Posted on 12/23/2009 11:54:15 AM PST by ksm1
The Senate's healthcare bill is fatally flawed, a senior Democrat atop a powerful committee said on Wednesday.
Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.), the chairwoman of the House Rules Committee and co-chairwoman of the Congressional Pro-Choice Caucus, said that the Senate's bill is so flawed that it's unlikely to be resolved in conference with the bill to have passed the House.
"The Senate health care bill is not worthy of the historic vote that the House took a month ago," Slaughter wrote in an opinion piece for CNN's website.
Slaughter argued that while the House bill is far from perfect, the Senate bill's exclusion of a public option, along with abortion funding restrictions and other measures, make the bill undeserving of a vote.
Specifically, Slaughter said, the Senate bill would charge seniors higher premiums, would fail to nix health insurers' antitrust exemption and would not go far enough in extending coverage to people in the U.S.
"Supporters of the weak Senate bill say 'just pass it — any bill is better than no bill,' " Slaughter wrote. "I strongly disagree — a conference report is unlikely to sufficiently bridge the gap between these two very different bills."
The New York Democrat also sounded a note similar to what Republicans have said (though for different reasons): Scrap the current healthcare bill, and start over.
"It's time that we draw the line on this weak bill and ask the Senate to go back to the drawing board," she said. "The American people deserve at least that."
Smelling failure.....finally????
“Historic” doesn’t make a good bill.
Wait’ll Ms. Pelosi gets back with the rest of the House drunks in mid January. Conference is gonna be bloody.
The question is, does she really mean it? Or is this another head fake or a move to get more pork?
If she really means it, then she would appear to be a powerful voice.
No, just another Lucy and the football moment. They like to raise Rep hopes and then crush them. It is meant to dispirit and demoralize.
She’s a beeotch.
DemocRats imploding??
Must vote before Xmas. Zero needs to go on vacation. (sarc)
“Abortion funding restrictions”???? The bill STILL represents the largest increase in Abortions since Roe vs. Wade. While I realize it doesn’t do “enough” to satisfy the hard-core infant blood-lust of these liberals, she is still an idiot.
Someone should find out if she had planned to not run again or resign. This sounds more like a ruse than anything else.
Another article today said that the White House is preparing for a FEBRUARY battle because the fight is going to take much longer than hoped.
As we all know, February starts the political season.
The Dems will not be able to run and hide at that point.
Just blow the whole thing off and all Democrats who voted for it resign.
Merry Christmas
Yes, the Tea Act of 1773 was historic, too.
I don’t buy it.
Democrats talk up a lot of idealism, but when negotiations get to the backroom they revert to their true self. They have a low threshold for selling-out.
Through bribes and/or arm twisting, this thing will pass. Its no longer about medical care, its about image. Dear Leader must have something to talk about at the State of the Union address.
I’m not getting my hopes up, not that I have yet anyway. Every time it appears that there’s a monkey wrench in the works, a nice bribe comes along to lubricate the machine and get the gears working again. Maybe she’s looking for a piece of the pie for her district, that’s the way it’s gone down so far even with such “principled” congressmen as Ben Nelson. His “line in the sand” was just a matter of price.
She’s just playing both sides. It’s called politics.
LOL...yes, OZero is courageously putting off his Kwanza vacation so he can get in a photo op...
It won’t go to conference if she can help it and the way to avoid that is to just have an up or down vote on the Senate bill. Hopefully there are enough disgruntled socialists in the House (like this guy) to prevent that.
She’s one of how many democrats? 255?
This is laughable.
Wait..she is talking about the senate bill NOT the bill the congress passed..with the public option. Thats why she doesnt like this one..no public option.
Both bills should be tossed..but I dont think thats what she means.
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