Lamar Alexander: Health Care Bill A 'Political Kamikaze Mission'

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said on Sunday that if Democrats push health care through under the majority only process known as reconciliation, it will be a "political kamikaze mission."

Though the individual parts of the bill are popular, he conceded, Republicans believe that opposition to it is strong enough that the party can run on a platform of repeal.

"For the rest of the year we're going to be involved in a campaign to repeal it," Alexander said on ABC's "This Week," adding that campaign would begin "the day it passes."

Democrats, in fact, would not be jamming the entire package through using reconciliation. The Senate and House have already passed major health care reform bills. Reconciliation would be used to amend the Senate bill with small changes demanded by House Democrats.

Comments

[mfyourmomscalling]

06:34 PM on 03/19/2010

You bet it is vote yes and your OUT!!

[LT12]

11:32 AM on 03/14/2010

It is time to vote yes on health care reform. DO YOUR JOB! This is the time and it is urgent! Far more people die in our USA from lack of healthcare than at the hands of any terrorist . It is a shame that this is the case in America. Yet the insurance companies (which are in business to make money – not to help people) are cutting more people and raising my rates. It is time for some serious oversight on this. GET IT DONE NOW!! The American people want and need this reform now! Thank you,

[zigzag1]

09:14 PM on 03/01/2010

Back in the 80's my college bound Son was struck head-on by a drunk driver from Tennessee who was driving the wrong way on an interstate highway. He was seriously injured and required several surgeries. He was left with permanent disability. The drunk was uninsured and after an overnight in jail fled and disappeared into the hills of Tennessee. The Governor of Illinois issued a fugitive warrant but the Governor of Tennessee, Lamar Alexander, refused to honor that warrant. That's the great Senator that expects people to respect him. No way, he's a creep!

[GoonieGooGoo]

09:39 PM on 03/01/2010

Excuse me. Which CROOKED Governor of Illinois was in office at the time. Maybe the Governor of Illinois led you to believe he issued a warrant. Do you have a copy of this warrant. Maybe a xerox copy that you can post online, right next to obama's colb.

[zigzag1]

10:34 PM on 03/01/2010

Maybe you should post your birth certificate, you know the long form with actual signatures because I think your DNA was scraped off the sheets

[houseafire]

06:36 PM on 03/01/2010

"Lamar Alexander: Health Care Bill A Political Kamikaze Mission"

ROFLMAO.....spin, spin, spin :)

If it was, you can bet the Republicans would be dancing in the streets & shouting from the roof tops promoting it :)

Ya know, Mr. Alexander, if you properly placed your thumb where it belongs, I'd enjoy watching you spin more lol

[Patrick Shaw]

05:37 PM on 03/01/2010

In the spirit of the HP 'Move Your Money' campaign let us ponder this idea that the conservative Democrats & Republicans and their insurance backers have the final say on whether 60% of the American people who want a Public Option...get a Public Option.

Surely we if can move our money to community banks why cant 60% of Americans who want a Public Option just become a pool of people who form their own not-for-profit corporation and insure themselves?

With the repeal of the blood sucking health insurers aniti-trust exceptions and monopoly grants this self-insured group of Americans could receive their coverage from a entity which spanned all 50 states.

Cetainly there must be well qualified people within the Public Option movement which could start and run such a corporation. Are there not gagzillionaires out the to give the seed money to start such a corporation?

Would not such a way of providing a Public Option be free of tax-payer funds, bridge the gap between liberal, progressive visions and those of the fiscal conservative about health coverage in America?

In the end it may very well pull in and insure all Americans or at least a vast majority of us.

I hereby nominate that we start immediately the founding of the not-for-profit insurer called the ;

Public Option For America

....all residents may apply.

[Bella Lee]

03:52 PM on 03/01/2010

Republicans on a campaign to repeal healthcare reform. They want insurance companies to get richer while Americans are denied coverage. Why do republicans ha.te Americans ad worship insurance companies.

[tucsoncindy]

02:37 PM on 03/01/2010

Candy Crowley interviewed Mitch MCconnell yesterday on State of the Union. Senator
MCconnell stated " per the Gallop Pole" Americans do not want Health Reform jammed
down their throat's budget cut's in medicare...etc same old spin. CNN.com

[tucsoncindy]

02:53 PM on 03/01/2010

gallup pole health reform..not sure which poll MCconnell was reporting on...

Sorry for the spelling error on original post.

[SPQR1052]

02:29 PM on 03/01/2010

LAMAR YOU LIE!!!!

[SPQR1052]

02:29 PM on 03/01/2010

PASSED BY RECONCILIATION---- PT2

And here's more....

– The 2001 Bush Tax Cuts [HR 1836, 3/26/01]
– The 2003 Bush Tax Cuts [HR 2, 3/23/03]
– Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation Act of 2005 [HR 4297, 5/11/06]
– The Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 [H. Con Res. 95, 12/21/05]
– Omnibus Reconciliation Act of 1980
– Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1981
– Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982
– Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1982
– Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1983

[bannorhill]

04:45 PM on 03/01/2010

Every one is a budget item. NONE are a complete overhaul and revamping of the Federal Government.

[bsherman]

04:54 PM on 03/01/2010

Neither is what would be done in reconciliation with the health care bill.

[scrzbill]

05:15 PM on 03/01/2010

Which complete over haul and revamping of the federal government would you be writing? Just the usual uninformed, misinformed, deliberately ignorant faux propaganda. Do you have ANY idea what the public option means? No teagagger that post their misinformation on HP has an answer, do you?

[SPQR1052]

02:28 PM on 03/01/2010

PASSED BY RECONCILIATION---- PT1

– Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985
– Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1986
– Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1987
– Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1989
– Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990
– Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993
– Balanced Budget Act of 1995 (vetoed)
– Personal Responsibility and Budget Reconciliation Act of 1996
– Balanced Budget Act of 1997
– Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997
– Taxpayer Refund and Relief Act of 1999 (vetoed)
– Marriage Tax Relief Act of 2000 (vetoed)
– Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001
– Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003
– The Deficit Reduction Act of 2005
– Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation Act of 2005

[SPQR1052]

02:25 PM on 03/01/2010

LAMAR YOU AND THE GOP LIE.

Medicare ADVANTAGE was passed via reconciliation by the REPUBLICANS and some blue dogs. It is unpaid for and is estimated to ADD 8 TRILLION more to our debt.

So, to say that "reconciliation" has never been used to pass social programs is patently a LIE. The GOP (Gang of Predators) have an effective noise machine and the DEMS must counter but not waste time on the 26% flatlanders.

Get this baby (HRC) out of the oven ASAP.

FYI: I am a disabled service connected veteran thus I receive medical and a pension on taxpayers dimes. I am also a lifelongARIZONA republican (25 plus voting years) that voted for this president and his "agenda."

Get 'er DONE DEMS. Just DO IT.

Part 1 of 3

[bannorhill]

04:48 PM on 03/01/2010

If Medicare ADVANTAGE is unpaid for and will add $8 TRILLION to our debt we need to pay for it BEFORE we add more government programs.

[Bronxdude]

01:41 PM on 03/01/2010

I smell the foul odor of mendacity. The average American refuses to accept that republicans are at war with the working-class, which is why they support the status quo and vehemently oppose healthcare reform, public education, government oversight, minimum wage hikes, worker rights, access to higher education, middleclass tax relief, and, in general, any legislation that would jeopardize the continuation of a credit-dependent, employer exploited, unhealthy, downtrodden, politically marginalized, underpaid, debt-laden, undereducated and permanent class of laborers. Similar to exploited sharecroppers, it’s in the best interest of republicans to keep the working-class hopeless, oppressed, misinformed and undereducated. Republicans staunchly supported the Wall Street bailout to protect their own assets, but opposed the automobile industry bailout, which employs thousands of middleclass Americans. The republican aristocracy opposes any kind of governmental oversight that will interfere with their pursuit of exploitive capitalism, which is why they want to abolish the EPA, FAA, FDA and Departments of Agriculture, Transportation, Interior, and Education. Anything that protects the worker must go. Just like feudal lords, Republicans require a formidable army to protect their financial interests, which is why they defend unrestrained military spending. The Iraq War will cost $3.6 trillion, while health insurance for every American for the same time period would cost $1 trillion. Republicans want to keep America angrily divided by class and race. Universal health insurance would provide hope and elevate the standard of living for working-class Americans, something republicans vehemently oppose.

[Bronxdude]

01:40 PM on 03/01/2010

Republican senators from fringe states with fewer residents than Brooklyn are leading the charge to deny every American access to life-saving insurance. According to the Association of Free Clinics, at a recent free clinic in New Orleans, of the 3,000 who showed up, 86% were employed full-time but had no insurance because they couldn’t afford it or because they had been denied coverage due to a preexisting condition. Mary Landrieu rejects insurance reform, yet 700,000 Louisianans have no insurance. Because of republican deregulation, 94% of all insurance markets are not competitive, which leads to price fixing and gouging. Under republicans, the deficit set a new record, 38 million loss health insurance, insurance premiums increased by 347%, regulatory oversight and cost containment were abandoned, pork-laden legislation reached new heights, and we were duped into war, while the wealthiest American’s received unprecedented tax cuts, which many found perverse, even by Reagan standards.

[Bronxdude]

01:39 PM on 03/01/2010

Thousands of uninsured Americans show-up at emergency rooms everyday with stage 4 cancer, and John Boehner finds this moral travesty wholly acceptable. In contrast, rather than fund insurance reform by raising taxes on the wealthiest, Mitt Romney has, instead, proposed reducing the deficit by cutting the salaries of blue collar Federal employees. The cost of the Bush tax cuts over the next ten years is $3.9 trillion (insurance reform: $1.2 trillion). As a result of Bush’s tax cuts, the period from 2001 to 2008 registered the weakest jobs and income growth in post-war America. When Bush entered office, 9% of the population was living in poverty; by 2008, that number had swelled to 17%. In 2001 the unemployment rate was 4%; by 2008, it had doubled. Under Bush, overall monthly job growth was the worst of any cycle since 1945, and household income growth was negative for the first time since tracking began in 1967. In 2001, 17 million Americans received food stamps; by 2008, 40 million were relying on food stamps. Republicans who now deride the $800 billion stimulus package implemented by Obama as “too big” willingly jumped aboard the Bush bandwagon claiming his $1.65 trillion in tax cuts would create millions of jobs (not!). In fact, when Bush took office, he quickly squandered a huge surplus left by Clinton; thus, republicans equal recession, and compassionate conservatism is a scam.

[freethinkergirl]

01:38 PM on 03/01/2010

Teapartier's are not average Americans frustrated by the "government apparatus", they are m0r0ns spewing allegations of socialism and evoking N@zism to keep government healtchcare.

They are the puppets of the rightwing and Dick Armey, leader of FreedomWorks finances much of the tea party to rail against "government-run" health care.

YET................ Armey's been on the PUBLIC DOLE.....as professor in the taxpayer-supported University of Texas system with FREE HEALTHCARE, and as a member of Congress with government health care supported by you, the taxpayer, {which he still is}.

Everysingle congressperson enjoys incredible healthcare on our taxpayer dime....yet the middle class, the very people they should be serving, is just not important enough in their eyes to have the same.

The same chance of living their lives without fear of dy!ng because of lack of healtcare, bankruptcy, etc.

Our healthcare costs are 18% of our GDP, twice as much as the next industrialized, technologically advanced nation. Yet we are a miserable 30th in line for healthcare.

Rightwingers are opportunists who manipulate the movement for their own selfish gain. Their mantra is irrational, uncivil, as well as petulant.

Middle-class America is being misrepresented by both the Teaparty and rightwingers, who are only pursuing their return to power in Washington, and will abandon their supporters once they do.