Kaine Calls Health Reform ‘Great Politics’ and Challenges Republicans to Run Against It This Fall

With a strategy like this, Kaine will be out of another job…

–ABC “News” has not received permission from Gibbs and Axelrod to pursue the “Slaughter Rules” story as it does not fit the “transparency”/”hope”/”change” narrative.–
Posted by: tjp612 | Mar 16, 2010 1:27:56 PM
Pelosi is like Humpty Dumpty in ‘Through the Looking Glass’: “When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.”
Likewise, rules mean what Pelosi says they mean.

Apologies to all the Republican right out there, but rules of legislation are what the country runs on.
The only way the legislation will pass is within the rules of the country.
Stop your extremist nonsense – it’s not good for the country.

Hmmm… see The Plank @TNR “Why have D.C. journos done such a poor job of explaining “deem-and-pass”?”
Its a good question. Byron Tau writes:
“Okay, so here’s how the “deem-and-pass” procedure would actually work. The House Rules committee is often called the “traffic cop” of the House – controlling what bills come to the floor and how much debate is allowed on each one. On each bill, they pass what is called a “rule” – a resolution determining what kind of debate is allowed on each bill. The whole House must first pass the rule, then the underlying legislation. In the case of “deem-and-pass,” the vote on the rule would also have the effect of passing the Senate bill. According to the CRS report linked above, the House has used this procedure at least six times between 1989 and 2005 with both parties in charge.
To be sure, this isn’t the most straightforward of parliamentary procedural processes to explain to the average American. At the same time, most of the news reports dealing with the procedure don’t even attempt to explain either the process itself or the context of its use. Very few of the news stories or editorials even mention the Rules committee’s complex role in shaping bills and managing votes.
If the GOP insists on having a debate over process instead of substance, Beltway scribes should at least inject a little more nuance and a lot more context in their reporting.”

“The message really is, you know, its one of these wonderful instances where we can do something great that you will remember the rest of your life, having been a part of. And it’s also great politics.”
Two true things in the statement from Kaine above. 1) We will indeed ‘remember for the rest of our life’ this healthcare bill, should it pass, since we will be shouldering the burden of it’s cost. And our kids will remember, and their kids, and their kids… 2) It is absolutely ‘great politics’ and that’s all it is. It has been since day one. This isn’t about the people, it’s about a power grab and they know it.
I, along with MANY other Virginians am glad to see Kaine go on his way. He will not be missed.

Posted by: tjp612 | Mar 16, 2010 2:18:21 PM
The most recent Ipsos/McClatchy Poll shows that Democrats and Independents support the healthcare proposals currently being discussed.
Independents support the proposals 43% to 41%.
Democrats support the proposals 62% to 24%.
The poll shows only Republicans opposed.

“What I find stunning is the hypocrisy of the Right, and the poor job done by the media on the entire health care reform matter, including failing to correct the record on things like this.”
So now it is the media’s fault? Ever consider that it is the substance of the legislation and the way it has been created?
BTW – While tangentially related, what Pelosi and Slaughter are trying to do is circumvent a very, very unpopular vote. Can you name a circumstance in which Republicans did something similar?

What I find stunning is the hypocrisy of the Right, and the poor job done by the media on the entire health care reform matter, including failing to correct the record on things like this.
Posted by: progressive mama | Mar 16, 2010 2:33:00 PM
Reminds me of the stunning hypocrisy of the Left, after stressing that THOUSANDS of people die everyday because they don’t have healthcare insurance, yet waiting 15 months, and STILL sitting on their bill. How do they explain that to the families who lost loved ones who ‘didn’t have insurance’ (which is ridiculous as ANYONE needing treatment in this country will get it, regardless of insurance)? Do they give them the “well, it wasn’t good for me politically” speech? Bush has been blamed for deaths in war, does that mean Obama can be blamed for deaths in healthcare ‘war’?
Be careful what you promise, be careful what you say. People are listening, Mr. Obama.

“Reminds me of the stunning hypocrisy of the Left, after stressing that THOUSANDS of people die everyday because they don’t have healthcare insurance”
_______________________________________
Hogwash . .. this claim was not part of the Democrat information.
——————————–
“which is ridiculous as ANYONE needing treatment in this country will get it, regardless of insurance”
____________________________________
Hogwash. Try getting an MRI or a hip replacement without insurance – unless you’re rich.
Try getting bi-pass surgery without insurance – unless you’re rich.

“And yes tjp, the rules apply equally to everyone regardless of party.”
Will ObamaCare cover spontaneous cranium explosions experienced by Progressives when Republicans use same process to repeal this monstrosity?

This is simply appalling. I can’t believe this is happening! The news media needs to investigate this attempt to “deem” this bill and make it a law. It HAS to be Unconstitutional.

Posted by: Shoe | Mar 16, 2010 3:02:48
LOL. Nice try. There is some hypocrisy in all of politics. I don’t agree with your master spin on the specifics of the hypocrisy of the left(its clear the Right is getting very desperate– take a look at the crazy rhetoric at the tea parties and here), but there is no doubt hypocrisy everywhere. But NOTHING compares to the willful and unembarrassed ongoing hypocrisy of the GOP. They have nothing in the way of any credibility left.They ought to be laughed out of DC– but they have bought and paid for dupes.
Ezra Klein:”So using the budget reconciliation process is unprecedented. And using Deem and Pass is unprecedented. According to my conservative friends, it’s all unprecedented. The fact that budget reconciliation and Deem and Pass were both common Republican tactics does not, it seems, lend them any precedent. It’s as if what’s really unprecedented is Democrats being unwilling to fold in the face of Republican obstruction.”

Posted by: progressive mama | Mar 16, 2010 5:37:47 PM
Of course you’re not going to agree with me. I did not expect you to. I was merely pointing out a HUGE hypocricy in the words and actions of Democrats regarding the healthcare ‘reform’. They obviously know that “thousands of people are dying everyday because they don’t have insurance”, yet they have done nothing for 15 months to do anything about that. So, by doing that, they are letting down individuals they promised to help, all in the name of re-election. The bill COULD have been passed a long time back (at least a year back), but it wasn’t. Was it the fault of Republicans? Obviously not. What they are about ready to do to shove the bill through, again, COULD have been done a year ago. Wonder what was running through the minds of those Dems? Hmmm…. dying people or re-election. We need a recess!! Hypocricy.

“Will ObamaCare cover spontaneous cranium explosions experienced by Progressives when Republicans use same process to repeal this monstrosity?”
ROFLMAO!
Just like the GOper, enemies of government run healthcare, will eliminate MediCare right?
Finally the Democrats are getting it.
The right wingers are bullies, hit them in the nose and watch them run home to momma crying.

It is sort of reminiscent of the O.J. Trial.

No it’s not and who is this Kaine guy? What rock did he now crawl out from under? Never heard of him.

When the “rules” do the opposite of what the Constitution explicitly calls for, guess which one wins out?
If some Democrats do not do the right thing and vote No, the law itself is likely to be declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. The Court may not go after the rule, but it will just throw out the law.
The Constitution says pretty clearly how it’s supposed to go. You cannot use Obamian sleight-of-hand to get out of the consequences, just like eventually he and his gang of Marxist thieves will be spat out of America’s mouth like the poison that they are.

I agree with Norm Ornstein: “Any veteran observer of Congress is used to the rampant hypocrisy over the use of parliamentary procedures that shifts totally from one side to the other as a majority moves to minority status, and vice versa. But I can’t recall a level of feigned indignation nearly as great as what we are seeing now from congressional Republicans and their acolytes at the Wall Street Journal, and on blogs, talk radio, and cable news. It reached a ridiculous level of misinformation and disinformation over the use of reconciliation, and now threatens to top that level over the projected use of a self-executing rule by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. In the last Congress that Republicans controlled, from 2005 to 2006, Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier used the self-executing rule more than 35 times, and was no stranger to the concept of “deem and pass.” (Hypocrisy: A Parliamentary Procedure; the Enterprise Blog)

This is surreal.. like a ‘how to’
How to keep your political job – book..
by Tim Kaine??
Maybe he should write a cook book, something he might know something about.

Steve Benen at Washington Monthly’s Political Animal:
“If it’s any consolation to wavering Dems, progressive policymakers are always vindicated by history.
In 1935, Republican opponents of Social Security insisted that Roosevelt’s “socialistic” plan would, among other things, force all Americans to wear dog tags. Not quite a half-century ago, conservative critics of Medicare seriously argued, in public, that the law would empower bureaucrats to dictate where physicians could practice medicine, and open the door to government control over where all Americans were allowed to live. Around the same time, many opponents of the Civil Rights Act believed the fabric of America was being torn apart by the legislation.
Right-wing arguments of today are absurd, but they are branches on a large and ridiculous tree.
The question now is whether Democrats will do as their predecessors did — overcome the lies and scare tactics, stick to their principles, and pass their agenda anyway.
Major change is always scary and controversial initially, until it becomes law and Americans realize the fears were unfounded. There’s every reason to believe the same will be true with the current reform proposal.”

America Senator is these days know only one thing ..that is HCR bill…..