GOP Got Substantive Changes To Health Care Bill, Despite Claims: Slate

Slate Magazine:

When the Senate health, education, labor, and pensions committee passed its health care bill Wednesday, the Obama administration hailed it as a "bipartisan" effort. No matter that it passed the panel on a strictly party-line vote, with all 13 Democrats voting for and all 10 Republicans voting against. It was bipartisan, administration officials explained, because it contained 160 Republican amendments. Republican senators said that characterization was absurd. After all, they said, most of the 160 amendments were technical, rather than substantive, changes. Lisa Murkowsi of Alaska told the New York Times that, while it was "pretty impressive" that 20 of her amendments were accepted, "they were all technical."

Read the whole story: Slate Magazine

Comments

[BUTCHER111]

So why did she ask for the 20 Amendments if they weren’t important? Isn’t she saying she wasted taxpayers time and money?

[expired]

Contact the White House, this is bs.

[Coinyer101]

As long as insurance is left in the mix, this 'reform' of healthcare is useless...­..

[BabblingBrooks]

If any Republican votes for this bill, then they should be voted out in the next Republican primary they enter. If any Democrat votes for it, they should be voted out too, but Democratic voters aren't sane enough to recognize that.

[XLintLuvR]

I think we'll all agree that Babbling is an accurate description of your posts.

[nk007]

There you go again projecting: "Democratic voters aren't sane enough....­" All sane people know that you are truly projecting the behavior of right wing voters (note: I did not say Republicans because I know many sane Republicans) on Democratic voters.

[scoops2]

sooo funny. This is politics 101. Lie and try to drag your opposition with you because of your failure. Dems do not need 1 republican vote. not 1. The blame game is being drafted with the legislation.

[bassnman]

WOW!!! You people really are socialist.­..actually fascists. Yes President Obama won the election with 53% of the vote, that means that 47% of the people didn't vote for him. There must be some compromise.

Health care reform is a must!!! To rush this through in a week or two is just ridiculous. Nobody in congress is actually reading the bill that are written and who knows what is in them. Look at the stimulus, most of the money doesn't get spent until 4 years from now. When you look at the cost proposed in this health care bill and the tax increases, this will devastate the economy. There is no lowering of costs, it just cover more but not all people.

Here is an interesting question, right now, roughly 20% of Americans don't have health insurance (some by choice). If you add these 20% in without anymore doctors and nurses, where or how long are you willing to wait for the doctors. It takes roughly 6 years to get a doctor into the system, and if there is no money in it, why would people want to be doctors, especially with the cost of the education.

Start looking at the polls, people want health care reform and not socialized medicine. Look at survival rates at your beloved British health care to ours for cancer.

[PWM]

Universal health care is not socialized medicine. Check the facts rather than listening to Fox.

[nk007]

Have you forgotten that, in 2000, George Bush won with less than 50% of the votes and still the Republican Congress rammed through tax cuts for the rich, without regard to the interests of the majority of people who voted against him? You want to talk "fascism," better look in the mirror. If Bush had won with 53% you would be calling it a landslide mandate. After all didn't he gloat about his 51% win in 2004? You right wingers are amazing: All you thrive on are lies mixed in with hypocrisy. Is the mail delivery services socialized just because we have a public Post office? Is our educational system socialized because we have public schools? Is our transportation socialized because we have public mass transit, government built roads and government run Air traffic control? Finally are you so ignorant that you don't know that the 20% uninsured still get to see doctors in ER's at much greater cost that is paid by the rest of us? I wish people would stop buying into meaningless slogans aimed at scaring people so that Insurance monopolies can continue to rip us blind.

[Chernynkaya]

I don't understand how the Republicans can say with straight faces that the health care debate is NOT bipartisan, when, just as with the stimulus, these bills are infected with Republican amendments. I don't think the word "bipartisan" means what they think it means.

Another thing I don't understand is why the Democrats would add those ruinous amendments, while knowing full well that the Republicans are not going to support the final bill anyway. It doesn't provide political cover for the Dems, but it still rewards the Reps. by allowing them to have a significant voice in the process. What's wrong with this picture?

I can only conclude that the Democrats are perpetually naive and believe that if they insert these Republican amendments, they will support the final bill. It's like Charley Brown and Lucy: The football will always be snatched away just as we are about to kick it.

[springsm]

And none of them will be good. She can rant and brag...but we all will suffer from these changes. Gawd...oba­ma WON for gosh sakes...ta­ke hold BHO....you are still doing bush's work for him and it isn't pretty.

[LiberalBuzz]

WHY do dems allow members of the Thug party to STILL give the orders?

When they were in power, the Thugs could have cared less what dems thought. They just rammed through anything they wanted to and dems just cowered in the corners in the shadows terrified of a nasty glance from Thug party members.

Dems amendments? They weren't allowed.

So why this terror of the Thugs now?

Do they think that if the Thugs get back in power they will remember the dems giving in to them and allow dems a voice again?

Yeah, right.

[WeMustSpeakOut]

Because they are all one party - the Corporatist Party - and they vote according to the terms of the lobbyist bribes they eagerly accept. Our entire system of government needs an overhaul, party affiliation has become much less of an issue.

Just look at the details within the awful legislature that has gone through under Obama. Just like the crap we got from Bu$ie, these bills cater to the corporate masters and throw the masses a crumb or two. We then hear all kinds of gloating about how these garbage bills are ground breaking reform. Hardly.

Two parties, one more repugnant than the other, a single underlying agenda.

We need to change the whole corrupt system. I just have no idea how we can actually achieve it.

[PaxEterna]

I wish Obama would give up the doublespeak spin. We had enough of that with Bush.

it's time for some straight talk from our so-called leaders.

Oh, I forgot, they can't talk straight because their mouths have been twisted shut by all the lobbyists and special interest groups that have derailed their thinking, taken away their spines, and lined their pockets with filthy graft.

[caseyasmith]

And that's Obama's fault...ho­w? The system was broken and bought and paid for long before he was even a senator. Besides being the most straight-forward, thoughtful president we've had in decades, he's also TRYING....­something the American public has a really hard time with, apparently.

[PWM]

Hold on, next year they will blame Obama for WW1.

[WeMustSpeakOut]

No, not Obama's fault but his rhetoric consistently rings hollow as his proceeding actions directly contradict his eloquent oratory.

Words are meaningless if they are not supported by corresponding actions.
So far most actions have not only been contradictory to his rhetoric, but a complete 180 departure from it. I don't view that as "TRYING."

[NeoStar9]

Ugh.

I'll say this simpler and maybe this time it will go through. Democrats are allowing to Republicans to weaken Health Care the way they allowed them to weaken the stimulus. They keep giving them changes they want in the end they will still attack and demonize and not vote for it. Then what we the people are left with is a sub-par bill that could have been so much more if they had only had a spine and common sense to not listen to those that weren't serious about helping or voting on a bill.

[LemonMeringue]

Every time I get email from one of our bribed, elected representatives bragging about this bill I email them right back with my objections.

I got this from Dennis Kucinich this morning. Anyone know how this turned out? Dennis is on our side.

----------­----------­---------

Dear Friends,

It is 6.30 am on Friday and we have just finished a 20 hour marathon committee markup of the health care bill, HR3200, during which I offered the amendment to enable states to pursue single payer health care plans.

A recorded vote on my amendment will occur in the Labor and Education committee sometime between 9:15 am and 10:00 am EST.

Your help is needed urgently. Please call committee members now and ask for their vote for the Kucinich Amendment.

Thank you,
Dennis

[medicinecat]

Why are we letting our enemies change/con­tribute/ad­d to legislation that they will not vote for? The Republicans sabotaged the stimulus bill, and now we're going to let them get away with it again? The first order of business must be to strip all of these GOP contributions from this and any future legislation.

[SocialistDistortion]

So in other words, it's going to look like this:

"This bill is about universal healthcare. From now on, everyone must buy an insurance plan from a private healthcare provider..­.see? That's universal healthcare. Problem solved."

[Chaimirija]

that IS what they are saying...b­tw, anyone who has the feeling that it won't be so bad due to the subsidies: read the bill. They are only availableto anyone who can get the public option, which won't come into existence until 2013 and is only availbale to those who do not currently have insurance and cannot get a private plan.

[WeMustSpeakOut]

Exactly. And those of us who do have insurance through an employer will have to begin paying taxes on it. The so called cost reduction is laughable at 10%. What they don't mention is that costs will continue to skyrocket far and above that level. Between the continuing cost increases and additional taxes, we may end up paying more.
There is also mandates and tax penalties for anyone who opts out of these so called reformed health care options.

Complete and utter bu||sh|t!!! They continue to throw us under the bus in every legislative measure. I surely hope that as a people we don't just swallow the sh|t they shovel at us this time. It's time to stand up and oppose this garbage! I'm all for descending upon DC in the millions, preferably multi-millions.

[NotYouAgain]

When it goes to the House / Senate comprimise committee, they need to rip every last one of these GOP amendments out, because they're going to vote against it anyway. Anyone remember the Stimulus package debacle?