Senate’s ‘Gang of Six’ Plans Bipartisan Phone Call

[BlueJessamine]

Source: New York Times

The old gang is getting together, again. The bipartisan “gang of six” Senators on the Finance Committee plan another conference call Friday morning, their second of the summer recess to include all six members.

Officially, the Senators are still working on a bipartisan health care bill — even if time is running out and events may have already passed them by.

For one thing, President Obama’s plan to address a joint session of Congress next Wednesday night suggests that he is taking matters into his own hands and no longer expecting the gang — led by Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana — to produce a bipartisan bill.

Moreover, two of the groups’s three Republican Senators, Charles E. Grassley of Iowa and Mike Enzi of Wyoming, have sent signals that are mixed — at best — about their willingness to work with Democrats on a compromise.

The gang is to talk for 90 minutes Friday and is expected to meet in person next week before the president speaks Wednesday night.


Read more: http://prescriptions.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/04/senates-gang-of-six-plans-bipartisan-phone-call/

[jeffbr]

1. The death panel of Six

They're being allowed to make life-and-death decisions for 304 million Americans

[babylonsister]

2. At this point, I don't care. No one is operating in good faith for the

people of this country.

They should just disband.

[Vidar]

3. Pretty accurate assessment.

[AzDar]

11. What babylonsister said. And we should make sure it's done at the point of a goddamned pitchfork.

:grr:

[No Elephants]

4. Gang is right. Criminals.

[WCGreen]

5. It's like a fucking reunion tour of the Bay City Rollers...

No body cares, no body will listen and everyone just wants them to go away...

[Joe Bacon]

6. We got a SNOWE JOB

We got a SNOWE JOB
We got a SNOWE JOB
Dr. bills will go up instead of coming down
We got a SNOWE JOB
We got a SNOWE JOB
And Rick Scott is the happiest guy in town.

Max Baucus traded away an orchard and the Republicans gave him a rotted apple in return that he cherishes for it's bipartisanship.

Fuck you Max.

[No Elephants]

7. Snowe is the only one who even MAY be negotiating in good faith.

The fate of 307,000,000 Americans, represented by an overwhelming majority of Democrats in Congress and 60 (soon) Senators--and it all comes down to Olympia Snowe. Give me a break.

"The six include Sens. Max Baucus (D) of Montana (committee chairman), Kent Conrad (D) of North Dakota, and Jeff Bingaman (D) of New Mexico, who rank No. 3 and 4 in seniority on the Democratic side. The three Republicans are Sens. Charles Grassley of Iowa (the ranking member), Olympia Snowe of Maine, and Michael Enzi of Wyoming."

Send them a love note.

[BumRushDaShow]

8. This one single committe and the intense idiotic focus on it, is b.s.

Money bills must originate from the House. They may take bits and pieces of language out of what this group eventually crafts, to merge into the consolidated other 4 bills, but their's can never be "the bill".

[go west young man]

9. Obama should play em. Let em think they're important

and then bypass with the Nuclear option 50 votes come mid October. Come 2010 we boot them from office.

[hadrons]

10. "Charles E. Grassley of Iowa and Mike Enzi of Wyoming, have sent signals that are mixed — at best "

hmmm, those signals seem pretty clear to me ... this 'Max the Clown' show has to end

[slay]

12. Why the FUCK are our country's decisions being made by six assholes?

I have a real problem with this. The are basically holding the rest of us hostage to their demands. WTF!

[Wilms]

13. The use of "Gang of n" and "Czar" in American politics strikes me as strange.

Aren't both those terms from Communists nations?