corrupt hacks.

STOP CALLING THESE PEOPLE 'CENTRISTS'!

They are not moderates, they are not centrists. Over 70% of the country wants a public health care plan - and they want it NOW.

Please, stop doing these yahoos a favor by calling them the "center" of anything. The headline to this should read "Corporate Senators Urge Slower Pace".

So what can we do?

I live in ME and have written about 20 emails to Collins and Snowe regarding this issue. They clearly do not give a shit. Their approval ratings are high locally and Wellpoint controls about 90% of the insurance in ME.

I am getting the feeling the Senate is going go f@&k us on healthcare reform once again.

Go ahead with the legislation. Let them filibuster their own party. They'll be digging their own graves.

Let's find something each of these clowns really want and apply a little pressure. Since Nelson is from Nebraska I betcha he wouldn't appreciate the senate leadership slow walking his favorite ag program. Maybe cutting it a few billion will get his attention. If they want to play hardball, play hardball.

Tell you what, Senators. Let's delay your lovely health care coverage, mark it all "DENIED" for you & your families, for even a single month.

Oh, the screams & shouts that Ye Entitled would give out with, you privileged few of our nation to be blessed with decent health care coverage.

Wow, their idle stance is breath taking in that it shows just how awful and dangerous Bill Nelson and his terrible ilk are for this nation. Let’s not forget Nelson and these band of losers gave us a watered down and less potent version of the stimulus bill. They need to go. When the going gets tough these coward obstructionists want to stop all progress. But then again why worry their health care is excellent. Funny I don’t recall these cretins slowing down the Iraq process because we were moving to quickly.

Wyden just lost my vote two years from now. Lars Larson can run against him, and I still don't give a shit. What a goddamned sell-out.

I wish they would collectively get hit by a train.

I am so sick of these same characters holding up every single bill that can actually improve our lives.

And Wyden? WTF? When did he become such a d-bag?

Paging Sen. Reid.

Remember "Lieberman is with us on everything but the war"?

Except who should be President. And EFCA. And Healthcare. And the war.

p.s. - CBO's Elmendorf was from the Hamilton Project

http://firedoglake.com/2008/02/13/the-hamilton-project-same-corporatist-whine-in-new-dlc-vessels/

Do tell us, slow down for what?? How long? What needs to be resolved before you're willing to say, let's go??

I'm in Maine as well, I've left Snowe and Collins emails also. I can understand reluctance to involve government in more businesses, but at some point the games must stop our lives are at stake.

Wyden is no thief. Many of the statements in this thread are unhinged.

BS They are all thieves. It's just a matter of degree.

C

Move too quickly? Are they out of their minds? Health care reform has already been delayed by decades!

I guess Nebraskans must have great health care. Or is Ben Nelson taking better care of the health care interests than his constituents?

They need to explain which of these options they support then.

From Ezra:

"a) Support, as the CBO says you should, the eradication of the tax exclusion that protects employer-based health-care insurance;

b) Support, as Lewin and Commonwealth say you should, a public insurance option that can bargain at Medicare's rates;

c) Support, as the Office of Management and Budget and every health-care wonk in town says you should, one of the various policies floating around to give MedPAC authority to continually reform and modernize Medicare;

d) Support some form of aggressive cost-sharing that would make people extremely angry because it will save money by reducing their access to health-care services;

e) Support comparative effectiveness review that can judge not only the effectiveness but also the cost-effectiveness of various treatments, and give the federal government authority to use that data when deciding reimbursement rates.

I would also like to propose a related rule: any reporters who receive a quote from a politician referencing this CBO score should be required to ask the politician which of these policies -- or which alternative cost-saving policies -- they support."

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2009/07/rules_for_commenting_on_the_cb.html

To simply use the CBO chairman's words yesterday as gospel, especially since he has walked that statement back, is disingenuous in the very least.

Explain yourselves and why you are entitled to gold-plated coverage, Senators, and we are not!!!

Damnit!! I am sick and tired of these obstructionists. MoveOn.org needs to do a commercial in every one of their home states listing their names and showing their pictures along with a list of their campaign contributions from every insurance, healthcare, pharma that they took campaign bribes from. Then list their phone numbers, both home and DC. It's time for Obama to play hardball with these assholes.

The longer they wait on this, the longer the corrupt lobbyists have to work on the weak legislators and the more time they have to water down this bill.

Does the CBO have plans to rate a Single Payer plan? If the Public Option plan fails, it might be a good way to push a Single Payer plan by saying, "you were against the Public Option because it was too expensive. Single Payer will cost less over time. You have no excuse for opposing Single Payer."

Unless these so-called "moderates" are willing to join a Republican filibuster to stop health care reform, I don't care what they think. Snowe and Collins might filibuster, but the price to pay for the Democrats (even Lieberman) would be too high to pay.

To all who are excoriating Wyden, go read Ezra Klein's posts on his positions and role in the health care debate. Don't know why Wyden has joined the feet-of-clayers, but it's most likely cuz he wants a better bill. Wyden knows his health care s***, and has proven himself for years on this issue. Read up before you spew. As for Nelson, Lieberdouche, etc. - I'm with everyone who says we (including TPM) needs to stop calling these gutless opportunists 'centrists.' I think Krugman was pretty much on the money that these egomaniacal clowns (particularly Lieberdouche and Nelson) see a once in a lifetime, golden opportunity for career aggrandizement and narcissistic preening. They are callow opportunists, nothing more or less. Centrist my ass. More like four sheets to the wind. Where was their precious principle when BushCo was destroying the country? I say start tagging them with what they are - gutless opportunists, the kind that hide when the bullets are flying only to emerge in the relatively safe aftermath to vigorously protest that the rebuilding isn't to their satisfaction. Makes me wanna puke.

All of these people are untrustworthy scum. They should all be replaced. It is them and their willingness to carry the water for the most parasitic interests that are holding this country back time and again. It's time to put a stop to such malevolence. Centrism my ass, this is a simple and clear cut case of prostitution by a bunch of political whores.

These are the same people, Wyden excepted, who cleared the path for Sam Alito.

If you judge by results, this move should make you very worried.

I agree. Obama/Emanuel need to push back and say delay the vote as long as needed, their recess will be delayed just as long. Lieberman has proven once again that he can't be trusted so people need to call and write Reid on why he allowed Lieberman to keep his leadership position.

This is when not having a healthy Ted Kennedy in the Senate every day, beating these people up, really hurts. It allows folks like Baucus and Conrad and Nelson to be sticks in the mud mostly for the purpose of them being able to say, "Look, I'm important...and I'm not a DFH!" Kennedy is respected on both sides of the aisle and is as close to a "master of the Senate" as we've had since LBJ. And health care is pretty much his thing. Sadly, he can't be there every day or even once a week, so we get this stuff. I'm all for getting this right but what I don't see are the folks proposing any solid ideas that will allow us to "get it right".

If there isn't concrete legislation out of both houses before the August recess, the chance of passing any kind of significant health care reform this year or even before Obama's first term is over is pretty much nil. I'm not saying they have to have something ready for Obama to sign - but get it out of committee and ready for a floor vote.

The letter is idiotic.

Doug Elmendorf wrote that the House Health Care Reform would increase the cost to the federal government.

Of course it will. That's why the House bill raises taxes on the rich, to pay for the increased cost to the federal government.

But the Lieberman letter declares that the cost of "premiums" has to come down, and then pretends that Elmendorf was writing about the cost of premiums, which he wasn't.

Why do people keep calling these scumbags "centrist democrats"? They are hard core right wingers. There is nothing centrist about them and they always vote the fascist line.

and this should surprise us how? hypocrisy has become the new statemanship.