Alex, December 15 at 1:45pm
The Senate has never made any sense to me. How in the world can a body claim to be democratic when Wyoming (pop: 532,668) has the same representation as California (pop: 36,756,666). Of course they would screw up health care reform. So Lieberman is trying to delay (kill?) this bill, but why? What's the guys ultimate goal? I've heard he wants to be Defense Secretary so is he trying to screw up the Senate so much that Obama makes him the next Defense Secretary just to get him out of the Senate? Or is he just getting bullied around by Connecticut's insurance giants? I guess what I'm getting at is that I have no idea what his endgame is. An even better question is what's going to happen when they try to reconcile the House and Senate bills. Apparently they are going to look very different. Favor the House bill and screw over the moderate Dems in the Senate (although maybe they'd have political cover because they tried their best to move reform to the right)? I get the idea very few people, with the exception of Obama for just having it done, are going to be happy with how this bill turns out.
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H Thomas, December 16 at 2:57pm
ReplyDeleteAlex: the senate exists precisely for the reason you outlined. All states are represented equally here but unequally in the house. It is to protect small states from the big states . It comes out of the failings of the articles of confederation. Oddly enough, it was Connecticut which brokered the the "Great" compromise.
What the real problem is is the use of the standing filibuster which stems from legislation which came about in the 1960s and was reaffirmed in the 1990s. Since democrats took power there has been a filibuster in place for every single piece of legislation to come up for a vote. There has been a motion to remove the rule (which a smaller republican majority tried to inact in the early 2000s) however, it was defeated (I think it only got 18 votes)
As for Lieberman... I believe I am correct when I say the 9th level of hell is reserved for traitors of this great a magnitude. So yeah... I hope the flog him in public. I will be happy to send money to his democratic challenger in 2 years as well.
What they were planning on doing was what is called Ping pong legislation where the senate bill wouldn't need to be reconciled with the house bill and it would come to a majority vote in both houses. If passed it would go to the President. I don't know what they are planning on now. Honestly, if they just drop the senate bill and try the reverse with the house bill it might work... who knows. However, the house bill has the Stupak language in it which makes it very unfavorable.
Honestly, if I was Harry Reid I would do this.
1) pass the current bill w/ the strong restrictions on the insurance companies, however, without medicare or the public option.
2) pass a second bill later in 2010 with an expansion of medicare /or public option by using reconciliation.
The reason to split the two is because reconciliation can only be used on legislation which directly effects the budget. So the bill, as it stands, could not be legally passed this way because it is used as for of regulating interstate commerce.
Honnestly, I think Obama needs to take a page from FDR and LBJ and bust some fucking skulls.
Alex, December 16 at 3:24pm
ReplyDeleteYea, I'm aware of the Great Compromise, but that doesn't make it any less of an anachronism in 2009 (almost 2010).
Splitting the bill might be a good idea. But the Senate just needs to be done with healthcare. If a whole other bill has to work its way through the Senate, it'll be months until they can move on to one of our other massive problems, i.e. the energy/climate change bill.
Ultimately I think the bill Obama will sign into law will be a reform on insurance company practices, a mandate that everyone buys coverage, and some various subsidies for lower income people. Not nearly enough to fix our healthcare system, but perhaps at least a small political victory for Obama and the Dems before the mid term elections.
Channing, December 16 at 3:26pm
ReplyDeleteDoes anybody here think that a regrouping and then a reconciliation of a truly liberal health package are being considered in any meaningful way by Reid and the other pro-Public Option senators?
Alex, December 16 at 3:28pm
ReplyDeleteIf they are thinking that, they are being super secretive about it, and I don't think it's possible to be that secretive in the Senate.