Healthcare Food Fight

As I mentioned in my previous post, the real fun is going to start when the Senate and House try to reconcile their bills. The following is from the New York Times as regards the meeting that the President is having with Democrats about the urgency of passing a bill. Emphasis is mine.

"But in the interview, Mr. Lieberman said that he grew apprehensive that the program would lead to financial trouble and contribute to the instability of the existing Medicare program.

He said he was particularly troubled by the overly enthusiastic reaction to the proposal by some liberals, including Representative Anthony Weiner, Democrat of New York, who strongly endorses a fully government-run health care system.

“Congressman Weiner made a comment that Medicare-buy in is better than a public option, it’s the beginning of a road to single-payer,” Mr. Lieberman said. “Jacob Hacker, who’s a Yale professor who is actually the man who created the public option, said, ‘This is a dream. This is better than a public option. This is a giant step.’”

Mr. Weiner on Tuesday fired back, suggesting that Democrats should rally against centrist lawmakers who seem to be dominating the health care debate.

In a statement, he singled out Senator Olympia J. Snowe, Republican of Maine, Representative Bart Stupak, Democrat of Michigan and Mr. Lieberman. Ms. Snowe played a heavy role in the Senate Finance Committee’s drafting of the bill; Mr. Stupak put forward an amendment, approved by the House, that added tight restrictions on insurance coverage for abortions.

“Who left these people in charge,” Mr. Weiner asked in the title of a news release. “Here’s an idea — how about we fight for a Democratic bill?”

Too bad Messrs. Weiner and Hacker shot off their mouths. The Dems might have been able to sneak this one though. NOT! Get the beer and the popcorn, reconciliation is gonna be a million laughs.

The Healthcare Train Wreck Keeps on Rolling

Thanks to Joe Lieberman, Ben Nelson and several other Democrats, the bill that will ultimately emerge from the Senate will amount to a pile of nothing. Each new compromise is designed not to reform healthcare (that  noble objective was forgotten a long time ago), but to get something, anything, that will garner sixty votes. What is so looney about this is that the Democrats apparently do not give a hoot about the fact that there is not one iota of bi-partisan support for this monstrosity, nor do they seem to care that polls indicate that almost 60% of the public does not like what's in the bill. The White House has apparently told Majority Leader Harry Reid to cut a deal with Lieberman and be done with it before Christmas.

Keep in mind, that this is only the preliminary round. The real fun will start when  the House and the Senate try to reconcile their two respective bills. They are very far apart on the public option, abortion and taxes. Stay tuned.