Tuesday, December 15, 2009
What kind of deadline is this?There are reports that the White House is pushing to have the Senate pass a health care bill by Christmas. From the NYTimes: With one week before his Christmas vacation is scheduled to begin, President Obama is calling the entire Senate Democratic caucus to the White House on Tuesday.
The president is seeking to push – or prod? – Democrats to coalesce around a bill and pass it before Christmas Eve. The meeting marks the first time during the tumultuous health care debate that Mr. Obama has invited the Democrats to the White House.
The meeting, confirmed by administration officials and Senate aides, is designed to increase the momentum around the legislation. But it still remains an open question how involved Mr. Obama intends to get in the debate.
When he went to Capitol Hill a week ago to meet with the Democratic caucus, he did more listening than talking. That may not be the case on Tuesday, officials said, with Mr. Obama poised to begin pushing in hopes of getting his signature domestic priority accomplished before the holidays. Why does that matter to anyone? It's not the final bill and if you want to point to something, the House already passed a bill weeks ago. I think that the White House is pressing for passage in the Senate by Christmas in order to put the squeeze on Harry Reid, so that he is forced to take the Lieberman route and not try to work something else out (perhaps with Snowe).
posted by Quiddity at 12/15/2009 01:56:00 PM
5 comments
Obama wants to give us all a big, fat Christmas present. Charged on our credit cards and billed to us.
Thanks, big guy.
of course, demanding a christmas deadline is more important than calling for a public option. this will allow enough time for the bill to get out of the senate and go through conference (merging the house and senate bill) and finally completed and signed before obama's first state of the union, jan. 2010.
naturally, political theater/optics is more important than fine tuning healthcare policy. maybe if obama hadn't allowed baucus so much time dragging out the process during the summer, it would have been done sooner.
omen: You are absolutely right that the White House was foolish to let Baucus to waste a month (or two!) this summer with insane attempts to get a bipartisan bill.
I have had it with optics. And I've had it with Obama's speeches. They never impressed me, even in 2008. People are going to be furious if they are required to purchase insurance in a system that has no cost controls. I don't know - or much care - what the White House is thinking at this point. Actions are what matter and this year is looking like a huge disappointment.
His speeches were a lot better when we could believe that he would be a man of his words. Now that we know he doesn't keep his promises, his speeches are maddening because they are perceived as transparent lies and dissembling.
Hope you all like that Republican Congress you're gonna get in 2010. If this bill fails, that's exactly what's gonna happen. Keep on whining and crying. Stay home in 2010. Abandon Obama in 2012. Maybe you'll like Sarah Palin better. You'll love that perfect progressive HCR bill they'll pass for you.
Oh, wait...they won't even touch HCR. Instead, they'll further deregulate the insurance industry. They'll stand by and laugh as millions of Americans die as insurance policies are canceled, and millions more continue to struggle with no insurance at all. But you can console yourselves with the knowledge that you didn't have to compromise your precious ideological purity. That'll help you sleep better at night.
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