The Hill is reporting that there will be no formal Conference between the chambers regarding health care reform. Apparantly to avoid all the procedural shenanigans that could be tried, the House will be allowed to edit the Senate bill.
Please share widely!
I think it’s a good idea. It will be much quicker. Lacking transparency though, I suppose. But lacking transparency for the corporate insurers too. Maybe, just maybe, they can sneak in a few “for the people” measures and stick to the greedsters.
This continues President Obama’s trend to totally reverse himself on his significant campaign promises, promises that were integral in garnering support and bringing change to DC.
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p>He loudly and repeatedly proclaimed that earmarks must end. First, bill his signs he has earmarks in it, but said that was okay since the bill was basically negotiated before he took office. Since then earmarks have continued.
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p>He loudly and repeatedly proclaimed that the “ways of Washington” would change and people would know what was going on, there would be no closed door deals. He even mentioned, repeatedly, that discussions would be broadcast on CSPAN so all could see what was happening.
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p>The list could go on and on from GITMO to the public option, but will not be repetitive.
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p>What is disappointing is that many of the people who bought into these campaign promises, including me, are now quiet when I would expect anger and disappointment. Are we all just numb to the process or if this a case of the ends justify the means so we are all set with him passing on this promise now?
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p>I had high hopes that Obama would be different from prior Presidents based on his campaign and message. I am disappointed in him for not living up to what he promised and with myself for having believed what he said, he has turned out to be like all the others, just a little more likeable as a person.
In our system the President has absolutely no control over how the Congress conducts its internal business.
I would say that the President has considerable influence of Congress, particularly when he is the leader of the party with a super majority. He could use his position to fight for single payer – didn’t, to fight for a public option – didn’t and now for increased transparency – didn’t.
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p>I expected much more from him as I am sure many BMG members did. We may not be disappointed for all the same reasons, but the disappointment is real and spreading.
…when it comes to merits of legislation, but I still don’t think a President should tell Congress HOW to do its job. The system was designed for tension between the branches and without regard to party. The President, for better or worse, is not a Prime Minister.
…said that this was one of the missteps that sculled HC reform for Clinton.
If so, then yes, the Clintons were criticized that meetings on their end were behind closed doors. What happens at the White House is certainly in the President’s control, but this complaint was about why Obama isn’t making Congress be open, and that is not in his control.
… referring to was the Clinton’s failure to recognize that to happen, the legislature must be in the drivers seat. The Clinton’s tried to drive a process that was necessarily legislative in nature, and it set of a certain amount of acrimony between the branches.
Congress does certainly need to be consulted, but I favor the energetic executive model where the President is clearly the leader rather than Congress. Reagan knew how to do it even if we didn’t like the results. Of course, Obama could have had the best of both worlds if he really wanted to. HR 676 (single payer) was already written by members of Congress. He could have just announced he was putting the full weight of the White House behind that bill. That way we could have had both presidential leadership AND a bill written in Congress.
I enthusiastically supported Hillary Clinton. By the end of the primary, I was so flipping peeved at Obama,his campaign, and his supporters that I felt completely alienated from the Democratic Party.
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p>But then, I decided to give him a chance. I am not impressed. I am extremely disappointed in how he has handled this first year. We could be much farther along in this recovery and farther along in health care reform if HE and our congressional leaders would get past their love of financial support from corporations and actually think on behalf of the American people.
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p>While I can, I am going to pretend that they are doing this in the best interest of the people, not the corporations. We’ve already threatened, screamed, and protested. If those protests and threats have not worked by now, they won’t.
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p>But I will say that should a bill pass that has a negative impact on the middle class, while bolstering the profitability of the health insurance industry, Pharma, and other affiliated corporations at the taxpayers expense, I will not support Barack Obama in 2012.