Say What? Senior Dem: Kill the Senate health reform bill and start over!

[andymays]

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/73493-senior-dem-kill-the-healthcare-bill-and-start-over

Excerpt:

The Senate's healthcare bill is fatally flawed, a senior Democrat atop a powerful committee said on Wednesday.

Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.), the chairwoman of the House Rules Committee and co-chairwoman of the Congressional Pro-Choice Caucus, said that the Senate's bill is so flawed that it's unlikely to be resolved in conference with the bill to have passed the House.

"The Senate health care bill is not worthy of the historic vote that the House took a month ago," Slaughter wrote in an opinion piece for CNN's website.

[ArlJim78]

this is the very reason that John Fund writes in the WSJ (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704254604574614183270356274.html#a rticleTabs%3Darticle)that Reid and Pelosi might try a new trick, one that keeps the bill out of conference altogether, and behind closed doors where they can control it better. those conference committees are going to tear this thing to shreds, and you know all the ones who didn't get their bribes, oops I mean their compromises, the first time will be angling for attention this time. just a theory i guess but at this point nothing would suprise me. frankly if they do this i think there would be big revolt in congress not only by Republicans.
______________________________________________

By JOHN FUND (http:///search/search_center.html?KEYWORDS=JOHN+FUND&ARTICLESEARCHQUERY_PARSER=bylineAND)

Look for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to try to circumvent the traditional conference committee process by which the different versions of health care reform passed by each house will be reconciled. If so, it will be the latest example of violating principles of transparency and accountability in the single-minded pursuit of legislative victory.

Conferences involving members from both houses are messy things. They are usually conducted in public and often televised, and can produce a compromise version of the bill that leaves rank-and-file members tempted to vote against the final version. That could be perilous in the case of health care since it's likely to pass without a vote to spare in the Senate and the House's version passed by only five votes.

[ArlJim78]

she'll sing a different tune after they grease her with $100 million or so.

[ElKabong]

Another good WSJ piece on this disaster.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704304504574610194107807878.html?m od=rss_opinion_main&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wsj%2Fxml%2Frss%2F3_7041+%28W SJ.com%3A+Opinion%29&utm_content=My+Yahoo

In other words, controlling insurance costs is enormously important, unless your very costly insurance is provided by an important Democratic constituency.

The Reid bill also gives a pass on the excise tax to the 17 states with the highest health costs. This provision applied to only 10 states in a prior version, but other Senators made a fuss. So controlling health costs is enormously important, except in the places where health costs need the most control.

[bigmack]

I'd take a real close look at watching sausage being made over this bill -

"I don't think there was a dry eye in the caucus room" :cool:


http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u70/macktime/12_23_09_23_04_37.png

Courtesy The LaTimes :lol: