The R's did what they could to stall the inevitable, but Congress has completed its work on the health care package.
Talking Points Memo reports at 9:06 that the House passed the amended reconciliation bill and the next step is Obama's signature, which could come as soon as tomorrow.
Somehow, Republicans who spent last week and all day Sunday squealing like stuck pigs about special deals for Nebraska and Louisiana spent most of this week fighting like hell to keep them in the law.
Too bad, guys. Thanks for playing.
I am generally in favor of the health care reform, enormously disappointed that the public option was killed (for now) but I am particularly disappointed by one specific consequence. Is it true that the use of an FSA for child care expense will be cut to half what it was before this legislation? If true, that’s a significant middle class tax increase.
On the other hand, FSA’s do have a moral problem in that they provide the greatest financial assistance to those with greatest ability to pay. To add insult, I’ve learned it’s legal to pay for a child’s summer camp tuition with an FSA if you are employed because it’s considered dependent care.
Is it also true that elimination of the anti-trust exemption for the health insurance industry was not included in the final version of the bill?
I’ve written to Peter Welch and Bernie Sanders but received only generally worded responses that don’t answer my questions.
…to do something about the guided missile into the middle class this bill has created through the individual mandate bereft of any meaningful cost controls. We have a few years only.
One way or the other, health care reform is far, far from done.
Being a Repub nowadays means going around acting like you’ve had a load of shit in your diaper for several days.
enjoy your “victory lap” but the “game” (as you infer) is still on. With Zero backing from the GOP/Conservatives, let’s apply the “pottery barn” rule to health care. which is, if you break it, you pay for it. Of course, progressives have no intention of this since they will have ALL of us pay for the unintended consequences of this bill which will include the under-funding aspects. How many failed government health care examples do we need before we understand it doesn’t work: rationing in Europe, underfunded/broke programs in Medicare and medicaid, woefully veteran’s care, the fiscal train wreck of MA universal care (projected to be an $88M a year program from 2006 but is now $4B since 2006).
While the passage of ObamaCare marks a progressive triumph, its impact will play out over many years. Many of us fought this bill so vigorously because we believe the results will be: higher taxes, slower economic growth and lower quality medical care. As for the politics, the first verdict arrives in November. So, “game on”.
I confess: I used to write legislation for a living, and it is not pretty. Yet, back in my day (twenty plus years ago), the influence of money on the Hill, while substantial, was nowhere near as corrosive as it is today. That said, before we declare “game, set, match”, we will have to watch how the regulatory and implementation process plays out. More room for mischief, unfortunately.
I do not know if anyone caught the interview with Ron Wyden at Huffington Post. Regarding the pending state lawsuits about the mandate, he claimed that states could always opt out of the mandate. Here is the interesting revelation:
“Speaking to the Huffington Post on Tuesday, Wyden discussed — for one of the first times in public — legislative language he authored which “allows a state to go out and do its own bill, including having no individual mandate.”
It’s called the “Empowering States to be Innovative” amendment. And it would, quite literally, give states the right to set up their own health care system — with or without an individual mandate or, for that matter, with or without a public option — provided that, as Wyden puts it, “they can meet the coverage requirements of the bill.”
If this is true and if it is allowable, ponder the implications for a state such as Vermont that might indeed want to set up its own system. Perhaps this is something for the Racine-inspired panel, if enacted, to contemplate.
God, what does that say about America if so many states choose to opt out of even this small step at health reform.
Minor, you’re probably right about the increasingly fragmented country. I suspect, though, that those states hollering about guv’ment intrusion will holler less at all the dollars coming their way once the new plan gets up and running. But, in an way, we’ve been a fragmented country for a long time now. The civil war has never really ended.
You’re right mataliandy. But when big guvmnet gives them money or lets them feel like they are ripping it off they are ok with it. It is when big guv’ment calls in the chips and they want to be paid back in taxes or whatever, thus decreasing their wealth by a notch or two, that is when they scream about freedom. Been that way ever since the revolution.