by SusanG

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/11/7/80...

Statement of President Barack Obama on House Passage of the Affordable Health Care for America Act
Tonight, in an historic vote, the House of Representatives passed a bill that would finally make real the promise of quality, affordable health care for the American people.

The Affordable Health Care for America Act is a piece of legislation that will provide stability and security for Americans who have insurance; quality affordable options for those who don’t; and bring down the cost of health care for families, businesses, and the government while strengthening the financial health of Medicare. And it is legislation that is fully paid for and will reduce our long-term federal deficit.

Thanks to the hard work of the House, we are just two steps away from achieving health insurance reform in America. Now the United States Senate must follow suit and pass its version of the legislation. I am absolutely confident it will, and I look forward to signing comprehensive health insurance reform into law by the end of the year.


Statement of President Barack Obama on House Passage of the Affordable Health Care for America Act
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office...

by Angry Mouse
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/11/7/80...

Today, the Democratic party is letting women know, once again, that we are a single-issue special interest.

And our rights can be compromised away to appease Catholic Bishops, Blue Dog Democrats, and the oh-so-delicate sensibilities of anti-choice taxpayers who don't want to see their tax dollars spent on women's health.

And much to my horror, it seems that a few members of our own community think that's perfectly acceptable. Have to pass the bill, after all, no matter who is sacrificed.

And it is not okay.

First, let's get something straight. There is no government funding for abortion. The Hyde Amendment of 1976 prohibited government funding for abortion. And the health care bill does not in any way revise or repeal the Hyde Amendment.

So let me say it again: There is no government funding for abortion.

Second, even if the bill did fund abortions, I don't care if you don't want to see your tax dollars spent that way. We all fund things we don't like. I, for example, do not like tax credits for purchasing SUVs. I don't like supporting wars with my tax dollars. I don't like paying the salary of Michele Bachmann.

But that's what happens in America. Sometimes, tax dollars fund things we don't like.

So why is it that the one thing tax dollars should never, ever fund is women's health?

Because women's health is a fringe issue. John McCain told us so in one of the presidential debates last year.

Because women's health is a single issue, and women shouldn't allow that one little issue to determine how they vote.

Because women's health is inherently a pre-existing condition.

Because even though we are a majority of the country, we are only 16 percent of Congress.

And it's not okay.

And I'm sick of it.

I'm sick of being told how great it is that the Democratic tent is big enough to welcome people who don't want me to have autonomy over my own damn body, and therefore, my own damn life.

I'm sick of being told that there is room enough for all of us.

And I'm sick of being told, every election year, that I have to vote for the Democrats because only the Democrats stand for women.

The Stupak Amendment does not stand for women. It spits in our face, kicks us in the gut, and sweeps us aside like yesterday's garbage.

And now our fellow Democrats, our fellow progressives, are telling us to suck it up. It's not worth killing health care reform just to protect our rights. It's not worth killing health care reform just for this one little issue.

Suck it up, ladies. Fall in line. After all, not everyone in the party thinks it's okay for us to make decisions about our health care anyway.

So yes, I'll call my representatives. And I'll write my angry emails. And I'll send my money to the right groups, and deny my money to the wrong ones.

But I am sick of it. I am sick of being treated this way.

I am not a single issue.

I am not a special interest.

I am a woman.

And this is not okay.

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/11/05/coburn... /

One of the Senate’s most vociferous opponents of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) has been Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), who called the stimulus “the worst act of generational theft in our nation’s history.” Today, The Marine Corp Times revealed exactly how far Coburn was willing to go to undermine ARRA. It turns out Coburn has been the senator who has placed holds on several veterans benefits bills because he wanted to divert money from unspent ARRA funds them:

Thirteen major military and veterans groups have joined forces to try to force one senator — Republican Tom Coburn of Oklahoma — to release a hold that he has placed on a major veterans benefits bill.

Coburn has been identified by Senate aides as the lawmaker preventing consideration of S 1963, the Veterans’ Caregiver and Omnibus Health Benefits Act of 2009, by using an informal but legal practice of putting a hold on a bill.

In a letter sent Monday night to the Senate majority leader, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., the 13 military and veterans groups ask the Senate to get on with it.

“It is essential that Congress act on this comprehensive measure without further delay,” the letter reads. “Thousands of disabled veterans with serious medical conditions and the family members who care for them are counting on this additional support.”

Steve Robertson, the legislative director for the veterans advocacy group The American Legion, met with Coburn’s staff about the holds on the bills and came away disappointed with their refusal to budge on the issue. “For a lot of family caregivers, delay is costing them their jobs and their savings. It’s having a big impact,” Robertson told the press. “They made it clear that Sen. Coburn sees this as using his rights as a senator to place a hold on a bill…I agree with that, but that doesn’t mean it makes sense to hold up a bill that would do a lot of good things for veterans that has cleared a committee and is ready for a vote.”

UPDATE VoteVets is circulating a petition against DeMint. VetVoice's Richard Allen Smith writes, "There is no legitimate excuse Tom Cobrun can make for holding up legislation to help Veterans and wounded warriors in need of care. He is simply playing politics with are nation's heroes."
Senator Coburn Blocking Vets' Aid - Will You Stand Up To Him?
http://ga3.org/campaign/coburn

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/11/04...

The House Financial Services Committee voted Wednesday to give federal regulators more power and money to police major players in the stock market, four months after Bernard Madoff was sentenced for the biggest investment scam in history.

The 41-28 vote was the panel's latest move to try to rein in abuses on Wall Street. It would give the Securities and Exchange Commission new enforcement powers, including the ability to offer bounty money to tipsters on fraud cases and the power to bar violators of the law from employment in any securities-related industry.

The bill also would double the SEC's budget in the next five years.

Rep. Paul Kanjorski sponsored the legislation after leading the panel's investigation into the government's failure to uncover Madoff's massive fraud scheme for nearly two decades. Madoff was sentenced in June to 150 years in prison.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/11/04...

Just hours after a state board voted Wednesday to allow the enforcement of a long-debated Illinois law requiring a teenage girl's parents be notified before she has an abortion, a judge issued a temporary restraining order putting the measure back on hold.

The order will remain in effect until the judge can hear arguments on the issue. Cook County Judge Daniel Riley said he felt the American Civil Liberties Union, which sought the order, ''demonstrated the distinct possibility of irreparable harm.''

Illinois' law was passed in 1995, but never enforced because of various court actions. Thirty-five other states have similar laws, which meant some teens seeking abortions came to Illinois for them.

''This is a dumping ground for other states,'' said Joseph Scheidler, national director of the Pro-Life Action League. ''You go look at the license plates at the abortion clinics.''

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091105/ap_on_...

President Barack Obama intends to visit the Capitol on Friday to meet with House Democrats and make a final pitch for health care legislation scheduled for a weekend vote, according to congressional officials.

The president's meeting with the rank and file will occur little more than a year after his election helped swell the Democratic majority in Congress and make possible the ambitious drive to remake the nation's health care system.

The officials who disclosed the president's plans spoke only on condition of anonymity ahead of a formal announcement. The White House declined to confirm details.

The Democratic House leadership hopes to have legislation on the House floor for a vote on Saturday.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/articl...

Far from chastened by off-year election setbacks, congressional Democrats vowed no let-up in the drive to pass controversial health care Wednesday, arguing that the way to regain voter trust was to complete what they started in more prosperous political times.

Any suggestion that "we ought to run like scalded dogs from trying to fix health care for this country is wrong. I believe the judgment might be more punishing if we throw in the towel because it's difficult," said North Dakota Rep. Earl Pomeroy, a political moderate and supporter of the legislation.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi hopes to have legislation on the House floor for a vote on Saturday. President Barack Obama, who has made a health care overhaul the signature initiative of his first year in office, planned to visit the Capitol on Friday, according to congressional officials. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the meetings have not been announced.

There is no timetable in the Senate, where the overhaul's ultimate fate is in considerably more doubt, but supporters gave no indication that the election results had complicated the challenge facing Majority Leader Harry Reid.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/ho...

Attorney Bill Owens won one of the most topsy-turvy special elections in recent memory Tuesday night in Upstate New York, giving Democrats nationally something to cheer about on a day that saw them lose the governorships of New Jersey and Virginia.

Owens defeated Conservative Party nominee Doug Hoffman and state Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava (R), who dropped out of the race over the weekend and endorsed Owens but whose name remained on the ballot.

Hoffman was widely expected to win the seat, which was vacated by Secretary of the Army John McHugh (R) earlier this year. Hoffman has become a cause celebre of national conservatives -- led by former Alaska governor Sarah Palin -- and has been the beneficiary of heavy spending by the D.C.-based Club for Growth.

But Owens, who was largely been overshadowed in recent days by the fight between the movement and establishment wings of the Republican Party, used a strong showing in the eastern portion of this sprawling North County district and a surprisingly strong showing in Scozzafava's home county of Jefferson. (Owens carried the county 49 percent to 46 percent over Hoffman.)


(snip)
Democrats now control 258 seats to 177 for Republicans.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/11/3/80...

Let's all give a hearty round of applause to the teabaggers, who took what would've been a very good night for Republicans and ruined it by helping Democrats pick up a seat they hadn't held since the Civil War.

Glenn Beck? Thanks!

Sarah Palin? Thanks!

Tim Pawlenty? Thanks!

Club for Growth? Thanks!

Ironically, the NRCC, the RNC, Newt Gingrich and the smartest Republican in the world, Tom Davis (former NRCC chair) were right -- the Republican Party needs to be more of a big tent to successfully compete in the Northeast and other non-Southern parts of the country.

So let's sit back and watch the teabaggers go to war against the GOP establishment, even though it was the national and local GOP that knew how to best hold the seat.

While the Virginia and New Jersey losses hurt, governor races usually revolve around local issues. if the question was "are voters angry at the direction of Congress and want Democrats stopped", then the answer is clear -- Democrats won both congressional races, including the über-reliable NY-23. Even in conservative districts (at least those outside the South), people don't want what the teabaggers are selling.

Update: Neither NY-23 or CA-10 have been called as of this posting, but both races are over.

Update II: Nate has the county breakdown in NY-23. Biggest wildcard is 6,000 absentees, but in a three way contest (Scozzafava was still in the race for much of the absentee period), there's little chance that Hoffman picks up the 4,000+ votes he needs.

Update III: Fox has called it for Owens. I don't think anyone else has...

Update IV: Hoffman concedes, and Dick Armey's "tip of the spear" ... kind of flaccid.

Thanks again, crazy conservatives, for giving us Dems something to cheer about in an otherwise rough tonight -- especially in the one race that seems to have true national significance.

Race tracker wiki: NY-23
http://www.opencongress.org/wiki/NY-23

Insurers can ignore ‘all of the consumer protection laws’ and ‘restrictions on rate changes.’
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/11/03/gop-pl... /

The new GOP health care plan expands “coverage” and “choice” by permitting health insurers to sell policies across state lines. Under the Republican proposal, the insurer can choose a ‘primary state’ “whose covered laws shall govern the health insurance issuer” and can change states “upon renewal of the policy.” Page 129 requires a “health insurance issuer” to “provide the following notice” informing consumers in so-called ’secondary states’ that the policy is “not subject to all of the consumer protection laws or restrictions on rate changes of the state.” Here is the notice, as it is described in the legislation:





The GOP is conceding the progressive argument. Specifically, it is admitting that insurance companies would have little incentive to continue doing business under certain state rules which “require that companies issue coverage to all new customers and not set higher rates for people who are already sick.” Instead, companies could chose a state with scarce regulations and sell policies that don’t provide mental health parity, cancer screenings, or abide by regulations that limit the rates that can be charged to higher-cost consumers. This way, plans can attract the healthiest applicants and detract the sick.

In a new interview with CNS News, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) repeated his concern that requiring Americans to purchase health insurance is unconstitutional. Hatch offered typical run-of-the-mill conservative arguments about “socialized medicine.” But at one point, he let it slip that the real reason he is trying to stop health care reform is that the American public might really like it and therefore vote for Democrats:

HATCH: That’s their goal. Move people into government that way. Do it in increments. They’ve actually said it. They’ve said it out loud.

Q: This is a step-by-step approach —

HATCH: A step-by-step approach to socialized medicine. And if they get there, of course, you’re going to have a very rough time having a two-party system in this country, because almost everybody’s going to say, “All we ever were, all we ever are, all we ever hope to be depends on the Democratic Party.”

Q: They’ll have reduced the American people to dependency on the federal government.

HATCH: Yeah, you got that right. That’s their goal. That’s what keeps Democrats in power.

Watch it (at approx. 19:50):
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/11/02/hatch-... /

A scenario whereby the two-party system is abolished because of government-run health care is unlikely at best. Republicans were also fear-mongering about the “socialized” system that became Medicare. In 1961, Ronald Reagan stated:

If you don’t and I don’t do it, one of these days you and I are going to spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it once was like in America when men were free.

Republicans, of course, have had no problem getting elected with Medicare in place, and they now wholeheartedly support the program (recognizing that it’s popular with American seniors). For months, it’s been clear that electoral considerations are behind the GOP’s efforts to block reform. In July, Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) said that if they could “stall” or “block” any legislation, it would be a “huge gain” for the 2010 elections.

In June, President Obama pointed out Republican’s illogical opposition to a public plan, saying that if government-run health care will really be as bad as they say it will be, how could it “drive” private insurers out of business anyway?

UPDATE Atrios sums up what Hatch is saying: "Orrin Hatch says we can't have health care reform because it will be awesome and everyone will love it and they'll be so grateful that they will vote for Democrats for all eternity."

UPDATE Steve Benen also notes that Hatch isn't just against "socialized medicine," since he has "suggested he'd oppose health care reform whether the provision is in the bill or not."

Senator Speaks
http://www.eschatonblog.com/2009/11/senato...

ORRIN HATCH SLIPS INTO CONSPIRATORIAL MODE
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/...

http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/65923-r...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) pledged an open debate on the healthcare reform bill and blasted Republicans for not presenting an alternative plan.

In a letter to all 40 Senate Republicans, Reid noted that the two Democratic-written healthcare bills so far passed by Senate committees have been available online for weeks, and that “the Republican leadership’s health care plan remains a secret, unless perhaps it does not exist.”

“I fully understand if your plan is still under development, and would not presume to suggest that you publicly share draft legislative text for even an individual element of your plan, let alone an entire bill, before it is finalized,” Reid wrote.

“However, as soon as a comprehensive Republican alternative is complete, I hope you will be willing to immediately make it public. I am sure you agree that the American people deserve the opportunity to fully review both parties’ health reform plans before we begin this important debate.”

(snip)
Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) seized on McConnell’s remarks Monday to repeat Reid’s point that Republicans have offered no alternatives on healthcare reform.

“We have heard the Republican leader speak as he has every day against health reform. He has opposed it from the start,” Durbin said of McConnell. “He is consistent. He also doesn’t propose any alternative — consistent … There is no Republican healthcare bill that anyone has seen or heard of.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/02/opinion/...

The good news is that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, a k a the Obama stimulus plan, is working just about the way textbook macroeconomics said it would. But that’s also the bad news — because the same textbook analysis says that the stimulus was far too small given the scale of our economic problems. Unless something changes drastically, we’re looking at many years of high unemployment.

And the really bad news is that “centrists” in Congress aren’t able or willing to draw the obvious conclusion, which is that we need a lot more federal spending on job creation.

About that good news: not that long ago the U.S. economy was in free fall. Without the recovery act, the free fall would probably have continued, as unemployed workers slashed their spending, cash-strapped state and local governments engaged in mass layoffs, and more.

The stimulus didn’t completely eliminate these effects, but it was enough to break the vicious circle of economic decline. Aid to the unemployed and help for state and local governments were probably the most important factors. If you want to see the recovery act in action, visit a classroom: your local school probably would have had to fire a lot of teachers if the stimulus hadn’t been enacted.

And the free fall has ended. Last week’s G.D.P. report showed the economy growing again, at a better-than-expected annual rate of 3.5 percent. As Mark Zandi of Moody’s Economy.com put it in recent testimony, “The stimulus is doing what it was supposed to do: short-circuit the recession and spur recovery.”

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/11/01/...

In response to criticisms of President Obama made in a TV interview this morning by conservative radio commentator Rush Limbaugh - who accused Mr. Obama of engaging in a "photo op" when he attended the return of American war dead from Afghanistan - White House Senior Adviser David Axelrod dismissed the comments as those of an "entertainer."

On "FOX News Sunday" Limbaugh said the president's attendance at the return of the remains of U.S. soldiers at Dover Air Force Base early Thursday morning was staged "because he's having big-time trouble on this whole Afghanistan dithering situation."

He also suggested the "syncophantic media" covering the ceremony at Dover was used to "create the impression that he has all this great concern."

"He's marketing the outrageous," Axelrod told "Face the Nation" host Bob Schieffer Sunday. "And he does very well with it. But as I said, he's an entertainer."

(snip)
Axelrod assured Schieffer that the White House is not at war with FOX News.

"We're at war only with people who represent mistruths as truth. And that's true of any network, whether it's FOX, CBS or any other network. When errors of fact are stated or when opinion is offered as fact, we will challenge that," he said.

http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2...

Senior White House Adviser Valerie Jarrett said on ABC's This Week this morning that the GOP civil war in the NY-23 special congressional election shows that the Republican Party's leadership has become "more and more extreme, and more and more marginalized."

Yesterday, moderate GOP candidate Dede Scozzafava suspended her campaign after polls showed her trailing both the Democrat and a Conservative Party candidate that many prominent Republicans had declared their support for.

"It's rather telling when the Republican Party forces out a moderate Republican," Jarrett said. "And it says, I think, a great deal about where the Republican Party leadership is right now."

I think it's becoming more and more extreme, and more and more marginalized. "And if that's the direction they want to go -- fine," Jarrett said.

(snip)
Regardless, Democrats are now trying to convince Scozzafava to back Democrat Bill Owens in the NY-23 race. "We would love to, of course, have her support," Jarrett said.