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The Spectacle Blog
As many had speculated, the bark of the Blue Dog Democrats has proven bigger than their bite, and they have now struck a deal with Henry Waxman that should move the bill out of the House energy and Commerce Committee, while extracting an agreement that would put off a floor vote by the full House until after August recess.
The Politico has these details of the deal:
The Blue Dogs also succeeded in cutting $100 billion from the overall cost of the bill, bringing the total price tag under $1 trillion. The legislation will now exempt small businesses with a payroll greater than $500,000 from paying for any government-sponsored health coverage - double the $250,000 in the initial draft. And finally, under the terms of the deal Ross announced, doctors and other health care providers will be allowed to negotiate their payment rates with the government-sponsored health care arm.
Assuming these are all the changes, it wouldn’t alter the overall infrastructure of the bill. It would still mean a massive expansion of Medicaid, providing subsidies for people to purchase government-designed insurance policies on a government-run exchange, creating a new government-run health care program that would put the nation on a pathway to single-payer, mandates on individuals to purchase insurance or pay a tax, and a tax hike on employers that did not provide health care to their workers. And it’s not clear how many of the compromises will be adopted by the full House once this bill is reconciled by the two other committees.
But by delaying the full House vote until September, it means that there will still be time for Blue Dogs to change their mind on the final bill if they take a lot of heat from their constituents during August recess.
View all comments (20) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by Philip Klein
http://spectator.org/blog/2009/07/29/blue-dogs-cave
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sre| 7.29.09 @ 2:54PM
A trillion dollars? A thousand billion? A million million? This is a conservative compromise? This is insanity.
Nolann Ryann| 7.29.09 @ 3:52PM
The "Blue Dog" Dems are a farce. All but 10 voted for the wonderful stimulus and a majority voted for the biggest rip off in history; Cap and Tax. A measure that would send the economy to levels that Curtis LeMay would love; i.e. into the stone age. You knew they would pay lip service to their supposed fiscal austerity, but capitulate after they got their headlines.
Solo| 7.29.09 @ 3:54PM
Was there ever any doubt as to the outcome here? NO!
They're frickin DEMOCRATS! Period!
Calling them "conservative democrats" is a rhetorical trick designed to give the appearance that they might be "moderate". The only thing that distinguishes them from 'regular' democrats is that they are just 1/10th of a shade lighter red than full blown Marxists.
If they were really "conservatives" they wouldn't be democrats! "Conservative democrat" is an oxymoron.
Elections have consequences, boys and girls. We're only 6 months in and already the country is past the breaking point. Just imagine what it will look like by 2010!
Yep....you 3rd party geniuses sure taught those republicans a lesson, huh?
"Yes We Can"
Willey| 7.29.09 @ 6:00PM
2010--remember these 'blue dog democrats' in 2010!!
LT| 7.29.09 @ 7:47PM
This makes me want to vomit.
To adapt the First Lady's comments - for the first time I am ASHAMED to call myself and American.
Welcome to mediocrity, welcome to the new slavery, welcome to socialism.
snake| 7.29.09 @ 10:31PM
YOU PEOPLE ARE RETARTED ! ... GET THIS ,,,THE USA GET BOMBED BY AFGANISTAN ,,,, AND WE GO INVADE IRAQ !!!!!!!!!!!! OMG ! GET A CLUE ! WE NEED DEMS LIKE THERES NO TOMORROW ! OBAMA WILL PULL US ALL THROUGH ... YA GODDA GIVE HIM TIME TO FIX 8 YEARS OF REPUBLICAN LIES ! HE INHERITED THIS MESS ! HE DIDNT CAUSE IT ! SOCIALISM = ???? I MEAN REALLY ..... OMG TARDS !!!!!!!!!!
Tl Bullock| 7.29.09 @ 10:33PM
Every Dem identifed as a blue dog should be challenge for their when reelection time comes...Any group that would sell out the American people to the hmos, drug companies, and health demons to line their pockets with ill-gotten gains, they are not Democrats, just Republicans in Dems clothing!!
SNAKE| 7.29.09 @ 10:47PM
what is the difference between a govt run insurance or taking a bill ya got from your normal insurance company and having it denied !!!!!!!! isurance companys made a h u g e profit last year ! .... we need to give this a chance ! ... if ya dont want this insurance ... you can keep the one you have !
ykaplinsky| 7.30.09 @ 8:55AM
If an insurance company denies a procedure, you can appeal. I have gotten the procedure every time I appealed. If you don't get it anyway, you can pay for it yourself or do the alternative they suggest. With the government. There is no appeal and you can't get it some other way. They intend to close down health insurance companies so they can solve the Medicare crisis with creeping euthanasia...even advising older patients not to take antibiotics. these people in government are evil.
G. A. Kevis| 7.30.09 @ 9:07AM
Yellow Dogs.
Nuff said!
Solo| 7.30.09 @ 9:12AM
Snake.....you seem to be missing the point.
There are a multitude of ways to make the health care system better....much better. None of those solutions, however, include government involvement. In fact...all those solutions involve getting government OUT!
The very reason that the system is broken is because of government meddling in the first place. I know that this must be hard to take...but it's true.
Did you know, for example, that government (on both the State and Federal level) mandates what type of coverage Insurance companies can offer?
They dictate rates, coverages, co-pay percentages and even the types of proceedures that must be included and some that must be excluded.
They dictate the rates that hospitals can charge for a given procedure delivered to mediCare and MediCaid patients that is well below the true cost. This forces the hospitals to recover those losses from those of us who buy our own insurance or who pay cash. (This is why the hospitals charge you $40.00 for an aspirin).
Add in the prohibitive liability insurance costs for health care providers because of frivolous law suits and HUGE jury awards handed out for real damages plus sprinkle in the mountains of paperwork required to comply with government mandates...and you wil start (just start) to see the problem.
Obama is not going to "save" healthcare in this country. He's going to destroy it. He and his fellow Statists in Congress are more than willing to do that in order to increase their own power and control over your life and mine.
This isn't about 'looking out for you'. It's about looking out for themselves! It's about acting, under the guise of pubic service, to service their own despotic ambitions.
Wise up my fellow citizen. At what price your freedom?
Next In Line| 7.30.09 @ 12:31PM
How can you take anything out of something you don't have? Ask John Conyers...read a bill...what are you insane..who could possibly read the legislation?
We are soooo screwed. The $100 billion is so fictional it's laughable, if this was not so serious.
Blue Dogs are Lap Dogs.
Protest this August recess. Organize and make your voices heard!
Nobama| 7.30.09 @ 2:05PM
Snake is the perfect example of dumbed down, useful idiot America. We have to fight back or the sheer stupidity of boneheads like Snake will destroy us. Publik Skool Systim in action. UGH!
Chamberjac| 8.6.09 @ 4:55AM
Snake, You are soooo clueless. You need to be educated. This is not about healthcare at all. It is about advancing Socialism and taking control of our lives. Government BUTT OUT !!