Posted on 05/29/2009 7:11:32 PM PDT by reaganaut1
A significant split has developed between the two Democratic senators leading efforts to remake the nation’s health care system. They disagree over the contours of a public health insurance plan, the most explosive issue in the debate.
One of the senators, Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, reasserting himself after months of treatment for brain cancer, made clear this week that he favored a robust public health care plan, a government-sponsored entity that would compete with private insurers.
As a starting point for his bill, Mr. Kennedy favors a public plan that looks like Medicare, the government-run program for older Americans created in 1965, when he was a young senator.
By contrast, Senator Max Baucus, the Montana Democrat who is chairman of the Finance Committee, has been working for months with the panel’s senior Republican, Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, in the hope of forging a bipartisan bill, which would probably play down the option of a public plan.
Mr. Grassley opposes creation of a new government insurance program and says “we cannot afford the public health plan we have already,” referring to Medicare.
President Obama has championed a public plan, saying it would help “keep the private sector honest,” though he has indicated he will be flexible on the details.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Nothing like having a drunkard with Korsakov’s syndrome and a brain tumor totally restructure your nation’s medical care system. Maybe after this triumph, the Lion in the Winter can overhaul DUI and rape laws.
Divided?
Perhaps now is our chance to divide and conquer.
These liberals are not the unified force that the liberal media normally tries to present them as.
In 1980 the MSM was a Gordian knot of Leftist lies until,like Alexander the Great,RR cut the mendacity in two and awakened a sleeping America.
The Big Government GOP has allowed the knot to re-tie and we have only minority media figures to challenge the perfidious tangle that agains threatens the freedom of America.
The Republican Party is now the cowardly Judenrat in the Liberal ghettos enabling the enslavement of patriots who had no one other than them to vote for.
Hard to shoot two lions when your gun-bearer runs at the first shot.
“They disagree over the contours of a public health insurance plan, the most explosive issue in the debate.”
Those contours of nuances will get you every time. Especially if there is no gravitas to sustain the nuancing contours.
I don't often agree with Grassley, but he makes a great point that Republicans should be to death. Or have universal health care forced upon us.
If Kennedy had to rely on nationalized health care he would have died already. But of course his kind would never have to rely on it.
Sort of like his support for alternative energy wind farms - just as long as they’re not located where he likes to go sailing.
Read this - in Britain a Baroness Wornack is saying that elderly people with dementia have a “duty to die”.
The only real argument left is if they call it TeddyCare or ObamamessiahflipflopLiarMarxistCare...
What is missing from the discussion is acknowledgement by congressional leaders that they receive their health care via the Federal Employees Program (FEP). The FEP is a Blue Cross Blue Shield national account, the largest in fact. It is “private insurance”, under the BCBSA umbrella. So, if Americans “demand” a “public plan” just like the ferderal employees get, they are demanding private insurance. Go figure....
I never knew that.
What I had in mind was a deluge of phonecalls to the so called blue dogs.
They’ve proven to be peel-offable in some areas. Especially in the house.
Of course, when Kennedy needed life saving treatment, he was quickly flown down to NC to receive the best care. I wonder how many patients got bumped for him to be seen.
Did you hear that Baucus is warning lobbyists not to speak with the Republicans as this would be “war”. Looks like Baucus wants to ram through the Dem socialized medicine plan with no discussion. How can a state like Montana vote for a liberal like Baucus?
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