YES! Sweet, Democrats Passed A Useless and Corrupt Healthcare Reform Bill

[dickjose]

Awesome, who would have thunk it would take twenty friggin million dollars of insurance and drug industry lobbying money to make Democrats pass a more USELESS, and EXPENSIVE, and ANTI-REFORMIST bill.

Yippee! Great day for corrupt Democrat politicians and the healthcare industry. Party on. Yes Obama! One Big Ass Mistake America

this bill is worth the 100 years wait.

 

[chanel]

Its something. We'll improve on it. But I agree, it sucks.

What did Bush do? Costs went up 191% on his watch.

The GOP allowed the insurance company to raise rates unfairly, just like they let the oil companies create a fake energy shortage and jack up rates.

We're getting ripped off.

Expand coverage to 30 million.

A majority of senators support this reform, and the Republican Party wants to prevent it from coming up for a vote. I think the American people are entitled to a vote
Insurance companies and Republicans have proven to prefer profit over health care it's
time do something.

The more I read about it, the more I like.

I found this: Who's gonna pay? People making over $200,000 a year. A proposed 0.5 percent increase in the Medicare payroll tax was bumped up to 0.9 percent in the latest version, putting the tax at 2.35 percent on income over $200,000 a year for individuals, $250,000 for couples.

Drop in the bucket. But the people making this kind of money will cry because they want more for less. Who doesn't? Sorry, it isn't free to live in a country so great that they can make over $200K a year. They should consider themselves lucky. We have control of the government now. Bushanomics is over. The Dems are the party of the people.

The Dems are the party of the people? Which people? The polls say the majority did not want this.

And couples making over $250K are not lucky. They are smart. You should thank them every once in a while for picking up your tab.

 

[RetiredGySgt]

You may want to go back and check the VOTE on the Civil Rights act. You will find the majority of Republicans voted for it while a majority of democrats voted against it.

 

[Big Black Dog]

Yes America: Its the Christmas Season

What did you get this year?

President Obama gave you

1. Healthcare reform
2. Global warming treaty

Yes, he did. Guess what? Neither one of these "gifts" are worth a damn. Just like so many flashy things you get at Christmas, it is nicely wrapped, cost a lot of money, seems to be in big demand BUT when you open the package and read the fine print it doesn't really do anything and it's broken the first time you try to use it. Yep. Typical liberal Democratic Christmas present. How do we exchange this "excellent" (sic) gift for something more people want?

 

[mudwhistle]

Fitting that this was done at Midnight....

 

[Oddball]

Yes America: Its the Christmas Season

What did you get this year?

President Obama gave you

1. Healthcare reform
2. Global warming treaty

Republicans gave you:

1. Arguments why Americans don't need these things

As if we needed any more evidence that Fabian socialists see the gubmint as Santa Claus.

 

[Claudette]

Flawed social insurance programs tend to get better? Don't they mean more expensive?

Hold onto your wallets folks. Next comes AMNESTY! The CBO better start re-crunching those numbers.

Couldnt' agree more. The Govt has a long history of underestimatinig cost and this peice of shit healthcare bill will be no different.

WE all better put a lock and chain on our wallets because these bozos are gonna steal us blind.

 

[Meister]

RW....the government never gives us anything, we will paying for it for generations to come.
More like, look what obama stuck us with.

 

[EriktheRed]

I like how Steve Benen describes the Senate GOP's behavior on this whole debate:

POOR CHESS PLAYERS​

If it seemed as if the vast majority of Senate Democrats were acting with a stronger-than-expected commitment to getting health care done this year, it wasn't an accident.

Faced with Republican resistance that many Democrats saw as driven more by politics than policy disagreements, Senate Democrats in recent days gained new determination to bridge differences among themselves and prevail over the opposition.

Lawmakers who attended a private meeting between Mr. Obama and Senate Democrats at the White House on Tuesday pointed to remarks there by Senator Evan Bayh, Democrat of Indiana, as providing some new inspiration.

Mr. Bayh said that the health care measure was the kind of public policy he had come to Washington to work on, according to officials who attended the session, and that he did not want to see the satisfied looks on the faces of Republican leaders if they succeeded in blocking the measure.

Now, I happen to like that sentiment quite a bit, but let's pause to appreciate who made it: Evan Bayh? Senate Republicans have been so irresponsible, so petty, and so exasperating, they turned Evan Bayh into a Democratic partisan? The same Evan Bayh who said, as recently as July, he wouldn't rule out supporting a Republican filibuster?



<snip>

They may [] make significant gains in the midterm elections, especially if long-time proponents of health care reform decide that this health care reform fails to meet their expectations, and, instead of fighting for policy improvements, decide to just stay home.

But since repeal of the policy is all but impossible, Republicans will still be stuck with a ambitious national health policy they could have made far more to their liking if they hadn't been such knee-jerk reactionaries.

The Washington Monthly

 

[Meister]

This wasn't a popular process with either party for the most part. It took a lot of bribery to pay off the democrats to get the legislation to this point.
Anyone who says different is either a liar, or a partisan liar...you get to pick your own poison.

 

[Navy1960]

After having read the entire thread it strikes me that after passage of a key vote on this healthcare bill (notice I left out the reform part) is Gunny is quite correct this bill has to go to conference and there are many House members that are VERY upset over the Public Option issue and the Abortion issue. One other thing of note here, the platform of the Democrat Party states specifically that healthcare reform HAS to include a public option. Ask youself, why would your own party drop even it's own party planks in order to pass this bill? Could it be that it has little to do with reform? and more to do with the appearence of a win? Reform should include lowering premium costs, guess what, according to the CBO up to 72 Million Americans will actually see a rise in premiums of 10 to 13%. A reform bill should address the cost of prescription drugs, this one does not lower the cost of one single drug. A reform bill should make health insurance lower and more available to all, guess what it does not of those things. It should raise the QUALITY of healthcare delivered and tell me with cutting the very pulic healthcare service in the bill and lowering payments how do you propose that RAISES Quality? Frankly, it's not Republicans that have blocked reform, it democrats that abandoned the principles of their very own party and left all those who sought change and voted for on the side of the road in order ro secure a political win. These are not the people that represent you and if you want real change then I suggest you even if you are for Universal healthcare let them know that next time you vote.

 

[EriktheRed]

Bribery after bribery, and the leftist horde is silent.

Uh, no, not really . There are plenty who have decried this and pointed to Sens. Nelson and Lieberman as examples of Senators who are in the pockets of insurance companies. Not to mention there's still a divide among Dems about whether this bill should have been killed or not because of the compromises made.

Even those of us who ultimately approve do so with clothespins on our noses.

 

[Titanic Sailor]

I have no idea what you are approving, and it looks like the "hold their nose" folks can't explain it either.

 

[EriktheRed]

I have no idea what you are approving, and it looks like the "hold their nose" folks can't explain it either.

I'm approving something substandard but hopefully an incremental first step towards something better, which would likely be even more difficult to achieve if this crappy first step failed.

And like I said earlier, the idea that the "leftist hordes" are silent on the shortcomings isn't true. Markos Moulitsas himself was on MTP yesterday trashing this bill.

 

[EriktheRed]

...and it looks like the "hold their nose" folks can't explain it either.

Oh yeah, and here's one who apparently can:


Ezra Klein - Change to the Senate bill

 

[Titanic Sailor]

As it should be. Supposedly decades of planning, and this is the sellout we are all supposed to be happy with? A first step toward what? I mean really, what were the goals of healthcare reform? I can assure you, we all know what the goals are, and it was 180 degrees out from what Democrats are trying to do to us. The insurance companies are loving life now, 12 month highs on their stock and climbing.

What in this bill is the first step of your perceived goals?

And then explain why this wasn't done yesterday or one hundred years ago.

 

[Titanic Sailor]

If this was a good bill to someone, they have some explaining to do. This is an entirely Democrat show, so let's hear what the good parts are..........

 

[Titanic Sailor]

Ukulele Boy Is a Hit on the Web

 

[Titanic Sailor]

Ukulele Boy Is a Hit on the Web

 

[EriktheRed]

As it should be. Supposedly decades of planning, and this is the sellout we are all supposed to be happy with?

It was figured out a while ago that if anything passes, it's not likely to make anyone happy. That's what happens you have to compromise a lot to get something like this passed.

A first step toward what? I mean really, what were the goals of healthcare reform? I can assure you, we all know what the goals are, and it was 180 degrees out from what Democrats are trying to do to us.

Hopefully a first step towards something like the swiss have, for one thing.

The insurance companies are loving life now, 12 month highs on their stock and climbing.

Yeah, these for-profit entities are gonna make even more $$$ off this. Hooray for capitalism, eh?

What in this bill is the first step of your perceived goals?

Read the article.

And then explain why this wasn't done yesterday or one hundred years ago.

Something called Medicare - which was a pretty big deal at the time, but is now an accepted part of our healthcare system - was done less than 100 years ago. As far as why this particular bill wasn't done yesterday, ask the Repubs and Blue-Dogs like Nelson, not to mention that little weasel Lieberman.

Maybe the best answer to your last question is in this quote from Sen. DeMint:

"If we’re able to stop Obama on this it will be his Waterloo. It will break him," he said.