U.S. senate finance panel rejects public health option

A vote today in the Senate Finance Committee could be the kiss of death for the healthcare public option but other Dems say not so fast:

". A U.S. Senate panel on Tuesday rejected a government-run "public" insurance option as part of a broad healthcare overhaul, setting up a fight over one of the bill's most contentious issues.

..."I can count," Baucus said. "No one has been able to show me how they can count up to 60 votes with a public option in the bill."

Supporters of the option disagreed and said they expected more success when the issue is taken up in the full Senate and the House of Representatives, where House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has vowed the public option will be included in a final bill.

"The more the American people hear about the public option, the more they like it," said Democratic Senator Charles Schumer, who sponsored one of the amendments.

Comments

[Bob Vargas]

We believe that the far right republicans truly believe that their ideology and policies are good for our country, no matter if they work or not. They believe that it may take 5 to 20 years before their policies work, and if they did not work, they would still be the right policies for our country. But Bill Clinton, president Obama, and all successful businesses know they would go bankrupt if they wait and do nothing to resolve our economical or investment problems. That is why Obama will be successful. We all know that congress is dysfunctional. The last we heard congress rating was 12%. Congress expects Obama to wait for his health care bill to pass knowing that congress is unable to do their job and the republicans and some blue dog democrats are making every effort to delay and chip away at his support in order to kill it. We know since Bill Clinton Era that the republicans will do anything to gain their power back. This time, we are confident that the American people will surprise republicans and some blue dog democrats in our next election.

[zTruth]

I agree with you that Congress is largely dysfunctional. I even have a category called "Our Dysfuntional Congress".

Who has been in control of Congress since 2006? The Dems! So that approval rating is aimed largely at the Democrats.

The Rebubs got kick out in the 2005 election and they deserved it. Both parties have poor leadership.

Solving a problem by throwing borrowed foreign money at it is dooned to fail eventually. It is only common sense.

Under Obama the deficit has quadrupled this year, hasn't it? The recovery was artifically stimulated with borrowed government money, it seems to me. It that a real recovery?

I'm thinking Americans will likely surprise the Dems in the next election.

I'll side with conservative values and fiscal policies any day of the week. It's a common sense approach to responsibile management of government.