The Prof
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Dick Durbin, Senate Whip, Illinois friend of the president, signaled the SURRENDER of the White House on Sunday (CNN's State of the Union with John King), when the senior senator from the Prairie State said, "I am open to CUTTING the public option."
Concerning health care today, Monday, August 10, democratic leadership has finally, formally flapped the WHITE FLAG.
The IMMEDIATE reason is 3-fold:
1. The town halls. The chattering class can say this about grassroots, that about astroturf. But the MEMBERS all SAW the unavoidable truth---the FACE of America's national reaction to Obamacare. And it is PROTEST.
2. The White House website, flag@whitehouse.gov, encouraging citizens to RAT each other OUT if they catch their neighbors expressing FISHY sentiments. The snoop campaign explosively backfired.
3. The president's suggestion in Virginia, Thursday, that those opposed to his plans need to SHUT UP and get out of the way so he can FIX the mess THEY created. He's talking to millions of ordinary FOLKS here who simply happen to disagree with him. His boomerang bunglings so naturally, so certainly transform normal political opposition into RAGE. Note how instant, how rapid is the REACTION.
Thus, Obamacare has NO CHANCE in the Senate. No blue senator will lose his or her seat should Obamacare fail, but quite a few will jeopardize their jobs if the president succeeds.
Seen narrowly, Obama's political pratfall was sending members home for recess with no ONE PLAN to defend.
The very shapelessness, vagueness, amorphous outlook of Obamacare, specifically, allows his critics to assail it from all sides, to express every fear and concern conceivable, whether real or imagined, because someone on his behalf has broached it.
Not real bright.
Underscoring the 3 in-your-face flaws fleshed out above are these ACTUAL Achilles heels of Obamacare as it has progressed thus far thru committee.
1. It FINES individuals caught breathing without insurance, as criminals.
2. It FORCES these folks to finagle coverage for themselves, which they can't afford in the first place.
3. It steepens the COST CURVE up, significantly.
4. It includes illegals.
5. It changes the public funding of abortion, bluedog bugaboo.
6. It contemplates huge savings in END OF LIFE costs.
7. It makes massive CUTS in MEDICARE and MEDICAID.
8. The president never read the details and never knew what he was talking about.
9. It was foot-in-the-door incrementalism towards down-the-road full nationalization.
10. It taxed medical benefits, just like John McCain.
Thus, the House plan, Waxman/Rangel is dead letter. When Durbin declares deceased the public option, he undoes determinately the House deal in all its details.
Health care reform is now the domain unadulterated of the Senate. That'd be, as has been from the beginning, Baucus, and his GATEWAY committee, Senate Finance.
Prominent in the PORTAL are those UBIQUITOUS SIX, the 3 blues and 3 reds who from the start have been working to cobble a compromise.
Co Op is the Beltway's brand new and biggest buzzword.
If the six CAN settle on something, America is looking at a the possibility of a health care bill. If not, not.
It's that simple.
Public option is passe. Co Op is the current craze.
The LEFT meanwhile will lapse LIVID.
Even should the GATEKEEPER's group come to some agreement, there's no guarantee the progressives will go along in lower congress.
Either way, the president punted. The pigskin is now property of Baucus' 3 Republicans---Grassley, Enzi and Snowe.
The future of health care is ENTIRELY theirs---Grassley, Enzi and Snowe.
The president, Pelosi, the house, the bluedogs---all now roundly irrelevant.
The next move is Grassley's.
Then, CBO.
Then, the progressives.
The Prof
Concerning health care today, Monday, August 10, democratic leadership has finally, formally flapped the WHITE FLAG.
The IMMEDIATE reason is 3-fold:
1. The town halls. The chattering class can say this about grassroots, that about astroturf. But the MEMBERS all SAW the unavoidable truth---the FACE of America's national reaction to Obamacare. And it is PROTEST.
2. The White House website, flag@whitehouse.gov, encouraging citizens to RAT each other OUT if they catch their neighbors expressing FISHY sentiments. The snoop campaign explosively backfired.
3. The president's suggestion in Virginia, Thursday, that those opposed to his plans need to SHUT UP and get out of the way so he can FIX the mess THEY created. He's talking to millions of ordinary FOLKS here who simply happen to disagree with him. His boomerang bunglings so naturally, so certainly transform normal political opposition into RAGE. Note how instant, how rapid is the REACTION.
Thus, Obamacare has NO CHANCE in the Senate. No blue senator will lose his or her seat should Obamacare fail, but quite a few will jeopardize their jobs if the president succeeds.
Seen narrowly, Obama's political pratfall was sending members home for recess with no ONE PLAN to defend.
The very shapelessness, vagueness, amorphous outlook of Obamacare, specifically, allows his critics to assail it from all sides, to express every fear and concern conceivable, whether real or imagined, because someone on his behalf has broached it.
Not real bright.
Underscoring the 3 in-your-face flaws fleshed out above are these ACTUAL Achilles heels of Obamacare as it has progressed thus far thru committee.
1. It FINES individuals caught breathing without insurance, as criminals.
2. It FORCES these folks to finagle coverage for themselves, which they can't afford in the first place.
3. It steepens the COST CURVE up, significantly.
4. It includes illegals.
5. It changes the public funding of abortion, bluedog bugaboo.
6. It contemplates huge savings in END OF LIFE costs.
7. It makes massive CUTS in MEDICARE and MEDICAID.
8. The president never read the details and never knew what he was talking about.
9. It was foot-in-the-door incrementalism towards down-the-road full nationalization.
10. It taxed medical benefits, just like John McCain.
Thus, the House plan, Waxman/Rangel is dead letter. When Durbin declares deceased the public option, he undoes determinately the House deal in all its details.
Health care reform is now the domain unadulterated of the Senate. That'd be, as has been from the beginning, Baucus, and his GATEWAY committee, Senate Finance.
Prominent in the PORTAL are those UBIQUITOUS SIX, the 3 blues and 3 reds who from the start have been working to cobble a compromise.
Co Op is the Beltway's brand new and biggest buzzword.
If the six CAN settle on something, America is looking at a the possibility of a health care bill. If not, not.
It's that simple.
Public option is passe. Co Op is the current craze.
The LEFT meanwhile will lapse LIVID.
Even should the GATEKEEPER's group come to some agreement, there's no guarantee the progressives will go along in lower congress.
Either way, the president punted. The pigskin is now property of Baucus' 3 Republicans---Grassley, Enzi and Snowe.
The future of health care is ENTIRELY theirs---Grassley, Enzi and Snowe.
The president, Pelosi, the house, the bluedogs---all now roundly irrelevant.
The next move is Grassley's.
Then, CBO.
Then, the progressives.
The Prof
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