Lyndon Baines Reid: A Moment of Triumph, but How Long Will It Last?

“Democrats believe the public will warm to health care reform once Americans learn more about health care reform,”
Exactly. The media has done it’s usual lousy job of explaining the bill, allowing the rightwing noise machine to frighten the populace. Every night on my local TV, the anti-reform people run ads full of misleading statements. And the local news reporters do nothing to refute these claims, I think because their salaries are paid by these special interest groups. The fundamental problem with our country today, is just this kind of disconnect from truth and reality. The media acts as if there is no such thing as “simple facts.” Everything is reported from a partisan point of view.

Everybody is “skeptical” of change. That’s the Process of Change. LBJ, thank you for standing for Medicare. Reid, thank you for standing for Healthcare Reform in a quiet, but Strong presence. Thank you Dems!

If Reid gets blamed for every problem that comes with this bill, he will go down in shame.

Sen. Reid was reduced to offering bribes, kickbacks and a myriad of other sleazy arrangements to squeak this atrocious bill through. In the process, he’s destroyed his career and reutation, as well as those of dozens of his fellow Democrats. Given the public mood, I would not want to be seen as the party of government. The rage felt towards elected officials at all levels of goverment today by conservatives, moderates and independents is palpable. See you in November, Democrats. You’re finished.

Ken — I feel the same way, but it would appear the Dems don’t even have a clue as to how they look in pushing this on us! We’ll see in 2010 and 2012.

New Wave — You fail to realize 2 things. 1, not all of us are wingnuts. 2, I evaluate Obama on what he says he will do and one of them was transparency. The other was “no more business as usual” in DC. Just taking these 2 issues into account (because there are plenty more), do you honestly believe he has fulfilled his promise especially on the health care issue? Really? Tell the truth!

yawn..zzzzz

Here is a gem found on Page 1,020 — “It shall not be in order in the Senate or the House of Representatives to consider any bill, resolution, amendment or conference report that would repeal or otherwise change this subsection.”
Clearly Prince Harry will stoop to record depths to expand the federal government’s powers. Looks like the coup is underway by Queen Nancy and Prince Harry.

Conservatives only look for immediate wins and results. The health bill is mitigating an inevitable health care crisis in the future where only the wealthy will be able to afford insurance. In the next 10 years, this bill will reduce the deficit by $132B and and still provide insurance to the less fortunate. And we are not saddling our children with debt of a medical crisis. But that’s the future. Conservatives don’t care about the future, only the here and now and their own pockets.

Bribes was the only way this got anywhere. The dems are a bunch of liars and keep the poor down people. Wake up America and see what the dems have done and will do to your FREEDOM!!!

Congratulations are in order Mr. President. You have repeatedly told congress that passing any bill is better than passing nothing. Well now you are getting two fine examples of bills that spend alot of money and don’t help the problem that you were trying to correct.
Several things are driving up the cost of healthcare:
1)Doctors start their careers heavily in debt(estimates range from 280-340k to fully train a physican depending on specialty), therefore few try to become physicians and those that do are forced to charge a high price for so that they can pay their own bills, and so pass those costs to patients and third party payors, i.e. insurance companies and government programs.
Two problems here: Few phsyicans enter the service pool, and high cost of training mean a high cost for the service provided.
2)Government programs don’t negotiate rates with hospitals and doctors like other payors do, so those servicers are forced to pass a higher amount of their costs, per service, to those who pay out of pocket and those with private insurance.
The cost of the services are unevenly spread through the population utilizing the services.
3)Private insurance companies have to create insurance policies that follow both federal and state guidelines, where every state has a different set of guidelines for their policies, unless a company purchasing their service chooses to set themselves up as a self-insured plan with the insurance company just administrating benefits.
Wide range of regulating requirements from the different states prevent true competition in the markets, as some private insurers are willing to bear the burden of creating policies in one state where others would deem it not cost effective.
4)Drug companies are allowed to extend their patents on their drugs preventing quicker introduction of generic drugs into the market.
Profits overriding benefits to patients.
5)There needs to be serious tort reform.
***
The only thing that the house and senate touched upon is problem #2, and not even in either healthcare bill in the house or senate versions. Everything else was either not considered as an issue or, as in the case of tort reform, was considered to abrasive to the Lawyer lobby(see Harry Reids comments on the subject earlier this year).
But the democrats got their bill.

bobtherepublican
It’s a shame more Republicans didn’t join Olympia Snowe in working on this bill. Snowe is the genuine article, an old fashioned Republican, but she was vilified for trying to shape this bill.
How different this bill could have been if Republicans had actually worked to fix healthcare in this country instead of trying to make healtcare reform Obama’s Waterloo.
But, we’ve got a bill, at least it’s a step forward, in my opinion.

Amy in Maine; While you grump about the way the press reports the news keep in mind that 53% of all Americans oppose health care reform in any way and 64% oppose the provisions of the senate and house bills. So what’s so wrong about the prediction that the people will warm to the idea once they experience it? That’s optimism if there ever was such a thing.
It remains to be seen what we’ll end up with after the committee of Democrats have added their back room finishing touches. Some sweet deals have been passed out in the senate version. Earmark spending at it’s most defineable. Your/our president promised no signature on legislations containing earmarks. Will he cave?

Teabag party people are known to be against the healthcare bill.
When will Michelle Bachman return the $250,000 her family received from the Federal Government for their farm? She’s a leading tea party person who is against using Federal funds to assist anyone right?
This reminds me of wingnuts using a government-run transit system to attend an anti-government protest. There a few of them had health issues and were assisted with government-run EMS services.

mmonroeliveson
I have followed the healtcare reform coverage for months now, and the only remotely fact based reporting I have seen has been from NPR.
I’m not kidding, our local TV has been inundated with anti-reform ads, totally not fact=based. Under those circumstances, is it any wonder people are scared to death of reform? Just now, I was over on CNN, and Dr.Gupta is asking people if they will give up their diets and exercise regimes if they get health insurance! This kind of nonesense has dominated the reform coverage.

ask teresa heinz kerry what she thinks of her husbands new bill.

Dr. Gupta is on my you-know-what list.
He’s clearly a closet Republican hack.
And the comments section of his blog is filled with people asking what reform will mean for their coverage. It’s as if the media doesn’t understand this issue affects real people.

“We have 2 parties in congress now. History looking back to these days will identify one party as working towards a healthcare bill and another party working against it.”
Must be a fantastic bill.
The President, his wife, Congressmen, their families, and their staffs are all EXEMPT from the bill’s mandates. The mind-numbed progressive sheep, who don’t have a clue what’s in the bill, are not.
Hope and Change!

Enough of this false outrage over Harry Reid’s “bribing” Senators.
How did Republicans pass the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act?
First, the Bush appointed head of Medicare/etc, Thomas A. Scully, threatened to fire an actuary who said the plan would cost $139 billion more than Bush said it would. (the actuary was wrong too, the plan is going to cost at least $700 billion more, or double what Bush said it would cost over the first 10 years). So right off the bat they lied about the cost to make it more palatable to the deficit hawk members of their side.
Then, Tom Delay bribed several Republican members during the actual vote, who then switched their votes to get the bill passed (it failed twice, before the Reps resorted to bribery and refused to declare the vote over for several hours until they got enough members to switch their original votes).
The bill also sided with drug companies, blocked Medicare from negotiating lower prices and banned Americans from importing low-cost drugs (sound familiar?). It also contained a gigantic “donut hole” that confuses the hell out of seniors and also costs them thousands more.

The more the right rants against this bill, the more I feel this bill is right.

ABC “Say what you want about the health care bill, but Harry Reid is about to complete a task of LBJ proportions.” And yet no mention of the almost $74 BILLION unfunded libility. How about the GAO discovery of double counting and the revised estimate of $100 billion deficit? Fair and balanced reporting?

Your/our president promised no signature on legislations containing earmarks. Will he cave? Posted by: mmonroeliveson | Dec 23, 2009 12:23:08 PM**********No, he will just lie again and say there are no earmarks in this bill. Just like he did with stimulus money.

“The more the right rants against this bill, the more I feel this bill is right.”
Many on the right also ranted about the dangers of subprime lending and Fannie/Freddie backing bad loans. Now it looks like taxpayers are on the hook for $800 BILLION in losses for just Fannie/Freddie alone. You and your fellow progressives will help pay for it. Enjoy!

My medical deductible tripled for 2010. Thanks Dems. There is no coincidence that this happened along with the push for “healthcare reform.” I’ve seen 2 different advisors on CNBC also say the Dow will go through the floor next year when the Fed raises rates. Thanks for the “change.” Unfortunately, it’s bad.

HealthBill Exposed: The train has left the station. No amount of misinformation or spin can stop it. Go back to your cave.

lfrichar: The thrust of the 2 examples I listed (and there are a lot more) is that the GOP = Hypocrisy Party.
I commend the GOP for the ability of stating hypocritial positions with straight faces.

lfrichar: We need to deal with the reality that we have a 2-party system. I agree that one can find faults on both sides.
A possible solution is elimination of private campaign contributions in the United States. Every candidate for every elected office is given a fixed amount for that level. That way we’ll get people with real solutions in congress. Right now one’s capability is really one’s ability to raise money. With public funding, we’ll have people campaign on ideas and results. And Lobbyists would not have any sway.
But we have to deal with the reality that we have right now.

“The Right do not care about what is good or bad for Americans right now. Their main objective is to be against whatever the President tries to do regardless of its merits.”
The President, his wife, Congressmen, their families, and their staffs are all EXEMPT from the healthcare reform mandates.
Wake up, sheep!

just when you thought it couldnt get any more ridiculous, abc is now lauding the ‘accomplishments’ of dingy harry?? omg.. any fool could bribe and threaten his way to getting 60 votes out of this group of lib senators (by definition all libs lack morals and beleive in the ‘end justifying the means’, they all have their price for compromising on principles), plus a willing media to cover for them. please, he’s a disgrace who better enjoy what lil time he has left as nevada senator he is GONE next year

Mary: That wingnut talking point of congress not wanting to participate in their healthcare bill plans has been proven to be false. Sen Vitter’s bluff of passing an amendment that ensures that congress members take part in the health care bill plans was called when some Dem Senators became co-sponsors.
War919: Are you mad that 2 people with diverging views on some issues can agree on an issue? People like you reap from dividing people.

Peter King: You forgot to mention that other NV Senator – John Ensign. Who had an affair with a staffer that is married to another staffer of his. John Ensign’s parents paid off the other family with $93,000 as ‘gifts’. Don’t worry that case will grow bigger as 2010 rolls on, in time for the elections.
Oh..how about the diaper-wearing (with prostitutes) GOP Sen Vitter of LA?

“”"”"Americans will finally get real health care.”"”"”
Posted by: mmmoke
Considering Obama is about to break about 4 campaign promises when he signs this bill, Americans better get something out of it beside higher taxes.

Chicago style Washington politics – change ? YES way more corruption- those so called poloticians should be shown the way that Nixon took. If any commoner did anything like whats been happening they would be proecuted!!!
What has government had control over that has not been AFU ?
TOTALLY DISGUSTED

Completely unrelated: but what was the purpose of he First Couple to incite people on Christmas Day to help
the fighting troops by donating phone cards, care packages, etc, while they sit in front of a Christmas Tree, in Hawaii, resting from other travels. What ever happened to the Nobel Prize $s that we were told would be going to a charity.. Wouldn’t it be a show of
concern for these troops if he had made donations to
them, by providing THEM with treats and playing cards and games? Again, hot air….

Wait until all those 20 and 30 somethings find out that they will have to buy insurance not at today’s rates but at the inflated rates that the insurance companies will be forced to charge to stay in business.
When insurance companies are required to cover all regardless of pre-existing conditions they will have to charge the young and healthy more to cover the increased costs.
When insurance companies cannot charge the elderly more than twice the amount they charge the young and healthy then rates for the young will have to be more to compensate.
When medicaid is forced to increase coverage then hospitals will see more medicaid patients. Medicaid does not compensate at the same levels as private insurance so hospitals pass the cost over to private insurance by charging 5 dollars for a bandaid and 50 for an aspirin. With more medicaid patients to compensate for the hospitals will be forced to charge even more to the private carriers to make up the shortfall. This will drive up premiums even more.
The increased medicaid coverage will also mean that states will have to raise taxes. Unless, of course, you live in Nebraska which got an illegal contribution from Harry Reid with your money. This is why 14 states AG’s have lined up to fight this illegal provision.
Your right…the liberal MSM has done a lousy job of explaining how bad this bill is.
The good news is that it is likely to cost the Dems the majority so the GOP can come in later and fix this mess.