Democratic Senators Summoned to White House

Don’t invite the R’s to the party if they’re unwilling to even make an effort. I’m betting that there will be a meeting with the few that have shown some interest, but the remainder will have to prove that they’re willing to discuss before being part of the solution.

Ya know, Obama may just be one of the most “incapable”, President in recent memory, in reaching across the isle.
That is going to be a very problematic situation, for everyone, as time goes on.

-That is going to be a very problematic situation, for everyone, as time goes on.-
Not if you’re Iran or Al Qaeda or Russia or the PRC…They’re gonna have a field day.

So much for working together! Lets just get rid of anyone who does not think like the President. We could save money. If you don’t agree you are out – period. That way no special meetings everyone all agrees the world is perfect

Last night he asked for bi-paritsan support, and yet he asks NO Republicans to join him??? This IS the most LYING President EVER!!!

Why no Republicans? Because for 8 weeks, all they’ve done is shun debate and espouse circus sideshow tactics & fear-mongering freak-show ticketry. They’re not serious about reform at all, except for giving rich people tax breaks.
He’s getting the Democrats together, because now, as always, they’re the only ones actually interested in legislating.
All that’s beside the point, though: if he wants to meet with the Democrats who’ve taken issue with health care reform— then he wants to speak with DEMOCRATS who’ve taken issue with health care reform. Why would he invite Republicans to THAT meeting?

It’s the blue dogs, people. Those constituents that are in their states need to pay close attention to what your senator says after they leave this meeting.

“He doesn’t invite Republicans because they will not agree with his communistic babble……”
___________________________________
It’s a Democratic strategy meeting. Do you think Republicans invite Democrats to their strategy sessions?
Your attempts to smear the President get thinner and thinner with every exposure.

I like Senator Mark Warner. I wanted to vote for him for President, actually, bfore he dropped out of the primary. He’s an up and coming national leader of the first order. I will be very interested in hearing what he says.

-Or at least stop their lying, smear and fear campaign.-
I’m heading to Brooks Brothers. Need anything?

Oh, you work for Goldman, now it all fits, this is why you support Obama! People know exactly what is going on

Smear is what everyone did to George Bush, what we are saying now is the truth, dems seem to get confused when someone speaks the truth……..

They ns whatsoever,
***
Oops. that’s supposed to say: They offered up and conceded nothing whatsoever

Sorry, Aly, gotta call you out on this one:
***
Yes, that is what he said to the AMA and honestly I was surprised as he’d mentioned being willing to bargain a bit earlier (note I cited a May article). Nobody took him up on it! That was my point. And I think that’s the problem. Nobody is willing to be bipartisan– they’re digging in to one side or the other and not saying things like, let’s do comprehensive medical malpractice reform with a trigger for a public option. Right now, honestly–not trying to be a jerk, I think the Republicans outside of the senators from Maine, view “bipartisanship” as Dems giving in to a Republican viewpoint which seems so ridiculous to me. There’s no give and take.

@ Aly,
“Right now, honestly–not trying to be a jerk, I think the Republicans outside of the senators from Maine, view “bipartisanship” as Dems giving in to a Republican viewpoint which seems so ridiculous to me. There’s no give and take.”
wheresmymoney captured some of my points, no need to backtrack.
Comments:
- Dems do not need Republicans to be on board, they have the votes
- Dems are seeking Republicans so that if (when) ObamaCare fails, they (Dems) can spread the blame
- “Giving in” is part of compromise… the Dems want Republican support, therefore, they (Dems) must be willing to compromise if it is important to receive Republican support).
- Again, Republicans are not holding up ObamaCare, Democrats are the obstacle
While Obama talks a good game, Republicans (just as they were during development of the “Stimulus” bill) have been largely shut out of negotiations. When was the last time Obama summoned Republican leadership to the WH to talk healthcare?

John | Sep 10, 2009 1:58:24 PM – Did you speak of ACRON when President Bush included them in every one of his budgets and gave them millions?

-As for being a Pelosi-minded elitist, I don’t consider her an elitist-
Except for her vineyard, her unwillingness to fly commercial and her millions, but beyond that, no more than Ted Kennedy. Great view he had, no windmills!

LOL! summoned… no worries about mark warner… he’ll roll over. just like a dog*.
*apologies to all dogs.

” If Republicans haven’t been invited to speak to the President since April, how do you explain that Olympia Snowe has spoken to him several times since April?”
I’ll give you that. Obama and crew think they can peel her off just as they did for the “stimulus”. Anyone else?
I’m still not on-board that “Obama offered tort reform and no one took him up on it in May”. There may be an article out there, but it doesn’t seem to be a serious attempt given that (a.) it was not widely publicized, (b.) Obama firmly backtracked just one month later.

@ Alyson
“Compromise means “giving in” as a two-way street. But I agree that we’re likely going to have the votes and not need the Republicans, particularly if the instapoll and focus group numbers of the speech hold up.”
Dems have the votes! Particularly if reconciliation is chosen route given Kennedy’s seat is vacant and Byrd is ill. What do the installpoll and focus group numbers of the speech have to do with the number of Dem votes available? Ah, yes…you are on to something… the speech numbers need to hold up so that nervous Blue Dogs/moderate Dems can vote yes to ObamaCare (which again illustrates my point – nervous Dems are obstacle to ObamaCare, not Repbulicans).

Dems have the votes!
***
Yes, I know. I said that. But the president wanted to be all post-partisan and stuff. It actually drives me bananas sometimes. I think he wanted to find a compromise that would make both sides of the aisle at least a little happy. Listen, progressives get a little sick of the bipartisan thing. I note when he’s reaching out because progressives complain about it sometimes– so my point is that from a progressive viewpoint, he’s reached out way more than Republicans seem to give him credit for. Now, however, I think he’s simply working on getting all the Dems together and putting it on any Republicans who have ideas they really want in there and that will work given the composition of the house and Senate to step forward.

ri dic·u·lous
Pronunciation: \rə-ˈdi-kyə-ləs\
Function: adjective
Etymology: Latin ridiculosus (from ridiculum jest, from neuter of ridiculus) or ridiculus, literally, laughable, from ridēre to laugh
Date: 1550
: arousing or deserving ridicule : absurd, preposterous
synonyms see laughable
Alyson, Here is the definition of ridiculous. Let me use part of the definition: Laughable. This is another great word that describes you telling me I have a loose grip on reality when your heroes seem to be Pelosi and Frank. Frank should be in Prison for Fannie Mae. REALITY IS: This government is spending at a record rate. They need to get their own houses in order before they come for ours. If there are indeed billions of dollars in Medicare fraud, why do they have to pass Healthcare BEFORE they can fix it? How have the handled the money for Social Security, the Post Office, or even the stimulus money this year? Cash for Clunkers? We, ah, underestimated the popularity of the program, so we need more money. What happens when this is Healthcare?? Where is all the money going to come from? I think I have a pretty firm grip on reality, and it scares the heck out of me.
Olympia Snowe? Republican? Please!
If I accidentally hit the wrong key and mispelled a word, plese keep your condescending comments to yourself. It is very unattractive.

“Reducing the waste and inefficiency in Medicare and Medicaid will pay for most of this plan.” – POTUS
Anyone believe that and willing to admit it?

Hang tough Senators. Represent your people – NOT Obama and Pelosi.

@ Alyson -
“so my point is that from a progressive viewpoint, he’s reached out way more than Republicans seem to give him credit for.”
Well, the is a very relative measure, isn’t it? But, I do understand the perspective (don’t agree, but understand).
Personally, I don’t think Obama was as interested in “reaching across the aisle” as he was in giving the impression he was doing so (Remember “I won”?).
While your views are MUCH different from mine, I appreciate the civil discourse.

I suugest the Seanator not, for any reason, turn the backs on Rahm.

While your views are MUCH different from mine, I appreciate the civil discourse.
Posted by: tjp612 | Sep 10, 2009 2:59:48 PM
***
Right back at ya:) I much prefer civil discourse and will always try to be civil if someone is civil to me as you have been.

As the Presdient stated, we are spending TOO MUCH on healthcare compared to other countries – double per person or 30% more if one looks at GDP. Conservatives and Trade Unions do not want to reduce healthcare costs because it will hurt insurance companies (jobs) and healthcare providers (doctors and hospitals). Conservatives and Trade Unions do not want to maintain (effectively increase) current healthcare costs, because that bankrupts the individual, business and the country. So clearly the Republicans and Trade Unions want to have their cake and eat it too.
The conservatives, especially the Heritage foundation and Trade Unions on the left should support the government to REDUCE COSTS with specific proposals to provide Rewards and Disincentives to the various stakeholders in healthcare. This will make American business more competitive. This is contradictary to raising more revenues to pay for healthcare. One good proposal is Tort Reform. Another is enlarge the pool by madating heathcare insurance for all and madating a reduction in healthcare premiums. Now how difficult can some of these solutions be? Perhaps difficult if one is paid by one or more stakeholders, who dislike disincentives.

Reading many of the comments, especially those from Republicans, you have to wonder what world these people live in. In the three town halls I went to in my area, many of the ranters were either all on Medicare–a public health insurance plan–or didn’t have insurance. And yet, there they stood screaming about not wanting the government to get between them and their doctors. I don’t know what insurance plans all of you have but my insurance company gets in between me and my doctor all the time.
You all rant and rave about what’s in or not in the “bill.” There is no one bill yet and if you and your representatives had bothered to read (presuming you can read), you would have discovered that all of those lies you’ve been spreading based on emails and letters from the GOP, are simply untrue. I read the 1000 page House Bill–HR3200–and it does none of the horrible things Republicans suggest.
But truth is not what any of you are interested in. In spite of the fact that reform would help all of you, you’re against it. And why? Simple–you are racists. Plain and simple. If you were told that magically all of us could receive a pill that would cure all ills and that President Obama had discoverd the pill–you all would decline the pill.

But, all that aside . . . let’s stop the party politics. Let’s stop agreeing simply because our party says so . . . let’s use some common sense in all of this and do our own research to see if what “they” are saying is true. We all know that BOTH SIDES lie and twist the truth for their own benefit. Let’s stop believing what they say based on what party they belong to.
Health care in this country is the best in the world. Why would those that can afford to come to this country for their health care if it were not? I will agree with people that everyone deserves health care. I have no problem in fixing the parts that are broken. But anything worth doing is worth doing well, and you don’t do things well by trying to fast-track them through anything to get them passed. Let’s fix the system properly. Let’s open the state lines up so all 1300+ insurance companies can truly compete. Let’s stop medicare fraud. These things should be the very 1st thing we do.
And . . . do you really truly believe that any private company can compete with a government run option? I know it’s been said many times, but what exactly has the government run efficiently and effectively?

The Dem’s should do a public straw poll prior to voting.. to avoid any surprises ‘down the line’

@ Posted by: John Point | Sep 10, 2009 4:15:47 PM
What you say makes a lot of sense. Obama and Democrats aren’t interested.
Remember – This isn’t about healthcare, it is about expansion of governement size and influence.

thank God I live in Canada! The system has been good to me, my family, and my friends. I do feel sorry for your struggle.

Lily: “Hang tough Senators. Represent your people – NOT Obama and Pelosi.”
Yes, I have to agree with Lily, here. Vote with the people, 77% of whom want the choice of a public insurance plan as an option, to compete with the private insurers.

It’s obvious that the Republicans will not accept any proposal that the President makes. They would put down the President’s valiant efforts, and continue to put the health and welfare of the people of this country in further jeopardy; people who are working for meager wages, or out of work entirely; people who could once support their families, and have lost those good jobs to take jobs with “small businesses” who are running the jobs market, paying low wages, and not providing health insurance to their employees; small businesses who have ruined this country because the population doesn’t have the purchasing power it once had; while the greedy corporations moved offshore to find other markets and further ruined this one; and in the process took away the manufacturing base that once employed the masses. People have lost everything they worked hard for all their lives.
These issues didn’t happen overnight; they have been building for decades and through many presidents, but have now reached crisis proportions. This country is on the verge of implosion because the Legislators are afraid to create aversion with big industry that might result in withholding Campaign Contributions that would end their careers. Unfortunately, the poor leadership has promulgated these dire circumstances on the population.
Insurance reform doesn’t solve these problems, but it addresses a critical need for the country, and is a step in the right direction (of many other reforms that need to be considered). Insurance reform is not a process that can be determined by one single Bill; it will be a “work in progress” from now on. The best we can do is to put a plan in place, see what works and what doesn’t, and tweak it as experience dictates its assets and flaws.
Instead of being part of the solution these belligerent Republicans seek to put down the President, who is an honorable man with high integrity, who loves the people of this nation, sees the suffering of the underprivileged, and has empathy for the predicament they find themselves in.
Thank God we have a President who is honest, direct, and open about his vision for a fairer environment for workers, and is trying with everything in his mind and soul to do something about it.

“moderate” said:
“Insurance companies are not destroying American lives.”
Hey, I’m a moderate too, but what cave have you been living in?
How many stories of insurance companies destroying lives do you need to hear before you will admit that they are, in fact, destroying lives?
Get a grip.

Mizerello: “But truth is not what any of you are interested in. … you are racists. Plain and simple.”
You were making a good argument up until the ‘racist’ bit.
I grow weary of people characterizing all opposition to Obama as racist. Granted, some attacks are overtly racist, and some may be rooted in racism, but most are just the same old nonsense that the Right Wing fringe (redundant, I know) has been throwing-out for decades — whether at Clinton, Carter, Gore, Teddy, Pelosi, Reid, Dean *or* Obama.

Unless I am mistaken, Sen. Kay Hagan supports the public option. Am I wrong?

Here is the confused GOP thinking:
1) There should not be any government-run healthcare option because the government is incapable of doing anything effectively.
AND….
2) There should not be any government-run healthcare option because the government plan will be too great and the poor insurance companies can’t compete with such a cost-effective option.
See any contradiction there? So which is it?
ANSWER: It doesn’t matter what the GOP argument is because logic doesn’t enter into the equation for them. They are just against ANYTHING Obama and the Dems suggest. Period.
Time to move the USA into the future with the rest of the civilized world.
Universal healthcare for everyone. There will always be angry, hateful, greedy backwards rightwing people opposed to helping anyone but themselves, but their numbers are dwindling by the day. THEY are the minority. Universal healthcare is what the vast majority of Americans (77%) want. It’s well past time to make it a reality. History will not look kindly on the sad, desperate, greedy, hateful and dishonest tactics of the GOP.

Competition across state lines, tort reform, would fix most problems immediately. Some stricter regulation on insurance companies in regards to pre-exiting conditions etc. would help also. No on free to illegals, no on government covered abortions. All ideas Republicans offered and were poo pooed by the Democrats. So I guess it’s their way or the highway. They win we all loose because when 40 million more people are suddenly going to the doctor for hang nails because they can, there will not be enough doctors or nurses. But who cares IT’S ALL FREE RIGHT?

Wow, are the Republicans who don’t want to bring prices down rich or something?
I mean really, anybody try to buy health insurance without a good job lately?
It’s craaaaaaaazy expensive, especially with a family. It’s not a car payment, it’s a whole other mortgage expensive.
I don’t know if Obama can get these slimeballs to separate from their fat insurance company campaign checks, but we’ll see.

And his message is, “Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.” This make or brake time, be an American first and a conservative second.

Wow maybe if Shaheen had expressed this, we would have not been so hard on her.

ScoobyDubious, it really isnt’ that complicated. You claim to be confused by Repubicans who seem to argue that, ”
1) There should not be any government-run healthcare option because the government is incapable of doing anything effectively. AND….
2) There should not be any government-run healthcare option because the government plan will be too great and the poor insurance companies can’t compete with such a cost-effective option.”
You think these two statements contradict each other, but that’s not quite so. Yes, the government would not run the program effectively– witness Medicare or Indian health care, for example. And Yes, insurance companies would not be able to compete with the public option in the long run.
Not, however, as you phrase it, because the government program would be cost-effective, but because it would be cheaper. A government plan can lose money year after year without going out of business, as a private firm would do.
The president likes to use the example of FedEx and UPS competing with the postal service. Well, the postal service has been losing money for ages, but because of government support is able to keep going. If UPS had USPS’s losses, it would have closed up long ago.
You want to increase competition between insurance companies– then let them compete. Make coverage portable and permit sales across state lines, for example.
For the most part, of course, the higher cost of health insurance these days is not driven by the lack of competition, allowing the companies to gouge their customers, but by in large part by the spiraling cost of health CARE. After all, the insurance companies have to
pay benefits based on the cost of the health care services customers use, and those services are getting more expensive, so insurance premiums go up to attempt to keep pace.

Competition across state lines, tort reform, would fix most problems immediately. Some stricter regulation on insurance companies in regards to pre-exiting conditions etc. would help also. No on free to illegals, no on government covered abortions. All ideas Republicans offered and were poo pooed by the Democrats. So I guess it’s their way or the highway. They win we all loose because when 40 million more people are suddenly going to the doctor for hang nails because they can, there will not be enough doctors or nurses. But who cares IT’S ALL FREE RIGHT?
Posted by: cathy Horner |
First: Tort costs represent 1.5 to 2 % of off health care related expenses, so tort reform would do next to nothing to mitigate the skyrocketing costs o health care.
Second: In NO PLAN that has been put forth have illegals been covered. Not a single Dem proposal has allowed for the inclusion of anyone who is not a legal resident. I dare you to prove otherwise.
Third: The president stated in his address that he does not support government funded abortions.
Finally: The biggest complaint that Republicans have to the plan s that it will LIMIT what is covered, so your argument that 40 million people will be going to the doctor for hang nails is ridiculous.

“You will notice that the president spoke last night about being interested in having Republican ideas and in reaching across the aisle…Moderate Democrats but no moderate Republicans. Kinda hard to buy the call to bipartisanship when he doesn’t walk the walk.”
Posted by: moderate | Sep 10, 2009 5:54:53 PM
Your buddy from South Carolina single-handedly killed bipartisanship with his outburst. So why should Obama give consider any republican point-of-view? If you paid attention to the speech, the republicans are to be slowly, but surely, eased out of the process of creating the legislation. You screwed yourselves.

HR 3400. This is the answer, simple straight forward answer. The party of NO, to bad legislation, has hit a home run with good legislation. To bad the Dems are blindly stupid and thumbing their noses at the American public. I would urge everyone to read this short bill.

Well his s/b interesting. Stong arm the Senators

I am a current land owner in Kansas, a past resident of Texas and Nebraska, I have a multitude of friends who have migrated around these United States.
We do not want this bill to pass. Let it be known, that I, AND MY FRIENDS, will do everything in our power, monetarily and by demonstration to insure YOUR DEFEAT if you vote FOR this bill.