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Blanche Lincoln, directly contradicting previous statements about using reconciliation to finish off the health care bill, pronounced herself open to the process yesterday.
A moderate Democrat who had vowed to oppose any effort by party leaders to push a health care bill through the Senate with a simple majority vote is rethinking her position.
Sen. Blanche Lincoln said Tuesday that she wants to see what is in the companion bill before deciding.
If I had to guess, I would say that Lincoln’s sudden need for support from current and former Presidents drove this change. But it’s not really crucial. Reconciliation is a measure that requires only 50 votes, and public whip counts show support at that level without Lincoln. The beauty of the reconciliation process is that ConservaDems like Lincoln become irrelevant, although the fixes on offer don’t really take advantage of that fact.
But clearly, Lincoln wouldn’t need to curry favor with those who could help her re-election in Arkansas without the presence of Bill Halter’s primary challenge. So despite her insistence that she doesn’t bend to the will of any party but the people of Arkansas, clearly by her actions Lincoln shows that to be false.
The New York Times ran a “Lincoln sits in the virtuous center” story yesterday.
UPDATE: Lincoln now walks back that potential support quickly:
“Sen. Olympia Snowe and I have proposed a bipartisan way forward on health care and I still hope that my colleagues will consider it,” Lincoln said. “I have promised my constituents that I will not support income tax increases to pay for health care and I will seek bipartisan solutions. This takes budget reconciliation as an alternative means to pass health care reform off the table for me. I have fought for and ensured transparency throughout this process, and I believe we must get over this final hurdle using the regular rules of the Senate.”
Lincoln released the following statement after remarks made to a reporter earlier today were mischaracterized.
Perhaps she’s talking about payroll tax increases for the wealthy that were thrown in to cover subsidy increases at the last minute. But it’s fun to try and watch her appeal to different audiences with different messages. She’s a pinnacle of leadership, no?
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Related: consumerreports.org weighs in on “health care reform.”
LINK.
what a head fake.
she’s going to do what her rich friends ask her to do in the end.
Lincoln issued the following press release today:
“I have promised my constituents that I will not support income tax increases to pay for health care and I will seek bipartisan solutions. This takes budget reconciliation as an alternative means to pass health care reform off the table for me. I have fought for and ensured transparency throughout this process, and I believe we must get over this final hurdle using the regular rules of the Senate.”
Just got back from Carlsbad CA, where my friend’s neighbors all have 7-car garages (he only has room for three!) It’s a different world out there for subscribers to Barron’s. My friend actually think’s he’s middle class, because he has less than the medium number of garages attached to his house. Senator Lincoln seems to think that because her friends are all rich, everybody else must be, too, except for yard-workers and charwomen, etc. The official discourse in this country is dominated by rich people in the top 2 percent of the income distribution who think they are in the middle because there are a percent and a half of the population who are richer than they are.
Oh…..no,no it’s too late she has to go.
she can rethink her position all she wants.
Is that regional?
Lincoln is a real piece of work.
Welcome to sunny southern CA (yes, I realize you’re not there now).
Have to say this. There’s a terrible tragedy unfolding there, where at least 2 young girls were raped and murdered by a known sex offender. What does this have to do with Blanche Lincoln? Nothing directly, but… bear with me.
In both cases, these young women come from higher than average income families in lovely SoCal. In the more recent case, the young lady had parked her BMW & gone jogging in a local park. BMW is what caught my attention… a 16 year old driving HER Beemer.
I am extremely saddened about the loss of these 2 youngsters; it’s a horrid tragedy. And much sympathy to their families, friends, etc.
But the crux is this. These wealthy people are most likely (esp in SoCal) tax loathing Republicans. It’s also highly likely that these Republicans rant and resist any increase in their taxes. But: when such a tragedy strikes, they are the first in line to demand… more services. The agonizing going on in SoCal right now is all about: where’s more Police services? Why don’t we have better tracking of sex offenders once they’re out of prison? Why aren’t these criminals getting longer sentences and staying in jail longer? Of course, these questions are in stark contrast to the financial free fall of CA, where, god forbid, taxes can ever be raised under any circumstances, and the State legislature is even more dysfunctional than the US congress and senate.
I do understand these questions, and they’re reasonable ones to ask. And yet, all of the “good Republicans” with their 5, 6, and 7 garage homes will NOT want to PAY for any of these additional public safety services. It’s all about: I want to have my mansion, my kids in private school from K – grad school, my fancy second home, my fancy annual vacations, everyone in my family driving fancy expensive new cars, etc etc. And I work SO HARD and I DESERVE all of this, so I don’t ever want to pay any taxes if I can possibly avoid it.
Yet when tragedy strikes, they’re the first to shout about not having enough “public services.”
There is a cosmic disconnect amongst the wealthy about what it costs to run our society and provide needed services for everyone.
The story of these poor young women highlights that all the money in the world cannot necessarily protect you & your family from certain situations, like crime, like natural disasters (and we certainly have those in SoCal). Buying your kid an expensive beemer doesn’t protect her from sexual predators.
But they’d rather buy the beemer – which they so richly deserve due to all of their “hard work” – than pay higher taxes to get public safety services that would enure to the benefit of all and might possibly provide them with better protections… but, gasp!!!! horrors!!!!, some poor brown person might benefit from that, TOO. And gadz, we simply cannot abide by that.
Teh stoooopid, it burns.
Blanche Lincoln is a toadying tool for the corporations and the uber rich. If her mouth is open and sound is coming out, she is lying.
No one tell soon to be former Sen. Lincoln that with the Internet, hypocrisy can be spotted and broadcast almost as fast as her staff can think it up.
AP via MSNBC has Lincoln as now proclaiming she has not changed her position at all but is still against reconciliation.
I had put this comment on a previous thread, but thought it might work here as well.
The ideas that progressives have (which most, if not all, are very good ideas) have now shown to be totally disregarded by the mainstream dems and MSM. My guess as to why this has happened is primarily money and lobbyists.
Could we as progressives counter this by contributing our own money to back candidates (which FDL has done, and is doing, a great job) and also forming our own lobbyist program (which to date I have not seen). By the way, our lobbyist program has the advantage of having voters sign a petition backing up the lobbyist agenda and with the electorate being pretty evenly spilt, a couple of thousand signatures could possibly sway a vote. (I am ASSUMING that corporations do not have voter signatures as part of their lobbying effort, only a lot of money and some polling numbers which can vary day to day – true voter signed sheets, backing up the progressive lobbyist efforts, could be a lot more convincing).
Food for thought.
Sad day in America when you have to beat RWNJ legislators, with the help of plain RW’s…
Dire need for 31 million who can’t get routine medical attention, is why you back this slop of a process. Once Americans receive an entitlement – SS, Medicare, Min Wage, etc. – they don’t agree to it’s recision ever.
So, you pass this piece of dung bill, and when the insurers move to rip everyone off again, Uncle Sam will have no choice but to offer government insurance plans.
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Reconciliation is a regular rule of the Senate. To say otherwise is to utilize a current GOP talking point.
Blanche must go.
Yep.
And it’s even worse. The Fox News Channel is continuously, I mean continuosly, drilling the message the Democrats are using the so-called “nuclear option” to pass this.
Huh, I would love for them to use that. But reconciliation is NOT the nuclear option, and they know it. Bald faced fucking lying on a “news channel.” Not that it’s new, but some cases are just more obvious than others, and this one is obvious. It’s probably to the point now that if you took a poll, a significant percentage of Americans probably believe they are using the nuclear option.
I really think that SCOTUS ruling that declared “news programs” are NOT required to tell the truth was one of many (Citizen’s United another) that has basically made defeating these lying assholes and getting the truth out all but impossible.
God damned some days I just can’t believe how fucking OUT THERE my country has gone.
Assholes.
Let her twist, slowly in the wind.
Didn’t we try this with Obama?
Your posting is not so far off base. I have always tried to explain that uniform universal healthcare coverage for all should be an integral part of our country’s infrastructure. We all expect firemen to put out our fires, police departments, our court system, roads, bridges, and highways. These are provided for citizens collectively because no single person should expect to fund them. It’s the same with healthcare. Who knows which one of us will need an MRI, or chemo, a liver transplant, or brain surgery. We should provide collectively so that when any citizen needs quality healthcare it is available. The “wealthy two per-cent” don’t see that there are many “social”, or collectively provided for services that only the government can effectively provide for. And I didn’t even mention national defense…
ES
Against this backdrop of overt corruption, Kucinich is still viewed as the bad guy.