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First look: the Emperor’s New Health Care Proposal.

By: Moe Lane (Diary)  |  February 22nd, 2010 at 09:49 AM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

Embargoed until 10 AM: now ask me if I care.

here

Haven’t read it fully yet, but skimming shows that it’s taken out Ben Nelson’s Nebraska payoff (at, I hear, the increasingly-panicky request of Ben Nelson himself); keeps insurance mandates; and if the public/government option or abortion funding restrictions are addressed, I’m missing it.

So, basically, useless.  Why is the GOP going to this, again?

[UPDATE]: OK.  As far as I can tell, the first skim was right: no Nebraska payoff, yes to insurance mandates (Hi, 18-30 demographic!), and nothing said about either public/government option, or federal restrictions on abortion funding.  In other words, this resolves nothing.  House Democrats still have to face the loss of a public option; and Senate Democrats still have to face the imposition of the Stupak amendment.

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  • http://www.neoavatara.com/blog neoavatara

    Isn’t this the Obama equivalent of ‘Stay the course’?

    I love it…60% of America is against this, and Obama thinks if he gives just one more photo op, they will be convinced otherwise.

    Republicans…be the party of NO. Accept it, enjoy it, revel in it.

    http://neoavatara.com/blog/?p=9986

  • neomom

    Its great to say “No” sometimes – especially to children throwing temper tantrums. I’m surprised we haven’t seen Obama and company holding their breath and stamping their feet yet.

    Agree with Moe – boycott Thursday.

  • renny

    Reps. say they are going to “summit” (mistake), but only to appear and not to debate or address the old Obamacare, again. They want to start from scratch. Good luck.

    I suppose they want to look “bipartisan,” altho’ I don’t know why. Dems./libs. never worry about being bipartisan. It’s just a trap for Reps., and they fall for it like tigers into bamboo pits.

  • http://dezignworx-ae.com tsquare

    Not…

  • Bobcat51

    McConnell and company are still going to attend Obama’s Rope a Dope festival ?

  • blh1976

    you don’t have to purchase it until you have an occurrence that would trigger coverage?

    Mr. President, I’d like to have this option with my car, home, life, and disability coverage, too. I’m also still waiting on someone to pay off my mortgage.

  • Menlo

    We can’t rely on any elected official to ever do anything, especially Republicans whose primary aim is “respect.” Once it passes, we must all pledge to refuse to buy insurance or pay any penalties. We must vocally encourage everyone else to do likewise.

    As far as I’m concerned, anyone who buys anything called “health insurance” under this bill is a supporter of the bill.

  • Brian_Roastbeef

    It isn’t about getting people insured or the quality of their health care, it is about the intrusion of the government in our daily lives and our spending decisions. I’m still waiting for that “hard pivot.” It hasn’t come. Instead he’s trotting out a new package filled with the same crap.

  • http://www.neoavatara.com/blog neoavatara

    5.4% surcharge on all income (including dividends, royalties, interests, etc.) on families making over $250,000.

    That is a HUGE tax increase.

  • AngryMatt

    Aside from the federal regulator, this will do nothing to stir up the activist left into supporting the bill and the more Obama focuses on health care the more his approval rating sinks.

    Further note that this is a “brand new” proposal, so I believe it requires committee hearings and new floor votes, right? Have fun with another protracted fight on an unpopular issue and playing right into our hands Mr. President. Good call.

  • http://hillbillypolitics.com Steph C

    You don’t get car insurance for an accident after the accident occurred to pay for the accident you had.

  • johnt

    unbelievable that it’s happening. The fanaticism is unreal, the total disdain for the rest of the country equally so. What happened to the words, fascist & nazi, so in vogue in recent memory? They must be the people who cut taxes.

  • racebannon

    - “There is nothing new here except even more taxes and fees for the American People.”

    - “So we waited all this time just to have Mr. Obama regurgitate the same failed plan the Senate Democrats have been pushing since last year? What kind of leadership is that?”

    “Maybe President Obama missed the part where polls have shown nearly 80% of the American people have already rejected this plan.”

    THEN – Call them on their B.S. (by NOON TODAY:

    “We all seem to agree that pre-existing conditions and portability should be included in a bill. So let’s pass a bill with just those two measures in it for now – no pork or entitlements added in. Then we can go back to the drawing board on the rest. Mr. Reid, Ms. Pelosi, could you both bring those to the floor for a vote today?”

  • Mary Beth
  • 10ksnooker

    I am sure the founders said the federal government can mandate you buy health insurance … It’s right here, I think, maybe, …

  • Common_Cents

    Why doesn’t someone blast these idiots for using this car insurance example?

    People will consume health care like an all you can eat buffet but they aren’t going to consume more car accidents!

  • http://theadmiralsbridge.blogspot.com/ Stephen Halsey

    attend this farce on the 25th? If the GOP had a spine they would be on TV today saying that it’s obvious that the President has no intention of having a meaningful bi-partisan debate and in fact is threatening to ram this down your (being the American people’s) throat.

    They should respond to this threat of reconciliation by saying they will shut down the Senate with every parliamentary tool at their disposal so if anyone so much as has to take a leak (can I say that here?), then we will have that motion read and voted on. No read bill. No cloture vote. No personal relief. Seriously, it’s way past time for McConnell and the rest of the spineless GOP Beltway Bunch to take the gloves off and fight.

    If they don’t, then we’ll just have to do it ourselves.

    If they don’t, then it validates everything Glenn Beck said at CPAC about the GOP being part of the problem.

    If they don’t, then the GOP is absolutely complicit in the unrestrained growth of Fedzilla.

    With all due respect McConnell, Boehner, Cantor, et al….now is the time for leadership and the time to differentiate yourself from the Washington Marxist establishment. And to you Mr. Cantor, need I remind you of the Virginia Republican Creed:

    We Believe . . .

    That the free enterprise system is the most productive supplier of human needs and economic justice;
    That all individuals are entitled to equal rights, justice, and opportunities and should assume their responsibilities as citizens in a free society;
    That fiscal responsibility and budgetary restraints must be exercised at all levels of government;
    That the Federal Government must preserve individual liberty by observing constitutional limitations;
    That peace is best preserved through a strong national defense;
    That faith in God, as recognized by our Founding Fathers, is essential to the moral fibre of the Nation.

    If you don’t do EVERYTHING in you power as Minority Whip to defeat this mess (and that goes for the rest of them), then I would have a very hard time classifying you as a Republican based on our creed here in the Commonwealth.

  • Swamp_Yankee

    to expose all these flaws to the public; to put tort reform, fraud control, savings plans, and deficit control where it belongs — on the center stage. And to not let the Dems and media collude and paint the GOP in a false light. They go so that Webb, Landrieu, Pryor, Casey, Tester, Begich, Johnson, and company have no cop-out excuse to support reconciliation. This is a lame attempt to provide Blue dogs cover. Blue Dogs and the media cant whine about how the GOP has no ideas, cant lead, are obstructionist and refuse to work on problems. We are here, we have ideas, lets work on them. If we say that, their trap wont work. We maintain the high ground. And reconciliation looks more weasely and corrupt than ever.

  • cwilson

    Those who have the insurance — will behave as you suggest. If it’s free, treat it like the all-you-can-eat buffet at the fat farm.

    Those who do not, and feel invincible — 20-somethings, mostly — will make the rational choice that it is cheaper to NOT buy the insurance and instead pay the fine. They will be able to (safely) do this, because the pre-existing condition requirements means that they can dial 1-800-GOVT-INS on the way to the hospital after whatever injury/illness strikes. Thus saving all the premiums they WOULD have paid during the N years between graduating from their parents’ plan and the incident.

  • WarEagle01

    They’ve committed and taking a principled stand now would be totally out of character for them.

  • cwilson

    They have no **lls. They will cave. They always do. It’s more important to preserve Senate comity, make sure WaPo and the NYT say nice things about them, and get invited to all the best cocktail parties, than to DO THE RIGHT THING FOR THE COUNTRY.

    Winston Churchill said, “Never give in! Never give in! Never, never, never, never – in nothing great or small, large or petty. Never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense.”

    The Republican leadership’s response: “Huh?”

    It’s time to start recycling all those French/German jokes for the Republicans…

  • racebannon

    No doubt the President will prob counter by saying, “OK, if you agree to our plan then we can talk about adding in X.” – i.e. take nothing off the table.”

    What the Republicans should open with, however, is:

    “Mr. President we agreed to take this time to discuss health care with you. However, we find it deeply troubling to be spending any time on this at all because the American people are much more concerned about jobs and the economy right now than health care.”

    The President is such a wonk that he won’t be able to resist the bait and no doubt say something within 40 seconds about “Fixing Health Care will help to fix the economy and create (or save) more jobs.”

    Which is patently false – and should then be exposed show that they are in fact simply predicated on seizing this industry and segment of the economy.

  • Swamp_Yankee

    All this tough talk sounds good on conservative blogs. But that’s about it. The media is looking for an opening to take down the GOP. Its a reality we must contend with, not ignore.

    They will move forward with reconciliation. The leadership does not care about consequences. But we can still win the battle of public opinion is swing states and districts by leading.

    We have to define ourselves. We cannot let Obama and the media do it for us. Its a stupid strategy to not engage. They have the cards, This is the game they chose to play. We cant pick up our toys and go home. WE have to engage and fight.

    Our ideas are the right thing for the country, exposing Obama’s weak plan is the right thing for the country.

  • JSobieski

    Does any ecobomist, even economists on the left believe in price controls? Obama’s plan addresses the issue of cost by setting up a committee to monitor price increases.

    If we are going to go with price controls, why stop at health care? Why not price a new GM car at $100?

  • cwilson

    Hold a press conference at noon today. Hit the points racebannon mentions above. Call Rush first and he’ll JIP it live.

    I’m sorry, but our “leadership” do not have the courage or conviction of Daniel; they will not be able to walk into the lion’s den and hold firm to (OUR, not their) principles. They will cave.

    So, engage on better ground than inside Obama’s web.

  • Swamp_Yankee

    Nothing matters. The Dems dont want to accomplish anything. They know the GOP is not going to agree to anything.

    Its all about staking out the higher ground. Obama is trying to look like the adult in the room. He is being transparent, bi-partisan. They are taking the lessons of Massachusetts, but instead of changing substance, they are changing tone.

    The summit does not matter. Its about image. This is to burnish their image before they embark on the wreckless reconciliation gambit.

    If they want a show trial. Give them a show trial. We just have to put on our own show. We cannot become what they and the media hope we become.

    We have to lead with ideas and respect the process.

  • Swamp_Yankee

    will cover Obama and not us.

    And we will look like little sulkers who like throwing stones, but bring nothing to the table and are afraid of Obama.

    We respect the people. That’s how we won the special elections.

    Reconciliation spits on the people, the process, tradition and the law.

    We will keep the high ground and expose them for what they are.

  • writeblock

    They’ve been in Washington too long to know how to react. The public has said no to this a thousand times. It WANTS the GOP to be the party of No. But McConnell et al. constantly react defensively–and with preternatural mildness. They need to match the public anger with some show of their own.

  • cwilson

    It doesn’t matter what the accused does. He still gets convicted. As the WOPR finally learned in War Games: sometimes “the only way to win is not to play the game”.

  • hickorystick

    If you are going to penetrate the northern cities, being right is not good enough. You have to show your reasoning being for or against a policy, and also give voters some cover for not caving in to doing the “compassionate thing”. 150 years ago, Indians were hired as guides to lead immigrants through indian country. Now we need guys like you to lead us into the cities. I live in Seattle, and the quickest way to get ‘Alinskied’, or get your political scalp taken, is to seem cold-hearted or close-minded. You have to do the process stuff, and show your ‘proofs’.

  • kdoc

    Here in Georgia, we have a lot of folks who would have liked to be able to buy flood insurance on their homes back in the fall, after the water started rising.

  • blh1976

    Insurance is not insurance, by definition, if you don’t have to purchase it until after the event that triggers coverage occurs. The ideals of risk or uncertainty, upon which insuring decisions are made, are no longer part of the equation if insurers are forced to accept pre-existing claims.

    If a company has to cover my claim regardless of when I purchase coverage, why would I not wait to purchase until after the event occurs? That’s what will happen in this case unless you have a individual mandate (or single payer), which is where President Obama & Co. want to take us.

  • eburke

    work, we need to have leaders who actually have principles.

    *Nothing* I have seen so far from McConnell, Boehner, Kyl, Cantor, et al gives me *any* confidence that we will play this the way that it should be played.

    I will never pray harder to be wrong about something as I will on this, but I smell a “we need to get something done” moment.

    And I note the absence of any ‘if the Dems try reconciliation, we will shut down the Senate, rhetoric from ‘our’ side today. I hope…but I am not hopeful.

  • eburke
  • hickorystick

    for holding their caucuses in line. They have held the line since the stimulus bill, with one exception being Snowe on the vote to debate health care, which I think she has already regretted. And Boehner was in revolt all the way back to the Bailouts (yes, he said no to Bush).

  • mriggio

    Simply, forcefully point out the contradictions and falsehoods. Price controls don’t work; the government doesn’t exist to set insurance premiums; you cannot extend ‘coverage’ to millions of non-covered people without going into (massive) debt. Look at social security today, look at Medicare today, look at the state’s problems with Medicaid; this sham, this ignoring of common sense simply will not work. Even bribing to get votes will not make it work. The country knows this and is against it, and therefore, so are we. Let’s start over and here are our ideas—and go from there.

  • eastbaylarry

    It would mostly hasten the demise of independant healthcare insurance companies. After the private companies start dying, the “public option” would be passed as an emergency measure.

  • eastbaylarry

    $250,000 to $1 Million are small businesses already struggling to make payrole.

  • eastbaylarry

    when it gets tacked onto the existing 4500+ pages?

  • eastbaylarry

    anything the republicans add to this disgusting bill would still leave it a disgusting bill.

    If we can’t start over from page one, there is no point in talking ‘bi-partisan’.

  • aesthete

    Reagan won not by avoiding the media (which, lest we forget, was more biased and one-sided back then), but by using and playing off of it, and using his strengths as a communicator to get across his message. It’s absurd to think that conservatives will gain any ground by sequestering themselves in their respective echo chambers, rather than by getting out there, presenting an alternative, and showing how flawed the O’s bill is relative to both the current arrangement and a Republican alternative.

  • aesthete

    Krugman, Brad DeLong, and some other Keynesians still think that they work. However, it is, much like support of the minimum wage, a fringe view among economists, and one that is backed up with precious little in the way of empirical evidence.

  • ruascott1

    of including the mandate, right?

  • ruascott1

    of including the mandate, right?

  • Menlo

    They are all one and the same anyway under this bill. There will be no “independent” insurance companies. I will still maintain that anyone who buys it or pays the penalty is a supporter of this bill.

  • ruascott1

    was for over $1M and it was in the House bill.
    The obama proposal takes what was in the Senate bill, which was an increase in the Medicare tax for those over 250K by 2.35%. He expanded from wages only to all income (dividends, interest, etc..)

  • ruascott1

    a modifier that can be passed alongside what’s already been passed.

  • ruascott1

    a modifier that can be passed alongside what’s already been passed.

  • ruascott1

    think that they really believe price controls would ever work. But they probably think its good politics to go after the big bad insurance companies again in a new form.

  • ruascott1

    think that they really believe price controls would ever work. But they probably think its good politics to go after the big bad insurance companies again in a new form.

  • cwilson

    of constitutionality. The whole plan is unworkable from the start — and O is not stupid enough to think otherwise. This is the Cloward-Piven strategy: overload the system until it crashes.(closely related to Alinsky’s Rule #4: Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules. This works particularly well when we allow the Alinskiites to write our rules for us, like “The federal government must provide free unlimited health insurance coverage to every resident”).

    Once you crash the current system, then you get to implement your preferred scheme without pesky questions about it being worse than “what we have now” — the idea is to destroy “what we have now” so that most voters will believe even the craptastic marxist “solution” is better.