Congress // Current

Senators Agree on an Open Public Option Amendment

Senators Reid, Baucus, and Wyden announced today a healthcare amendment to the Senate... more

JonRaymond
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UNCLE SAM : LIVE FROM THE DUMPSTER !

The Critical Unraveling of U.S. Society By David DeGraw The Public Record Nov 19th,... more

WhiteNoise
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11 comments

The Senate Evisceration of Roe v. Wade: Hyde on Steroids

NOW (National Organization for Women) warns that the Senate will vote on an amendment similar to Stupak-Pitts that would prevent millions of women from obtaining insurance coverage for abortion under their version of health care reform, S1796. Is that the bill number or the year they intend to regress to?

It appears advocates will use this amendment to hold health care reform hostage unless this affront against women is included. http://www.capwiz.com/now/issues/alert/?alertid=14342106

This comes on the heals of the passed house Stupak-Pitts, anti-abortion amendment and the more recent mammogram media blitz tactic that blamed the White House for an independent private sector task force recommendation. It appears the health care insurance industry and their friends in Congress are out to target women in an all out effort to discredit health care reform. http://lafilmonline.com/oitsf/?p=74

NOW posted the following to it members on their website:
______________________________________________________
Reportedly, Sens. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) and Bob Casey (R-Penn.) may offer a version of the Stupak-Pitts Amendment to be attached to the Senate bill. That means, in all likelihood, if the Senate adopts this harmful amendment, it will remain in the final Senate-House conference bill and become law. Alternatively, a modified variation of Stupak-Pitts could be incorporated into the bill. Either way, millions of women lose -- big time.

Please Take Action NOW!

The Stupak-Pitts amendment explained:

* The ban on abortion coverage in insurance would apply to both the proposed public option and to private health insurance plans sold in the new regional health insurance exchanges. It is estimated that some 36 million uninsured persons would be purchasing insurance policies through new exchanges and would be eligible for federal affordability subsidies.
* Health insurers may not sell plans that cover abortion to customers who are paying without a subsidy, if even just one person who is receiving the federal affordability credits (the subsidy) were to purchase a plan. In other words, even if you are paying 100 percent of your insurance costs, abortion coverage would not be available in your plan if anyone with affordability credits joins the same plan.
* Women may purchase a separate abortion "rider" for coverage, though many doubt that these riders would be offered by the insurance companies.
* Small companies (fewer than 100 employees) would also likely purchase health insurance through the exchange, but if any of their employees received affordability credits no abortion coverage could be included.
* Eighty-seven percent of employer-based insurance plans now cover abortion services, but if employers withdraw coverage and send their employees to the health insurance exchanges, those employees would likely lose abortion coverage under these new prohibitions.

There may be a modified version of this harmful amendment that is included in the Senate health care reform bill that will be debated next week. We want to make sure that Stupak-Pitts language is not used and that no variation of this harmful amendment is passed. Please send a message to your senators that you oppose any restrictions on insurance coverage of abortion. Thank you for all the work you do for women's rights.
________________________________________________________NOW (National Organization for Women) warns that the Senate will vote on an amendment... more

JonRaymond
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Senate unveils health care bill

US Senate Democrats unveiled a historic plan to extend health coverage to more than 30... more

bansheewail
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GOP senators block effort to freeze credit card interest rates

Republican senators on Wednesday blocked an effort to debate a bill that would prevent... more

bansheewail
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Senate to Put Off Climate Bill Until Spring

Senate Democratic leaders said Tuesday they would put off debate on a big... more

Future_America
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President Obama tries to take the sting out of Copenhagen collapse

Two main problems continue to plague the Copenhagen conference, the dates of which are... more

72JAG
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Shiny Suds

This woman who uses chemical cleaners has no idea that the chemicals are still... more

shinysuds
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Congress Investigating Cholesterol-Fighting Drug Vytorin

Another example of how Big Pharma is looking out for you! NOT!

Monkey_Films
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Lobbyist Rhetoric Repeated Verbatum in Health Care Speeches

As reported in the New York Times, 22 Republicans and 20 Democrats incorporated... more

MyRealPolitik
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Anatomy of casino capitalism Pt.4

Jane D'Arista: Obama admin. and leading members of Congress want to leave power in the... more

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New woes for Harry Reid in the Senate: Voters back home fighting mad

Congressional Democrats and mainstream media have heaped high praise on Speaker Pelosi... more

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Ron Paul : 75% Of The American People Support The Auditing Of The Fed!

The Federal Reserve is not above oversight, and should be accountable to the congress... more

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Healthcare Mash Up, Michael Jackson's "They Don't Care About Us"

Think piece on healthcare, reform, and The Senate & Congress' additude toward The... more

HeadCounter
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Rep Pete Hoekstra Leaks Intelligence Information, Again!

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/11/11/maddow-hoekstra-leak/
Maddow Rips Rep. Pete Hoekstra For Leaking Sensitive National Security Information
Last night, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow accused Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI), the ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee and current gubernatorial candidate, of leaking sensitive intelligence information to the press. Hoekstra told the Washington Post this week that Maj. Nidal M. Hasan had e-mail conversations with a radical Yemeni cleric, Anwar al-Aulaqi. Maddow excoriated Hoekstra for letting Aulaqi know that his e-mail is being monitored:

MADDOW: Why is it Pete Hoekstra who’s taking it upon himself to tell the press that this radical cleric is having his email read by U.S. intelligence agencies? The FBI had not said publicly that this cleric had been emailing Hasan. The CIA, the NSA, the White House — nobody else had reported this cleric was e-mailing Hasan. This is just Pete Hoekstra letting us know — and letting the radical cleric who is under surveillance know — that he’s under surveillance.

Maddow’s guest, The Nation’s Chris Hayes, said Hoekstra’s reputation is “of an epic grand-stander.” Watch it:

Asked if there was a concern that Hoekstra was leaking sensitive information, a Republican spokesman for the House intelligence committee told Maddow’s show, “I do not know, guessing, since [Aulaqi] was deported, he knew he was a target anyways.” Maddow noted that Aulaqi wasn’t “deported,” but rather left the country voluntarily, according to the 9-11 Commission. (Aulaqi had contacts with some of the 9-11 hijackers.)

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Silvestre Reyes (D-TX) said, “I am disappointed that some have rushed to the news media with unfounded information in order to gain headlines.”

Hoekstra has been trying to use the Ft. Hood shootings to engage in a political attack against Obama, claiming “administration officials delayed briefing members of Congress about the alleged gunman,” thus raising “red flags” about what the White House was hiding. “What do they know that they don’t want us to know?” Hoekstra said on Fox News.http://thinkprogress.org/2009/11/11/maddow-hoekstra-leak/ Maddow Rips Rep. Pete... more

Roseann_Schutz
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Restore Majority Rule To The Senate

By now most people have heard the story of the frog that's put in a pot of cold water on a hot stove and doesn't notice as it is gradually boiled to death. The story may not be true: Most frogs apparently will jump out of the pot at some point. But it remains a useful metaphor for how dysfunctional things can become -- in a market, or a marriage, or a political system -- and how far people can go in rationalizing crazy behavior and unsatisfactory outcomes.
I've been thinking about that as I've watched Congress tackle health-care reform.Last weekend, after months of committee deliberations, backroom dealmaking and leadership arm-twisting, the House narrowly approved a complex, 2,000-page plan after a mere four hours of political and ideological posturing that allowed for only two amendments, one having to do with abortion.

Almost nobody -- including the House members themselves-- found it odd that this process offered no chance to vote on what kind of "public option" they wanted, or whether they wanted to add some form of malpractice reform, or whether there should be some limit on the value of tax-free health benefits or any of the other two dozen key issues in the health reform debate. In the world's oldest continuous democracy, these apparently are questions considered too important to be decided individually by a majority of the elected representatives.

The health bill now heads to a much less certain fate in the Senate, where instead of a dictatorship of the majority there is a dictatorship of the minority.

Because of the quaint traditions of the upper chamber, there are today scores of top positions in government that routinely remain unfilled for months because one senator or another has decided to put a "hold" on a nomination. And on any controversial issue, and even some that are not, 60 votes are now required to overcome the threat of endless "debate" and actually pass a piece of legislation, along with 60 votes on as many amendments as senators can dream up.

It's gotten to the point now where all it takes to kill something in the Senate is the mere threat of a filibuster, without anyone actually having to mount one. And if you somehow managed to get, say, health reform legislation to the floor, it would take 60 votes to pass a bill that included the public option and 60 votes to pass one without it.

Catch-22!

Despite what you hear from legislative leaders, there is nothing preordained about this wholesale disregard for majority rule. In fact, it violates the letter and spirit of the U.S. Constitution, which expressly delineates a limited number of instances in which anything other than a majority vote is required. And it makes a mockery of Senate rules and precedent, which for nearly two centuries were grounded in a tradition of comity and mutual respect between majority and minority.

All of this, course, has developed so gradually that Washington insiders are inured to the undemocratic nature of the House and the Senate. Most days they are so caught up in the gamesmanship it has spawned that they barely notice how utterly ridiculous and ineffective the legislative process has become.

In other words, they are frogs in a pot.

So at the risk of sounding naive, I'd like to offer a novel idea for changing the legislative dynamic, restoring majority rule to the legislative process and keeping health reform alive: Debate it on the Senate floor.

That's right, forget about spending another six weeks searching for those elusive 60 votes to break a filibuster, going back and forth with weak-kneed centrists like Ben Nelson and Mary Landrieu who can't seem to decide what they really want, or self-righteous egotists like Joe Lieberman.

Steven Pearlstein -The Washington PostBy now most people have heard the story of the frog that's put in a pot of cold water... more

wayseeker
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Ron Paul 11/9/2009 Healthcare ‘Reform’ Will Make a Flawed System Immeasurably Worse

11/9/2009 Ron Paul’s Weekly Update on Healthcare, Congress, Government, and the... more

shanklinmike
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Six Smart Progressive Complaints about HR 3962

The Affordable Health Care for America Act was approved by the U.S. House Saturday night with overwhelming support from progressive Democrats who serve in the chamber and from a president who was nominated and elected with the enthusiastic support of progressive voters.

But that does not mean that informed and engaged progressives are entirely enthusiastic about the measure.

In fact, some are openly and explicitly opposed to it -- among them former Congressional Progressive Caucus chair Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, and CPC member Eric Massa, D-New York, both of whom broke with the majority of their fellow Democrats to vote "no" when the House approved the measure by a narrow 220-215 vote Saturday.

How can this be?

Isn't this a fight between Democrats and Republicans? Between reforming liberals and tea-party conservatives?

How can there possible be any subtlety or nuance to this debate?

Well, of course, the debate over this 1,900-page behemoth of a bill is more complicated than the easy spin of political insiders -- and media cheering sections -- would have Americans believe.

Key interest groups, such as the National Organization for Women, and key congressmen who have been long-term supporters of reform, such as single-payer backers Massa and Kucinich, argue that the bill is not the cure for what ails the U.S. health care system.

Indeed, they suggest, the bill as it is currently constructed could make a bad situation worse.

Many sincere progressives in the House, and outside of it, chose to back the bill as the best that could be gotten. Others supported it on the theory that flaws could be fixed in the Senate and in the reconciliation of the House and Senate bills.

But those repairs will only be made if activists are conscious of what ails this bill.

For that reason, even supporters of the House legislation would be wise to consider the criticisms of it by groups that advocate for the rights of women, patient advocates, unions and some of the most progressive members of the House.

Here are six smart progressive complaints about the House bill: [con't at link]The Affordable Health Care for America Act was approved by the U.S. House Saturday... more

asherp
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Educate Yourself, Part 2

Over the weekend Sarah Palin again claimed that the Democratic health care bill contained provisions for "death panels" saying, "We had been told there were no 'death panels' in the bill either, but look closely at the provision mandating bureaucratic panels that will be calling the shots regarding who will receive government health care."

Well, I did. Here is a run down of all sections in the bill that mention a panel of any kind:

Page 113 discusses a Health Benefits Advisory Committee which is to make recommendations to the Secretary of Health and Human Services regarding the the various catagories of treatment that are to be covered. This is administrative language; the kind that is necessary to ensure things like cosmetic surgery are not covered while life saving proceedures are covered.

Page 734 describes another advisory panel that will conduct and support research to identify ways to most effectively prevent, diagnose, treat and manage diseases, disorders and other health conditions. To do this, these panels will consult with patients and other stakeholders, (page 736). To ensure there are no conflicts of interest, panel members must disclose financial interests, (page 748). This all sounds good to me.

The Personal Care Attendant Workforce Advisory Panel, mentioned on page 1624 will provide recommendations on working conditions and training for those who provide long-term health care services. (AKA quality control.)

Page 1712 outlines a board that will create training and certify health practioners. (Quality control.)

Finally, page 1807 establishes a peer review panel to ensure the health care services provided to Indian Tribes and Tribal Organizations meet the same standards found elsewhere in the country. (This is due to the historically poor quality of health care provided to Native American communities.)

There is nothing in this bill that remotely suggests anything like Palin's "death panels" which are nothing more than fear mongering used to advance her own agenda. But don't take my word for it... Educate yourself. Read the bill.Over the weekend Sarah Palin again claimed that the Democratic health care bill... more

lucasives
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The End of America, in the Middle of the Night

While normal everyday oblivious Americans were preparing their beds to sleep Saturday night their elected officials quietly passed H.R. 3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act. Indeed, the passage of this act deals one of the final death blows to the Constitution and with it our liberties.

As I ponder upon this momentously horrid occurrence it is as if I have just woken up from a nightmare and been thrown directly into the plot of George Orwell’s 1984, with no hope of escape. As this thought grabs hold I am lead to ponder more and more about America and I ask myself a few questions.

Since when did the Constitution provide for a health care guarantee? Since when did the Constitution grant the Congress the power to force Americans into a health care dystopia? What good is a Constitution if we choose to ignore it? What good is a Constitution if the Congress simply chooses to create a new one in their own graven socialist image?

Truly, these questions are meaningless now. The Constitution is hanging by the tiniest of threads. Who will save it? Who will come to its rescue?

It is the everyday middle class American that will suffer the consequences of this travesty. Indeed, while the economy is reeling and unemployment pushes depression-era levels the arrogant Congress has decided to pass the biggest expansion of government in the history of the United States. It will create a new tax that will primarily be felt by the middle class, the ones most likely affected by the current depression. This is because as Americans are forced to purchase health insurance, the wealthy will have no problem paying for escalating costs. Nor will the poor feel the burden as they will receive government health insurance subsidies. Yet, the forgotten man will be the middle class working American who now already struggling against the burden of economic ruin will be forced to pay fines or even face possible jail time for not complying with our government’s take over of his/her health care. As this tax sinks in, the middle class will be forced downward into the ranks of the working poor and therefore into the ranks of government rationed medical care. Inevitably, government healthcare will swallow the whole of the medical insurance world and there will be no escape.

This dystopian vision will consist of patients waiting in long lines and when they are finally permitted to see their doctor there will be much fruitless begging and pleading for the treatment that they desperately need. But no mercy will be given because the doctor will have become nothing more than a desk-clerk, simply following the government treatment protocols.

“What, you have shoulder pain?” Your doctor asks. “Well, the treatment protocol for this condition provided by our majestic government says you have to wait two years to get a MRI or to see an Orthopedist. I am sorry. Here are a few pain pills. There is nothing more that I can do. Have a nice day.”

Such will be the conservation heard in doctor’s offices throughout America. Don’t believe me? I have personally lived in the socialist countries that we are now trying to emulate. This is the reality in these countries and the people there simply accept it and learn not to complain. We, in America, will also come to learn and accept over time what our benevolent government has chosen to grant us.While normal everyday oblivious Americans were preparing their beds to sleep Saturday... more

TheEmpireGuy
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tagged w/ Congress

Senators Agree on an Open Public Option Amendment

UNCLE SAM : LIVE FROM THE DUMPSTER !

The Senate Evisceration of Roe v. Wade: Hyde on Steroids

Senate unveils health care bill

GOP senators block effort to freeze credit card interest rates

Senate to Put Off Climate Bill Until Spring

President Obama tries to take the sting out of Copenhagen collapse

Shiny Suds

Congress Investigating Cholesterol-Fighting Drug Vytorin

Lobbyist Rhetoric Repeated Verbatum in Health Care Speeches

Anatomy of casino capitalism Pt.4

New woes for Harry Reid in the Senate: Voters back home fighting mad

Ron Paul : 75% Of The American People Support The Auditing Of The Fed!

Healthcare Mash Up, Michael Jackson's "They Don't Care About Us"

Rep Pete Hoekstra Leaks Intelligence Information, Again!

Restore Majority Rule To The Senate

Ron Paul 11/9/2009 Healthcare ‘Reform’ Will Make a Flawed System Immeasurably Worse

Six Smart Progressive Complaints about HR 3962

Educate Yourself, Part 2

The End of America, in the Middle of the Night

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