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Sen. Jay Rockefeller Dumps on Baucus' Bill and No Snowe Yet
September 15, 2009 3:52 PM
Following up on his This Week appearance where he promised to fight on for the public option, Sen. Jay Rockefeller blasted the draft bill produced by Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus: “there is no way in its present form that I vote for it unless it changes in the amendment process by vast amounts.”
He’s not alone. Fellow Finance Committee member Ron Wyden is livid too. Expect a rocky mark-up next week. As one top Democrat told me, the fundamental problem is that Democrats “are being asked to support a bipartisan bill that doesn’t have bipartisan support.” The compromise without the cover.
Meanwhile, Republican Olympia Snowe's office just told me that the Senator is not ready to sign on to the Baucus draft. He will introduce it tomorrow without her support. But Snowe intends to keep negotiating and working with Baucus through the mark-up next week.
Majority Leader Harry Reid has scheduled a special caucus on Thursday for Democrats to discuss the Baucus bill. Should be lively.
UPDATE: Wyden Sounds Off on Baucus Plan
As Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., chairman of the Finance Committee, prepares to discuss his "chairman's mark" Wednesday at 12 noon on Capitol Hill, Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, one of the Democrats who sits on the panel, has elaborated on his misgivings with the Baucus plan in an interview with Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus.
Wyden says the legislation would cost lower-income Americans too much and give many people too little choice of insurance plans.
"If the Baucus proposal passes," he said, "They're going to say, 'Huh? Health-care security means I pay a whole lot more than I'm paying today or I get to be exempt from it, or I pay a penalty?' They're not going to say that meets the definition of health-care security.'"
Read the full column here.
UPDATE: Rockefeller Meets Obama . . . Still Against Plan
Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., met with President Obama at the White House on Wednesday to talk privately about health-care reform.
Following the meeting, Rockefeller issued a statement, saying: “I have made clear I cannot vote for this bill in its current form.”
September 15, 2009 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (738)
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Go Jay!
Don't let the racist Right wing hate machine win!
Posted by: No Public Option, No Peace! | Sep 15, 2009 4:27:10 PM
The bill is gutless without a public option and not worth the paper it will be written on.
Posted by: vam | Sep 15, 2009 4:27:33 PM
"Don't let the racist Right wing hate machine win!"
That's one articulate analysis!
Posted by: jack wilson | Sep 15, 2009 4:30:18 PM
Haha, The joker-in-chief can't even get his own party to agree.
Posted by: Juan Lopez | Sep 15, 2009 4:30:26 PM
He HE
Posted by: Thirdies | Sep 15, 2009 4:30:50 PM
Public option is jargon for government takeover--government sets the rules and subsidizes the public option, then employers make the decision to stop paying for healthcare, forcing people to use the public option. All the garbage about keeping the plan you want misses this central point: your employer can drop coverage.
Plus, can you name a single govt. program that is solvent and run well and that you would choose over the private equivalent?
Posted by: voice of reason | Sep 15, 2009 4:31:53 PM
Health care reform without at least a public "option" will be meaningless. Private insurance companies will continue to bleed us dry financially and leave us to die by refusing to cover us.
Posted by: Bryan Morris | Sep 15, 2009 4:32:25 PM
Right Wing Hate Machine. Wow! Nothing like being told what to say, huh? Give it up for individualism!
Come on, guys. You have all three branches, can't you get rid of those stupid conservatives who listen to their constituents and fill the void with folks that knows what's best for all of us?
Posted by: TomP | Sep 15, 2009 4:32:37 PM
The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money...
Posted by: Margaret | Sep 15, 2009 4:33:37 PM
Hey, "No Public Option, No peace"... If opposition to your socialist cardboard president is racist, then I'm all for it.
This ain't gonna happen, boyo
Posted by: Hal Russell | Sep 15, 2009 4:33:42 PM
A public option will lead to rationed, goverment run healthcare. Period. It's never succeeded otherwise anywhere in the world. It puts too much power in the hands of politicians.
Your healthcare becomes just another goverment budget item with a public option! Just say NO to the Democrats grab for power!
Posted by: Paul | Sep 15, 2009 4:34:05 PM
The government option will bankrupt this country. Its very telling that Obama points to Medicare as a stunning example of how WELL the government can run a program, and then later says that Medicare will be bankrupt in a few years. Anyone with a brain knows that government is the most inefficient manager. You can't add millions of people onto the health care rolls without increasing costs and/or decreasing service (. . . you only need half a brain to get that one).
Posted by: High5 | Sep 15, 2009 4:34:42 PM
A public option will lead to rationing of care which is no good.
Stop the insanity and get a bill that will help and not hurt the system.
Posted by: Diane | Sep 15, 2009 4:34:46 PM
No public option, no peace, just like the KGB and SS, lets denigrate anyone who disagrees. Because you see, as Karl Marx put it and Fidel Castro has proven with the help of everyones favorite murderer (i mean revolutionary) Che, there can be no communist state as long as there is dissent. That must be why the liberal mantra of the last 8 years "dissent is patriotic" doesnt appear anywhere any more. you disagree? Read about it.
Posted by: Logan | Sep 15, 2009 4:35:16 PM
Jay Rockefeller should be in charge of what we all need because he knows the real working man and woman. He's read a lot of books describing them in great detail.
Posted by: Forgotten Man | Sep 15, 2009 4:36:16 PM
Dumb people..Baucus is a Democrat....hellooooo the Dem's own the HOUSE & SENATE....they don't need the Republicans! YOU DEMS ARE AFRAID TO OWN YOUR OWN CRAP HEAP! The right wing aren't the haters......look at the Congressional Black Caucus for haters!
Posted by: americnagirl | Sep 15, 2009 4:36:32 PM
Healthcare has failed. Not that this was ever about reform; this is about Obama's massive ego and his need to be monumental in history. He will be, just like Carter. A monumental failure.
Posted by: david | Sep 15, 2009 4:36:39 PM
George,
Where is the coverage on the ACORN scandal?
Posted by: Gary Stephens | Sep 15, 2009 4:36:56 PM
they can't do cash for clunkers right(i.e giving money away).
what makes you think they can handle 1/6th of our economy?
Posted by: LArry | Sep 15, 2009 4:36:59 PM
SAY NO TO SOCIALISM!
Posted by: jc | Sep 15, 2009 4:38:04 PM
"Yeah, don't let the racist right wing hate machine win."
This racist label is so lame that it is no longer even slowing down opponents of Obama socialism. That's because socialism is code for......socialism.
And which party has a former high ranking member of the KKK in it's ranks? Democrat fascists. You gotta hate em.
Posted by: CTLO | Sep 15, 2009 4:38:25 PM
Sounds like No Public Option, No Peace would rather take Medicare money away from our elderly and route it to his progressive friends so they don't have to work & function in a capitalist economy. Well junior, you can suck the money teat of Michael Moore, oh I forgot. He uses capitalism to make money just to further his and the progressive agenda so you're out of luck.
Too bad.
Posted by: JMS | Sep 15, 2009 4:39:13 PM
Wow. Does this make Sen. Jay Jay a racist?
/Sarc
Posted by: Conservative1st | Sep 15, 2009 4:39:29 PM
Hey ABC, When are you going to cover the latest ACORN controversy, or are you.
Posted by: dave | Sep 15, 2009 4:40:20 PM
Use the funds that would have gone to Acorn to fund health care. Oops - you don't care about corruption any more - back to MJ coverage.
Posted by: Dr. Dan | Sep 15, 2009 4:41:16 PM
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