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Blue Dogs Seek To Delay Action On Health Care In The House
In case you thought health care drama was limited to the Senate, just remember that there are spoilers in the House as well:
Conservative Democrats in the House are rebelling against their party leaders and trying to put the brakes on the push to pass a health care overhaul by August. The fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition plans to present a letter to House Democratic leaders Thursday raising concerns about costs and other issues and asking for more time, members of the group tell The Associated Press.
The Blue Dogs, I'm told, are meeting with leadership tonight to express their concerns over speed and scope of reform efforts, and are suggesting that a majority of their 52-member caucus would vote against the current draft proposal without significant changes.
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Josh
Matt
Eric
Brian
Well, then we need 52 primary challengers. They don't have to win. They just need to force the 52 to campaign and spend money. Or if they're going to vote against us on this critical legislation then we might as well find a Republican to run against them as well. I like that. Make them contest the primary and then find someone they have to run against in the general as well.
July 9, 2009 7:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
My guess is that the Dogs will be spending their Big Medical contributions to fight back the primary challenges. Big Medical is tossing millions of dollars a *day* into this battle.
John
July 9, 2009 7:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
Very clever, but do you think we can wait until November 2010 to pass a reform bill?
July 10, 2009 9:36 AM | Reply | Permalink
Screw them. If they're going to aid and abet Republicans (all under the guise of concern for costs) they should be screwed.
July 9, 2009 7:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
If we don't get challengers then having Obama campaigning in their districts for health care reform should do the job. I don't care what the numbers are, if President Obama shows up in Blue Dog districts to talk about health care reform, he'll get half the caucus on his side.
July 9, 2009 7:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
I would note that some of the Blue Dogs are also members of other caucuses that are very progressive. Off the top of my head is Loretta Sanchez of Orange County. I believe given her district she would come under far more fire if she held up reform and voted with the Blue Dogs, than if she voted with the Hispanic Caucus. Plus her sister would give her hell.
July 9, 2009 8:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
If they're concerned about costs, they're right to be concerned. This isn't going to be free. But there has not yet been an agreement on how to pay for this, so this may just be their way of holding the committees' feet to the fire in making them find a reasonable source of funding. I can't see them actually voting against this if it's properly funded.
July 9, 2009 11:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
Please point me to their expressions of concern about the cost of W's excellent imperial adventures.
Because I'd hate to think they were a bunch of fucking hypocrites.
July 10, 2009 8:36 AM | Reply | Permalink
I sure would like to see a list of the actual blue dogs who are opposing health care reform legislation. My blue dog ia a member of this caucus.
July 10, 2009 9:14 AM | Reply | Permalink
This is just a speedbump. And actually the proposals to lower cost some of the Bluedogs raise are pretty good. It's clearly not a blatant stonewalling effort regardless of the scary headlines.
Call them and then call them again. Tell them to get a strong public option bill passed out of the house by August 1st.
July 10, 2009 9:36 AM | Reply | Permalink
Can't say I agree. Particularly since one of the "other issues" they raise in their letter is "bipartisanship" -- which as we know is just code for handing the GOP unwarranted power to excise actual reform measures (i.e. anything that would threaten insurance industry profits) from legislation.
July 10, 2009 11:31 AM | Reply | Permalink
I've seen a lot emphasis on controlling costs with the public option which is necessary but not so much on controlling provider costs which has to be included. We simply can't keep spending twice what the rest of the world spends even if it covers everybody.
To do that we need a strong Cost Effectiveness Commission that rewards best medical outcomes rather than the fee for service system that rewards beds filled and the most drugs, procedures and tests ordered.
If the Blue Dogs want to go after AHIP and the AMA then more power to them. But they need to follow the examples of the Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic and those guys in Colorado Springs instead of just playing with percentages of reimbursement like Medicare does. The orgs I cite above provide much better outcomes at much cheaper cost.
Also get a public option for med malpractice insurance. That's another huge insurance monopoly scam, a major provider cost and is used by doctors as cover to justify useless tests. Doctors will be a lot more amenable to a public plan if they're not paying $140,000 annually for med mal insurance.
Adopt the VA's record keeping system for all providers and payers. It's about the best in the world and we already own it. That will drastically reduce the 100,000 people killed by medical mistakes each year and lower med mal suits too.
July 10, 2009 11:56 AM | Reply | Permalink
Goddamn the blue dogs. Throw the bums out.
July 10, 2009 12:04 PM | Reply | Permalink