US POLITICS: AMERICANS, PLEASE WELCOME YOUR NEW PRESIDENT... SCOTT BROWN!

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/2008/articles/2009/09/02/health_overhaul_may_ride_on_tactic/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqtKi547e0A&feature=player_embedded#

every time i read something that lamar alexander has to say about anything i'm just like smh

i'm just sort of amazed lamar alexander has managed to keep himself employed in the public sector for so long despite as far as i can tell never having accomplished anything anywhere. (his "education reforms" in tennessee are ancient history and had no discernible effect; his tenure as UT prez was a joke; so were his presidential runs.) even most tennessee republicans i know can't stand the guy. and yet. here he is, drawing a public salary and probably due some ridiculously sweet combined pension at the end of it all.

due a ridiculously sweet lobbying job at the end

x-post--I heard more talk this morning on the radio about trying to pass health care through reconciliation. Can the Dems even get 51 votes (will Blue Dogs vote for anything health care related at this point?)

it really depends on what you mean by "pass health care through reconciliation"

lamar is the ultimate "go along to get along" dude. he just says whatever he's told to and fades into the woodwork. it helps that he's a millionaire.

^^^^

CPAC guy above has just called liberal women ugly (dude is just butthurt about past female noncompliance with his getting-laid agenda) as well as being all 'Barack Obama did coke' - what a felchtard. If that is their Woodstock, I feel sorry for them.

Curmudgeon, we are just holding our collective breath here because of not jinxing what might be going down in DC right now.

Calling liberal women ugly is somewhat of a meme for the wingnuts, which makes me wonder if they've ever been to a republican rally.

xp to curmudgeon

health care has already been "passed" by both the senate and the house--just two different bills.

if the democrats still had 60 seats in the senate, then representatives from the house and the senate would meet, hash out a compromise between the two bills, which would then be passed by the house and senate, and then signed into law. the public option is guaranteed to be removed since several senate democrats (each and every one of whose votes was crucial to get cloture) have expressed an unwillingness to vote for it.

without 60 seats, democrats cant guarantee that the compromise bill wont be filibustered.

the house could just pass the senate bill as-is, and send it to obama to sign, but it has a set of demands (mostly dealing with the tax burden). the generally-accepted post-scott brown plan for HCR--i.e. the easiest path that would get us the best bill with the least amnt of controversy--would be for the house of representatives to pass the senate bill, and then for the senate to use reconciliation to pass a set of changes to its own bill that would satisfy the demands of the house.

meanwhile, a set of 'progressive' senators have started a letter campaign to get harry reid to push a public option through reconciliation, along with whatever other measures are being passed through reconciliation. whether or not this is a good idea and whether or not it will work... who knows.

Calling liberal women ugly is somewhat of a meme for the wingnuts, which makes me wonder if they've ever been to a republican rally.

yeah, but it's not just juvenile lol u ugly, it's dog whistle for BULL DYKES WITH NO MAKEUP AND HAIRY LEGS

it's also a v. carefully considered tactic for tabling any women's issues that they don't like

bizzare. if i had to stereotype, i'd think of liberal women as more attractive tbh -- all the hollywood-types the gop condemns as liberal includes all those attractive actresses, models, etc.

And loose women who get abortions b/c of their heedless, freneticly paced sexual activity. I mean who do Republicans think is sleeping with all those liberal hotties? Maybe they're jealous.

well but that's it--- it's not that they're not physically attractive, it's that they're not appropriately feminine

MEGAN KELLY IS HOTTER THAN ELEANOR ROOSEVELT

THIS MEANS TAXES SHOULD BE 1%

BOOYAH

slam dunk

SORRY HER NAME IS MEGYN

OPEN YOUR EYES

also were ppl really doing lots of coke at Woodstock?

or was it just a setup for the Obama joek

They don't like liberal men either b/c they're not appropriately masculine, so they've kind of painted themselves into a corner in that way (in addition to all the others). Because the only kind of outer candy shell they LIKE is a product of a really small and specific second in history, and an even more specific socio-economic stratum. Eh you know what I mean. Nuclear family post-war industrial surge blah blah blah

Yah but at least no grownup liberal men I know let their mommies pick out their big-boy clothes.

Yah but at least no grownup liberal men I know let their mommies pick out their big-boy clothes.

enh I wouldn't be so sure about that

LOL but you know what I mean! Also I thought that clip was a 'Michelle Obama is fugly' dog-whistle.

Yah but at least no grownup liberal men I know let their mommies pick out their big-boy clothes.

don't judge me

was gonna make a joke about your mother but one of the saddest aspects of aging is the increasing probability that said joke will be answered with "but she's dead", an effective lolkill.

^ does make it awkward in responding to said zings without spoiling light tone too tbf

aging: providing partial zing-protection since the dawn of time

lol u old, ironically, never gets old.

Don't worry, if I met one of these felch-holes in person I would have zero problem with a dozens-style takedown of 'dead mom' eg. 'you killed her by remaining a virgin'.

Hey Max:

xpost to Max--Re reconciliation I was talking about this:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/19/health/policy/19health.html?ref=todayspaper

Democratic officials said the president’s proposal was being written so that it could be attached to a budget bill as a way of averting a Republican filibuster in the Senate. The procedure, known as budget reconciliation, would let Democrats advance the bill with a simple majority rather than a 60-vote supermajority.

Officials said that the White House would post the president’s plan on the Internet by Monday morning. But even as Mr. Obama tries to unite his party behind a single plan, it is unclear that Democrats can muster the needed votes in the House and the Senate given the tense political climate of a midterm election year.

dude is just butthurt about past female noncompliance with his getting-laid agenda

lolz well done A+ Suzy

basically Obama's stepping in with an "okay, you fuckwits can't get it together, now HERE'S WHAT'S GONNA HAPPEN" approach

like we've all been waiting for for like 10 months?

Personally I'm loving the editorial tone when, finally, the people/Obama are clearly FUCK A TENSE POLITICAL CLIMATE.

i wonder if wolf blitzer will approve

i believe the idea is that obama is putting forward a version of a compromise-between-senate-and-house-bills bill:

The president’s plan would require most Americans to obtain health insurance or face financial penalties; it would bar insurers from denying coverage based on pre-existing medical conditions, and it would give tax subsidies to help moderate-income people buy private insurance.

Officials said the president’s bill was expected to include a version of the Senate’s proposed tax on high-cost, employer-sponsored insurance policies. It would reflect a deal reached with labor union leaders to limit the impact of the tax on workers.

Eh, whatever. I'll believe it when I see, and so on.

I'm betting Max is probably pretty close to what will come out - public option is a pipe dream at this point.

tax on high-cost, employer-sponsored insurance policies

totally not down with this btw

haha i just copied and pasted from the ny times

not planning on getting in an argument about the excise tax but--it totally sucks that working-class and labor will get hit hard with that but its one of the bills best ways to bend the cost curve

Meanwhile Dick Armey, clad in a big cowboy hat, wants to throw seniors under the bus.

Former Republican Majority Leader Dick Armey said in an interview that Republicans would be wise to talk straight about making cuts to Social Security and Medicare if they really want to cut the deficit.

TPMDC interviewed Armey at CPAC yesterday, and we asked him about Rep. Paul Ryan's budget roadmap we've been following that cuts privatizes Social Security and creates a voucher system for Medicare.

Armey (R-TX) was an architect of the Contract with America that helped Republicans win control of Congress in 1994. When we asked, he at first danced around the issue but then agreed "Yes," the Ryan plan is the smart way to go if the GOP is "courageous."

"In the year 2009 mandatory government spending took 100 percent of all federal revenue," Armey said. "If you're not courageous enough to look at mandatory spending the two biggest components being Medicare and Social Security, then don't tell me you're serious about fighting the deficit. You've got to put reforms in there."

"would be wise"

takes real courage to steal from old people

next they'll recommend taking candy from babies

i love that the deficit busters are the same people who want to make the bush tax cuts permanent... it's like..... hello is anyone home

Republican Majority Leader Dick Armey said in an interview that Republicans would be wise to talk straight about making cuts to Social Security and Medicare if they really want to cut the deficit.

yeah idiots. can't have imprudent tax cuts & "git yer gubmint out of my SS & medicare" so, um at least he's not lying for once...

i love that the deficit busters are the same people who want to make the bush tax cuts permanent

If we starve Grandma, we can keep the cuts.