This morning, as millions of Americans prepared to gather with their families in celebration of Christmas, President Obama and Harry Reid gathered with their liberal allies in celebration of government.
RNC Chairman Michael Steele • Regarding the health care plan’s passage. Man, Mikey, you’re a regular Mitch McConnell, aren’t you? On the other side of the spectrum, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said he preferred the House bill, mainly because, well, they didn’t need to gut everything to get it passed. He made this quip, though: “Not since the passage of Medicare 44 years ago have we seen Republican scare tactics so blatantly contrary to the interests of the American people.” source
Why does Joe Lieberman hate America? In this video, Lieberman suggests the very option he publicly killed this week. The uncomfortable kid over to the right just gave the left a ton of ammo in the health care fight by asking this question, even though he called Medicare “Medichoice.”
Since, really, 2006, Lieberman has felt alienated from his caucus, and he’s grown more conservative. He does not care about liberals, who tried to drum him out of office in 2006; he seems to enjoy poking them in the eye.
Atlantic political writer Marc Ambinder • Describing the nature of Joe Lieberman’s recent attacks on the health care bill. Ultimately, he’s still smarting from his near-loss in the 2006 Connecticut Senate race, so he appears to be playing this as his comeuppance. Ambinder suggests that the ultimate 60th vote of this will not be Lieberman – who appears to be trying to stonewall this, privately giving a thumbs-up while publicly trashing it – but Olympia Snowe, who will require less work to win over. Perhaps once everyone realizes that, this will get easier. source
He’s stalling the Medicare compromise. So it goes away, too. Thanks to Joe Lieberman, the health care bill’s great compromise – which would’ve dropped the minimum age for Medicare to 55 – is now dead in the water. With the nonprofit option still on the table, all hope isn’t lost for improving health care. But it’s not going to be public in any way, shape or form. Thanks, Joe. source
If your goal was to come up with a plan for financial ruin, you couldn’t come up with a better idea than cutting a program by $500 billion and simultaneously expanding the number of people it is required to cover.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell • Making another one of his snippy comments about the health care bill. It’s too bad he’s saying it about a potential breakthrough for the bill in the Senate. The latest idea being bandied about: Allow lower-income people as young as 55 to bask in the glory that is Medicare. Now, McConnell does have a point about this – they’re cutting Medicare AND adding people to it – but then again, it’s not like this jerk has actually come up with a solution besides “complain more and stonewall any reasonable progress.” Do more than that and we’ll give you credit. source
The Senate couldn’t push through a Medicare payment bill. An attempt to prevent the 21% reduction of doctors’ Medicare fees couldn’t get through the Senate tonight, with both Republicans and centrist Democrats suggesting the $250 billion price tag was too much. They needed 60 votes to get the bill, supported by the American Medical Association, onto the Senate floor. They got 47. This may be a harbinger of things to come. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is suggesting that much. Have we called him a toolbag lately? source
Both sides look bad here to some degree – there’s smoke coming out of the ears of “Hardball’s” Lawrence O’Donnell, while Rep. John Culberson does everything he can to avoid saying “yes” or “no” to questions which circle around whether Medicare and Social Security are socialism, and how he can support them when he doesn’t support health care. It gets ugly, even for a political debate on “Hardball.”source