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July 15, 2009
Obama To RHAM Through His Socialized Medicine in Weeks
RAHM IT THROUGH: NATIONALIZED HEALTH CARE IN WEEKS!
Obama Open to Partisan Vote on Health-Care Overhaul, Aides Say
Barack Obama may rely only on Democrats to push health-care legislation through the U.S. Congress if Republican opposition doesn’t yield soon, two of the president’s top advisers said.
“Ultimately, this is not about a process, it’s about results,” David Axelrod, Obama’s senior political strategist, said during an interview in his White House office. “If we’re going to get this thing done, obviously time is a-wasting.”
Both Axelrod and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said taking a partisan route to enacting major health-care legislation isn’t the president’s preferred choice. Yet in separate interviews, each man left that option open.
“We’d like to do it with the votes of members of both parties,” Axelrod said. “But the worst result would be to not get health-care reform done.”
House Democrats today unveiled legislation totaling about $1 trillion that would expand health care to millions of Americans over the next decade by raising taxes on the wealthiest households. The Senate has yet to agree on a bill as Democratic lawmakers struggle to get Republican support.
Emanuel, making a theoretical case for a party-line vote, offered a definition of bipartisanship based not on roll-call votes but on whether Democrats have accepted Republican ideas during the process of negotiations.
And he said Democrats already have passed that test, pointing to Republican amendments that the Democratic-controlled Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee has adopted.
Republican Ideas
“That’s a test of bipartisanship -- whether you took ideas from both parties,” Emanuel said. “At the end of the day, the test isn’t whether they voted for it,” he said, referring to Republicans. “The test is whether the final product represented some of their ideas. And I think it will.”
Analysts and some veteran political practitioners have inveighed against a partisan approach on such a contentious issue.
They include two former Senate majority leaders -- Robert Dole, a Republican, and Tom Daschle, a Democrat, who is a close White House adviser on health-care issues.
During a joint appearance in June as the two unveiled their own bipartisan health-care proposal, Dole said he believed Democrats could pass a bill by a party-line vote, even as he expressed disapproval of such a tactic.
“I hope it doesn’t come to that,” Dole said. “If there’s not a Senate Republican vote for the package, then the American people are going to be very skeptical.”
Don’t Assume ‘Unanimity’
The Democrats have 60 votes in the Senate to 40 for the Republicans, and have a 255-178 advantage in the House, with two vacancies.
Daschle said he “couldn’t agree more” with Dole’s warning about the political fallout from a partisan vote.
Moreover, he expressed doubt that Democrats alone could prevail, because that scenario “assumes unanimity” he said, and that isn’t the case.
Time is running short for the House and Senate to pass the legislation before their August recess, the deadline Obama has set. In entertaining the possibility of a party-line vote on health care, Emanuel cited “reconciliation,” a parliamentary procedure that a dominant party can use to prevent the other party from blocking legislation.
“It’s not the first priority, or the second priority, or the third priority. We think we can get it done without it,” he said.
‘Alternative Vehicle’
Yet reconciliation “exists as an alternative vehicle, Emanuel said. “That’s what it was created for.”
With time running out, some Democrats have urged Obama to get more deeply involved in the nitty-gritty legislative negotiations.
Axelrod said the president is likely to do that.
“I can’t guarantee whether his sleeves will be rolled up or not,” he said. “Obviously, as this process evolves, I think he will be very clear about things.”
The White House and Congress are trying to agree on ways to cover the estimated 46 million uninsured Americans and rein in health-care costs.
National health care reform plan unveiled
A day after President Barack Obama prodded lawmakers to get moving on health care reform, House leaders unveiled a sweeping measure Tuesday that would force every American to obtain health insurance, prohibit insurers from denying coverage for pre-existing conditions and create a government-run insurance plan to compete with private insurers.
The legislation, which could cost more than $1 trillion, would be financed in part by a tax increase on the 2 million wealthiest taxpayers. Other costs would be offset by savings in the Medicare and Medicaid programs. The measure would help provide health insurance to an additional 37 million Americans, according to a preliminary report by the Congressional Budget Office.
Employers who don't provide health insurance coverage would have to pay a penalty of 8% of their payroll. Small businesses would get some exemptions. People who choose not to obtain coverage also would be penalized through a 2.5% tax on their incomes.
Calling the moment historic, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) rolled out details of far-reaching health care changes that have eluded Congress for decades. She expects things will be different this time around, predicting that the chamber will pass the bill in the next few weeks.
"Inaction is not an option for us," she said.
"We are going to accomplish what many people felt wouldn't happen in our lifetime," said Rep. Henry Waxman, another California Democrat who leads the House Energy and Commerce Committee and is one of the bill's main sponsors.
The legislation would raise $544 billion from a new income tax surcharge on single people making $280,000 a year and households making $350,000 and above. It also would draw $37 billion from other tax adjustments, about $500 billion from cuts to Medicare and Medicaid and about $200 billion from penalties paid by individuals and employers who don't obtain coverage.
Obama, who has made health care his top domestic priority, praised the House bill in a statement Tuesday.
"The House proposal will begin the process of fixing what's broken about our health care system, reducing costs for all, building on what works, and covering an estimated 97% of all Americans," he said.
But House Republicans were quick to criticize the legislation as too costly and full of stealthy tax increases.
"The price tag is daunting," said Rep. Paul Ryan, a Janesville Republican who is pushing his own health care reform legislation. "There's a way to fix this problem without new taxes or new spending."
Democrats counter that their legislation will reduce costs in the long run because health care costs are predicted to keep rising if Congress fails to act.
"We cannot afford to not deal with health care," said Rep. Gwen Moore, a Milwaukee Democrat. "These are investments as opposed to expenses."
Democratic leaders released their 1,000-page proposal amid pressure by Obama to produce legislation he could sign into law this year before the mid-term election campaigns get into full swing.
The president invited key members of Congress to the White House on Monday to encourage both the House and Senate to pass their versions of the legislation by the congressional recess in August.
"For those naysayers and cynics who think that this is not going to happen, don't bet against us," Obama said Monday.
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Wild Thing's comment........
OMG NO!!!
What the hell is the rush!!!!????!!! This will completely change our country into socialism. There is NO turning back once this happens. Why rush into it like this. He has been president now for what, something like 160 days plus. Does he have to do everything like someone on drugs all speeded up or something. God help us!!!!!
Is it their goal to destroy small businesses? Is that what they want? Certainly seems that way, because this will force small business owners to close.
It’s in keeping with the long-range goal of the Marxists - the government must have ownership of all of the means of production.
They are pushing this through because the economy is about to implode.
They have to rush things through before it can be stopped. The only thing I can think of is the reason Obama is doing EVERYTHING so fast is because he realizes if things take a long time to put through then more people will wake up and see what he is about as the economy gets worse and then he won't be able to do the Cap and Trade and the socialized medicine.
Cap and Trade,National Health Insurance and Immigration—they all want this rammed through before Americans, now with their minds on vacation, can mobilize and respond.
ALL of this is against our Constitution!!!!
Posted by Wild Thing at July 15, 2009 06:55 AM
Comments
Invite for Rahm Emmanuel.
In the street, stripped to the waist and we go for it, one v one. He wins, he gets to keep on being the useless excuse for a man that he is. I win, he packs up and goes home to never be heard from again.
Posted by: Glenn Cassel AMH1(AW) USN RET at July 15, 2009 09:52 AM
The hurry WT, is next year is an election year. They believe the 'voters' have short memories. So if it is done now next year will be soft compared to this nonsense. This time though, the voters will remember, especially when inflation kicks in, they start printing more and more money to pay for projects we don't need and bureaucratic Bullcrap. But they believe we will forget. Not with all the snow in Buffalo will I forget.
Glenn Take a coat, it will get cold waiting for that little punk to show up. He never will.
Posted by: Mark at July 15, 2009 10:05 AM
WT there is the fact that the democrats are dependent in the Senate on a number of very old men for their filubuster proof majority.
They depend on Ted Kennidy and others who could fall over dead yet today. One good heart attack and they may wind up with a person who has relatives who have been under National Health care in another country or listens to their constituents.
Posted by: Avitar at July 15, 2009 02:38 PM
The obama group is going to rush through their evil program of socialized health care while they still control the Congress. Once a bill is passed and a program activated, it is never rescinded. No sunset provision. We are stuck for life with the damn things.
Posted by: TomR at July 15, 2009 06:06 PM
Heh Heh, the RNC picked a very bad time to call for a Panhandling session just minutes ago. All during one of my finest speeches the guy on the other end kept saying, hello are you still there, I understand you are upset. I coughed up words I didn't know I knew, I then told him if he had it recorded to play it back to Michael Steele, the answer is no more money!!! We have, what?, 7 out of 100 senators challenging Obama and his Marxism, we may as well have the Republican motto of:
"We Are The Loyal party That works For The Democratic Party"
Beyond that handful the rest are no better than Turd Kennedy.
Posted by: Jack at July 15, 2009 10:24 PM
Glenn Cassel AMH1(AW) USN RET, I will
be cheering you on and so will millions
of others.
Posted by: Wild Thing at July 16, 2009 12:41 AM
Mark, thanks, I bet your right. I really,
really hate this rush into destruction.
Posted by: Wild Thing at July 16, 2009 12:43 AM
Avitar, oh yes there is that too. Like
you said Kennedy and right away I can
think of two others not well physically.
Posted by: Wild Thing at July 16, 2009 12:45 AM
Tom, thank you, that really worries
me too, it cannot be reversed.
Posted by: Wild Thing at July 16, 2009 12:51 AM
Jack,LOL that was great.
Posted by: Wild Thing at July 16, 2009 12:54 AM
