"Repeal the Bill" Momentum Wanes

Some Republicans are now balking at advancing election promises to repeal newly-enacted U.S. health care legislation:

Top Republicans are starting to worry about their health care rallying cry "Repeal the bill." It just might singe GOP candidates in November's elections, they fear, if voters begin to see benefits from the new law.

Democrats, hoping the GOP is indeed positioning itself too far to the right for the elections, are taking note of every Republican who pledges to fight for repeal. Such a pledge might work well in conservative-dominated Republican primaries, they say, but it could backfire in the fall when more moderate voters turn out.

..."It's just not going to happen," Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said of repeal in a speech Wednesday. "It's a great political issue," he said, but opponents will never muster the 67 votes needed in the 100-member Senate.

Advantage Obama.

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

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On Health Care Reform, Sex Offenders and Viagra

The antics never end in Washington, D.C.

Republicans were mighty busy Wednesday night, tabling proposed amendments to the health care reconciliation bill that is currently been debated in the Senate. The Democrats have made it known that all amendments will be defeated, as any change to the bill will derail their delicate health care reform agreement with the House.

Since they can't win on health care, the Republicans are taking the opportunity to get some interesting campaign-oriented sound-bites out of the process.

Digby explains:

Yes, they're just trying to improve the bill. You've undoubtedly heard about the important improvement to keep Viagra from sex offenders. Here are just a few more:

Brownback 3653 –“To promote the production of renewable fuel.”

Brownback 3690 -- “To provide for the relocation of the United State Embassy to Jerusalem.”

Vitter 4872 – “To repeal the law that provides automatic pay increases for members of Congress.”

David Dayen at Firedoglake:

Republicans have something of a free shot in the reconciliation bill. Democrats have already signaled that they will whip against any amendments and changes to the bill, in an effort to pass it intact and send it directly to the President, avoiding another vote in the House. So Republicans can write virtually any amendment, forcing Democrats into terrible votes, without much consequence, knowing they will be defeated and providing campaign ad fodder

TPM:

As the Senate gets closer to voting on a health care reconciliation bill, the Republican strategy to derail the Democrats' plans is getting creative--and dirty. Their strategy is clear: with Democrats determined to pass a clean bill, Republicans will force them to vote down politically juiced-up amendments, and likely turn them into political ads meant to characterize Dems as sympathetic to sex offenders and fraudsters.

The goal is simple. To expedite its passage, Democrats need to keep the changes to the reconciliation bill to a minimum, and so have committed to voting down all amendments, even ones that they like. And Republicans want to turn those votes into negative campaign ads ahead of this November's election.

Once the votes are cast, the ads all but write themselves.

"Senator X voted to preserve sex offenders' right to Viagra."

And so on.

Let the games begin.

Politico: Dems reject amendment to ban Viagra for sex offenders.

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

UPDATE: New York Times reports that due to parliamentary concerns regarding peripheral issues in the bill, the reconciliation bill will have to go back to the House for yet another vote, after all.

“The parliamentarian struck two minor provisions tonight from the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act,” the spokeswoman, Kate Cyrul, said. “These changes do not impact the reforms to the student loan programs and the important investments in education. We are confident the House will quickly pass the bill with these minor changes.”

- GJW

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David Frum on the Republican Health Care Defeat

David Frum's verdict is in. This pretty much sums it up:

We followed the most radical voices in the party and the movement, and they led us to abject and irreversible defeat.

The commentary is, of course, entirely correct.

Having said that, wouldn't it have been easier to swallow this stirring indictment of conservative hyperbole if it had come from someone who hadn't played so vital a role in coining the neocon catchphrase, "axis of evil" that was at root of so much of the tumultuous, global reverberation America faced by the end of the last Bush presidency?

It wasn't so long ago that Mr. Frum's own talking points were being eagerly fed to, lapped up and ramped up by the very voices he now castigates and blames for everything.

Mr. Frum, former Bush speechwriter, states, "I’ve been on a soapbox for months now about the harm that our overheated talk is doing to us."

He might want to face that soapbox toward a conveniently located mirror. He is not without personal responsibility here for the tenor of America's current political dialogue.

Read the entire David Frum commentary: Waterloo.

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

UPDATE: Also see Mr. Frum on video:

- GJW

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U.S. Democrats Release Final Health Care Bill

U.S. Democrats have released their final health care bill.

A vote in the House of Representatives on the landmark legislation is expected Sunday.

Among the bill's highlights:

• 32 million currently-uninsured Americans will gain health care coverage by 2014;
• No public option or government insurance plan is included in the legislation;
• Most Americans will be legally required to buy health care coverage;
• Denials of coverage for children with pre-existing conditions will be immediately prohibited;
• Denial of coverages for all adults with pre-existing illnesses will be banned, effective 2014;
• The bill does not include the restrictive abortion language demanded by Representative Bart Stupak.

The new legislation is summarized here by AP: Democrats release final health care overhaul bill

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

Update - Obama Says Bill Will Pass

US President Barack Obama led Democrats in a triumphant, fist-pumping rally Saturday and confidently predicted Congress would rise to a century-old challenge and pass his health care overhaul.

"It is in your hands, it is time to pass health care reform for America, and I am confident that you are going to do it tomorrow," told his allies on the eve of a cliffhanger House of Representatives vote. "Let's get this done."

...Using a blend of expanded government health programs and subsidies for millions to buy private insurance, the bill would add some 32 million Americans to the ranks of those covered for a total of 95 percent of Americans a century after Theodore Roosevelt called for a national approach to US health care.

- GJW

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The Reconciliation Option

Ezra Klein makes a strong point:

But the proper way to decide this is with a vote. Sen. Bernard Sanders has promised to bring the public option up in an amendment to the reconciliation package. Good. And if it passes, then Republicans can take a good, long look in the mirror and ask themselves if forcing the Democrats to use a reconciliation strategy rather than compromising to make the bill friendlier to conservative insights was really such a good idea. I don't think it would be the worst thing in the world if relentless obstruction imposed policy costs on Republicans.

Democrats - and the political discourse, generally - have much to gain by telegraphing a simple message on the tenor of negotiations ahead - play nice or pay a price.

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

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Is Health Care Bill Too Costly?

From The Echo, a student newspaper at Eastern Michigan University:

Make up your own punch lines, ladies and gentlemen...

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

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Reconciliation, Republican Style

It's all good - but only when they use it.

"If you've got 51 votes for your position, you win:"

Senator Judd Gregg , in a 2005 defense of the Republicans’ use of the budget reconciliation process - via Ezra Klein

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

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Live Long and Prosper

In Canada, that is:

Newborn Canadians may live to celebrate nearly 81 birthdays on average, a Statistics Canada report on life expectancy suggests.

Tuesday's report on births and deaths showed life expectancy at birth reached 80.7 years for the three-year-period between 2005 and 2007, up 0.2 years from an average of 80.5 between 2004 and 2006.

In 1995 to 1997, life expectancy at birth was 78.4.

"People are living longer, longer than ever," said Shiang Ying Dai, senior analyst with Statistics Canada's health statistics division in Ottawa.

Amazing what a bit of socialized health care can do for you, isn't it.

Washington, are you listening?

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

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Priorities

From artist Jake Lewis,via Andrew Sullivan:

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

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Palin Tells Canada to Ditch Public Health Care

Oh my...

Sarah Palin inadvertently stepped into Canadian politics earlier this week when she told the crew of a CBC comedy show that America's northern neighbor should "reform its health care system and let the private sector take over" the country's medical services.

Comedian Mary Walsh of the comedy show This Hour Has 22 Minutes, a sort of Canadian Daily Show, stormed a recent Palin book-signing in Columbus, Ohio, and said to the former Alaska governor: "I just wanted to ask you if you have any words of encouragement for Canadian conservatives who have worked so hard to try to diminish the kind of socialized medicine we have up there."

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

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Minnesota Chiropractor Attacks Canadian Health Care

Meet Larry the Plumber.

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

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Video: The Great American Health Care "Debate"

A taste of the "debate," now before the House:

(Via Digby)

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

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The "You Lie" Remix

Kanye goes to Washington. Inevitable...

More amusement: Wilson's wife: “I said 'Joe, who's the nut who hollered out, “You lie”?'”

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

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U.S. Doctors Support Public Option

So says the New England Journal of Medicine:

A RWJF survey summarized in the September 14, 2009 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine shows that 62.9 percent of physicians nationwide support proposals to expand health care coverage that include both public and private insurance options—where people under the age of 65 would have the choice of enrolling in a new public health insurance plan (like Medicare) or in private plans. The survey shows that just 27.3 percent of physicians support a new program that does not include a public option and instead provides subsidies for low-income people to purchase private insurance. Only 9.6 percent of doctors nationwide support a system where a Medicare-like public program is created in lieu of any private insurance. A majority of physicians (58%) also support expanding Medicare eligibility to those between the ages of 55 and 64.

In every region of the country, a majority of physicians supported a combination of public and private options, as did physicians who identified themselves as primary care providers, surgeons, or other medical subspecialists. Among those who identified themselves as members of the American Medical Association, 62.2 percent favored both the public and private options.

(via John Cole)

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

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Rep. Joe Wilson: Maybe Not So Sorry, After All

The "you lie" congressman takes to You Tube, speaks again.

"I will not be muzzled." (Now please give me money...)

Via TPM

Also see Apologies Just Aren't What They Used To Be from Talk Left:

Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) just appeared with local talk-radio host Keven Cohen on WVOC radio in Columbia, South Carolina, where he explained how it was that he came to yell "You lie!" during President Obama's speech to Congress -- and he also said that he's received support from his colleagues in Congress, and even from Democrats. Wilson said that overall, he's gotten a positive reception. "It's been truly incredible, the phones have run off the hook at home in all offices, and the e-mails, the vast majority have been very favorable."

. . . I'm very, very appreciative of the outpouring of support."

For what it's worth, you can get your free, I'm with Joe Wilson T-shirt here.

And finally, for comic relief, see @_You_Lie on Twitter

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

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More "Canadian Health Care Lottery" Nonsense

This time, from David Kopel at Volokh.

For more background on the problem of physician shortages in rural communities north and south of the border, see our previous post on this topic: Canada's Medical Care Lottery.

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

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U.S. Health Care Debate: A Test of Democratic Party's Ability to Govern

NY Times' Ross Douthat gets it right:

In reality, the health care wrestling match is less a test of Mr. Obama’s political genius than it is a test of the Democratic Party’s ability to govern. This is not the Reagan era, when power in Washington was divided, and every important vote required the president to leverage his popularity to build trans-party coalitions. Fox News and Sarah Palin have soapboxes, but they don’t have veto power. Mr. Obama could be a cipher, a nonentity, a Millard Fillmore or a Franklin Pierce, and his party would still have the power to pass sweeping legislation without a single Republican vote.

What’s more, health care reform is the Democratic Party’s signature issue...

...If the Congressional Democrats can’t get a health care package through, it won’t prove that President Obama is a sellout or an incompetent. It will prove that Congress’s liberal leaders are lousy tacticians, and that its centrist deal-makers are deal-makers first, poll watchers second and loyal Democrats a distant third. And it will prove that the Democratic Party is institutionally incapable of delivering on its most significant promises.

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

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Congressman Barney Frank is My Hero

New York Congressman Barney Frank, via CNN, pushing back at a town hall meeting on health care reform:

While Frank attempted to respond to all questions, he gave up when one woman compared health care proposals favored by Frank and President Obama to policies of Nazi Germany.

"When you ask me that question, I'm going to revert to my ethnic heritage and ask you a question: On what planet do you spend most of your time?" Frank asked.

"You stand there with a picture of the president defaced to look like Hitler and compare the effort to increase health care to the Nazis," he said, adding such behavior demonstrated the strength of First Amendment guarantees of what he called "contemptible" free speech.

"Trying to have a conversation with you would be like trying to argue with a dining room table," Frank said to the woman. "I have no interest in doing it."

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

Update - here's the video:

- G.J.W.

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Questions for the "Obamacare Death Panel" Prophets

A few questions come to mind for those ornery, silly conservatives in America who actually believe Sarah Palin's discredited, outlandish claim that Democratic health care proposals before Congress require that health-care dollars be saved by so-called "death panels" charged with enforcing mandatory, non-consensual euthanasia of the elderly and disabled by America's physicians

I truly wonder - do you really think your country is actually in that much trouble?

Do you really believe that doctors, nurses and other health care providers of your nation would actually cooperate in such a demented system, if it existed?

Do you really believe that the lawyers and judges and activists and law enforcement agencies of your entire country would simply roll over and pretend that such things weren't happening?

Do you really think America is so limp that is now actually capable of surrendering to such insidious fascism and totalitarianism?

Well...

If you do think fascism so imminent and worrisome, why didn't you think so only a few months ago when your country actually was:

• disavowing the Geneva Conventions?
• actively engaging in a documented regime of systematic torture that purported to be justified by widely-discredited legal memos written by executive branch lawyers appointed by your own President?
• destroying videotape evidence of actual torture sessions?
• invading other nations on demonstrably false grounds?
• detaining mass numbers of people - many who were wholly innocent - in Guantanamo and elsewhere without charges, trials or right of review?
• issuing rendition orders to send vast numbers of people to black hole prisons for brutal interrogations in undisclosed, foreign locations?
• Conducting sweeping domestic eavesdropping and warrantless wiretapping programmes that targeted ordinary citizens on a scale not yet disclosed?

If you fear totalitarianism so gravely, why do you now so vehemently object to prosecution of the lead actors behind those practices and policies? Wouldn't such prosecutions allow America's courts an opportunity to legally disavow such blatant offences against democracy and the rule of law?

Couldn't such criminal charges establish the very legal precedents that might well protect you against everything you so emphatically claim you fear from your government?

If any of it ever happened?

Again.

Just wondering.

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

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Tampa: Health Reform Town Hall Marred by Violence

Huffington Post:

Police officers were called to calm down an unruly crowd outside a health care reform town hall meeting in downtown Tampa, Florida on Thursday evening, according to local news reports.

Angry protesters screamed, yelled and banged on windows as officers hurried to guard the entrances to the facility, where U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor was trying to discuss the various health care reform proposals being debated in Congress. One photojournalist said that a fistfight broke out inside the building, reports WTSP.

Many of the hundreds of protesters said that they had been inspired by a conservative activist group promoted by Fox News host Glenn Beck and some received emails from the county Republican party, according to the St. Petersburg Times...

...The Tampa Tribune reports that some protesters carried racist caricatures of President Obama and added details of more fights and scuffles...

CNN also covers the story: Town hall meeting on health care turns ugly

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

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