Welcome one and all to the most intense nightly read anywhere on the ‘sphere…. The BitsBlog Nightly Ramble
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[1]OBAMA TO REID: CUT A DEAL WITH LIEBERMAN: Carrie Budoff Brown at The Politico says:
The White House is encouraging Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to cut a deal with Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), which would mean eliminating the proposed Medicare expansion in the health reform bill, according to an official close to the negotiations.
But Reid is described as so frustrated with Lieberman that he is not ready to sacrifice a key element of the health care bill, and first wants to see the Congressional Budget Office cost analysis of the Medicare buy-in. The analysis is expected early this week.
“There is a weariness and a lot of frustration that one person is holding up the will of 59 others,” the official said. “There is still too much anger and confusion at one particular senator’s reversal.”
Well, he certainly holding up the democrats, but in looking at the situation I can tell but wonder if that isn’t a good thing. I notice that according to the Huff and Puff, something on the order of 80% of Democrats want Lieberman “punished” [2] for impeding their “reform”. I seem to recall arguments like this in the Reichstag not so long ago. The current indications are that Lieberman isn’t going to vote for this thing, but it’s still an open question in my mind as to whether not they manage to get him to move on the subject. Meanwhile, Harry still can’t raise 60 votes. [3]
Let’s make no mistake about this; the Democrats, including the White House, are desperate to get this through. If they don’t, the Rep are cautions in the next election will be even worse than they already were. Indeed, so desperate are they at this point that Obama has put out a call for the Senate Democrats to show up to the White House on Tuesda [4]y . It might be interesting to be a fly on the wall in that meeting. The vitriol flying around that room would be palpable, I think.
Oh..And before I forget, let’s also mentioned that what is going on here under the covers is an argument over a government health care takeover, euphemistically referred to as a “public option”. The men and now Ben Nelson as well, I are both saying that they will not vote for any bill which contains any public option of any kind. Note the way that’s worded. If the democrats really wanted to get their health care reform going, all they would have to do is remove the “public eye option”. They won’t do it. They want the government to take over health care. Even the most Americans don’t. So, when you see hairier read standing up in front of the cameras and the microphones and screaming about how senator Lieberman is holding up 50 others, perhaps it’s time to start thinking about how we can impress on Harry Reid that the number 58 is small changes compared to the millions who oppose the Democrats and their Neo socialist plans.
- WHY SET IT UP IF YOU DON’T PLAN TO USE IT? According to Andrew Taylor in a story currently moving on the Associated Press wires [5], the democrats are planning to allow the government’s debt to go up by nearly two trillion dollars is part of a bill that they’re going to put out next week as a part of a plan to pay for the worse in Afghanistan and Iraq. That’s a total debt limit of 12 trillion dollars. Notice the way those two situations are tied together in the bill. Either we let them raise the debt ceiling by two trillion dollars, or they don’t fund the military. Personally, I find it unconscionable that the democrats are playing politics with soldiers lives again. However, this is not new ground. They played the same game with Vietnam. And as for the dollar figures involved, does anybody seriously consider that we’re going to be paying this thing off any time soon, particularly given we’ve just come off some rather good years and haven’t paid a dime in that time?
- BLAGO REDUX:Just when you thought it was safe to go back and what are the name Blagojevich is showing up again [6]. this is going to play a large in the 2010 election cycle, because this trial is going to go on for at least that long. There is nobody on the face of the planet that won’t understand that Blagojevich comes from the same background Obama. you do the math.
- OBAMAVILLE? It’s a name for a tent city in Colorado , occupied by homeless people. [7]
