Reid: "Sen. Schumer is working with Sen Landrieu to find a PO all Dems can agree on."

[Clio the Leo]

This a very brief statment during the post-vote press briefing tonight. Look for an article on it later (hopefully) .... but this was in response to a reporter's question about the Dems who said they would not vote for a bill with a PO.

Apparently Schumer and Landrieu are working on crafting something everyone (in the Senate Dem. caucus at least) can be satisfied with.

Since I've never advocated throwing the baby out with the bathwater, I think that's good news.

[jefferson_dem]

1. Working together is good... and essential if we want to get this sucker done.

n/t

[roguevalley]

34. reid gave her 100 million for her state (which needs it) for this vote.

bag. what happened to conscience? Or wait. She's a Landrieu.

[BlooInBloo]

2. I hope the magic hat of compromise goodies is getting damn close to empty...

Time for more sticks, and fewer carrots - a balanced diet is essential to any healthy congresscritter, after all.

[Clio the Leo]

3. Not how this game works......

.... if you want a bill passed, you have to compromise and give people a REASON to vote.

[lyonn]

6. Not much wrong with providing Louisiana a few more goodies

That State got the short end of the stick after Katrina. Blanche Lincoln, not so much, ugh.

[BlooInBloo]

8. Actually, carrots and sticks is PRECISELY how this game works.

[Kitsune]

4. There isn't much left to compromise ON.

This bill is already more useless than a screen door on a submarine.

[Ian David]

5. I don't WANT a PO that all Dems can agree on, since most of the Dems suck too.

I want a PO that Franken, Sanders, and Kucinich can agree on, and I want the rest of them to shut the fuck up and vote for it.

[Clio the Leo]

7. And I want a pony for Christmas.

Sorry ...... I couldn't resist.

But what I REALLY want is a health care bill that moves the "universal" ball farther down the field than it's ever been.

I do NOT want a litmus test.

[Ian David]

9. Here's your pony!

[Clio the Leo]

13. um.....

.... can you shave him first? NT

[Mass]

25. Sorry. For MA, it is a step backward (and for other states with strong insurance laws)

Selling insurances across statelines is a race to the bottom, not progress.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

12. you will have to wait a bit

[stray cat]

15. Then the US must elect more Frankens in places like Nebraska and Lousiana

until you can accomplish that - you are one person with a little wish and a single vote for a representative from a single state.

[Laelth]

10. There is no baby. Only bathwater.

I say throw it all out and try again in 2011.

:dem:

-Laelth

[Clio the Leo]

14. lol when we have even MORE Dems in the Senate?

ya think? ;)

[Laelth]

16. The current system is unsustainable, and everyone knows it.

Perhaps not now, but we will be able to do better in the future.

:dem:

-Laelth

[Clio the Leo]

17. Sorry, we've kicked the can for far too long.

The time is now.

[Laelth]

19. It doesn't have to be. Sometimes "doing nothing" is the best option. n/t

:dem:

-Laelth

[Clio the Leo]

21. lol, the GOP has gotten ahold of your brain!!! HELP!!!! NT

[jenmito]

18. We won't have this many Dems. in Congress again for a long time...

and possibly under a Repub. president.

[Laelth]

20. I hope you are wrong about that. n/t

:dem:

-Laelth

[Mass]

23. I hope you're wrong. It would mean Obama has failed. I do not believe it to be the case.

We can accept Cantor's healthcare bill. I am sure it would pass in the Senate. If all that matters is to get a bill.


The PO in the Senate is already minimal: opt out and state by state system. It will not give any scale economy. and a system that allows private insurance to sell accross state lines, which means that MA will have available the crappy insurances sold in TX, even if our laws are a lot stronger. F*ck them. Who do you think will buy this crap. Poor people who will want to gain a few dollars they need. Welcome to the race to the bottom.

What else to cut?

[jenmito]

24. The party in power almost always loses seats. This is our best shot NOW. They can

amend it in the future, but if nothing passes, there will be nothing to amend.

[Mass]

26. I think we can safely lose Landrieu and Lincoln. They are not Democrats anyway.

Clearly, they are ready to sell the bill for the insurance companies. Right now, I see a bill in the senate that is basically worthless. Hopefully, the conference report will make it better, but if Reid cannot get this bill passed basically as it is on the big principles, why are we supposed to believe it will get any better?

[jenmito]

27. And you think they'd be replaced by liberals in LA and NE?

[Mass]

28. Who cares? If they refuse to vote for cloture on a bill like that?

I want this bill to pass, but frankly, at this point, I see all they are taking out of a already very weak bill, and see that Reid is still not ready to read the riot act to these few Democrats, but expect the other side to agree with everything that he will concede.

Hopefully, the progressives will raise the votes. Not sure how you can weaken the public option even more without taking people for morons, and, given the rest of the bill, consumer protection will be very weak once the public option will disappear (which is basically what Reid announced here, given Landrieu position).

[jenmito]

31. I'm sure millions of uninsured people and people with pre-existing conditions (like me) care.

Again-if we get a bill passed, at least it will help millions of people that would have no coverage without it. And if we lose control of Congress, we'll lose the ability to set the agenda and control anything. I'd much rather have a Speaker Pelosi than a Speaker Boehner.

[dionysus]

33. they don't care about that. they want this to fail so bad they can taste it.

and it's disgusting.

[dionysus]

not really, but to the failure junkies i suppose it is.

the stubborn ignorance is astounding.

if this fails, like you want it to, there is nothing. no second chance.

you should have the intellect to realize single payer doesn't stand a chance right now.

your "pony" is this bill (in your mind that means obama) failing so you can scream "i told you so", even as lives hang in the balance on this.

disgusting.

:puke:

[Kingofalldems]

11. Hopefully they will keep Joe Lieberman out of any discussions

[Mass]

22. Does he want to promote single payer? Because they are no version of public option all Democrats

will agree to.

Some have said they oppose it by principle.

And we do not need they to agree. We need them to accept democracy and allow cloture.

[Arkana]

29. Excuse me for a moment.

*Goes into bathroom and calmly kneels before porcelain god*

BLEEAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

[Better Believe It]

30. Thje baby has already been thrown out.

[DU GrovelBot]

32. ## PLEASE DONATE TO DEMOCRATIC UNDERGROUND! ##

This week is our fourth quarter 2009 fund drive. Democratic Underground is
a completely independent website. We depend on donations from our members
to cover our costs. Please take a moment to donate! Thank you!

[burning rain]

35. It may seem odd that Schumer's taking such a prominent role on hcr...

but as chairman of the DSCC, he has a stake in turning out the base in 2010 so that he can be a success rather than a failure, and he knows that having some sort of public option is key to that.