http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6360948Oh my.
The racist babbling sister primitive, who collects "darky" and "pickaninny" toys, and who has
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babylonsister (1000+ posts) Fri Aug-21-09 08:56 AM
Original message
Gang Of Six Looking For Scissors
I say fire the lot of them. They are all useless.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/20...
GANG OF SIX LOOKING FOR SCISSORS.... For most of the early summer, the political world waited on six members of the Senate Finance Committee -- centrists and center-right members from rural states -- to approve a bill. They couldn't. Members wanted more time, and got more time. It didn't matter. Hopes that the Senate might pass a measure before the August recess were dashed because the so-called Gang of Six wanted to negotiate some more.
Three weeks into August, have they made progress? No, members of the gang haven't gotten together for a chat. They'd talked about the possibility of a meeting, but Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) scrapped the plans, citing a busy summer schedule.
Late yesterday, the Gang of Six managed to connect over the phone. They reportedly raised the idea of moving the reform legislation even further to the right.
In a conference call, the three Democratic and three Republican members of the Senate Finance Committee agreed to redouble their efforts to craft a less costly alternative to the trillion-dollar initiatives so far put forward in Congress. They discussed the possibility of also reining in the scope of their package, the sources said.
<...>
Before leaving for the month-long recess, Baucus had pegged the cost of the negotiators' ideas at less than $900 billion over the next decade. Thursday's discussions focused on driving that cost lower, the sources said.
At the risk of beating a dead horse, note that the only reason to "rein in the scope" of reform, and try to make the efforts much cheaper, would be to satisfy the demands of conservative Republicans -- the conservative Republicans who oppose health care reform, and who intend to vote against the bill anyway.
This is madness.
Also note, before the recess, the Gang of Six was given a Sept. 15 deadline. At that point, Senate leaders have said, the legislative process will just have continue on without them. According to the WaPo account, the six "rejected the idea of imposing a deadline on their negotiations," and said they'd chat again in two weeks.
Why can't the majority party in the Senate do anything about this?--after all, being in the majority, that means they have more votes.
The deterred primitive, who has
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undeterred (1000+ posts) Fri Aug-21-09 08:57 AM
Response to Original message
1. S T A L L I N G
Sal Minella (1000+ posts) Fri Aug-21-09 10:05 AM
Response to Reply #1
5. Reminds me of an old news story about the Iraqi Parliament -- they were meeting every month or so to agree that they couldn't possibly agree on anything, except meeting again in another month or so. (Then they wanted to take the summer off, and the BigOil people who were waiting for contracts had a collective fit).
The Rethugs think the status quo is actually perfectly fine, and any sort of change is being strenuously avoided while attempting to keep up the facade of "cooperation." The Rethugs should be left in the dust.
Grassley flat-out LIED when he said President Obama was willing to give up on the public option. I wish we could just impeach Grassley. The man is either senile or deliberately lying, and is not competent to serve on a town council, much less be involved in policy-making at a national level.
The mountain man primitive who, like all men, nightly pitches his tent one day's march closer to the mausoleum, and who apparently hasn't heard yet that increases in social security are on "hold" until 2012--and who has
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ThomWV (1000+ posts) Fri Aug-21-09 09:03 AM
Response to Original message
2. If it has to be "bi-partisan' then there should be 4 Democrats and 2 Republicans in the room
Why is it that the assembly of white men who are deciding the future of health care financing in this country is not proportionately similar to the makeup of the Senate instead of the 50/50 mix that Max Bacus has shat down upon us?
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xchrom (1000+ posts) Fri Aug-21-09 09:10 AM
Response to Original message
3. why is the leadership giving them until sept 15?
it looks like actually having to do their jobs -- has made them all lose their minds.
babylonsister (1000+ posts) Fri Aug-21-09 10:01 AM
Response to Reply #3
4. I think they're on 'recess' until the first or second week of Sept.
That probably has something to do with it.
