Following the vote on the health care bill, Wolf Blitzer talks to Rep. Darrell Issa and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz. Issa claims that the Republicans were "shut out of the process from the very beginning" and Wasserman Schultz calls him out on it.
Schultz: That is just a brazenly false statement. From the very beginning...
Issa: Is that like you lied?
Schultz: No, it's a brazenly false (crosstalk). With all due respect there are two hundred amendments that were offered and accepted by Republicans, offered by Republicans and accepted by Democrats and incorporated into this bill. This is a bill that is bipartisan in content, unfortunately not bipartisan in the outcome of the votes. We gave every opportunity over and over again and the American people saw a President in Obama extend his hand and saw Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid ask Republicans repeatedly to sit down with the rest of the negotiating table and we were repeatedly rejected.
After Issa pretends like they would have used the amendment process for anything other than trying to either stall or shut down the bill being passed and Blitzer repeating his Republican talking points about major pieces of social legislation never being passed without bipartisan support Schultz comes back again.
Schultz: It passed without any Republican support by their choice.
She then pointed out David Frum's statement when he called the Republicans failing to cooperate in negotiating on the health care bill the GOP's Waterloo.
Issa then goes on to pretend like the GOP cares about jobs and if I'm not mistaken it sounds like he was just praising that evil Canadian socialized medicine.
I am not happy about this single payer under medicare is what should have been done. It is the only thing that makes any sense. The insurance companies get money for nothing and run the cost up to 30 to 35% more then it need to be.
I am not happy that 40 million republicans do not have the morals or the intelligence to make sound rational decisions. They should not be allowed to participate in government because they are not capable of making rational decisions.
We have had 30 years of pure republican insanity. It has been inabled by the corporate owned and operated reichwing media. Not Liberal media like most of these idiots spout. Hell these people are so stupid I don't know how most of them manage to survive. I feel shame for my country every time I hear a republican speak. My god these people have given up on everything right and good in favor of greed and selfishness, fox news the standard of excellence for the brain dead idiots that make up the GOP.
republicanism/conservatism is a mental illness> They have killed the economy and god only knows how many people. God Damn the GOP! Each and every one!
More republiCON crying about being shut out of the process. If only.
The Democrats control the Congress and the Presidency through the democratic process. Win an election CONS and then you can control the legislative agenda. Until then STFU about the process not listening to CONS.
They said NO, NO, NO.
"Let's talk dirty to the animals"
after withdrawing as a candidate for Governer of California following the recall of Gray Davis. Issa spent more than 1.5 million of his own money to have Davis recalled and felt that he had bought the governersgip.
Some of Issa's finest moments:
http://www.perrspectives.com/blog/archives/00...
worship the lizard brain in humans.
...has any hope of solving our health care system's problems. Medicare is generally popular, but it is also widely recognized as being unsustainable without major changes.
Right now Medicare has the worst payment basis imaginable -- fee for service with inadequate regulation of fees. I don't think anyone -- left or right -- claims that Medicare is financially sound. Unless we emulate the cost cutting measures that other countries have we are going to continue to see huge increases in health care costs.
Medicare can be fixed, but it won't work as is and it can't be fixed without creating a hue and cry that will dwarf what we just went through. Read TR Reid's book "The Healing of America." Reid visits other countries and samples their health care systems. Every one offers coverage to every citizen at significantly lower cost that the US. However, if you read the details you should be struck by the obvious -- every one of those systems would be totally unacceptable to a least one major segment of the our society.
The reason Obama chose the route he did was because he knew that going for a universal system -- with either a single-payer format or a multi-payer format that acts like single-payer -- would have had zero chance of passage.
It's one thing to call for Medicare for all, but Medicare is not successful at keeping down costs. And any system that doesn't do that is not going to be sustainable. A Medicare for all system that will work is going to look substantially different from our current Medicare system, and while that's good, it would also guarantee a huge fight to win passage. We need to fix Medicare for seniors while it is still limited to seniors. Then, we can talk about expanding the program to everyone. (Something I favor.)
expansion of Medicare was not passable is just rubbish. There were three votes to spare in the House. Obama and Pelosis could have just run over the insurance industry, hospitals, docs, and pharma with plenty of votes to spare.
"Folks, this is not your father's Republican Party."
Joe Biden
the dems decided on their own to strip regulations from the final bill, so WTF are you railing about repukes for?
of course, as usual, YOU want to claim victory but omit the important details like: THERE ARE NO COST CONTROLS OR REGULATIONS to hold insurance rates down.
Should we expect the same treatment from Dodd when the financial reform bill hits te floor? I am truly afraid so!
________________
common sense matters as much as truth
make what you will of the rest...
--------------
Hey family,
I thought you might want to see this list (below). I spoke with Rev. Al Sharpton on the air today about the passing of historic health care legislation last night. One excellent point he made is that we must be more organized and proactive when it comes to holding our elected officials accountable for their decisions. So, I thought I'd send members of our coalition a list of Democratic representatives who did not support the health care reform bill and allow you to make your own personal decision regarding how you'd like to use it. I am personally going to share it with my friends and family, and also write letters and/or emails to the various people on this list (their contact information is usually on their websites, and I am going to have one of my assistants gather the information and put it on our blog). If you'd like a form letter you can use for the emails you submit, please click here.
As a reminder, I will be getting together with Rev. Sharpton, Tom Joyner, Roland Martin, Judge Greg Mathis, Harvard Professor Charles Ogletree, NAACP President Ben Jealous and Urban League President Marc Morial for the Black Leadership Forum, set to take place between April 14 and 17th, at the Sheraton Hotel and Towers in New York City.
To follow us on twitter, please click here. Please also consider joining us on facebook.
Democrats who voted against the health care bill included the following Congressmen and Congresswomen:
Rep. John Adler (N.J.)
Rep. Jason Altmire (Pa.)
Rep. Michael Arcuri (N.Y.)
Rep. John Barrow (Ga.)
Rep. Marion Berry (Ark.)
Rep. Dan Boren (Okla.)
Rep. Rick Boucher (Va.)
Rep. Bobby Bright (Ala.)
Rep. Ben Chandler (Ky.)
Rep. Travis Childers (Miss.)
Rep. Artur Davis (Ala.)
Rep. Lincoln Davis (Tenn.)
Rep. Chet Edwards (Texas)
Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (S.D.)
Rep. Tim Holden (Pa.)
Rep. Larry Kissell (N.C.)
Rep. Frank Kratovil (Md.)
Rep. Dan Lipinski (Ill.)
Rep. Stephen Lynch (Mass.)
Rep. Jim Marshall (Ga.)
Rep. Jim Matheson (Utah)
Rep. Mike McIntyre (N.C.)
Rep. Mike McMahon (N.Y.)
Rep. Charlie Melancon (La.)
Rep. Walt Minnick (Idaho)
Rep. Glenn Nye (Va.)
Rep. Collin Peterson (Minn.)
Rep. Mike Ross (Ark.)
Rep. Heath Shuler (N.C.)
Rep. Ike Skelton (Mo.)
Rep. Zack Space (Ohio)
Rep. John Tanner (Tenn.)
Rep. Gene Taylor (Miss.)
Rep. Harry Teague (N.M.)
yours truly
Dr. Boyce Watkins: Your Black World
Some stuff you can't make up!
When David Frum proclaims that the repubs are in trouble, perhaps it might be a good idea to see why. Sure, he may be playing games, but I believe he is right. Yeah, the bill sucks, blows, bites, (insert your word here). However, there are good things in here as well as the awful. Why? Because the bad things are there to embarass the republicans. Inserting republican ideas was important to use against them come November. True to form in important social legislation, they voted unanimously against the people. But they voted against small businesses as well, and you better believe that will be underscored. It is about time that people recognize that political intelligence was used against the repubs. Let's see if it happens.
.
“The greatest evildoers are those who don’t remember because they have never given thought to the matter, and, without remembrance, nothing can hold them back,”
Good god, David Frum just made me realise that GWB was the best and the brightest that the Republican party had.
!
Bragging about being the best and brightest in the republican party is kind of like bragging that I'm taller then my dog.
I kept expecting him to begin to cry throughout the interview. She's right, all they had to do was make a sincere effort with good ideas. Instead they listened to Rush and tried to make the President "fail".
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
He compares the US health care system unfavorably to the Canadian system. I really wish Wasserman had followed up on that and asked Issa if he thinks going to a single payer system would be a good way to save money. The answer is Of course it is. She could have tied him in knots if she'd taken the opportunity.
She's a real piece of work allright.
They had their chance to participate and make it better, but decided their political success (READ: Obama's failure) was more important.
For all the problems with the hcr bill, its passage last night was a historic moment and great step forward. The Republicans will come to regret abdicating all sense of responsibility to talk radio wingnuts (and Sarah Palin). You could say the lemmings out-Foxed themselves.
.
Palin is going to be on Hannity tonight so I'm sure they will some uninteresting bs to spout.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
They'll be rolling in it.
*
If it hasn't been it has been largely because of the Republicans. They have stalled all progress on this by shifting the attention of all things important to the unimportant like Whitewater and the idiotic birther stuff. The Republicans don't want health care reform and it will be their Waterloo.
I guarantee this will help this country progress. We needed this bill to be passes. It may not be perfect but can fix it in the future. We needed health care reform.
Jeanne
...to make a "good repukkke". They lie straight faced. They use figures that are so deceptive, that the brain dead listener is led to believe his tax rate is going up 60% under this plan. Absolute bull shit; but he managed to pull it off with a straight face...and it sells to his audience.
Wasserman needs to hit the f*cker in the face with arguements next time. I'm tired of the Democratic Party sitting on it's hands and playing nice with these scum bags.
Blitzer(in response to Issa's charge that the Dems kept the GOP out of the entire proccess)
"Why did you do that Congresswoman Wasserman?"
Not "how do you respond to this charge" but why?
Why in the name of GOD DID YOU DO THIS CONGRESSWOMEN???WHY???
Issa's smirking "you lied" interjection was skillfully obnoxious as well I thought.
"To me, truth is not some vague, foggy notion. Truth is real. And,
at the same time, unreal. Fiction and fact and everything in between,
plus some things I can't remember, all rolled into one big "thing."
This is truth, to me. "
-Jack Handy
My Dad and my best friend Cindy, who are both DEAD now, wanted me to say Thank You to who ever got this done.
To the rest that opposed it they wanted me to say FU.
How do you negotiate with an insane person?
The idiot Repugs were out there in full force yelling 'Death Panels!', 'Socialism!','Government Takeover!!','Euthanasia!','Kill Grandma!'. Where do you start when that is their opening?
This guy's an idiot and a repulsive one at that.
Congrats too! It ain't perfect but it is a long overdue start.
-- Marv in Socialist Canuckistan
the lies. Never, ever, ever.
The dems have got to load up to take the elephants down everytime they open their lying, no good mouths.
The only way to even begin to beat them back is to expose each and every lie; call the blitzers and gregorys, et al, of the world on their brain dead questioning and stand proud.
The evil ones know no bounds.
If the republican party stopped lying then they would not have anything to say at all. - it would be a Mime Party... kind of funny if you think about it.
Deb was being too polite. As Thomas Jefferson said "Ridicule is the only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions". These dirtbags need to be mercilessly ridiculed and shamed at every opportunity.
again... thanks!
http://www.aticketforrush.com/
YES That is a lie, you efftard!!
... Issa dope.
*
Issa is a millionaire idiot, so of course he doesn't care about insurance for everyone. Thanks to him we have Arnold the governator. He started the recall process because he wanted to be gov. but no one else wanted him. But he had already paid for the recall.
Debbie Wasserman Schultz is a class act. Wish she was my representative. Unfortunately, I have a real asshole for a congressman. Darrell Issa represents the district over from mine. He is a real grandstanding publicity hound. You should see him concerning this Toyota thing, it is embarrassing.
If you can't Republicans to vote for the bill even after you accept their amendments, why follow through on those amendments at all? Why not strip them out if you can't get their support for them anyway?
-ep
PS - I actually know the answer to that question. It was completely rhetorical. Obviously the answer is that the Dems wanted those GOP water-down amendments in there, they just didn't want the blame for them.
http://sendables.jibjab.com/originals/this_land
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
I agree with epeoples. If the repubs offer 200 amendments that the democrats accept, and then the rupubs persist in voting against the bill, then screw them. Strip any unwanted amendments, put in what the dems can get passed, and go for it.
Guess what?
We need to get Finance Reform done soon. I keep reading that another meltdown is approaching lest we do something about it. Know who is totally against it?
Guessed right.
Or Republican "friends."
I would put campaign financing reform ahead of immigration reform.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
that if this bill proves successful and wildly popular with the public, at some point John Boehner will claim that it's only succeeding because of the changes that Republicans FORCED the Democrats to make to the final legislation. I guarantee it.
Those weasels in the end will have the gall to try and take some credit for it.
You watch. It's the way they work...........and they'll have Fucks News......I mean, Fox News, supporting them all the way.
Darrell Issa is a fucking cry baby...I bet he still sobs over not winning the CA Recall primary.
Emancipate yourself from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds--Bob Marley
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