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Healthcare Part II


Elrostar

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Everybody weep together in unison.

I will confess that my interest in following the revisions has greatly diminished over time as each revisions comes out to be more ineffectual, more bloated, and less intelligent. It's like watching a criminal dying from the thousand cuts, each cut taking away a sliver of flesh. At some point, it is just too grotesque to keep watching.

At this point, I'm still hopeful that the Democrats can pull something of a compromise out of it, but I've already accepted that whatever passes will not address the core issues that make health care reform a necessity. We'll have band-aid solutions to a problem that requires massive stitches.

All hail incremental policy changes.

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I will confess that my interest in following the revisions has greatly diminished over time as each revisions comes out to be more ineffectual, more bloated, and less intelligent. It's like watching a criminal dying from the thousand cuts, each cut taking away a sliver of flesh. At some point, it is just too grotesque to keep watching.

At this point, I'm still hopeful that the Democrats can pull something of a compromise out of it, but I've already accepted that whatever passes will not address the core issues that make health care reform a necessity. We'll have band-aid solutions to a problem that requires massive stitches.

All hail incremental policy changes.

It's actually alot less bleak then it seems.

The thing is, there's all sorts of procedural crap that must be followed. And all of it, all this compromise and amendment and blah blah blah is, basically, pointless. I doubt much of it will ever make the final bill.

Basically, everyone is waiting on the Senate. Once the Senate finally gets off it's ass, Pelosi will have the House pass their own bill again (with, very very likely, a public plan). That will probably take a few days tops.

Then Obama, Reid, Pelosi and some others (none of these others being Republican apparently) will sit down in a room somewhere and hammer out the ACTUAL bill.

This bill will be the one passed. (And it's looking VERY likely to pass. The newest compromise is apparently the Blue Dogs will be forced to vote for Cloture, but once that's out of the way they will be allowed to save face by voting against the bill, since by that point all that will be needed is a simple majority).

So don't worry too much. Nothing worth hearing is being said right now.

Hell, it's looking up these days. The Senate Finance Committee barely voted against the Public Plan, and they are the most conservative committee .... period.

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I can't believe how much it feels like the momentum has shifted in the last month. Rumors on MSNBC now (they claim not rumors but confirmed story) that the Democratic leadership is going to threaten to revoke chair positions from any Democrat who won't allow the bill to get to the floor.

Sounds like a shot over Rockefeller's bow, in particular.

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You think? I was thinking more likely that it was pointed at Nelson, Conrad, or Landrieu.

Could be. Am I behind? My readings indicated that Rockefeller was a big question mark as far as the Baucus bill getting out of committee. He also has a couple chairmanships to lose, including his position as full chair of the Commerce, Science, and Transportation committee. So does Wyden now that you mention it, though they are subcommittee chairmanships.

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You think? I was thinking more likely that it was pointed at Nelson, Conrad, or Landrieu. I don't know which of them have chair positions that could be revoked and I don't know about Jay Rockefeller's either (the story didn't say who it was aimed at), but I just personally suspect that no person to the more leftist position like Rockefeller would ever actually vote no in the end. He and Wyden are acting like the bills may not be liberal enough but I would be shocked if they actually don't contribute to getting to 60, no matter what the final version of the bill is.

Well, I don't care who they're shooting at as long as the gun is out. Time for us lefties to pull together, shut our big pie-holes and not let the perfect be the enemy of the good. In terms of policy, this reform is too important for the nation; in terms of politics, too important for the party. We have to pass it.

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