Something Big Is Happening Here

[babylonsister]

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2009/06/the_senate_help_committee_rele.html

The Senate HELP Committee Releases (Most of) Its Health Reform Bill
Ezra Klein




This is it.This is what health reform looks like. Embedded in that link (at link, probably a .pdf) is actual legislative language. More than 600 pages of it, in fact. It's the preliminary first draft of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pension Committee's bill (there are still some holes that will be filled in Friday or Monday). It's the work of Chris Dodd, but more properly understood, the product of his mentor, Ted Kennedy (and his staff), who has been grinding away at this issue for decades. The dream, it turns out, will never die: it will just be modified and re-released into each new Congress.

In the lower chamber, the Ways and Means Committee has released an outline of their coming health reform bill. And the Senate Finance Committee, of course, is looking to unveil its bill next week.

It's worth taking a step back for a second to consider the weight of the moment. It's been 15 years since Congress last tried, and failed, to reform the American health care system. Fifteen years in which everything has gotten worse. In which health care costs have risen and insurance coverage has contracted. In which individuals have lost their protection and businesses have lost their competitiveness.

It's easy, in the daily jockeying between committees and factions and caucuses, to forget that something pretty big is happening here: Congress is trying to solve, or at least improve, one of the most severe and enduring public policy problems confronting the country. A problem that has resisted the efforts of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton, but is pressing enough that for all its difficulty, it has never dropped from the agenda.

And here we are again. The bills are being written. The committees are holding their mark-ups. The president is laying down his markers. The industry is calling for consideration. It's worth remembering that the history of this issue is filled with moments of false optimism and dashed hopes. And maybe this time will be no different. Maybe we'll all be picking through the wreckage of the strategy and showing why it was really quite inevitable that health reform failed.

Or, maybe not.

[opihimoimoi]

1. President Obama is a BUILDER....not like Bush the War Criminal...

What a hugh difference....

Obama is a SOLVER

Bush was Disaster....

[Badgerman]

9. Name something he has built or done. Not promised, actually delivered on. n/t

[opihimoimoi]

13. He has built up our National Confidence, our Esteem....His plans to solve our

problems show him to be builder....

His 4 month record is stunning

[Patchuli]

19. Nice handle, newbie

Maybe we could give our President enough time to solve the problems of the world. Four months is pretty stingy to expect a total reversal of Republican near-destruction.

Oh yeah and welcome to DU. I think...

[tabasco]

26. He increased the Veterans Administration budget by more than in 30 years.

Obama is taking care of vets, not using them for props.

Are you so stupid of current events you don't know what the President has been doing?

My guess is willfully ignorant (same thing as stupid).

[Vincardog]

2. I vote NOT. WE have to insist on Universal Coverage and Single Payer

IF you are tempted to respond "That will never happen": Sorry I still insist.

[CTyankee]

3. Yes. Let's stop and consider what he is saying.

Can we just stop from all this whining and get busy? Please folks, I've started with Dodd. You do your part.

We'll have to practically get into the streets on this thing. Let's do it. If we're serious, just get going. Stop complaining on DU, get out and do it.

Otherwise, we can't complain. Really. We can't.

[Cha]

4. Real Health Reform has

so many powerful enemies..it will be another miracle if it gets done..but I've come to expect miracles with the 2008 Presidential election.

[Auggie]

7. If it comes, it will be because of our efforts, not Congress' or the POTUS

[Badgerman]

10. and that is the truth! n/t

[Cha]

14. Good for you...get

Goin'!

[Junkdrawer]

5. Just like banking system reform, the fat cats are trying...

to "fix the problem" in a way that actually has the fat cats coming out even further ahead.

Both fixes will seem to work for a few months, but will end up making matters worse in the long run.

[babylonsister]

15. Well, won't you be surprised if we actually get a plan in place.

As for the fat cats, do you mean the gov't?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=5814290&mesg_id=5814290

Bank bailout turns out to have been good business for U.S.

[Junkdrawer]

40. God help us if healthcare "reform" financing is as crooked as those bank bailout "profits" n/t

[sandnsea]

6. Open Enrollment, Public Option. YES WE CAN n/t

[Badgerman]

8. There is no headway, it is gutted of any actual reforms/ It is just

a bill riddled with compromises 'suggested' by pharmaceuticals, health insurers and corporations tryiong to doge health benefits. In fact if you look really closely the only vestige of universal health care (medicare and medicaid) are actually reduced. Obama has NOT delivered, he has once again backpeddled and kowtowed to the vested interests. Read that proposed bill carefully, then realize that it will be further amended downward in committee and the House. Rank and file Democrats are the goats once again at a Mexican BBQ!

[snappyturtle]

12. I regretably think you are correct. nt

[pacalo]

25. Dubya, is that you?

[Canuckistanian]

11. What it is, ain't exactly clear

"A problem that has resisted the efforts of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton, but is pressing enough that for all its difficulty, it has never dropped from the agenda."

[Whoa_Nelly]

16. Rec 5-Off to Greatest page with this!

Thanks, babylonsister, for posting this! :thumbsup:


:hi:

[KoKo]

17. I'll wager a bet...It will have some very good things for some people and

some very bad things for the rest. And, there will be unforseen consequences (bugs) that will take years to work out...and no one will be happy. But, then...no one is happy now (except the select few who can afford the best).

I hope it doesn't get worse than my worried thoughts. But, given how the Bank Bailout has gone..and the rest...I don't have high hopes.

[babylonsister]

20. There's hope there, too...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=5814290&mesg_id=5814290

Bank bailout turns out to have been good business for U.S.

[xchrom]

31. there has been NO profit there hasn't even been 'good news' yet

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=5814290&mesg_id=5814830

[babylonsister]

32. Ooh, hannah. Sure. I'll take McClatchy, thanks.

I like positive articles that have been researched vs. naysayers who don't.

[xchrom]

33. where is the receipt for the other outstanding loans?

there can be no profit until all the loans are realized -- unless you are gonna use the banksters version of economic good.

oh wait -- you would do that.

[babylonsister]

36. It's not a done deal. In fact, check this out.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x8461392

Obama Admin To Issue New Wall Street Pay Limits

[Arkana]

18. Obama was right about one thing--it could make or break the next two

election cycles.

If it turns out like 1993, Republicans will try and capitalize on it.

If not, they're fucked in even more orifices than they were in '06 and '08.

[Political Heretic]

21. Actually nothing big is happening here.

Unless rhetoric and sucking off the insurance industry counts as something "big"

[msongs]

22. there you go again, criticizing caving into republicans and corporations lol nt

[Political Heretic]

23. Damn... sorry. I guess placing social and economic justice above party is an old habit

...that dies hard.

I'll try to do better.

:D

[babylonsister]

24. OK, please post a link to the plan that has been voted on and passed. nt

[Political Heretic]

34. Obviously you know that by then its too late. (nt)

However, we've all seen DU keeping well up with the new of what is coming out committee, and what is being shut out of hearings, or marginalized to the periphery

[babylonsister]

35. Obviously you're full of poop with your prognostications. nt

[Political Heretic]

38. Well argued.

[babylonsister]

39. Like this?

"Obviously you know that by then its too late. nt"

Well argued. You got nothing except how you think this might go down. You could be right, and you could be wrong, but whatever it is, you will complain, of that I have no doubt.

So go for it. But don't expect me to not call you on it.

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

27. If ever a step towards health care as a human right could happen, it is now.

If ever,...need takes priority over greed,...it is now.

If ever,..."the people" get a turn at kicking industry's ass after being kicked by industry for most of America's history,...it is now.

Otherwise, there will be far more than merely 20,000 American people dying needlessly, each year, due to the fact that, needed medical attention is a profiteering industry rather than a human right in this nation.

[RoadRage]

28. Well, if it's not Single Payer, then FUCK IT.

Actually.. i don't think that myself.. but I'm waiting for the threads.

Sorry.. but i'm happy to see this.. and happy to see some progress. This is much better then what we have right now.. with millions totally uninsured.

Good Job on actually getting something done. It might not be perfect - but it's on the right track!

[babylonsister]

37. Thank you! I was about to smack you upside the head.

Your name threw me off. :blush:

You're right. I'm tired of the people who are complaining and setting themselves up for failure if 'they' don't get what they want.

Let's hope something get's done that will benefit the majority.

[RoadRage]

41. I smack myself upside the head multiple times each day...

It doesn't usually help though. :)

[deaniac21]

29. He has saved millions of jobs!

[marybourg]

30. This is HUGH!!11!!