I am disgusted that all the dairies on this site are calling for killing the health reform bill. All of the authors are expressing their discontent with the current bill and in some strange way appear as though they will derive some pleasure, albeit morbid, if the bill does in fact get killed keeping the uninsured...uninsured.
Now, I would agree that the bill should be stripped of mandates; the bill should either include a public option or a medicare buy-in; and yes, the bill should be harsher against the unscrupulous insurers, but killing the bill is not the answer.
Yes, it may be the answer for republicans and left-wing fanatics who want it all now or don't want anything at all. I can assure you that in killing the bill you/we/the uninsured won't get anything with that strategy.
People who are unwilling to compromise and yet they hold only some of the good cards usually wind up with nothing. That's right they can't close a deal. Do you remember Hilary Clinton's attempt at this same reform?
You postsers, along with Keith Olbermann, Howard Dean and Markos are stoking a fire that you will regret ever starting. Instead of speaking strongly about what needs to be done and refraining from using terms like kill and die, you should be offering alternative solutions to make sure the bill (some bill) passes to improve the lives of some of our uninsured citizens.
I have heard talk about fixing the bill through reconciliation and talk regarding waiting for a new Congress to take up reform anew. Both of these options are non-starters.
First, the reconciliation process is generally limited to changing existing laws to conform with budgeted spending and tax levels.
Here are definitions from the senate web site:
reconciliation process - A process established in the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 by which Congress changes existing laws to conform tax and spending levels to the levels set in a budget resolution. Changes recommended by committees pursuant to a reconciliation instruction are incorporated into a reconciliation measure.
reconciliation instruction - A provision in a budget resolution directing one or more committees to report (or submit to the Budget Committee) legislation changing existing law in order to bring spending, revenues, or the debt-limit into conformity with the budget resolution. The instructions specify the committees to which they apply, indicate the appropriate dollar changes to be achieved, and usually provide a deadline by which the legislation is to be reported or submitted.
As you can see reconciliation is not about introducing or defining law, it's more about making sure the bill can fit within the budget.
Secondly, waiting for a new Congress to do this all over again is absurd. God smiled on the Democrats to allow all the stars to be aligned in this Congress to even give the current Democratic party a chance to get health care reform moving.
While in time the Congress may get more progressive it's going to take many years to do so. The current baby boomber bunch are not that progressive, neither are their constituents (old folks) and as you know they live pretty well and pretty long. What's worse however, is that some of them are likely to loose their seats in the next election which will make taking up a failed policy action even less palatable and less plikely thereafter.
Finally, the shame of you so-called supportive democrats who so quickly turn on the very President that has moved this process further than it has ever been in just the first eleven months in office, while dealing with two wars and an econony in near depression. Without President Obama pusing the ball forward you would have had alot more to complain about. Including things that directly affect you and you know who you are, because for the many that are complaining those same complainers are doing fine with the piss-pour health care you have now and have no compassion for the better health care that the less afluent will receive.
If you don't have any good solutions shut up!!! We needs to make inroads not outroads, we need to coddle and cajole the Joe Liebermann's of the world to help us get what we want. All the screamers are doing are making threats with no power to act and no vote to cast.
Be quiet for a moment and think how to be persuasive without being aggressive and rude. Smart people don't need to scream, they use their intellect to convince.