Since they’re Republicans, I would assume they’re lying until it’s demonstrated otherwise.

Since they’re Republicans politicians, I would assume they’re lying until it’s demonstrated otherwise.

Fixed it for you.

Thank you Jane for keeping on top of things as best you can because things are moving so fast recently. And honestly, I really don’t understand the rules of congress in any meaningful way, so a lot of what is going on is totally baffling to me.

Pelosi is being jerky on Rachel. Heh heh heh. Supidpak. Pelosi has high regard for him. Blah blah blah.

Why not just pass an expanded Medicare Buy-In through reconciliation? Wouldn’t that be a stronger public option that what was proposed by the Senate? And can’t they go ahead and do that now, in advance of the proposed insurance mandate package, since Medicare is already law?

Hats off to Rep. Alan Grayson for introducing legislation for an expanded Medicare Buy-in in the House. It’s only 4 pages long. America deserves an up-or-down vote on this legislation.

Pelosi wants to hold insurance accountable. WTF? Why not cut them out altogether? What role do they play other than leaches? Rhetorical Q. Leaching the taxpayer is what congress is all about.

I think there is more to it than just Republican claims. According to The Hill, Kent Conrad told his colleagues about the ruling. It would seem a little odd that Conrad would be telling people about it if he didn’t know it was true.

Pelosi defends Stupidpak. WANS.

Here is the quote from The Hill:
“Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, told colleagues about the ruling Thursday afternoon, according to a Democratic source familiar with the meeting.”

http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/86297-senate-parliamentarian-raises-the-bar-for-passing-healthcare-reform

Just dropped this in the whitehouse email punchbowl …

WASHINGTON (AFP) – US President Barack Obama joked on Wednesday that half of the 40,000 letters that pour into the White House each day brand him an “idiot.”

Tongue-in-cheek, the president remarked that his staff did not spare him the wrath of his correspondents — selecting a representative portion of 10 letters for him to read when he returns to the White House residence at night.

“I will tell you, that my staff is very even-handed, because about half of these letters call me an idiot!” Obama said, chuckling at his own joke during a rally in Saint Louis, Missouri.

The president went on to make a serious point, saying that many senior citizens wrote to him to tell him to keep the government’s hands off Medicare, a health plan for elderly people.”

An idiot? Not a chance.

Selling out America to Big Insurance, Pharma, Wall Street — absolutely.

I’m glad you think destroying the middle class in exchange for ZERO republican votes on Kabuki health care & financial regulation reform is such a big joke.

While Limbaugh, Hannity, O’Reilly & Beck run this country into the ground, you sit in the oval office pretending you’re Ronald Reagan.

hiya eCAHN —

Pelosi was more in her element last night with Charlie Rose, who claimed to be ignorant of D.C. power politics. Of course, he called it being naive, not stupid.

In basketball, that’s an over under, brainless head fake, finger roll from beyond the three point line.

Nice shot, Charlie.

Since when do GOPers care what the Parliamentarian thinks? When they were passing their Bush-tax-cuts-for-the-rich using reconciliation they simply fired the Parliamentarian when he disagreed with their fantasies and put in a more reliable yes-man. So as far as I can tell, the opinion of the Parliamentarian means exactly squat and Dems shouldn’t worry about what he says. Having pointed out more GOPer hypocrisy on this issue, I still hope this legislation fails. Just for different reasons than GOPers.

Hiya PPDCUS.

Don’t think O is pretending. Think he’s less competent than W. If you read Dreams of My Father, you get a decided impression of how detached O is from his life. At least when W placed a firecracker in a frog, he knew the consequences. O couldn’t have cared less what the consequences of his actions would be, as long as he came out on top.

Charlie Rose is both naive and stupid. What else is new. Didn’t see it, lucky me.

Conrad is not our friend.

It is of the utmost importance that the rich and powerful get the best medical care possible.

And that big corporations provide as little care as they can, so the STOCKHOLDERS get a great profit.

It woulld be unseemly to let doctors treat their patients as they see fit as is done in other countries. Baffling Bullshit.

The torch was passed ….

So in January 2009, we exchanged one self absorbed sociopath for another — better to know than to live in a deluded dreamland.

Just with different personality quirks and MO’s.

Charlie’s a psychophant — and that’s deliberately misspelled.

I was on the Charlie Rose show in 1992. Was not a good experience, not because of Rose, but because Larry Kudlow was another guest, and true to form, he dominated the session.

So you met The Voice of NYC in person & on air – impressive – and you shared the table with Kudlow – depressive.

Ahh … 1992. I remember it well. With the real estate economy digging out of the 1989-92 recession – Like free diving from 180 feet. Good times, good times. Unfortunately today, we’re free diving from 2,000 feet.

The point of the segment was to debate the Clinton economics plan prior to the election. So I was ‘pro’, kind of, and Kudlow, naturally to be sure, was anti. In retrospect, Kudlow should have be pro and I should have been anti. Liver and loin, as the butcher said.

In ’92, a pro Bill position was more against a fourth Reagan term. Most of his financial landmines were laid by Rubin, Summers, Greenspan during his second term, especially Gramm’s gift to USB before leaving the senate for a vice-chairmanship there.

Bush & Cheney armed the minefield and led the country directly through it for eight years.

Oh oh –Clear your dance card for tomorrow night — Charlie has Karl the Goebbels Rove for the hour. Better premedicate with a roll of tums.

Bet they weren’t going to tell that to the house until after they voted. Oops, sorry guys, looks like we’re going to have to pass OUR BILL, and have Obama sign it before we can look at your changes (wink, wink).

Another thing, doesn’t this prevent Pelosi from ‘holding’ the bill until the recon bill is passed to assure that both get passed and signed? Anybody else think she knows that?

Scumbags, all of them.

Who cares what Repuke Parlimentarians say when the Constitution says revenue bills have to originate in the House?

Who or what the fuck is The Senate Parliamentarian?

It would help us bottom feeders to know some of the terminology in these things.

Aside from the one I ask about, what about a whole post of terms and definitions in play for all the constitutional things in play between both Chambers and the WH?

I’d like to see that . . . a glossary of terms per se, for all that’s been discussed in the past 3 years at FDL in regards to political process, be it electioneering or governance.

Or the lack of both, for that matter . . . proving once again, I STILL have a sense of humor after 11pm my time.

*G*

Republicans suck. I have NO knowledge of parliamentary procedures. Bearing those two things in mind, I begrudgingly admit they are probably correct, considering common sense would dictate that a law cannot be amended if it does not yet, in fact, exist.

I have heard that the parliamentarian can be overruled by the president of the Senate (Biden). Again, IF (and I do not believe they do), want to pass the reconcilliation bill first or at the same time they could. Like in tax law, here too, there is likely a large gray area. Obviously when th erepubs are in power, they just do what they want. Challenge them after the fact if you have the gonads. They know the dems are way too meek to do that. The senate dems are also to ‘nice’ (if you believe they actually want fixes to the sen. HC bill), or they use there big list of excuses why they cannot… ‘this’… or cannot ‘that’! So, if dem leadership and WH wanted to pass the reconcil. fix, even with a PO in it. they could make it happen. But, that ain’t the case. Any PO or reconcil. fix bill will pass only by OVERCOMING the WH and dem. leadership’s wishes! ! !

Yeah well. Republicants say lots of things.

This is all about “Rules of Congress”. According to these rules all budget measures must originate in the House. The House has several options. First, the House can pass the Senate bill without amendment. If they do the House can send the bill to the President directly. Second, the House can negotiate a compromise bill with the Senate with the resulting bill submitted to both chambers for a vote. This is the least desirable because the filibuster option is available to the opposition. Finally, the House can amend the bill and forward it on to the Senate. If the Senate parliamentarian agrees the Senate can use budget reconciliation to pass the bill with a simple majority. The opposition cannot filibuster. However, the opposition can offer endless amendments, require a line by line reading challenging each line, and several other delaying tactics each requiring a vote. Each vote takes 3 days. Since this is an election year a delay of several months will place the entire House and 1/3 of the Senate in campaign mode. So, in a nutshell, if nothing happens before June health care reform as envisaged by our President is over.