Looking forward to the president indicating today how he'll brush past the Senate filibuster rule

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from Financial Times: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/97006b6e-2664-11df-aff3-00144feabdc0.html


Barack Obama, president, will today lay out a "way forward" for healthcare reform, a path that will probably lead to reconciliation. White House officials have signaled that, following a lack of consensus at last week's bipartisan summit, they would be happy with a "simple majority" in the Senate.

In a last-ditch effort at bipartisanship, Mr Obama yesterday said he was "open" to four Republican proposals put forward at the summit last week.

. . . With no prospect of attracting any Republican support for the bill in the Senate, Democratic leaders are planning to ask the House to pass the Senate bill.

Then both chambers would vote again to pass a series of fixes - along the lines of the 11-page proposal put forward last week by Mr Obama - with the Senate requiring a majority of only 51 votes, rather than the usual 60.

read article: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/97006b6e-2664-11df-aff3-00144feabdc0.html

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from USA Today: http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2010/03/obama-and-health-care-the-way-foward/1


President Obama's health care speech this afternoon at 1:45 is designed to discuss "moving forward into the final stage" of the legislative debate, according to the White House scheduling announcement.

Here are some other things to look for:

The R word. President Obama may or many not use the word "reconciliation," the legislative process that could enable Democrats to avoid a Senate Republican filibuster. But Obama and aides have made clear they don't mind the idea, and the president call for a definitive, up-or-down vote on a final health care bill.

Says the White House: "The President will urge Congress to move swiftly toward votes on this legislation."

Another R word. Obama will definitely use the word "Republican," saying he is open to GOP ideas on items such as medical lawsuit changes and health savings accounts. But he rejects Republican demands that Obama and Democrats scrap a big, comprehensive health care plan in favor of a step-by-step approach.

"The President will note that his proposal includes the best ideas from both parties, and he will restate his preference for a comprehensive bill that will reduce premiums and end discrimination against people with pre-existing conditions," says the White House.

read article: http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2010/03/obama-and-health-care-the-way-foward/1

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1. So the idea is pass a really shitty bill and hope we can fix it later?

Brilliant!

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2. or they can do nothing but continue to argue

. . .which I think is unacceptable. I don't think we've seen the final bill yet.

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5. But the point is we have seen the final bill which is the senate bill, and that bill sucks balls

Now excuse me if I have a hard time believing they will be able to get it fixed using the same senate (actually a much worse senate since now they don't have "60" votes) that got us this shitty bill.

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6. we'll actually see a 'final proposal' for a bill presented by the president today

. . . the Congress will be left to actually craft one with elements of the president's proposals with which they agree or disagree.

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7. What the OP says is they will pass the senate bill as it currently is, and its one shitty bill

then I guess the president will hope that the senate will go back and fix it through reconciliation. If for some reason they can't fix it we will be stuck with a really shitty bill. I'm sorry if I don't trust the senate to fix a bill they themselves crafted.

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4. The idea all along was to pass this type of shitty bill that places ins companys over people

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3. The President is doing a great job.

He has certainly X posed the opposition !

http://surftofind.com/logo

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8. .