Is Sentaor Byrd been spotted in chamber or is he voting today?

but given Nelson has caved, I expect her to as well

If both chambers passed a version, I don’t see anything stopping the government from passing some kind of bill. The question is going to be how much control of the industry it is going to be able to grab.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P21n4ZOP8KE

as should have been typing Landrieu.

Sorry about that.

They only need Lincoln now.

He has stated that he will allow debate.

The thing with Joe is that I think he’s trying to ingratiate himself with Republicans in Connecticut because he likely will face a potentially strong challenge from his left. If he makes a big show of holding up one of Obama’s signature policy goals, and if he continues to be a clear foreign policy hawk, he’s more likely to gain support of Connecticut Republicans than Democrats. But, he’s trying to play it both ways here because he’s definitely wanting to be part of a compromise health care bill that will pass the Senate. At least that’s how I view it.

He is behind, so is Brown in OH.

There is a tidal wave coming.

then you can fax him for free here: http://faxzero.com/

…but I haven’t bothered giving them a call. We don’t have a snowball’s chance of flipping Udall, and I think Bennett really needs his base to win next year, whatever effect a “Yes” vote will have on moderate Coloradans.

I’m new to Colorado politics, but it’s my understanding that Bennett is most likely toast next year anyway, so he could not care any less about what we think. I’ve called and emailed repeatedly over the past two weeks, with absolutely no response. His staffers are less than friendly as well, and WILL NOT take down reasons for requesting his no vote; they will only ‘record that you called with an opinion.’ How very helpful /sarc off.

So yes, let’s mobilize to get rid of this buffoon, then follow Ramesh Ponnuru’s advice: Even if Obamacare passes into law (shudder), IMMEDIATELY begin a repeal campaign so that the issue stays alive all throughout 2010, even unto the election.

is Byrd well enough to vote today?

any news?

unless Senator Reid wants her to vote no to force the left to give up on the public option to allow Lieberman to vote for the bill on the cloture vote on the actual bill, as opposed to today’s vote, on the motion to proceed.

If you think about it, most votes are pretty one-sided. It takes something really divisive (like HR 3962) to get just enough votes to open debate and then just few enough votes to fail on the motion to proceed to a vote. So this is exactly the kind of bill that would be a part of that 3%. But I’m interested in what Dan thinks as well.

That 97% statistic was very interesting, but I think what often happens is that the bills get modified - often strenuously - by amendments, so that they are able to garner enough support to pass in the end.

Michael Gerson was on the Lehrer show last night and Jim Lehrer asked why Republicans were opposing the Dems’ health care reform proposals straight down the line. He said that Republicans are united on this issue because they believe the Dem approach is fundamentally flawed, not just at the margins.

Then I watched Hardball with Chris Matthews. He had Bernie Sanders and Judd Gregg on. Matthews’ constant line of attack against Republicans is that they always say they have a better plan but when they’re in power they never do anything about health care. I guess that means that he feels it’s fine to dismiss all Republican ideas because they didn’t pass health care reform when Bush or even Reagan were president.

It really is different. The public is 100% engaged and on virtually all other cloture votes they are not.

It all comes down to whether the Republicans allow the Democrats to make changes on the bill itself to gain the three votes on the cloture motion on the bill.

Right now, with the public option, Senator Lieberman has said he will vote no. They lose.

The GOP in the Senate can prevent many Dem amendments, and provided the GOP does not try and fix the bill to give the moderates any cover, we should win on the Senate floor.

Last I heard the number of Arkansans against this legisation is like 70%. I am a Nurse, and frankly if this passe will probably have to look for a new line of work since I won’t be able to feed myself cause we are the first positions cut and the first to take pay cuts. I really hope it spells her political death here, I will be working for her opponent and so will most of the doctors I work for. I think that this may hurt Pryor more than he seems to think, because it will start to take effect a year before his election so people will be good an pissed by the time his campaign comes around.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/11/21/senate-crucial-vote/

To me, Pelosi looked like a madwoman during the House debate - completely delusional.

Will the Reid, Durbin and Schumer smiles be signs of “real” happiness?

…to work around this ‘issue.’ Remember, they wont be enrolling in the public option. And I doubt they’ll advise any of their close friends and family to do so, either.

“I guess we’ll just have to wait and see, but the fact Reid was able to get every Democrat to go along is troubling to say the least.”

After all the commotion the people made all spring, summer and fall and know the people are watching them now like they had not in a very long time; for the House D’s to go along without much twisting needed, and now the D senators to follow along almost as easy as a heard of sheep…

Its pretty disgusting to think how telling this is what they think of the people.

And I was always of the opinion that today’s “Senator” is no more special than a representative.

If you can still be bought or vote your will in a “safe” state, you just have a better office.

Paraphrasing Queen whats her name from star wars 5/2, ‘So This Is How Liberty Dies…With Thunderous Applause’.

Pelosi, Reid and Obama are doing their best all the while 1/2 of Congress breaks their hands clapping.

$100 million ought to cover their housing and we got a bunch that aren’t doing well helping us keep Texas “beautiful”.

‘Cause if Texas really wanted to suck the life out of its neighbor to the east, that’s all it would have to do. I think about half of our economy is now being propped up by Texans coming over on weekends to gamble.

I don’t blame you. I’m angry myself at the entire country being made to pay for Louisianians’ refusal to learn our lesson re: Mary Landrieu. (We also gave you the lone Republican vote for ObamaCare in the House, and flushed thousands of our crack-addicted murderers out into the country at large, not unlike Mexico dealing with its crime problem by sending its criminals over the border.)

True, we were one of only about four or five states to reject Obama by an even larger margin than we rejected Kerry. But by putting Sister Senator Mary back in for a third term, we chose to empower him anyway. Kind of like a senator saying she voted against the bill on the floor after voting for every procedural motion that allowed it to get there in the first place.

The Demokrautz are making serious in-roads into the political fabric here in Texas and they believe they will have “full” control over the state within 6yrs!! Our legislature is in jeopardy of losing its majority. SEIU is gaining strength in the state and has all but conquered Houston. Dallas is blue except for the Park Cities, but there were a shocking abundance of o signs on lawns during the campaign in the Park Cities. MI, OH, PA, IL, and other yank states’ license plates are all over North Texas and they bring a non-Texas-friendly political point of view with them. The immigration issue is growing increasingly difficult to manage and the feds just keep dumping illegals on us, too. Seems to me, Katrina is the least of our worries, though it’s another one to add to the list!

But in the meantime - billions will have been paid into the system…..

I think the best play is for states that don’t want it to sue, sue , sue….

Keep blocking the payment into the system and keep legal pressure on until we can gain control. The problem is - Obama is rushing to fill the courts with as many lib judges as possible.

The next solution will just be civil disobedience:

“Hell No We Won’t Pay”

Have you ever seen 1 program or policy of any significant size in the federal government reversed ?

It still has to get through to a vote and get through reconcilliation with both houses, but today they moved the ball another 10 yards to their goal and the country’s detriment.

State bodies can stand on the 10th Amendment to nullify some federal legislation, but I’m not clear on the process or the limitations. Does anyone know exactly how that can work?

What a devious skunk.

So YES, in order to get to their majority vote 51, they need to again, get to 60 votes on the cloture vote on the BILL

Today’s cloture vote (60 votes needed) is on the motion to proceed.

Senator Lieberman has said with the public option in the bill, he will vote against cloture on the bill, meaning that the Dems cannot get to a final vote with the public option in the bill.

Therefore, the bill would fail, just like what happened to the Doc fix bill when could not get cloture — except the doc fix cloture vote was on the motion to proceed,

that they want changes and they do not really support the bill.

The public won’t buy it.

Palin seems immensely popular, but will her campaigning against these statist Dems really have an impact. I don’t know. I’m asking.

opportunity if they are unified against.

Good question as well.

60 votes in the Senate and a signature by the President to make it law — after it passes all the Committees of jurisdiction.

The same process that the Dems have used so far.

Even if this bill is debated in the Senate, there is a very strong possibility that it will fail. I truly believe that the Republicans need to do more education.

The USA Today article from Thursday I think where they said that only about 2% of the population could even get the public option was a start. More of the weaknesses of these bills need to be made known.

I would almost guarantee that many Senate Dems wish this bill would just go away. I don’t think Warner or Webb wants to vote on it. Bayh either. Warner and Bayh are deficit hawks. I think people in Indiana and Virginia should lean on these two HEAVILY.

If youre under 40, HoustonYR needs you to join or just show up and fire them up.

They really have fallen off being the power they were earlier this decade. Someone with that kind of fire could light them up for 10 and they need it.

http://www.clevelandleader.com/node/11927

Hopefully Sanders will do the same and we won’t have to worry about this sh*t going anywhere.

Your answer is simply this: sacrifice the freedom of individuals on the altar of convenience.

“In 1965 the AMA fought Medicare tooth and nail, and Republicans predicted the very end of our way of life if it passed. They were totally and utterly wrong then…”

No, they weren’t. In fact, that was the beginning of the end, but I can’t expect a socialist troll to understand that.

We should all suffer and have to go through the same system that is screwing you . That makes no sense whatsoever. SOmething tells me there is a strong douche wind coming from your general directions.

Medicare pays at less than the going rate leaving private individuals and insurers to pick up the slack - the same individuals who pay for Medicare in the first place btw. Medicare is currently trillions in debt. Only a buffoon would expect this system not to fail.

But, the facts don’t matter, do they nayyer_ali?

http://foundry.heritage.org/2009/10/06/medicare-largest-denier-of-health-care-claims/

Just got a prayer request yesterday from a friend in my Sunday School Class. She is from Canada and most of her family is still there. Said that her aunt was just diagnosed with breast cancer and she asked that we please pray that she be “moved up” the list to begin receiving treatment sooner than the “sometime in January” date that they have given her. She should be finishing her treatments in January, not be getting started . . .

but this takes the cake. I doubt there is an MD or other health care provider around that hasn’t had some complaint with any third party payer, and your statements are just ludicrous. What you are saying doesn’t quite compute with the number of physicians who have closed their practices to Medicare, Tricare and Medicaid patients. All because of poor reimbursement by the government.

And if Reid passes it without the public option, doesn’t look like you get your wonderful totalitarian utopia.

There is a lot more wrong with this bill, than just that item; the fact you do not have a problem with any of it, makes me feel sorry for your patients.

He mentioned two issues payment and interference

I’ve noticed for a long time that old people get much better care. Bring your child into the emergency room with the same symptoms as your grandma and lets guess who they will admit. It might take bringing you kid in three times before they do anything more than vital signs and basic CYA tests.

For the heritage foundation post I wonder what the % of claiims submitted are for medicare, are more covered by medicare than other insurances and WHY were they denied. Is it just some kind of coding error or something missing.
I’ve seen horror stories with insurance companies and a lot of unecessary delay in care.

I think DRGs were really bad and did a lot of damage to the quality of patient care due to pressues of being cost effecient. I don’t agree with the poster that the bill should pass but we should acknowledge what they see in their practice.

and your will have this set of boots on the ground to help remove her!

about their federal government right now. You hear things like that everywhere you talk to regular folks. The other part that no one here really talks about- IT’S BOTH PARTIES & THE ENTIRE SYSTEM TO INCLUDE THE JUDICIARY!

There will come a spark that will ignite 1776-style stuff again (and they can’t say that they were not warned- that’s why they were called “Tea Parties”.

That scares the hell out of me; but I think that if they are relying on the military to resist fellow citizens, they are completely delusional. Obama to the troops: “you guys make a great photo op!” Yeah, that is how he really feels towards them (and they know it).

My advice to all; compile a month’s worth of food & medications for your family. The ammo hoarding has been going on for over a year, the manufacturers still can’t keep up. What does that tell you?

If you gotta wonder, don’t.

But I’ve come to believe it doesn’t really matter whether a given Democrat senator is up next year or not. These people are kamikazes.