Posted on 12/15/2009 12:27:51 PM PST by LdSentinal
In a blow to the bill grinding through the Senate, Howard Dean bluntly called for the bill to be killed in a pre-recorded interview set to air later this afternoon, denouncing it as “the collapse of health care reform in the United States Senate,” the reporter who conducted the interview tells me.
Dean said the removal of the Medicare buy-in made the bill not worth supporting, and urged Dem leaders to start over with the process of reconciliation in the interview, which is set to air at 5:50 PM today on Vermont Public Radio, political reporter Bob Kinzel confirms to me.
The gauntlet from Dean — whose voice on health care is well respsected among liberals — will energize those on the left who are mobilizing against the bill, and make it tougher for liberals to embrace the emerging proposal. In an excerpt Kinzel gave me, Dean says:
“This is essentially the collapse of health care reform in the United States Senate. Honestly the best thing to do right now is kill the Senate bill, go back to the House, start the reconciliation process, where you only need 51 votes and it would be a much simpler bill.”
Kinzel added that Dean essentially said that if Democratic leaders cave into Joe Lieberman right now they’ll be left with a bill that’s not worth supporting.
Dean had previously endorsed the Medicare buy-in compromise without a public option, saying that the key question should be whether the bill contains enough “real reform” to be worthy of progressives’ support. Dean has apparently concluded that the “real reform” has been removed at Lieberman’s behest — which won’t make it easier for liberals to swallow the emerging compromise.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend??
When did Howard Dean grow a brain?
Wow! I never thought I would be in agreement with Howard Dean on anything.
If only they would listen . . . Maybe he should scream.
He was a doctor.
It would have to be pretty bad piece of legislation for Howard Dean to go against Obama.
Soooooooooooooo ....
Getting all these egos to agree on something is like trying to herd cats.
He was/is indeed an MD who may well have interned as an abortionist at some point in his ‘development’.
This is just cover for the Rats.
Dean crying for the Rats to impose the “nuclear option” to pass an even more socialist bill is intended to allow their buddies in the MSM to play the Reid bill as being “centrist” and “moderate.”
This is a sign the endgame is near, and the Rats are on the verge of 60 votes for the Reid bill.
Dean is an idiot. Which is good for us. The Dems could easily pass something without the public option and other bells and whistles, come back next year and quietly add everything to it then.
He didn’t. It’s just not Communist enough for him to be worth supporting.
The Nutroots are in open revolt. Over at DU they’re calling Obama a sell-out and, more importantly, a one termer while claiming they’re done with the Dem party.
Okay, I keep checking for the satire tag, but I’m just not seeing it.
These days it’s so hard to distinguish between reality and satire...
I’m rather amazed that E-Aaaaaarrrrrrrrggggggggghhhhhhhh Dean is opposed to Obamacare. Right now I like him a little bit better than Joe Lieberman.
With 51 votes they can put back in what Lieberman had taken out and even might get the Feds paying for abortion back into the bill and then pass the bill with 51 or more votes in the senate. - tom
He doesn’t have a brain but he knows this half-baked reform will only take longer to get us to a single payer system. He is all-in and wants the rest of the socialist posers to join him.
I don’t trust this. I think it’s some kind of ploy.
This is what has always been great about our country.
People from all sides of the political spectrum can come together against bad ideas, oftentimes for completely opposite reasons.
Perhaps there is hope yet for defeating this travesty. This bill is bad for ALL Americans, not just those of us who are conservatives. I’d never TRUST Howard Dean, but we’re wise to take up allies where we can, even if for disparate reasons, so long as we are careful not to make that always fatal mistake of thinking of them as trustworthy friends..
Just so long as their at the same grid coordinates when you are ready.
Already this idiot is making some normally brilliant minds at FR go soft. Don't trust this guy. Don't trust Democraps period.
kill the Senate bill, go back to the House, start the reconciliation process
Perhaps I'm just dense, but I thought the Senate would need to pass something before they could start the reconciliation process. If they don't, there's nothing to reconcile.
I’m not so sure. Over on DU they’re saying it would be better not to pass it than to pass it in it’s present form. So the far left might see it as a losing situation, and prefer to scrap it.
Wow! I never thought I would be in agreement with Howard Dean on anything.
As much as I want to believe Howard Dean I simply cannot bring myself to trust a Democrat without verifying healthcare is dead.
Well, my FRiend, even a broken clock is right twice a day.
Obama just said the Reid bill meets all his “conditions” for health care reform.
The rest is just political theater by the Rats. Letting Dean and the far Left scream about what about a bad bill this is is good for the Rats from a spin perspective.
Obama, Reid and Pelosi will probably manage to squeak this by, and the deadening hand of massive governmental intrusion will crush the American health care industry and its hitherto spectacular record of advancement and innovation in medical treatment.
[When did Howard Dean grow a brain?]
He didn’t! He just thinks if they can’t get all the control at once, then go back and do an end-around on the American public!
Understand that he is against this because it isn’t a Single Payer plan!!!
He didn’t..he thinks by doing that,it will save the Dems in 2010.He’s just that out of touch with reality.
We oppose the bill because it's bad. Dean opposes because it's not bad enough.
Curiouser and curiouser...
He turned so far left, he accidentally turned right for a moment there.
Which is always the plan isn’t it?
Even a broken clock is right twice a day.
Another angle to consider is the polls. With Ras now showing 61% opposed to HealthScare, this could be a face-saving way to back out. Maybe the 'rats don't want to get walloped next November.
“I don’t trust this. I think it’s some kind of ploy.”
Mega Ditto!!!!
He didn't. He's just seen it get gutted from the monster he wants it to be.
AFAIC any bill is bad. Got to smack the camel back out from under the tent.
Kos, Open Left, Democrat Underground, and the rest of the leftist internet sewers are saying the same thing. I just did a quick perusal. I wonder if the hacks on MSNBC, who take their cues straight from these blogs, will join the call to kill the bill.
Ironically, the leftist single-payer people could form a coalition with conservatives to defeat a senate bill. We’re a long ways from that, but the battle lines are forming. These loons have a good deal of pull on the Democrat party.....especially on the liberal wing, which controls a lot of votes.
We’re agreeing with Dean, albeit coming from completely different sides of the issue.....whatever, we need to kill this thing, and if Dean wants to help us, more power to him.
“Howard Dean: “Kill The Senate Bill”
Wha?!
Oh, I’m so lost here in Obamaland...
All dims will vote yes.
What about Nelson? With Snowe out, he’s the 60th and unless they put the Stupak language back in, he won’t go along...will he?
Maybe he is the inside man we need to expose the impostor in the WH.
Dean is opposed to the recent changes because it liberal or socialist enough. That is what he's complaining about.
Along with at least two RINOs.....
Here is what Dean is doing, from a political perspective.
He knows that the Reid bill is a huge step forward toward a single payer system and complete nationalization of health care.
The Reid bill essentially transforms health insurance providers into instrumentalities of the government.
Dean knows that the government intrusion into and control over the market will mean that after regulation takes effect the essential business model of private companies providing health insurance on a for-profit basis will become unfeasible.
Dean knows the Rats now have the 60 votes in the Senate, and that Pelosi will get behind Obama and Reid on this.
So Dean is positioning himself for his OWN political future. He knows he can safely do this now that the Rats appear to be able to pass a bill.
Dean’s base is in the far left. He will now sit on the sidelines and wait for the inevitable “failure,” because of this government control, of the “private market” to provide “affordable” insurance for “working families.”
Dean will become champion of the single-payer solution that will “solve” the problem of the “failure” of private insurance companies caused by the Obama-Reid-Pelosi bill.
He is now simply positioning himself for that role.
I think you’re giving him too much credit. He’s just not that smart.
I expect to see them put the Stupak language or something similar in the Senate bill. The language already passed the House. If it got by the Rats in the House, it will get by the Rats in the Senate.
Keep reading - he wants to go through the reconciliation process with the House bill (which is just as bad if not worse than the seante bill) which only requires a simple majority - another words 51 votes - he is not our friend
That is exactly what I thought. It is outrageous that we Americans who are trying to be informed don't even know exactly how and when the reconciliation process works. Congress is so full of unpatriotic (I gag when I hear them called public "servants") power-hungry egotists that they probably keep it vague so they can do whateveer they want. Who needs a stinkin' constitution? /s
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