Liberal Revolt Pushes Obamacare to the Brink

[Missourian]

Wednesday, 16 Dec 2009 01:48 PM

By: David A. Patten

The Obama administration's support for an individual insurance mandate without a public option is triggering what appears to be a full-fledged liberal revolt against the Senate's healthcare compromise, and for the first time raises the realistic prospect that reform could die amidst internecine Democratic bickering.
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An ominous sign resonant of the contentious 2007 standoff over immigration reform: The conservative right and the hardcore left are both beginning to attack the current proposal, terming it a "monstrosity" and lambasting its cost.
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"Insurance companies win," DailyKos founder Markos Moulitsas declared Tuesday. "Time to kill this monstrosity coming out of the Senate."
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If healthcare reform ultimately crashes and burns – which most experts still consider unlikely -- it will ironically stem not from Republican opposition but rather Democrats' inability to stave off an insurgency within their own caucus.
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Liberal Revolt Pushes Obamacare to the Brink
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In related news:

Poll: Public sours on Obama's overhaul plan


NBC News and news services
updated 59 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - As Democrats struggle to pass a health care overhaul bill by Christmas, a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released Tuesday found support for the reform plan has sunk to its lowest level since April 2009.

Just 32 percent of respondents said that President Barack Obama's health care overhaul proposal is a good idea, with 47 percent responding that the plan is a bad idea.

Poll: Public sours on Obama's overhaul plan
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[JakeStarkey]

Not at all.

This was set in concrete more than four months ago. The Dem lib and con factions are squabbling, but the public option will not sink the bill.

Sit down, loonies, nothing to see.

 

[Missourian]

The U-S Senate continues grinding away on the healthcare overhaul bill, hoping to be done before Christmas. But Senator McCaskill would not be surprised to still be working on the bill then.


“It’s healthcare all the time here,” she says.


McCaskill says the Congressional Budget Office’s cost estimate is essential before the bill can move forward because several senators have said they’ll vote against it if the CBO does not show it to be budget neutral, or better.

McCaskill Missouri.net
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[Political Junky]

Not at all.

This was set in concrete more than four months ago. The Dem lib and con factions are squabbling, but the public option will not sink the bill.

Sit down, loonies, nothing to see.

I agree, it's a giveaway to the health insurance companies.
Medicare for Everyone is the answer.

 

[mtlhdtodd]

I don't care how it dies or who kills it. Just as long as it dies.