Posted on 09/03/2009 1:55:16 PM PDT by My Favorite Headache
Snowe Unlikely to Buck Gang to Cut White House Deal By Emily Pierce and David M. Drucker Roll Call Staff Sept. 3, 2009, 4:34 p.m.
Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) appears unlikely to walk away from bipartisan health care reform talks in the Senate Finance Committee to cut a side deal with the White House, but her spokeswoman said Thursday that she continues to keep an “open line of communication” with President Barack Obama.
“The Senator’s foremost goal is to achieve a bipartisan consensus among the six members of the group on a path forward for meaningful health care reform,” Snowe spokeswoman Julia Wanzco said.
Wanzco noted that Snowe, a leading moderate, has had multiple discussions with the White House and the president over the past few months about health care reform, and she has frequently told reporters that, in those talks, she often raises her proposal to create a trigger for any public insurance option.
“Conversations are taking place on her safety net fallback option as they have throughout the debate this year, as well as [on] other approaches to make certain people have access to affordable options,” Wanzco said. “The Senator has had an open line of communication with the White House over the course of the past few months and looks forward to participating in [Friday’s] teleconference call with the gang of six.”
On Wednesday, the White House floated the notion that it might be open to Snowe’s proposal to pass legislation in which the creation of a public insurance option would be a fallback option if health insurers cannot dramatically reduce costs nor increase coverage within a few years. However, it does not appear that the White House’s renewed interest in the idea came from any deal that it has struck with Snowe. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Snowe has previously indicated that she was unlikely to strike a deal on health care reform without the agreement of the two other Republican Finance negotiators — ranking member Chuck Grassley (Iowa) and Sen. Mike Enzi (Wyo.). The three Republicans have acted as an unofficial health care subcommittee, along with Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Democratic Sens. Kent Conrad (N.D.) and Jeff Bingaman (N.M.). The gang of six has been primarily focused, not on Snowe’s trigger option or on the Democrats’ preferred public insurance option, but on creating a network of nonprofit health insurance cooperatives that could compete with private insurers.
Senior Republican aides questioned the White House strategy, saying the quest to woo Snowe could end up antagonizing Grassley and Enzi.
“It's totally unclear why the White House is pushing this story,” one senior Senate GOP aide said. “Have they not seen or heard the Congressmen and Senators on their own side of the aisle who have said they'll oppose various aspects of this proposal? I'm not sure how alienating Grassley and Enzi with the rest of the Republican conference and the moderates in their own party can be offset by one Senator from Maine. The math is just not on their side.”
Another aide added that Snowe’s position on the public insurance option, not to mention her concerns about the costs of any plan, would make it difficult for the White House to win her vote while keeping its base happy.
"I think it's more White House hype than anything,” another senior Senate GOP aide said. “If they do what she would sign off on, then it won't be Obamacare and the left will implode."
Democrats in the White House and on Capitol Hill have become increasingly convinced that a bipartisan deal is unlikely to emerge from the Finance talks by Baucus’ deadline of Sept. 15 because Grassley and Enzi have made public statements in which they have downplayed their chances for success. The group of six is set to hold a teleconference Friday morning, the second of the recess.
Baucus has promised to push a bill through his committee with or without a deal after Sept. 15, and Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has been working on legislative options that include using procedures to bypass a GOP-led filibuster. Still, Democrats say they will need the Snowe’s vote, and possibly the votes of another Republican or two, to pass anything through the chamber.
Why doesn’t Snowe just join the Spectre wing of the RINO party?
We will see if Snowe is
a Rat too!
The Marxists will get enough RINOs to cave to pass this. They don’t need very many. Instead of forcing them to stand down or take the nuclear/reconciliation option, they’ll go along with it.
The burning question remains: Why doesn’t congress want to participate in the plan themselves? Why have they exempted themselves and federal employees?
I didn’t know if that was even questionable.
My sentiments exactly
Bend over people. You are going to be forced to eat what obombanation tells you to eat, dring what he tells you to drink, weigh what he tells you to weigh, live as long as he does or does not want you to live and there is NOTHING you will be able to do about it because too many people think the enemy will compromise.
Snowe will happily betray the American public—she’s very practiced at it.
A "mob"? A "pack"? A "herd" or a "swarm"?
I am taking a more cynically sympathetic view of Senator Snowe continued participation in the discussion. By continuing to participate she denies the Democrats some maneuvering room while they try to seek the fig leaf of a single bipartisan participant. I take GREAT pleasure in watching the nut-roots go ballistic about any possible compromise.
They don't need any at all. The Democrats have controlling majorities in both houses of Congress. They're trying to round up Republicans so they can share the blame when the program's a failure.
Sad but true. The GOP in Washington is just “Socialist Party B.” There is no difference. Our health care system is about to be turned over to the Post Office, BMV and County Welfare Department.
I remember watching an episode of “COPS” when they went to Russia around the time of the collapse of the USSR. A guy got stabbed in a knife fight (the Russian cops immediately began rounding up the Azerbaijani students as “usual suspects”). They followed the victim to the ER where he got treatment...my God! The hospital was a chamber of horrors! I wouldn’t take my cat there!
Coming soon to your local hospital....
Theres "nothing wrong" with the system ? You got to be kidding. The fact that its the governments intervention that has contorted things: malpractice out of control, no flexibility in policies offered, insurance tied to employers, free health care but no mandatory insurance, etc doesent obviate the fact the SOMETHING is wrong
Its just that Democrap solutions are always worse than the problem.
“they’ll go along with it”
in exchange for various sweeteners for themselves, of course
Of course she’ll jump ship, Maine receives $1.41 per $1 they pay in Federal Taxes as of 2005. NH receives $0.71 per $1 they pay in Federal Taxes as of 2005. Those Ba$tards next door, of course our congresswhores will try and fix that for NH.
http://www.taxfoundation.org/research/show/22685.html
That Russia episode of COPS is one of my favorites. Same one where some hooker tries to steal a guy’s wallet, so he locks her in the bedroom and calls the Militsya. When they arrive, COPS camera crew in tow, he opens the bedroom door, flings the blanket off of her, leaving her lying naked on the bed. He then says something to her in Russian, which is translated via subtitles as “Americans here to see you!” That’s classic TV!
She wants a much bigger payoff than they’ve offered so far.
Or when the cops arrest two lovers in the car in the park, and the cop gets into the female’s car passenger seat and says “Now you will drive us to police station!”
She wouldn’t be able to get anywhere near as much for her vote, if she were just another Democrat.
I wonder what Snowe is being offered for her cooperation. It has to be enough to justify losing her next election. She would not be with the Republicans at all on this if she did not think that voting with the Democrats would endanger her reelection.
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