A healthcare bill WILL pass shortly after the new year. And these are just some for it:

[RBInMaine]

All 60 Dem caucus Senators including the socialist Bernie Sanders (who is a realist and knows we need to make some kind of a start), Sherrod Brown, Barbara Boxer, and Al Franken are for it. (Are we now going to start seeing threads trashing Bernie, Sherrod, Barabara, and Al?)

Anthony Weiner and Debbie Wasserman-Schultz. (Who is going to start threads trashing them?)

As I understand it, Andy Stern of SEIU supports it. (Gonna start trashing him now too?)

Hey, if I could waive a wand we'd have single payer today. But there are no magic wands in the real world, and we have to do the best we can with what and WHOM we have to work with at any point in time. It is what it is until it is something else. The United States of America is founded on COMPROMISE and the art of what is doable given all the variables at a given point in time. So we take this opportunity which won't come back for a very long time, pass this, and we go on as Jay Rockefeller says to continue to work to improve it over time. It is a start. Just a start. But as with all things, we need to start somewhere. GO OBAMA AND DEMS !! GREAT JOB even if an IMPERFECT job ! PASS THE BILL !

[lamp_shade]

Yessssss.

[madfloridian]

1. SEIU is not supporting it right now. Nor AFL CIO

Neither is the AFL CIO at least as late as 2 days ago.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/politicolive/1209/SEIU_president_blames_Senate_for_stalled_health_bill.html

http://politics.theatlantic.com/2009/12/afl-cio_senate_health_care_bill_inadequate.php


But you are right, it will pass.

[RBInMaine]

2. Someone told me Stern himself was for it. If not, scratch that. But yes, it WILL pass.

[madfloridian]

4. Yes, it will pass no matter what.

[AVID]

3. correction: SEIU: Pass the Senate Bill, Fix it in Conference

http://thefastertimes.com/politicalupdate/2009/12/18/seiu-pass-the-senate-bill-fix-it-in-conference/

[madfloridian]

5. Well, then they are falling in line also.

They will support a bad bill just like all of the Senate Democrats.

[AVID]

7. Show me where your line begins, how many legislators are in it, and when it will move.

[madfloridian]

22. I don't have the power to matter anymore.

In spite of all our work and activism and donations last year...we don't matter.

[Oregone]

6. Yay. We all get to eat shit pie. Hurray

[RBInMaine]

11. Oh nice. Kindly go rally with TeaBaggers. That's who you're helping with your NONSENSE.

[Oregone]

12. Demagoguertastic

Oh my! We can't talk about how bad this sucks. It gives aid and comfort to our political enemies.


Hush and whisper!

[Donnachaidh]

16. kindly go choke on your pom poms

You and the other cheerleaders are acting like lockstepping freeptards with erach and every duplicate post you put up.

[asdjrocky]

25. Forget you.

Some of us are liberals. Wow, DU has got to be the only place where a liberal can be compared to a teabagger.

What a dork.

[GreenArrow]

31. take your teabag

and stuff it up your ass.

[jkshaw]

8. "Are we now going to start seeing threads ...

... trashing Bernie, Sherrod, Barabara, and Al?"

Answer -- Yes. There's already a diary up on dKos claiming Al Franken is "incompetent or worse " ... on Daily Kos.

Sigh. Even Dr. Dean is now saying to pass it and see what we can do during conference. What seems to be the rule in my two favorite blogs these days is, If I agree with someone, he's great. If I don't, he's incompetent. Impatience reigns. Thoughtfulness does not reign.

[RBInMaine]

10. No worries. This sniping is mostly from the moonbeam pro-Nader fringe.

[Oregone]

13. Neener Neener. I can name call better than you I bet

Aren't you a teacher who works with kids?


Teehee.

[Forkboy]

15. That's a scary fucking thought.

Jesus, the mind boggles. :scared:

[Donnachaidh]

17. in YOUR dimension perhaps

koolaid buzzes... :eyes:

[YOY]

19. The ones that elect Democrats? Not those EXTREMISTS?!?!?!

The ones you cannot win without. The one who think that Afghanistan is a waste of time and money and cannot see a win or a timeline as none has been defined.

Yeah...totally extremists!

Single payer???

Extreme!!!

Remarking that trickle down economics don't work...pro Union folks?!?!?!?

CRAZY EXTREME!!!

That's just tree-hugging crazy!

:sarcasm:

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=&imgrefurl=http://thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi%3Fu%3Dxtreme_bullshit&usg=__w3MHIROhkJeQ2khWzqRJ4OxEGuE=&h=588&w=500&sz=97&hl=en&start=23&um=1&tbnid=0MD9fOYnuiVwvM:&tbnh=135&tbnw=115&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dxtreme%26ndsp%3D21%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1R2GPEA_en%26sa%3DN%26start%3D21%26um%3D1

[Bitwit1234]

9. Some republican on CNN

is saying to try to get this bill passed the Democrats are tying it up to Christmas and that is wrong.

Please please please can someone tell me what that is all about..how can they even suggest the bill is connected to Christmas.

[Oregone]

14. If the Democrats don't pass this bill, there will be no more Christmas

The USSR will retroactively win the cold-war. Bin Laden will take over Larry Flynt's wealth, and the free world will end. Hush.

[GreenArrow]

32. Of course it's connected to Christmas.

It's political theater. Merry Christmas America, enjoy your box of shit that we were so considerate and thoughtful to provide for you.

[golddigger]

18. And reduces the Federal budget deficit by 132 billion!

This is what its about. It's not about "HealthCare" it was set up to reduce the federal budget.

[depakid]

20. Yay! Let's trash healthcare policy- continue the high rate of medical bakruptcies & enrich insurers

all the while ceding power to every two bit corrupt extortionist in the Senate.

What's not to like?

[lapfog_1]

21. If it was even the smallest step in the right direction

I'd be for it, imperfect as it is.

I'm not one of the ones "whining" about no single payer. I never expected the insurance industry to either be heavily regulated OR to be eliminated from the process.

I was unhappy about a limited Public Option (but at least it's a small step in the right direction).

Then I was unhappy with NO public option but an expansion of Medicare ( ok, that's a small step in the right direction).

Where is the small step in the right direction with this?

Mandates? 16 Million new customers for Insurance? Subsidies that will bankrupt us? Taxes on union workers health care plans?

MLRs that convert the insurance industry into Cost+Award fee contractors? (Think Military Industrial Complex).

What?

Look, I'm happy that some very poor people in this country will get insurance, even if subsidized by taxing union workers. I might be one of them. Maybe. Maybe not. Depends on the very fine print. And not until 2014.

And I have no illusions that the bill will be improved in conference OR that it will be revisited anytime soon (hell, most of it doesn't kick in until 2014, so why would ANYONE revisit this before "it has a chance to work"?)

But I just don't see even the smallest step in the right direction...

that is... less corporate control instead of MORE corporate control.

[Clio the Leo]

23. Loved the way Debbie handled Dylan the other morning....

.... I like Dylan ok, but he needs to take it down a notch. But she made him look like a little brat kid.

http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/19678

[Cha]

24. "A little brat kid"..

For some reason that description is flawless!

[Clio the Leo]

26. She has, I think, three or four children...

.... and I think either some or all of them are boys.

And that's how she sounded ..... like she was scolding her son. lol

The President has around him what I consider to be lethal gang of tactical assault ninja warrior princess legislators other government officials .... and she is one of them. :)

It's like Charlie's Angels but SMARTER! lol

[jeanpalmer]

27. They don't have a choice

They promised us the moon and are giving us almost nothing. But they have to put the best face on it because there is more perceived risk to them if they do nothing than if they pass something almost worthless.

[GreenArrow]

33. It's all about them.

.

[grantcart]

28. you forget Klein and Krugman

[Tippy]

29. K&R....For lives saved..

[ipaint]

30. Don't forget Goldman Sachs.

Insphere Insurance Solutions

July 7 (Bloomberg) -- Blackstone Group LP, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Credit Suisse Group AG are backing a new U.S. firm marketing insurance to small businesses and middle-income individuals.

Insphere Insurance Solutions will sell life, retirement and health products through 3,500 agents when the Dallas-based firm launches in January, the company said in a statement. Funding comes from a $1 billion private equity investment made in 2005 in HealthMarkets Inc., a predecessor firm whose agents will be retrained as the Insphere sales force, said Phillip Hildebrand, chief executive officer of both companies, in an interview.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601110&sid=as.BRnlVf28Y

A bill with a mandate and no competing public option just in time for their January launch, how lucky for them.

[tomm2thumbs]

34. if they don't have a reconciliation bill waiting in the wings to fix this bill after it passes...

then I would consider it malpractice overall. There is plenty they could do after it becomes law to immediately fix things using 51 votes and a majority in the House. If they don't, it would be a sign that there is no long term thinking going on by these supposedly 'smart people' and that 'chess' to these folks is what you say when someone asks you if you have sold out to lobbyists.