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.
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.
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