congress to act to reform the nation's costly and inefficient health care system, Obama finally produced a plan of his own Monday. It used legislation already passed by the Senate as its starting point, making changes designed to appeal to House Democrats.
Even after months in which health care gradually turned from Obama's top domestic priority into a political albatross, Obama opted for one last attempt at full-scale legislation. It costs around $1 trillion over a decade, requires nearly everyone to be insured or pay a fine, and puts new requirements on insurance companies, including -- in a new twist responding to recent rate hikes -- giving the federal government authority to block big premium increases.
In the end Obama may have to settle for much less than what he proposed Monday -- or nothing at all. But many Democrats said that despite all the bad-news polls and the loss of their filibuster-proof Senate supermajority in a special-election upset, it would still be better to pass a sweeping bill than make small changes or none at all.
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