Emanuel, Pelosi Meet In Capitol To Chart Health Care Course

[laughingliberal]

Rahm Emanuel ventured to the Capitol Friday evening to hash out health care strategy with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), a White House aide confirmed.

The meeting comes as Democrats are searching for a way to get to the health care finish line, though neither chamber wants to move first. Senate leaders want the House to pass the Senate bill first, after which the Senate would use reconciliation to fix the legislation to the liking of the Senate. House leaders contend that the votes aren't there for the Senate bill if the upper chamber doesn't move. The House, after two centuries of watching the Senate lag behind, doesn't trust that it'll act.

Senior Hill aides speculated to HuffPost that Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, would bring the message that the House must move first, with a pledge from Senate Democrats that they would follow. It's hard to make amendments to a law through reconciliation if that law hasn't been made official yet, they argue.

Pelosi's office wouldn't confirm that the meeting, which was still ongoing as of the early evening, was taking place or comment on what Pelosi's reaction might be. A White House aide said he was unsure what message Emanuel would deliver.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/26/emanuel-pelosi-meet-in-ca_n_479095.html

Does anyone think there is any good reason for the House to trust the Senate to do anything to 'fix' their bill if it passes the House as is? The article mentions two centuries in which the Senate has lagged behind the House and, for that reason, they do not trust them to act. What possible reason would they have to believe the industry whores in the Senate won't put a sham of a show on to satisfy them and then fall 1 or 2 votes short at the end and leave us with their insurance industry bailout bill intact?

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. count your fingers after shaking his hand.

just saying.

[Donnachaidh]

3. and then have your hand sterilized. n/t

[Donnachaidh]

2. translation -- stuff the Senate bill down the public's throat first

We'll cover the House's ass when the PO is conveniently forgotten or put to the bottom of the pile. We want the Protection of Insurance Profits Bill to go through so we can start working on the next corporate bail out.

[laughingliberal]

7. That would be my guess

After all, we still only have 49 Senators who will agree to reconciliation. Nelson will agree to it if the amendment doesn't contain anything he objects to which is anything that might make the bill better for the American people or worse for the industry. So, that's worthless.

[Spheric]

4. Agree to mandates to get protections...

Oops. Sorry, we just couldn't get you those protections.

Now, about this bridge. It's in Brooklyn...

[tularetom]

5. I think this asshat is operating as a free agent

"A White House aide said he was unsure what message Emanuel would deliver" Doesn't he work for the president? Somebody better be damn sure what message he's gonna deliver. It's the one the PRESIDENT wants him to deliver, not the one he's agreed on with his buddies in the insurance bidness, or the one the DLC tells him to deliver.

I think Mr Emanuel has been given way too much latitude in the perfromance of his duties and it's time for Obama to rein him in. Or kick his ass out the door.

Pelosi should have run away from this meeting as fast as she could. Or if she got trapped, stuck her fingers in her ears and went "Na na na na I can't hear you".

I think there is a cancer on this presidency and unlike the earlier one, it's easy to heal. Just fire this incompetent corporatist hack. Yesterday.

[laughingliberal]

6. I would hope so

cause if he is really doing the bidding of the President, it does not speak well of our chances for much progress for average people the next few years.

[flyarm]

9. do not even kid yourself to that! Rahm serves his master! eom

[tularetom]

10. Agreed, but who is his master?

IMO, it's the insurance and drug lobbies and the DLC "centrist" Dmes who forced him on Obama in the first place.

[flyarm]

11. nobody could force anyone "onObama"..eom

[tularetom]

13. Then Obama is knowingly taking actions that will lead to his political demise

for a piece a shit bill that everybody will hate anyway.

Keep believing that, Einstein.

[flyarm]

8. Is Rahm going to call Pelosi a F$##@#$$ Retard if she insists on a PO?

I wish this could make me feel good..but it does not..anything with "Kiss MY Ass" Rahm..tells me we are doomed!

[laughingliberal]

12. Sorry, I spewed coffee when I saw your headline. lol

Let's hope his diplomacy is a little better with Pelosi than it was with us peasant activists. Not sure he understands he needs her more than she needs him at this point but we can hope. Not a lot of hope, there but maybe a little.