Thank you Blue Dogs

[DOGS THAT BARK]

--Nice to know there are some great democrats who won't stoop to Gumby's deception--

That being trying to slide 247 Billion out of medicare cost and put it in different bill to escape true cost.

Her was vote yesterday which was huge blow to adminstration--

http://senate.gov/legislative/LIS/r...ote_cfm.cfm?congress=111&session=1&vote=00325

<TABLE class=contenttext border=0 cellSpacing=1 cellPadding=1 width="100%" VALIGN="TOP"><TBODY><TR><TD class=contenttext colSpan=3 align=middle>YEAs ---47</TD></TR><TR vAlign=top><TD class=contenttext width="33%">Akaka (D-HI)
Baucus (D-MT)
Begich (D-AK)
Bennet (D-CO)
Bingaman (D-NM)
Boxer (D-CA)
Brown (D-OH)
Burris (D-IL)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Cardin (D-MD)
Carper (D-DE)
Casey (D-PA)
Dodd (D-CT)
Durbin (D-IL)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Franken (D-MN)

</TD><TD class=contenttext width="33%">Gillibrand (D-NY)
Hagan (D-NC)
Harkin (D-IA)
Inouye (D-HI)
Johnson (D-SD)
Kaufman (D-DE)
Kerry (D-MA)
Kirk (D-MA)
Klobuchar (D-MN)
Landrieu (D-LA)
Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Leahy (D-VT)
Levin (D-MI)
Lincoln (D-AR)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Merkley (D-OR)

</TD><TD class=contenttext width="33%">Mikulski (D-MD)
Murray (D-WA)
Nelson (D-NE)
Pryor (D-AR)
Reed (D-RI)
Reid (D-NV)
Rockefeller (D-WV)
Sanders (I-VT)
Schumer (D-NY)
Shaheen (D-NH)
Specter (D-PA)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Udall (D-CO)
Udall (D-NM)
Whitehouse (D-RI)

</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><TABLE class=contenttext border=0 cellSpacing=1 cellPadding=1 width="100%" VALIGN="TOP"><TBODY><TR><TD class=contenttext colSpan=3 align=middle>NAYs ---53</TD></TR><TR vAlign=top><TD class=contenttext width="33%">Alexander (R-TN)
Barrasso (R-WY)
Bayh (D-IN)
Bennett (R-UT)
Bond (R-MO)
Brownback (R-KS)
Bunning (R-KY)
Burr (R-NC)
Byrd (D-WV)
Chambliss (R-GA)
Coburn (R-OK)
Cochran (R-MS)
Collins (R-ME)
Conrad (D-ND)
Corker (R-TN)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Crapo (R-ID)
DeMint (R-SC)

</TD><TD class=contenttext width="33%">Dorgan (D-ND)
Ensign (R-NV)
Enzi (R-WY)
Feingold (D-WI)
Graham (R-SC)
Grassley (R-IA)
Gregg (R-NH)
Hatch (R-UT)
Hutchison (R-TX)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Isakson (R-GA)
Johanns (R-NE)
Kohl (D-WI)
Kyl (R-AZ)
LeMieux (R-FL)
Lieberman (ID-CT)
Lugar (R-IN)
McCain (R-AZ)

</TD><TD class=contenttext width="33%">McCaskill (D-MO)
McConnell (R-KY)
Murkowski (R-AK)
Nelson (D-FL)
Risch (R-ID)
Roberts (R-KS)
Sessions (R-AL)
Shelby (R-AL)
Snowe (R-ME)
Tester (D-MT)
Thune (R-SD)
Vitter (R-LA)
Voinovich (R-OH)
Warner (D-VA)
Webb (D-VA)
Wicker (R-MS)
Wyden (D-OR)

</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

 

[Chadman]

Interesting. Looks like some democrats can think for themselves about an issue, and not blindly follow a party mantra, unlike another party that comes to mind...

 

[Trench]

--Nice to know there are some great democrats who won't stoop to Gumby's deception--

That being trying to slide 247 Billion out of medicare cost and put it in different bill to escape true cost.

Her was vote yesterday which was huge blow to adminstration--

First of all Wayne, this bill had nothing to do with "Gumby". "Gumby" isn't a member of the legislative branch of our government any more. I seem to recall something about an inauguration in January. As far as the intent of the bill goes, I'll be happy to do some "real" research on it and report back to you. Please excuse my skepticism with Michelle Malkin's take on it.

 

[DOGS THAT BARK]

How about washington post??
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/18/AR2009101801995.html

--Now its your turn to dispute he is in fact Gumby the King of Grifters

IN THE WORLD according to Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.), setting Medicare payment levels for doctors has nothing to do with health reform. Really. "Correcting the Medicare doctors' payment discrepancy is a budgetary problem -- health insurance reform tackles a serious regulatory problem," Reid's office said in a statement. "That's why we need to fix the Medicare doctors' payments first, outside of health reform.

Where to start with this? First off, $247 billion -- the 10-year cost of the fix -- is one whopper of a "discrepancy." Dealing with that "discrepancy" amounts to more than one-quarter of the cost of health reform. President Obama has vowed that health reform will not add a single dime to the deficit -- but he is seemingly unfazed about adding more than a quarter-trillion dollars to the deficit by changing the Medicare reimbursement formula without finding a way to pay for it.
Second, Mr. Reid's attempt to distinguish the budgetary and regulatory issues is nonsensical. The health reform measure includes all sorts of changes in the ways that various providers are compensated. True, the problem with inadequate Medicare payments is something of a preexisting condition to health reform, but that does not make it unrelated. The so-called doc fix is being rushed to the Senate floor this week in advance of health reform not because it has nothing to do with health reform but because it has everything to do with it. The political imperative is twofold: to make certain that Republicans don't use the physician payment issue to bring down the larger bill and to placate the American Medical Association.

This latest maneuver only heightens the fiscal irresponsibility of what already was a fiscal sleight of hand. The measure passed by the Senate Finance Committee patched the problem for one year, at a cost just shy of $11 billion. The argument was that the rest of the problem could be dealt with -- and, at least in theory, paid for -- later. Now, Mr. Reid proposes not to pay for any of it, not even $11 billion, but simply to write a $247 billion IOU.
The Medicare payment formula is one of a number of fiscal time bombs that will need defusing soon: the alternative minimum tax, the Bush tax cuts, the estate tax, other expiring tax provisions. These are costs -- huge costs -- that the administration would, for the most part, prefer to assume away; it wants to exempt itself from the responsibility of having to come up with a way to ensure that dealing with them does not add to the deficit.
This is an enormous problem, practically and politically. It requires a comprehensive solution -- one that probably cannot be achieved within the existing political framework but that will require some kind of bipartisan commission to craft. A president who says that he is serious about dealing with the dire fiscal picture cannot credibly begin by charging this one to the national credit card, with no concern for the later generations who will have to pay the bill.

Here is NYT link if you need another--

http://prescriptions.blogs.nytimes....l-as-some-democrats-side-with-republicans/?hp

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[Trench]

Wayne, I'm curious why you're thanking the Blue Dogs when not one of the 13 Democrats that voted against this bill are members of the Blue Dog coalition. :shrug:

We know why all 40 Republican Senators voted against it. What we don't know is why 13 Democrats (who are NOT Blue Dogs) voted against it. My suspicion is that those 13 Democrats (including the Senators from my State -- Feingold and Kohl) had enough foresight to see that while this bill would have been good for physicians, senior citizens and retired military personnel, it could have been the death knell for more sweeping healthcare reform. I suspect those 13 Democrat Senators know that sometimes you have to sacrifice a battle to win a war.