Mad props to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood for trying to talk some sanity to his Republican brethren.
If I were still a member of Congress, I would proudly vote for the bill that President Barack Obama is championing and I would urge my colleagues to do the same, not because I don’t believe in fiscal discipline, but because I do…
…The bill that will be voted on will reduce the deficit by about $1 trillion over the next two decades, and will reduce waste, fraud and abuse in the health care system. It will slow the rate of growth in health care costs and put America back on the path toward fiscal sustainability.
The bill will give families and small business owners greater control over their own health care. It will expand coverage to more than 31 million Americans and will include tax credits to individuals, families and small businesses, giving them the same choices that members of Congress have to purchase private coverage. It will create state-based exchanges that will bring competition and transparency to insurance markets. And it will put in place common-sense rules of the road to hold insurance companies accountable and end some of the most outrageous practices of the insurance industry.
Never again will people be denied coverage because they have a pre-existing condition. Never again will insurance companies be able to raise rates unfairly — like the 60 percent hikes expected in Illinois.
While the ultimate vote on health care may not be bipartisan, the ultimate bill certainly is.
And, while Dennis Kucinich talks a good game, he’s ultimately just as full of shit as John Boehner. He should listen to Ray LaHood. Dennis thinks his vote is worth more than anyone else’s. He needs to learn from the pros. It’s okay to play hardball with your vote up to a point. But you take the best deal you can get. That’s the difference between Ben Nelson, who actually got his language in the bill, and grandstanders like Bart Stupak who lost his.
It’d be one thing if Dennis was bluffing. But he isn’t. He’d sink the entire thing if he could.
good words from Lahood.
The second decade savings are a bunch of bunk. No one can tell the future that far in advance.
That said, LaHood has a great statement but the Goopers are a bunch of animals.
I think a whole decade is a stupid thing to go by as well. 5-year predictions are hard enough to make, and they’re not that accurate.
And yes, Kucinich is being an idiot at this point. If he kills this bill….
Fuck Kucinich. He has lost an enormous amount of political goodwill in the Democratic party, forever.
Actually the savings could be more since the CBO has a history of underestimating savings.
Do we know if Nelson’s amendment is staying or going? Because I hear conflicting stories. He may yet end up in the same boat as Stupak.
La Hood speaks sense and Kucinich just proves yet again he needs to get a grip!!!
Nate Silver has done some really interesting analysis that reveals Kennis Kucinich as the most useless Democrat in Congress. In fact, 22 Republicans have a better record of supporting Democratic bills than Kucinich. If Kucinich wants to be a liberal obstructionist, he should run as a liberal independent with no money or support from the Democratic Party and certainly be stripped of any chairmanships.
Here’s the link to that.
So the Dems can’t afford to support one liberal while they’re busy supporting DINOs like Lincoln, Nelson, and another dozen or more? So much for standing up for Democratic Party principles.
DaveW is right. If you run as a Democrat, after the primary, the Party must support you if you need and stand a chance of winning. Look at the DCCC money and effort wasted on Parker Griffith and Eric Massa. If the Democratic Party stops supporting politicians who are limited assets, it may as well disband.
Yeah, here’s the crux of the problem: until the left wing is willing to vote en bloc against legislation, there is absolutely no reason to take them as seriously as the Blue Dogs are taken. The Blue Dogs are willing to sink legislation. Pwogwessives always fold in the end and go along with whatever mediocre, pre-compromised crap leadership thinks it can get passed.
The problem with Kucinich’s HCR opposition is that, unlike the various Blue Dog interventions in this legislation, he hasn’t got a bloc of anyone with him and we are at the end game. Until lefties can pull together a solidary group that puts forward good legislative ideas and stands behind them, dissent like this looks like petulant obstructionism – kind of like the entire Republican congressional delegation.