Shrinking Margins: The Congressmen Who May Switch To No On Health Care

Beware of all these "principled" stances, that are emerging.

These guys never really thought HCR would get this far, so they had cover to act like Democrats. But now that we can smell the coffee, and they find themselves barreling toward the finish line, they're being "whipped"... and not by the House Whip.

K Street's on the line, telling these guys, "Madagascar!" (if you get the movie reference).

Suddenly, these Congressional nobodies, from upstate New York to SoCal, are all over the news, drowning in "principles". If someone had dosed them with sodium pentathol, we might hear what's actually going on here:

"The health care lobby says I won't have a job, next year, if I don't play ball!"

Be hep to the jive.

I've already called Congressman Capuano, from my district, to THANK him for this stand. He'll have MY vote at the next primary and general if he votes NO. This bill is an abomination. An obscenity. This government would delegate to private monopolies and insurance cartels the entire population on a platter, as if we were serfs to tax and they had been designated vassals to the state assigned a slice of sovereignty. This is a form of feudalism, nothing more.

I say that as a full supporter of single payer. But what this bill does is nothing of the sort. It simply furthers private interests at the expense of both the citizenry and the state.

KILL THIS BILL!

I worry somewhat about this, but I also think something else is going on here.

I suspect that some of the progressives making these noises are doing it in a mirror image of the Stupak strategy -- trying to pressure leadership and the White House to make sure reconciliation includes more acceptable provisions, exercising some leftward pressure on the negotiation process.

(I'd differentiate this approach from that of gadflies like Kucinich or Massa, whose stands weren't strategic but rather ideological and/or egotistical.)

I hope and believe that folks like Gutierrez, Capuano and Arcuri will end up voting "yes" - certainly if they would be the deciding vote. There is absolutely no political mileage for someone who initially supported the bill to switch their vote (especially those representing solidly Democratic districts, who could find themselves vulnerable to a future primary challenge if they kill HCR). And those like Arcuri who face competitive races won't get any advantage for shifting their votes ("He was for it before he was against it") - and would instead alienate their base.

These public pronouncements are a combination of negotiating tactics and a bit of personal grandstanding -- in the end, their votes will matter, not these statements (all full of escape clauses and modifiers that make it clear that they still will probably vote for the bill in the end...)

Obama, Pelosi, & Reid know what is best for this country: Dictatorship of the proletariat for an indefinite period of time, and the evolvement of local "workers councils", after which the central government will atrophy, and everyone will sing "We Done Overcome", and "Puff, the Magic Dragon".

I think Josh is playing a disingenuous game here. Lots of these reps haven't said they are voting no, they are just trying to get some bargaining power in reconciliation for the issues they care about.

This is pretty inflammatory, of Josh, to present it this way, but I guess it works in terms of drumming up phone calls to those Representatives.

But Kos will bash Dennis Kucinich! I'm not a huge Kooch fan, but come on!

Time to make wanted posters of all of these stick up artist!

My problem with so-called "HCR": Like the holy Roman empire (not holy, not Roman and not an empire) HCR is not about health or care or reform. What is it about, then? It's about private insurance companies getting 30 million new customers paid for by the government and the 900 million they need to pay for it will come off the backs of Medicare patients and union people (who have so-called Cadillac health care benefits). Begs the question,doesn't it, why not tax Wall Street, who caused the recession/depression, the bonus babies and the fabulously wealthy upper crust? Why does Obama, et. al. sock to it to Medicare recipients and union members? Is this class warfare or what?

Tried to contact Gutierrez via his web site, IT'S NOT ACTUALLY possible, it requires you to fill out a salutation field THAT DOESN'T WORK.

That he would sell his constituents down the river for illegal immigrants is indefensible.

I regret having voted for him.

Sean Penn has just the thing for these guys.

If Obama had the respect his office deserved, things would be very different. The truth is, no matter how smart he is, how right he is on the issues, the good ol' boys ain't gonna take him seriously. Is it race?, experience?, family connections?... pick any reason you want. It is as if winning an election doesn't mean shit. Repub's hate him so much there's almost nothing he'll ever do right. Then there's the white Dems in white districts who got elected during an anti establishment, anti R election. They're feeling the dogs biting they're ankles and don't know which side of the fence to jump to. They're chicken shit opportunists who became D's in order to win, not that they care about core D values. They take the cash and leave us in the trash. I see this legislation going to hell, again, and I'm getting sick all over this roller coaster. If vulnerable D's get defeated it won't be for what they did it will be for what they did not do. They can go back to the school board as I could care.

All of this is a miscalculation by the WH. This is basically the Baucus Bill which was the worst Bill of all to come from the House and the Senate. It was this Bill that the WH embraced. The American people don't like it and the House doesn't like it. It is any easy target for the GOP because it is a lousy Bill. There are so many things wrong with it, it is an easy out for any DEM to make a case to vote against it. This was a total miscalcuation by the WH on HCR and there will be a huge price to pay which ever way it goes. This Bill is a sellout to corporate interests. You can't blame the House for distrusting the Senate. The Senate has demonstrated that they CAN NOT be trusted.

This bill is something that the Republicans could have passed during the George W years. It's a monumental give away to the private insurance interests. It will set back real reform for generations. It's an abomination and Obama and the Congressional Democrats who are pushing it should be punished politically for acting like traditional Republicans. The only reason that the Republicans are opposing the bill is partisan politics. In terms of policy, this is a Republican bill. Anyone who thinks of themselves as liberal, progressive, or on the left must oppose this capitalist monstrosity. For those writing in to say how important it is to keep Democrats in power, this bill (and the wars Obama is running) demonstrates that there is nothing good coming of having the Democrats in power. We should withdraw support from these people.

Leftflank has the mistaken idea that the differences between the Republicans and Democrats are sufficient that one should support the Democrats. I disagree. At least when the Republicans were in office there was an active anti-war movement. It has disappeared with the Democrats in power, thus making the Democrats the more pernicious war party. Note that Obama, Hillary, etc., still talk of obliterating other nations and they still drop bombs and expand wars and threats. As to the "health reform" bill, the Democrats are about the pass a bill that transfers wealth from the people to the capitalists, thus revealing nothing that merits support from those who oppose kleptocratic capitalism. You act as though the two parties offer an important choice, but this is a false hope. This is a Republican bill, although the Republicans appear to oppose it. This is a silly political game being played in Washington, and it appears to have conned you.

The House is still wisely not following the Senate.

http://www.lifenews.com/nat6116.html

Fix the abortion language in the Senate bills. President Obama stated in September on national television that the final bill would not fund abortions. The House language already includes the Stupak language.

The Senate has passed similar bills that restrict abortion funding in the past. They can do it again, no more excuses.

It is time for President Obama, and time for Vice President Biden, to lead the Senate. The time for change is now.