DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum Queen Pelosi Rolls Out YOUR Health Care Bill

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What I want to know is who in the hell the 220 idiots were who voted yes to this, so that their names and faces can be plastered all over the place to make sure they get their ass voted out of office in the next election.

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Waiting for the part that states that all politicians will be subject to the same healthcare plan..

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It was in there initially, but they voted it out.

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jc

The Obama hypocrisy continues...

Candidate Obama rips Hillary for mandating health insurance

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That first comment sums it up nicely.

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Honestly, even with a staff of, say 50 people, there is no way ANYONE understands this crap. No One. Not even the people that wrote it.

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I can't wait till I get to the back of the bill........to see who's going to pay for it, and to see what other goodies they have added.


Plus, I want to know which representatives read this whole bill, and understand it?

I also want to know why it's 1990 pages of printed material.

Isn't there a damn person in washington that could figure out how to make a DAMN health bill proposal in, like, 50 pages? Why do we need to amend the damn IRS code of 1986 in order to do this?

Anyone that voted for this 10 inch pile of chicken crap should be voted out of office and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

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he said. "It is deficit-neutral.

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It would be financed with tax increases...

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Everything is deficit neutral if you just keep adjusting your income upwards by raising taxes.

This President is far more interested in achieving his "Landmark Historic Moment" than he is in getting this thing right.

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It would be financed with tax increases and Medicare cuts.[/end quote]

Interesting - it's deficit neutral, BUT, we need to raise taxes AND cut medicare. While at the same time increasing the number of people ON medicare. Boy, that makes sense.......part of paying for this thing is decreasing medicare by some $50 billion per year - yet medicare is going to cover more people?

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Also gotta love the big "0" telling ABC News "the federal government will go bankrupt if the health care bill fails." How many times can the sky fall around this guy?

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No, the federal gov't. IS bankrupt. Adding health care to the fed's will only rapidly decrease the time this country has to be like it was.

I'm tired of politicians thinking they'll be "heroes" if they cram down our throats what we don't want.

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No, the federal gov't. IS bankrupt. Adding health care to the fed's will only rapidly decrease the time this country has to be like it was.

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B.O. can just kiss my big ass

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Good luck with that.

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(and a metric buttload of free time)...

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I know I'm going to regret this, but that's okay I'll set myself up for it anyway......................

Could you possibly quantify what a "metric buttload" would equate to?

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Butt I would tell him to his face

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I don't doubt that. Even though we sometimes disagree you are an honest and straightforward guy. You don't pull any punches and I admire that. Hope we can have a cold one together again some time.

I haven't had a beer since I saw Saint in Columbus a couple of years ago but I'd make an acception!

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And it's not even done .... and no one can say exactly what the final version will be.






But it'll be a great "Christmas present" to the American people .....

As they tax my current health care ..... and raise other taxes ......


Merry Christnas my butt!

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OMG (p)ITS A GHOST!!!!!

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I don't even dress up as a ghost for Halloween. lol

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I think we might be witnessing the end of our Republic.

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We are already there my friend, we are already there. Taxation without representation has returned .... and guess what .... the American people are responsible for it!

Many patriots are rolling in their graves!

As Thomas Jefferson stated many years ago:
The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.

My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.

The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.

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How the sausage was made

Wavering senators got special favors to join 60-vote majority
Tuesday, December 22, 2009 3:09 AM
BY ERICA WERNER AND RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR
Associated Press
WASHINGTON— The Senate's health-care bill, which was expected to clear its second procedural hurdle this morning, will make a "tremendous difference for families, for seniors, for businesses and for the country as a whole," President Barack Obama said yesterday.
But it sure hasn't been easy for Obama's legislative priority. Democrats had to cut hundreds of deals to ensure that a coalition of 58 Democrats and two independents would provide the 60 votes needed for each of three procedural votes on limiting debate on the guts of the measure. Deals such as the following helped turn the rhetoric between Democrats and the Republicans white hot:

• Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana got $100 million more in Medicaid help for her state.

• Connecticut Independent Joe Lieberman stripped the bill of a government insurance plan.

• Democrat Ben Nelson of Nebraska won a slew of favors for his state.

Story continues below
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But deals are the lifeblood of legislation, and the plan appears to be on its way to final Senate passage, possibly as soon as Christmas Eve. A second procedural vote to limit debate is scheduled for as early as 7 a.m. today. The Democratic coalition was expected to hold, just as it did in the first such hurdle about 1 a.m. yesterday.

For his part, Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada was having nothing to do with the Republican complaints.

"I don't know if there's a senator that doesn't have something in this bill that was important to them, and if they don't have something in it important to them, then it doesn't speak well of them," Reid said.

The landmark legislation will insure 30 million more Americans, and Democrats were basking yesterday in the coveted endorsement from the American Medical Association. But the Senate measure, should it pass, still has to be harmonized with the health-care bill passed by the House in November before final legislation would go to Obama.

The AMA got some special deals itself before declaring its support. A 5 percent tax on elective cosmetic-surgery procedures was replaced with a 10 percent tax on indoor tanning services; a proposed fee on physicians to enroll in Medicare was dropped; and payments to primary-care physicians and general surgeons in rural and underserved areas were increased, without cutting payments to other doctors.

"America has the best health care in the world -- if you can get it," Dr. Cecil B. Wilson, AMA president-elect, said at a news conference with Reid and other leaders. "For far too many people access to care is out of reach because they lack insurance. This is not acceptable to physicians."

Early yesterday, Democrats prevailed 60-40 over Republican opposition, voting to block a threatened GOP filibuster of a last-minute package of Democratic amendments. Democrats were expected to do the same this morning. A last 60-vote hurdle awaits on Wednesday, and final passage of the legislation -- requiring a simple majority -- is set for late Thursday, if Republicans take all the available time. Yesterday, they said they would.

"The flight that I have is Christmas morning, and I don't plan on changing that reservation," Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said. "We potentially are getting ready to pass a bill that there's no question in my mind is going to lead to huge deficits down the road."

Republicans ramped up their criticism, denouncing the last-minute concessions that put the bill over the top.

"I am tired of the Congress thumbing their nose and flipping a bird to the American people," Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele said in a conference call with reporters.

Reid promptly criticized Steele for saying "something so obscene" and "so crass and such a terrible example for the youth."

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., called the side deals "Bernie Madoff gimmicks," referring to the disgraced financier Bernard Madoff.

Meanwhile, Ohio GOP Sen. George V. Voinovich, in a speech on the Senate floor last night, said he doubts the health-care bill will reduce the deficit as promised and that lawmakers will prove unable to deliver on the Medicare cuts called for in the bill.

"I respect my friends on the other side of the aisle, but the assumptions they make are optimistic about the cuts in this bill, especially when you consider this body's propensity for acting in a fiscally irresponsible manner,"Voinovich said.

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What the 60th vote cost
Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., who provided the critical 60th vote that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid needed, received numerous benefits for Nebraska, along with tighter curbs on abortion. Among the Nebraska-specific provisions:

• The federal government will pick up the full cost of a proposed expansion of Medicaid in Nebraska, at an estimated cost of $100 million over 10 years.

• Blue Cross Blue Shield of Nebraska will be exempted from an annual fee on insurers; the exemption also could apply to nonprofit insurers in other states, possibly including Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan.

• Supplemental "Medigap" policies such as those sold by Mutual of Omaha are exempted from the annual fee on insurers, something that would help other companies selling such policies.

• A physician-owned hospital being built in Bellevue, Neb., could get referrals from doctors who own it, avoiding a new ban in the Senate bill that will apply to hospitals built in the future. Without mentioning Nebraska or other states by name, the Senate bill pushes back some legal deadlines by several months, in effect making a few hospitals near completion eligible to continue receiving referrals from the doctors who own them.

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What Lawmakers, Interest Groups Got
look at some of the concessions lawmakers and interest groups won in the latest version of the Senate's health-care overhaul bill:

Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., put in a provision to help the 2,900 residents of Libby, Mont., many of whom have asbestos-related illnesses from a now-defunct mineral mine. Under Baucus' provision, sickened residents can sign up for Medicare benefits.

Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., added an item making $100 million available for construction of a hospital at a public university. Dodd says more than a dozen sites could be eligible, but he hopes the University of Connecticut will be the beneficiary.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., negotiated $600 million in additional Medicaid benefits for his state over 10 years. He said Vermont is due the benefits because the state already has acted to expand Medicaid eligibility to the levels now contemplated by the federal government. Vermont would be unfairly penalized if other states now are being helped with that expansion, he said. Massachusetts is getting $500 million for similar reasons.

Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., was able to procure Medicaid help from the federal government worth at least $100 million in 2011.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., got Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., to agree to a $10 billion increase for community health centers.

Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., pushed a provision he said will let about 800,000 Florida seniors enrolled in private Medicare Advantage plans keep their extra benefits. It also helps seniors in a handful of other states. Elsewhere, Medicare Advantage patients risk losing benefits because the private plans are a major target of planned cuts to Medicare.

STATES

Doctors and hospitals in Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming will get paid more than providers in other states under formulas in the bill designed to help the so-called Frontier States.

INTEREST GROUPS

• Longshoremen were added to the list of high-risk professions shielded from the full impact of a new tax on high-value health-insurance plans. Electrical linemen were already shielded, along with policemen, firefighters, emergency first responders and workers in construction, mining, forestry, fishing and certain agriculture jobs.

• Gun-rights lobbyists pushed for language to ban collection of data on gun ownership.

• Majority Leader Reid made a series of change to please doctors, including:

• Eliminating a 5 percent tax on elective cosmetic-surgery procedures, replacing it with a 10 percent tax on indoor tanning services.

• Eliminating payment cuts to specialty and other physicians that were to be used to pay for bonuses to primary-care physicians and general surgeons in underserved areas. The bonuses remain.

• Drugmakers were able to fend off a proposal to allow importation of cheaper drugs from Canada and other countries.

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