Health Care Reform In Peril; Lieberman Threatens Filibuster Over Medicare Buy In

I get diarrhea every time I see Joe's picture.

WTF, PEOPLE? Tell me again -- cause I'm missing it -- WHY are we shocked by this betrayal? Yeah, okay, nine years ago he promoted a Medicare buy-in. But he supported a lot of things back then... like a friggin' Democrat for president, for starters. He's flipped quite a few flops since then if anyone wants to spend three seconds remembering the 06 campaign. So, seriously, why are the Democrats caught flat-footed by his latest actions? Strip the bastard of his chairmanship already and have the balls that Republicans (from the Bush years back to the Reagan years) all had to use reconciliation to pass this bill. It's not rocket scientist. It just requires you to not be a coward.

Can this be passed through reconciliation?

In the real world, there are consequences when you go against your word. While you and I knew Joe was and is a piece of shit, Barack and Harry kissed Joe's ass, one set of lips per cheek. So Joe tell us all to get in line to kiss it again, and he retains his powerful and incompetent chair of the Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs with Harry's nose up Joe's butt.

That Barack and Harry really believed this putz would follow the caucus says much about their leadership and disconnected universe they inhabit.

Hey Karl Rove - dead Repunklicans shitting all over the TV. Fun to watch. How's Dick Cheney's trip to the hospital? John Morisky's pace maker? Repunklicans, city folk dead all the fuck over.

It is absolutely impossible, impossible, to take anyone on the left seriously on the issue of the filibuster because when Republicans had 56 seats and the Dems were filibustering their asses off, even taking the UNPRECEDENTED step of filibustering multiple judicial nominees, the left was cheering and laughing it up over the filibustered bills and judicial nominees. You know what they say about payback?

Joe Lieberman is consumed by hate; he's a traitor to his religion and his party.

Reconciliation is a good option; ending the filibuster is better. Or change it from 60 to 55. According to the Supreme Court ruling in U.S. v. Ballin (1892), the Senate can change this number with a simple majority.

And if not now, when? This is historic legislation that the majority of America supports. If now is not the time to pull the nuclear option and end this filibuster bullshit, when will it be? Voters will reward a party that fights hard, even dirty, for its values. Washington will be up in arms, but that will only endear the Democrats to the country more. End the gridlock, end the filibuster, pass healthcare.

And fuck Joe Lieberman.

The Democrats, and Barck Obama included, may a serious strategic error in not backing Ned Lamont in the 2006 election in Conn. With the full backing of the Democratic party Lamont more than likely would have won the election and Holy Joe would have ceased to be a problem. Joe needs to be stripped of his postions within the caucus. The fact that he probably won't be points out the highly dysfunctional nature of the US Senate. I have know idea what the answer is. Better human beings I suppose.

Did it never occur to ANYONE here that perhaps.....just perhaps.......this is all a strategic move by Reid and Obama to make it look as if RECONCILATION WAS FORCED UPON THEM BY THE OPPOSITION - instead of having to share credit for a bill that was passed with 'bipartisan' support?

I mean, I know it involves thinking in more than 1 dimension and over a term longer than 24 hours, but still............

I am channeling Cassandra lately (woe is me!) but it looks to me like we have not been able to get sufficient consensus on hcr to get a bill passed, for whatever complex of reasons. I think the only thing that might, might pass is a very minimalist, GOP-friendly bill with progressive dems voting no, and the lust for a Dem failure will prevent the GOP leadership, particularly in HOuse, from going along. To them, dem failure means it's '94 again. I think they're wrong, but they think they're right.

The only other option I can see, a long shot, is to go for medicare buy-in etc and non-profit requirement, and let holdouts filibuster, actually, 24-hours per day. Let them shut down the Senate.

Well, I guess this means I’ll have to add Russ Feingold to the column under "Shows more concern about dollars and cents" instead of the column under "Shows more concern about life and death", because it looks as if he is ready and willing to leave the uninsurable uninsurable, so they can have a few extra pennies in their pockets when they die.

That's too bad. It really is. In the early nineties we became aware that people didn’t want to insure the uninsurable because they were happy with their group plans, but now increasingly we don’t even talk about insuring them; instead we talk about how to save them some money by letting them go uninsured.

Be ashamed, Russ Feingold! Avert your eyes and don't look at the people who don’t go to doctors because they have no insurance! But at least you let them keep a few more quarters; and at least that will let you be a hero to some, largely people who are passionate in their resentment.

Make the opposition filibuster, the old fashioned way. Or push forward on the nuclear option. This is the end game. All's fair. Those that stand to lose from reform are pulling out all the stops.

If we can survive 8 years of W and Rove, we can can handle a filibuster over the holidays and in to the new year, if that's what it takes.

The Democrats don't need to change the rules to eliminate the filibuster. They need to change the rules to eliminate the procedural filibuster. Then, Reid can bring the bill to the floor around December 23rd and make the Republicans and their pal Joe filibuster on the floor of the Senate right through Christmas. Nobody will be paying attention, you think? Fine. Let them keep going right through New Year. Shut down the Senate. Let the filibuster go on for months. Let them look like the assholes they are just in time for the official kickoff to the 2010 campaigns.

The figt is going to get ugly now. The nuclear option is going to be used, IMO.

Geez. This is a darned shame. Really. I feel your pain. It just isn't right.

It's a travesty I tell ya.

Bill Kristol (I know) actually came up with a potential solution on yesterday's Fox roundtable. 1) Split the bill in two: part 1 dealing with the insurance reforms which the R's say would pass in a heart beat; and part 2 dealing with expanding the number of people covered and affordability; 2) Presumably part 1 will pass; and 3) Go for reconciliation on part 2, which is the real budget portion of the bill anyway. (To be fair, Kristol only suggested items 1 and 2). Once you get this out of the way, consign Lieberman to the dung heap he deserves.

If LIEberman doesn't mind condemning uninsured Americans to death every day he filibusters, maybe it's time for Americans not to mind the converse.

Investigate this snail. There are reasons why this guy is being so obnoxious which have nothing to do with his lack of integrity. Find out who's paying him and prosecute him if he is violating the law.

Time to throw Joe down the well.

As if to remind us who is pulling the strings of both Lieberman and Face the Nation, there was a Hartford Insurance commercial on the program. The grinch and greedy 100. Cratchits 0.

Reconciliation will not work, has too many disadvantages, and is a longshot. Eliminating the filibuster is even more unpalatable, and you would be complaining bitterly about it if and when the GIOP regains control of the Congress and the White House.

I say cut a deal with Snowe. Then fucking strip Lieberman of his chairmanship.

As always, Joe listens to the HMO's over his own constituents and the party that has given him so much. I think it is time to remind him both who voted him into Congress and who gave him his chairmanship and seniority. To spell it out: the voters and the Democrats.

This is looking more and more like the late Roman republic every day.

The DLC and the centrists moved too far to the right and now they can't get anything done. They made their bed and now they are sleeping with the plutocrats.

Structurally, the regional differences in the Democratic party look like a permanent barrier to party discipline.

Gridlocked republics historically have drifted into authoritarianism due to these power imbalances. It looks like national (presidential) politics and regional (congressional) politics have polarized enough to make institutional solutions improbable if not impossible.

An Obama aide/operative, maybe even Obama himself, should publicly out Lieberman's past record of support for health care and groveling at the feet of the industry. After, of course, threatening to do so. Someone has to show some backbone. My guess is that Lieberman will pull this same self-aggrandizing stunt each and every time Obama wants something important. Climate change is next.

Jesus, Harry. Call his bluff. Throw the original Kennedy HELP bill out there, dare the conservadems to filibuster, and then give them the floor. We'll take care of the rest next November and the one after that. Make the '10 midterms all about, "hey, we tried to pass HCR, but Sens. X, Y, and Z didn't want it. We need either (1) more Democrats (a hard sell) and/or (2) different Democrats. Keep doing this until the point is driven home. Make the Republicans eat this Party of No crap, make any conservadem willing to stand with them eat elephant shit, and get this done. If not now, in 2011.

But no. We can't have that. That would be too much like leadership, and we all know Harry doesn't have it in him.

Stop with the idea that you can get Joe LIEberman to vote for this. He won't. Say, "Joe, I have fifty votes to rid us of the filibuster once and for all. Do you want that to happen?" The nuclear option needs to be on the table. We've worked long and hard with LIEberman and with the other moderates. They haven't come on board. There is no sense in playing this game any longer. Let's see if we have fifty-one who would support ridding legislation of the filibuster and move ahead.

It's not something we want to do; we have no other choice.

Three words:

Ha ha ha.

Here's some money for HC.

Feds owe Uncle Sam $3B in unpaid taxes
December 14, 2009 - 10:43am
Mark Segraves, wtop.com

WASHINGTON - At a time when the White House is projecting the largest deficit in the nation's history, Uncle Sam is trying to recover billions of dollars in unpaid taxes from its own employees.

Federal workers owe more than $3 billion in income taxes they failed to pay in 2008. According to Internal Revenue Service documents, 276,300 federal employees and retirees owe $3,042,200,000.

The IRS tracks the voluntary compliance rate of federal employees and retirees each year, and each year feds come up short. The one bright spot in this year's report is that after several years of a steady increase, the amount owed by feds is down from the previous year.

Federal employees and retirees owed $3,586,784,725 in unpaid income taxes in 2007.

The documents show delinquent employees from nearly every federal agency with more than 25 employees. Based on percentages, the Department of The Treasury, which includes the IRS, has the best compliance rate. Fewer than 1 percent of Treasury employees didn't pay their taxes in 2008.

The IRS is the only federal agency where employees can be fired for not paying their taxes. The non-compliance rate for IRS employees in 2008 was 0.76 percent -- down from 0.89 percent in 2007.

The agency with the most tax scofflaws is the U.S. Postal Service, with 28,913 employees who owe $297,933,756. But that is still a dramatic improvement from 2007 when more than 54,000 employees owed more than $407 million.

"We urge our employees to comply with all tax laws and are encouraged that many who have been delinquent have agreed to payment plan with the IRS," USPS spokesperson Mark Saunders tells WTOP in a statement.

"It's important to look at the percentage of postal employees who may be delinquent on their federal taxes, not just the number itself. According to IRS figures, the delinquency rate for Postal Service employees is relatively small."

The Postal Service, the largest employer in the federal government aside from the military, has a non-compliance rate of 3.95 percent compared to the federal average of 2.8 percent.

Retired military personnel make up about 33 percent of the money owed with $1,343,538,055 in unpaid taxes for 2008.

The agency with the highest percentage of delinquent employees is the National Capital Planning Commission, where 10.42 percent of its 48 employees owe $26,947.

"NCPC is committed to working closely with the Department of The Treasury to resolve issues of federal income tax delinquency involving its staff," NCPC spokeswoman Lisa MacSpadden said in a statement.

"The agency takes this matter very seriously and recognizes that federal employees must adhere to the highest ethical standards regarding financial matters.

"We remind our employees of this responsibility as part of our mandatory annual ethics training. Upon receipt of an official notice from the IRS about a specific employee's noncompliance, NCPC will take appropriate administrative action."

Other notable agencies on the list:

* Executive Office of the President (includes the White House): 50 employees owe $812,917;
* U.S. Senate: 231 employees owe $2,469,026;
* U.S. House of Representatives: 447 employees owe $5,809,631;
* U.S. Tax Court: 3 employees owe $39,752;
* Active Duty Military: 27,111 employees $102,474,672.

While some taxpayers may scratch their heads and ask why the federal government doesn't garnish the wages of these employees, the reality is they can't. According to federal tax laws, employees are treated the same as any other taxpayer who doesn't pay their taxes.

The IRS must go through the same procedures and court process with feds as it does with John Q. Public. Once a court awards the IRS a judgment or if the employees enter a voluntary payment plan, the IRS can garnish wages. However, federal employees do jeopardize any security clearance they may have if they don't pay their income taxes.

As for the general public's voluntary compliance rate, the IRS no longer tracks those numbers, so it is impossible to compare. But an IRS report from 2001 (PDF) showed the total tax gap to be about $345 billion. The tax gap is the difference between what is owed each year and what is paid, and includes income, corporate, employment, estate and excise taxes.

http://www.wtop.com/?nid=428&sid=1838232

thanks a lot connecticut. you may resume banging your stepford wives now

Joe Lieberman has the public option already, he got it for life, it's the tax payers flipping the bill. The cost to the American people for all medical coverage is $2.2 trill. $7,421 per resident and accounted for 16.2% of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP)Ref / source

http://www.kaiseredu.org/topics_im.asp?imID=1&parentID=61&id=358

The health care cost, that the Dem are want, cost $1.05 Trill a saving of more then $1.15 Trill dropping it to about 8% of the GPA, but that will only be achieved by having a public option.

You have to ask, what's in it for Joe?