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File this under "sun will rise tomorrow morning."
Roll Call is reporting that the Republican leadership is pressuring the Republican negotiators on the Senate Finance Committee not to reach agreement on health care reform, so Harry Reid is calling them out.
From Roll Call:
Enzi and Grassley appear to have been spooked by news reports that a bipartisan agreement was nearly complete. Enzi told reporters Wednesday that he spent much of his morning fielding calls from concerned GOP colleagues.
and . . .
Several GOP sources said Finance ranking member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) came across the Capitol to meet with Minority Whip Eric Cantor (Va.) and several other House Republicans in Cantor’s office to dispel rumors that a bipartisan compromise was about to be released.
And Harry Reid is calling them out:
Speaking to reporters, Reid said the GOP Senators who have been negotiating for almost two months with Senate Finance Committee Democrats to craft a bipartisan bill are coming under increasing pressure from their own leadership to either reject any deal or delay its unveiling.
“No one is harming the process of moving forward on a bill other than the Republican leadership,” Reid said.
He added that Finance ranking member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) “have been under great pressure” from their leaders.
As we’ve reapeatedly said here, the Baucus "coalition of the willing" is composed of the adamantly unwilling and politically "not allowed to."
Max Baucus’ recent tactical leaks of tentative agreements weren’t real agreements but instead Baucus’ way to cover for his Committee’s continuing failure to produce a "bipartisan" proposal. He didn’t like the pressure, so he spun the media, but then the Republicans punked him.
In fact, the draft measure Baucus submitted to the Congressional Budget Office contained many elements to which Republicans have not yet agreed, said one Senate Democratic source.
In full damage-control mode, Enzi and Grassley crossed the Capitol on Thursday to assure House Republicans that no deal was imminent. Enzi said afterward that the Finance bill was a “train wreck” and was “not ready for prime time.”
“I don’t know any way how it could be ready today or next week,” Enzi said.
The Republicans are now fully exposed. There can be no doubt they will not allow their own negotiators to agree on any serious reform bill, and the Senate Finance effort is a fraud on the public and their colleagues.
Who could have predicted that the Republican game plan is, and always has been, to torpedo any meaningful health care reform, while pretending to negotiate in good faith? Only a Democratic leadership frightened by a Jim DeMint would continue talking to these people.
It’s time to start calling out the Liebermans, Conrads, Lincolns and Nelsons — and Collins and Snowe — and ask them why they’re shielding bad-faith Republicans and standing in the way of reform. Let’s put a good bill out there and make the anti-reform crowd explain why they voted against it.
More from The Hill: Sens. Grassley and Snowe take the pledge not to blindside their party. Max: "Et tu, Chuck and Olympia?"
36 Comments
Even Condi Rice could anticipate this one.
The Hill says some Dems are threatening to take away the gavel from Baucus. About damn time.
I love the smell of Rethugs crashing and burning in the morning. Smells like…burning shit in 55 gallon barrels.
Harry Reid, the man who has had his Balls redacted by the Senate Republicans is just so pitifully short of anything resembling a good leader. Of course, he’s not exactly alone in that regard.
I wonder what the Republicans would do if they were running this show and wanted to have a bill that spent zillions of dollars… oh, yeah they did that already and it provided us, The American People, with nothing but two wars and massive debt… they engaged in massive intra-party discipline and verbally kicked the shit out of anyone who disagreed with them. They played the game they know so well, schoolyard bullies, and won they day for their agenda.
I for one am sick to death of “bipartisanship” and if Baucus and his ilk can not get on board, then they need to be relegated to whatever the Senatorial equivalent of Siberia is until they get onboard and quit literally screwing the pooch.
And while they’re on this nominal “Siberian Holiday” no taxpayer-supplied health care for them or their families. Period.
In conjunction with the main point that GOP “leaders” intend to screw up the process, I just heard that the sky is blue.
Yes, I was shocked.
That might be a pair of stilettos too far, my friend.
So far, this bill is a “train wreck” and going no where. It really shouldn’t go anywhere. The Blue Dogs, Republicans and progressives all don’t like it, for different reasons, of course. Doug Schoen and Pat Caddell said that the bill is dragging Obama and his party down with him and a lot of Dems remember 1994.
Yeah, good luck with that. Hard to shame what nominally looks like homo sapiens but has no conscience.
“…And while they’re on this nominal “Siberian Holiday” no taxpayer-supplied health care for them or their families. Period…”
I like the way you think.
How did universal health care become a discussion among Harry Reid, Max Baucus, and Mike Enzi? Where are our liberal champions? Where is Chris Dodd? Where is Dick Durbin? Where is Chuck Schumer? Where is Barbara Boxer? Let’s hear from Senators who understand the fundamental value of this reform isn’t that it satisfy a tiny group of GOP Senators and their conservaDem allies who take insurance bribes in order to kill reform?
In case our team hadn’t noticed, the GOPs are fighting dirty now, disparaging the “plan” Baucus tailored to their specifications in his secret meetings, kowtowing to their well-bribed leaders, and demanding (as President Enzi has) that the legislative process end immediately and the FinComm “compromise” be sent to not-President Obama for his signature.
There is no good-faith negotiation here. This is a plan to derail reform. Call it out, “progressive” Democratic Senators. Tell the people what’s happening under your noses.
I’ll take no national health care instead of single-payer.
Words alone do not make good national health care.
Corporate Dems are the real enemy. Obama must take this to the people and go populist in a big way. Pelosi today showed the way:
They are the villains in this. They have been part of the problem in a major way,” Pelosi said of the insurance industry after her weekly press conference. “It’s almost immoral, what they are doing,” she said, referring to industry lobbying against a public insurance plan option. “Of course, they’ve been immoral all along. They are doing everything in their power to stop a public option from happening, and the public has to know about it.”
The current system works so well for insurers that they don’t even want subsidies, Pelosi claimed. “They’ve had a good thing going for a long time at the expense of the American people and the health of our country,” she said, adding that it will be tough to keep them from getting their way. “This is the fight of our lives.”
There has not been a lot of “good-faith negotiation”, and part of that is the lack of actual party discipline and leadership by both Obama and Reid.
So where’s Joe Biden in all this?
Fucking Biden should be up there 24/7 twisting arms with all his old colleagues in the Senate, it’s his job too as President of the Senate… all his years up there I’ll bet $$ to donuts he knows where the skeletons are buried for folks like Enzi, Grassley, JoLie, and Baucus. If he can’t work the room for the benefit of the American People like the operator he is, then this administration deserves one term and a page in a history book, because they are sucking at getting their shit together.
“Almost” immoral…?
That is an interesting comparison between the relative effectiveness of former Vice President Cheney and Biden. Whether you agree with him or not, Cheney was FAR more effective in knowing where the bodies were buried.
fluck ‘em .. ain’t we got the votes to pass a bill without the bastards ..
Scarecrow, this ought to be front-paged.
Forgive me for being fuzzy on details of committee procedure, but if all the Dems on the Baucus committee vote out the bill, even if all the R’s vote against, isn’t that enough? As the majority, don’t we have more D’s on the committee? Or are there too many Blue Dogs to make that possible?
And, oh, what Twain said – is it possible to “take the gavel away from Baucus” at this stage of the session? (And even if it were, would Reid do it?).
Uh, it IS front paged. If you look, it is the top of the page at the Mothership, which I think fits the ‘front paged’ definition.
:})
Their strategy after hobbling the public plan vis a vis the Blue Dogs or others in the Senate, will be to accuse the Democrats over the August break and into the Fall of creating a public plan with no price controls. That was the reason for trying to disconnect the public plan from medicare rates plus 5%, but moreso disconnecting the plan from all of the economies which come under the umbrella and framework of Medicare itself. Not sure, something along those lines.
What Teddy Said!! AndWell Written !!
We must have those who Do have the citizens of this country’s best interest in Mind to start screaming that all this BS with Backass et all is pure bullshit and get down to business to do what the good People want and need to survive!!
As the bumper sticker You gave me Teddy says:
Swell! Just fucking swell! Now the progressives are threatening to block the healthcare reform that Harry and Louise have explained that we need. Why did we ever turn vote in these liberals again? They were the ones who screwed it up last time.
The New Official Senate (or perhaps Congressional) Motto:
Look Smart. Act Stupid.
Cafepress?
Small suggested revision.
Noted. Much, much better.
and SD, I always forget that Einstein was much smarter than most folks credit him with being… I love that quote.
Look at their three pronged approach: The Dogs raised the fee prices to make the public plan cost more; Then, they shrunk the resources into the plan by reducing the employer mandate to payrolls greater than 500K; Then they reduced attractiveness and accessibility by shrinking the subsidies to low and middle income persons. That’s a recipe for a program that will cost too much, be underfunded, and be unaffordable.
Then the next diabolical step is to accuse those who passed the morphed bill of wasting tax dollars on an overpriced plan that serves too few people.
(Sorry for all CAPs, cut-paste from Finance Committee’s website):
Democrats
MAX BAUCUS, MT
JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER IV, WV
KENT CONRAD, ND
JEFF BINGAMAN, NM
JOHN F. KERRY, MA
BLANCHE L. LINCOLN, AR
RON WYDEN, OR
CHARLES E. SCHUMER, NY
DEBBIE STABENOW, MI
MARIA CANTWELL, WA
BILL NELSON, FL
ROBERT MENENDEZ, NJ
THOMAS CARPER, DE
REPUBLICANS
CHUCK GRASSLEY, IA
ORRIN G. HATCH, UT
OLYMPIA J. SNOWE, ME
JON KYL, AZ
JIM BUNNING, KY
MIKE CRAPO, ID
PAT ROBERTS, KS
JOHN ENSIGN, NV
MIKE ENZI, WY
JOHN CORNYN, TX
If all the GOPs oppose the bill in committee, it only takes two Democrats to keep it bottled up.
Good. Keep it bottled up. Then get Harry Reid to take the HELP committee Bill to the floor for a vote. In that case the Finance Committee’s views won’t matter at all.
Expecting Reid to do the right thing… would simply be insane.
Yep, and there are two: Rockefeller and Schumer
Been sitting in a nursing home in Beavercreek Ohio for the last week. Talking to the seniors in Heartland ( I believe there are 300 across the coutnry now owned by the Carlysle Group) Most of the seniors I am talking with do not believe the Dems will have the balls to pass legislation with the public option . Most think the Insurance companies profit margins will win out…that both Republicans who have all ready sold out…that the Blue Dog Dems will follow their leads.
Has anyone seen any coverage of the Health care march in D.C. today. Not one peep on the Ed show or Chris Matthews. Saw the Pres, V.P. Biden, Officer Crowley and Professor Gates clip at least 25 times. Knew the organizers of the Health Care Now March should have held the march in Iran…then they would have gotten solid coverage all day long. Hell the National Review, Faux News and Weekly Standard would have covered them really well if only they had held the march in Iran.
Oh well maybe the next march.
Matthews, Ed not touching the march they need to show those clips of the Prez having a beer another 100 fucking times.
The Baucuses of our party claim to earn their keep with their mastery of political pragmatism. So I don’t get what is going on, even as Realpolitik.
If you negotiated in bad faith with me and rejected a compromise that bent over backwards in your favor, if you said that you did so just to make me look like a chump, then my notion of political calculus would dictate one and only one response. I would take the most extreme, the most obdurately uncompromising variant on your worst legislative nightmare, and I would ram it down your throat. I would tell the lobbyists that you didn’t play by the rules and thus made extremism inevitable. On the stump I’d tell the great unwashed what a hypocrit and mercenary you are.
This would, at a minimum, make me feel better. It might lead to legislation that my constituents would approve, even if my lobbyists were appalled. But most importantly, it would give you (and every other son-of-a-whatsit that might consider making a chump out of me) a reason for never, ever doing anything like that again.
I guess I just don’t understand how hardball political pragmatism is done in the Great Potomac Sausage Factory, Inc. that we call “the Democratic leadership”.
If Finance Committee doesn’t report out, any bill is subject to a Budget Point of Order. Needs 60 votes. I don’t think there are sixty votes to break a filibuster.
Thanks. But isn’t it so that the Chair (Joe Biden) has to rule on whether someone is making a Budget Point of Order before the Budget Point of Order is made? And isn’t it also the case that a BPO must claim that proposed legislation violates the terms of the budget resolution? If so, do the terms of budget resolutions in the Senate require that the Finance committee report out a bill?
Finally, if they try to use the filibuster to block this, why can’t we first threaten, and then use “the nuclear option” (requires 50 votes and the VP tie-breaker)? If we do that we never have to worry about the filibuster again.
Don’t expect. Drive him crazy until he does. If still won’t do it, then progressive Senators need to vote him out and replace him with someone who can lead.