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

I sat in on the rules committee meeting today, they essentially spent the whole freakin' time arguing about how many cameras were/should be there.

Posted more http://sumofchange.blogspot.com/2010/03/grandstanding-at-rules-committee.html

kucinich switches to 'yes'

http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2010/03/17/evening-buzz-kucinich-switches-health-care-vote-from-no-to-yes/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_ac360blog+%28Blog%3A+AC360%29&utm_content=Twitter

I think the best thing for HCR politics is the CBO score that Maddow is talking about which should come out soon. It will evaluate the econopmic side of HCR. I was watching Countdown on MSNBC and there was a commercial for anti-HCR. It starts with "americans still losing their jobs, more buisnesses struggling... trillion $ health care bill, billions in new taxes, more mandates on buisnesses, health care costs will go even higher making a tough economy worse.. tell congress we can't afford to pay - employersforahealthyeconomy.org)".

thought the CBO score was supposed to be released earlier today? . . .

It's been slowed down, should be out by tomorrow

Now there is talk of the excise tax debate coming back, trying to make the CBO score better, Trumka is meeting with the White House about it, I doubt he'll take that one well.

so is the delay an indication the CBO is scoring the bill poorly?

that would be devestating, at this juncture.

yeah we'd be well fucked

I think it's less being scored poorly, and more scoring worse than the Senate Bill (I think this has to do with the Byrd rule; post-fixes, it has to do better than the original bill in deficit reduction to be passed via reconciliation).

whatever the CBO says it's true that this bill does very little to bridge the vast gulf between what the US pays per capita on health care and what the rest of the world does. so these 'we can't afford to pay' activists are right but.. where have they been the last 20 years?

Those activists have been waiting for this day, because they oppose the welfare state in its entirety, and they think bankruptcy is the way to crush it. It's not a bad strategy.

i guess everyone worried about the cbo score can calm down now

yeah. it's a good score.

i just heard the GOP leadership sputtering in an attempt to respond to the CBO's topline numbers (which is all we have now). basically, it's "the democrats can try and tweak-and-tweak this, but the american people understand that it's a trillion dollars for a new entitlement, which we can't afford." not sure how that will resonate with anyone besides tea-partiers, given the CBO scoring, but there it is.

i have 2 tvs on--the MSNBC chyron: "health care bill to reduce deficit"; the fox chyron: "health care bill to cost trillions"

why do you have 2 tvs on

4 my job

he thinks he's LBJ.

i actually have 4 tvs on but im only watching 2

lol. the power of issue-framing.

sounds like a cool job.

http://blog.echovar.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/lbj_watches_tv.jpg

http://www.independent.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00191/13-casino-_191525s.jpg

"so what does this job entail?"
"you have to get high and watch tv"
"oh no problem"
"yeah but sometimes you have to watch as many as 4 tvs at a time"
"I am a warrior"
"cool, you start monday"

i signed a contract that said i couldnt get high while i work :(

not even on someone else's supply?

jeez who are u working 4 hitler? (xp)

cos, y'know, everyone's heard of the standard rule but i never thought they'd get so pernickety

Max and his four televisions, today:

http://i.ytimg.com/vi/SzrhzkGZx0s/0.jpg

http://blog.newsok.com/nerdage/files/2009/07/batman-1989.jpg

I like how some posts immediately prompt an image search

some dude in a basement at Google's wondering why there's a sudden spike on GIS for "multiple televisions"

fwiw they do not belong to me

poor max.

http://www-tc.pbs.org/wgbh/cultureshock/flashpoints/theater/images/clockwork_big.jpg

Mine was: 'man who fell to earth televisions'

Newton could fix health care.

glad this thread is back to bringing the lolz!

I'M HAPPY, HOPE YOU'RE HAPPY TOO

ILX political threads: giddy with health-care reform.

i have two gigantic - like 60-inch - flatscreens in my office that have been there for 2+ years and have never been turned on to my knowledge. i asked someone about them once and he was like "yeah.. it's just.. yeah, i don't know"

GOP: Scary Monsters, Supercreeps.

its kinda sad watching how effective the GOP obstructionist machine is, especially in the Senate. If only the Democrats had acted like this when Dubya was in office, we might not have actually had the Bush tax cuts or invaded Iraq or started torturing people or passed the Patriot Act etc etc

i can't see how that machine will succeed now, or even get traction with its messaging. the CBO score is devestating to their position, no? i mean, they can still argue that the initial outlay of funds will break our backs ("and for what? a new entitlement," i suppose they'll say). but they'll be unable to actually dispute -- or even seriously challenge -- the CBO's scoring.

its all procedural shit at this point, positions/ideology/arguments/logic has nothing to do with it. They do not want anything to pass, doesn't matter what it is, and jokers like Thune are going to be sure the Senate uses every single arcane Senate rule at their disposal to make passage as difficult as possible.

like, its not even really about votes at this point, its about stalling the measure's final passage as long as possible. death by a million cuts, etc.

yeah, sure, but the CBO score (a) will give a lot of wavering democrats cover to confidently vote for this bill and (b) will take the sting out of GOP criticisms that it's too expensive (other than that "initial outlay" argument i set forth above).

basically i think the CBO score is a powerful weapon for democrats -- now and in november -- so i expect republican officials to be (even more) wild-eyed crazy at this point forward.

(unless the GOP succeeds with it's canard that this bill is gutting medicare. i guess that's another avenue for them to complaint about.)

GOP: staunch in their support for the status quo of budget-busting socialized medicine.

fact: most Americans don't even know or care what the CBO is. really all that matters is how the bill is spun in the press (which is currently "HCR WILL COST $40 BILLION!"). But again, this stuff is secondary - I think its a foregone conclusion that this will pass the House. But if the Senate GOP presents enough procedural challenges to the bill that require it going back to the House for yet another vote... I mean, this is a war of attrition. the GOP knows the longer this drags on, the harder it will be to get passed, so all arguments pro/con aside, this is now more a game of legal and procedural maneuvering.

My mom totally knows what the CBO is and so do her friends. After my interview I have to call her to spill the Weir guts and I am anticipating an earful of something, certainly, but I'm not sure what.

Scaring old people about their entitlements is generally GOP way to go and they're good at ignoring what reasonable people consider a warm cup of STFU . If people cavil about such things it is worth pointing out that it is also *their* entitlement.

fact: most Americans don't even know or care what the CBO is. really all that matters is how the bill is spun in the press

well--the other thing that matters is pelosi/clyburn/hoyer/obamas ability to convince scared conservative democrats that they will be able to spin their votes positively. and if the CBO says it cuts the deficit, thats powerful ammo.