Posted on 02/23/2010 8:02:41 AM PST by raccoonradio
Sen. Scott Brown yesterday warned the Obama administration against using the “nuclear option” of ramming through Congress a revised $1 trillion health-care bill outlined yesterday by the White House.
The administration unveiled what’s already being called “Obamacare II” - a mix of already approved House and Senate health-care legislation aimed at expanding coverage for 31 million Americans.
Obama’s plan also includes caps on excessive insurance-premium increases, similar to measures Gov. Deval Patrick proposed two weeks ago in Massachusetts.
A spokesman for Brown, whose dramatic Senate victory last month halted Capitol Hill momentum for health-care reform, said Democrats better not try to use a reconciliation strategy to pass the bill with a simple Senate majority.
Brown vowed during his campaign that he would be the crucial “41st vote” to kill reform legislation under the Senate’s supermajority-vote rules.
“If the Democrats try to ram their health-care bill through Congress using reconciliation, they are sending a dangerous signal to the American people that they will stop at nothing to raise our taxes, increase premiums and slash Medicare,” said Brown spokesman Colin Reed in a statement. “Using the nuclear option damages the concept of representative leadership and represents more of the politics-as-usual that voters have repeatedly rejected.”
While Brown’s office didn’t specifically reject Obama’s latest bill, there was no doubt Brown views the proposal as similar to earlier health-care plans backed by Democrats, even though he reached across the aisle to support a major jobs bill yesterday.
The administration faces an uphill bid to win the bill’s passage in Congress, where many Democrats were scared away from backing reform after Brown’s victory.
A spokesman for the White House said the plan is an “opening bid” for a planned bipartisan summit on Thursday.
In a statement, Patrick, whose office dodged questions about whether Obama lifted the premium-cap idea from his Democratic ally in Massachusetts, praised the president’s legislation and vowed to work for health-care reform.
“President Obama clearly recognizes health-care expansion must include cost-control initiatives to help working families and businesses that are drowning in higher premiums,” said Patrick, who was in Washington yesterday.
Sen. Martha Coakley (D-MA) smiles broadly as she stands behind President Obama, as Obama signed the massive health care bill she helped to pass.
>>where many Democrats were scared away from backing reform after Brown’s victory.
Repeat:
>>where many Democrats were scared away from backing reform after Brown’s victory.
Let those who were first to bash Brown after his vote yesterday remember the meaning of the word “independent”.
Yesterday, Scott Brown voted for the democrats jobs bill, he is a RINO.
Ben Nelson (D) voted against it.....what's that make him?
Independents elected Scott Brown not Republicrats
That was a much reduced bill less than what the Republican leadership wanted.
So let’s not try to wield that as a weapon.
This is the core issue and Scott Brown is on the money here. Let’s applaud him for standing up to Obama here.
Or what? He won’t vote for the next Democrat garbage bill? He’ll hold his breath?
Still a RINO.
That makes him trying to save his soul in his home state. Remember he was booed out of a pizza joint by his fellow home towners for his health care vote.
It also shows how bad the bill is.
I will hold on that support on Brown to see just what he really does in this case.
the jobs bill eventually would have likely passed anyway (else be accused in MSM of voting against “jobs”), and Brown has to keep largely liberal Mass voters on his side if we are going to hold back this Socialist tide. I can give him a mulligan on that one.
I agree with you on that.
What is independent about more spending.
He specifically spoke against more spending.
Two faced is more like it.
Sorry, he scammed a lot of folks who don’t want their children saddled with trillions of dollars of debt.
If you mean unenrolleds, the term in MA, yes. I am one. I voted for him. He did not run ads saying “I will vote in lockstep with the Republicans on every issue” His opponent rans ads saying he would, actually...he will be with us on most votes.
That Jobs bill is “peanuts”. I doesn’t amount to a fly speck in the overall scheme of things and their are a few decent things in it. The big fight is Health care and on that, Brown has it right.
Good point. McConnell and company backed a much more expensive "jobs bill."
I hope you are right and Brown stays his ground.
That was my first thought as well.
Yes
NEWS FROM THE FUTURE: Nov 2012
BOSTON—The Mass. U.S. Senate seat pits incumbent Republican Scott Brown against Dem. nominee Joe Kennedy IV, the son of former Congressman Joe Kennedy. It is a close race and some feel that conservatives in this state will hand the race to Kennedy as they feel Brown is “Republican in name only”....
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