Now the folks over at Powerline are trying to execute the Republican strategy of making the reconciliation process a big part of the debate over passing health care reform. I don’t blame them for making the effort, but I still find it amusing. The Republicans are forgetting that the Senate health care bill passed on Christmas Eve. What the Democrats are going to attempt is to get the House to pass the Senate version of the bill under completely ordinary rules. If the House does that, the health care reforms will have passed without any use of reconciliation rules. So, at that point, health care reform will have passed under the ordinary rules in both the House and the Senate. There will be nothing to complain about from a procedural point of view. The bill will have passed at the normal majority vote in the House and the 60-vote threshold in the Senate.
That is how our Republic works. We have elections and our Congress votes.
What Powerline and the Republicans are objecting to is the use of the budget reconciliation process to make some fairly minor tweaks to a bill that has already passed through the Senate. Their talking points suggest that these tweaks represent a “nuclear weapon” and are an unprecedented power grab. But all we’re doing is tinkering around the edges of something that has already passed.
It’s a sad, impotent argument, and I’m very gratified to see the Republicans in this pathetic condition.
I’ll never understand how they can sell so much wrong information for so long.
However, Greg Sargent says the NRCC is unleashing robocalls against vulnerable Dem representatives, so someone on their side figured out who to target.
http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/health-care/exclusive-gop-to-unleash-huge-wave-of-robocalls-warnin
g-of-dem-plot-to-ram-health-reform-through/
Well, you never know. Maybe it will help some of the vulnerable dems, since one of the things people are upset about is their problems passing hcr.
The Sargent article seems to indicate that the robocalls emphasize the same, ineffective “ramming it through” argument. And Errol, as you note people are pissed at the lack of action on healthcare too, and many seem bewildered that it hasn’t passed already.
Also, I know it is premature, snotty, and that we should aspire to higher ideals – but the rightwing freakout when this thing crosses the finish line will be a wonder to behold.
yes, I’m afraid to say my better nature is totally submerged on this – it will be a wonder. meanwhile, may I recommend the videos of Barack’s health care summit, on whitehouse.gov (I mentioned them on another thread). I am so enjoying them. the beginning of tape 4 iirc with Eric Cantor is particularly wonderful, though tape 5 where Barack tries to explain to one republican that not everyone makes $140,000 or whatever per year and some people can’t afford health savings accounts to buy their health coverage, that is also impressive (I’m on tape 5 now).
I believe that exchange was with Lamar Alexander.
Hitler said, the bigger the lie, the more people will believe it, because while people often tell small lies, they’d never dream of telling such big lies. Big lies and repetition. That’s all it takes.
See also the Asch experiment, re how even when people know they are right and others are wrong, will side with the wrong group just to fit in:
More info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asch_conformity_experiments
Murdoch gets this. The Right gets this. They repeat, lie, and exploit people’s need to conform.
I was just about to say that the teevee media keeps on going on and on about “Can Obama pass HCR reform?” and that’s all the general public really hears. They don’t remember that hcr passed the Senate on Christmas eve (too busy shopping and whatnot), and so they have no trouble believing all the crying and lying about “ramming it through” from the Republicans.
Good to know it isn’t just Dems who fantasize that Americans give a shit about their hermetic pomposity, their self-obsession with their little parliamentary pageants. The knock on Obama and the congressional Dems has been that they’re too chickenshit or stupid to get anything done. I suppose the robocalls might do a little something to get the moron base out for the Reps when the time comes, but they’d better be damn good with their targeting — any sane people they call will respond with “About damn time!”.
So to all my little wingnut friends I say, party on, dumbfucks — keep those phone lines burning with your righteous rage and tell the world how the Dirty Democrats will stop at nothing to get them better healthcare.
The American People want Healthcare reform. Otherwise there would be 59 Republican Senators and 41 Democratic Senators.
Maybe there will be soon. Apparently a private company in Nebraska now has a monopoly on electronic voting machines:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Is-a-voting-machine-merger-apf-3697865950.html?x=0&sec=topStories&
amp;pos=5&asset=&ccode=
And the silence is deafening.
I’m not sure I agree. They’re well aware that Obama isn’t a socialist, but they throw mud until it sticks. Why’s it hard to believe this is any different for future legislation?