Posted on 10/17/2009 10:23:22 PM PDT by Lorianne
Three months before he was elected president, Barack Obama vowed not only to reform health care but also to pass the legislation in an unprecedented way.
"I'm going to have all the negotiations around a big table," he said at an appearance in Chester, Va., repeating an assertion he made many times. He said the discussions would be "televised on C-SPAN, so that people can see who is making arguments on behalf of their constituents and who are making arguments on behalf of the drug companies or the insurance companies."
But now, as a Senate vote on health-care legislation nears, those negotiations are occurring in a setting that is anything but revolutionary in Washington: Three senators are working on the bill behind closed doors.
Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) sits at the head of a wooden table at his office as he and Sens. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) and Max Baucus (D-Mont.) work to merge two competing versions of health-care legislation into one bill. The three men will be joined by top aides as well as by members of President Obama's health-care team, led by White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. The sessions started on Wednesday and could be completed this week.
The group will make such key decisions as whether to include a government-run insurance plan designed to compete with private insurance companies. The bill passed in July by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which Dodd led while Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) was ailing, included such a provision, but the legislation passed last week by Baucus's Finance Committee did not.
The bills also differ on how much Americans who do not buy insurance should be fined as the government seeks to get everyone covered.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
They all live in a world of lies.
The Republic at its finest. Way to go. “ when harry met nancy”.
This really makes me mad.
Yep...they are fired up and ready to go. And they aren’t getting tired, by gosh...they are just getting started.
You know, these guys are so dumb. Even the Mafia knew better than to have all the top guys meet in one place, at one time to make a big decision. That way, they were sure they all didn't take the blame for something, because no one could prove they were ever all together. But here we have these fellows willingly ready to take the fall for the worst bill ever to be put forth. Glad they are so stupidly showing America who is destroying it!
Reid, Dodd, and Baucus - dumb, dumber, and dumbest.
Can you quess who is who?
obama keeps on lying, and he’s “just getting started”.
obama lies.
WaPo acts as if these closed door meetings are a new thing. It’s been that way all along.
I want to know about Obama’s bill. During his numerous speeches, he kept mentioning “my plan.” I wonder when he is going to reveal it.
Reid Dodd Baukus
IMPolite, IMPudent and IMPertinent
The Washington Post headlining this is very bad news for Obama.
The worm has turned on his broken promises.
They also forgot to mention that obama hasn’t invitited the Repubs to talk since when, April?
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