As I said my my post early this AM, SHOW ME THE BILL!
oh my… there *is* no bill, per Steny Hoyer today.
Democratic leaders are contending with a host of undecided lawmakers who want to see the fine print before making a decision. Hoyer said final language and a cost estimate should come back from the Congressional Budget Office by the end of next week.
“At this point in time we don’t have a bill,” Hoyer said. “It’s a little difficult to count votes if you don’t have a bill.”
Wait? Obama’s rushing Congressional votes on a bill that doesn’t exist? Or is he just accepting the failure, pushing for a vote on two existing bills that haven’t a chance of passage until Al Gore admits he freezes over?
Obama is desperately seeking Dem redemption. It’s time for the Herculean push to break the gridlock. The last thing the Dems need is the health care issue hanging over their heads, incomplete, during the campaign season. So it’s vote, take the loss, blame it on the GOP, and set to work to keep the chamber power in progressive hands to fight another day.
And if the pressure from Obama and Pelosi/Reid leadership were not enough, those incumbents are looking for any way possible to avoid the tea parties and rallies awaiting them. Again, from the mouthpiece of Steny Hoyer’s offices:
Democrats are racing the clock to pass health care reform ahead of a wave of Tea Party-driven town hall meetings planned for the spring recess — the kind of gatherings that nearly derailed the package last August.
But there’s a big difference this time around. Last summer, Democrats were encouraged to hold the town hall meetings, and they were blindsided by the backlash, which was recorded and promoted in countless YouTube clips. This time around, they have a good idea of what’s coming — and they’re lying low, in case work on health care carries over into the recess.
“There’s not been the same push as there was in August to encourage members to do town halls,” said Stephanie Lundberg, spokeswoman for House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer.
“Not the same push”…? I’d guess not. I’d say “katie bar the door”, is more like it.
But this little aside by Steny certainly clears up a few questions about Obama’s Dem campaign strategy … the House will not be voting on the existing Senate bill, so that eliminates the “trust me” moment that few have the appetite for.
Ms. Pelosi does not yet have the votes she needs to pass the legislation. She faces complex negotiations with both the moderate and liberal wings of her party to come up with a package that can pass the House without deviating so much from the existing Senate version that Mr. Reid would have trouble assembling a majority for the final vote in the Senate.
“I am not inclined to support the Senate version,” said Representative Shelley Berkley, Democrat of Nevada, who voted for the House bill in November. “I would like something more concrete than a promise. The Senate cannot promise its way out of a brown paper bag.”
As Democrats prepared for a final showdown with Republicans, other potential stumbling blocks emerged. House Democrats from New York met Wednesday with Ms. Pelosi to discuss their concern that the emerging bill would shortchange their state on Medicaid and other issues.
“I am very, very disappointed and unhappy,” said Representative Eliot L. Engel, Democrat of New York. “The White House is taking us for granted, and they shouldn’t.”
As ABC’s Jake Tapper points out, Pelosi had 216 votes when times were good and the seat filled with obedient Dems.
With the pending retirement of Rep. Nathan Deal, R-Ga., there will soon be only 431 members of Congress total, meaning a majority will be 216 votes.
And now we have word from two sources that the phantom reconciliation bill, churned by by the chosen few, is somewhere in status between those that wrote the bill, and CBO’s offices.
But wait… if it’s already at the CBO, does that bill include the GOP suggestions Obama spoke of in his WH proposal bill? Or the additional ones he noted he would include just days ago?
If that bill is in the CBO’s offices, then it’s got to be the quickest and least detailed construct of laws that include complex issues like tort reform, undercover patients to reveal more fraud (sorta a mystery patient shopping, I guess…), increasing payments to Medicaid providers and expansion on health savings accounts.
Still included, but getting a stay of execution for a few years, are the fees and taxes on medical providers and medical equiment…. meaning they’re still there. The feds just won’t collect from the onset. This means, of course, that these fees will increase the operational overhead of being a medical service provider downline, if not immediately.
Also in there is the pertinent language that any amount of money they take in thru revenue avenues can be slid over to Social Security… which is in the red years in advance. A laughable thought anyway simply because it’s a lock box filled with decades of Congressional IOUs.
And of course, being ever mindful that the future of medical providers is one filled with underpayment and no profits allowed, funding for scholarships and loan repayments will be increased.
Yes, lots of spending in the bill still. And zip, nada, nothing to control the runaway overhead costs of doctors and medical facilities.
Oh wait! What am I saying? There IS no bill!
Which bring us right back to the obvious. This little stage play is all for us, folks. The chicken little dying throes of O’health care, and a cast and crew consisting of a desperate party, trapped by their own divisions.
But fear not… somehow this will still be all the GOP’s fault.
Vietnam era Navy wife, indy/conservative, and an official California escapee now residing as a red speck in the sea of Oregon blue.