Obamacare update: Keep your eye on the “Vapor Bill”
Conn Carroll at Heritage gives you a very helpful rundown on how Obamacare is moving through Congress.
Read about the “Vapor Bill” here — and keep melting those phones.
Capitol Switchboard: 202-224-3121
***
Here’s the NYT’s latest:
My colleagues, Robert Pear and Jackie Calmes, who followed the committee proceedings through the wee hours of the morning, report some of the crucial changes that were made to the bill in the final session, including an easing of penalties the new law would require for people who fail to obtain health insurance.
The committee, in its homestretch, also adopted a proposal by Senator John D. Rockefeller IV, Democrat of West Virginia, to retain the Children’s Health Insurance Program as a stand-alone benefits package — rather than shift children and families onto plans to be offered through new state-run insurance marketplaces.
Mr. Reid’s office has already started working on combining the two bills.
Attention will also now shift back to the House, where Democrats are still wrangling over their version of the health legislation.That effort should get a lift from the completion of the Finance Committee’s work, allowing lawmakers to take into account with greater certainty the Senate’s position on crucial issues, particularly how to pay for the health care overhaul.
House Democrats are still proposing a surtax on high-income Americans as a way to generate revenue. But the Senate shunned that idea, choosing instead to tax high-cost health insurance plans.
That proposal, which is opposed by labor unions that have negotiated generous benefits packages for their members, is viewed more warily in the House — where organized labor is a crucial constituency for many rank-and-file Democrats.
House leaders are considering whether they can incorporate some version of the tax on costly insurance policies into their bill.
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Categories: Health care
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But it doesn’t matter what we want as long as we get what they think is best for us, right?
Hey! Let’s re-elect them in 2010!
/sarc (like it needs it)
And then hang them for being a damn nuisance? OK. That should give those standing in line the vapors.
Dems propose raising taxes on high income Americans? Look toward an exemption for union health care insurance plans. What Bizzaro world are we living in now?
/sarc
IMHO: Instead of a Vapor bill, I would rather see the Legislative Branch come down with a severe case of Vapor Lock!
“The Ego has Landed”
Drudge headline…Chicogo lost on first round of voting.
Just words…powerful Obama words.
Not working so great.
How will the CBO score an unwritten Senate Finance committee bill?
LOL…no kidding. It wouldn’t surprise me if most of the members of Congress do not have a clue on how to resolve vapor lock.
Terrifying. Circumventing Constitutional intent and history to ram through a bill the people do not want and cannot afford. I am speechless. Will they play the Internationale (the Communist theme song) in the halls of Congress when it is signed into law?
I wonder if Barney Frank knows?
Maybe he just doesn’t want them to know…
On October 2nd, 2009 at 12:02 pm, spaceycakes said:
It wouldn’t surprise me if most of the members of Congress do not have a clue on how to resolve vapor lock.
I wonder if Barney Frank knows?
Maybe he just doesn’t want them to know…
One might ponder if there is some internal Democrat polling showing if Obamacare fails, the Dems can run a successful campaign in 2010 on a platform that “the GOP killed grandma and the kids”.
Assuming this is so, the typical Democrat political objective would be to tweek these Rube Goldberg bills this way and that as a campaign raising tool for this and that faction. This proceeds until the bills die of their own obesity with the Democrat coffers full of campaign contributions and their base full of anger at the GOP.
Which seems pretty much the way things are going, IMHO.
In other words, this isn’t about getting Obamacare passed as it is about a backroom plan to maintain a Democrat majority in Congress against the backdrop of an inept President who doesn’t know how to do anything but campaign…
Two sites to track bills, senators,reps and votes, etc:
http://www.opencongress.org
http://www.GovTrack.us
Of course, the various pieces of legislation acquire so many amendments from dozens of committees, the bills change daily! I discovered over 11 discrepencies/illogical/conflicting language in just a few hours, so who can possibly know what is or is not in the bill?
Believe me, the Aides in your congressmen’s offices don’t know nor do they know for sure, except for a few, what your congressmen’s positions are about the entire fiasco!
As far as the “so-called” HealthCare bill is concerned, it should be completely thrown out and Congress should begin over!
The HealthCare bill has over 500 Amendments!
Sooo, I call DC almost daily! The Aides who answer the phones know my name!
If your congressional leaders do not have a definite Yea! or Ney! by NOW, you should begin RECALL efforts immediately!
Do Not let your reps and senators “COMPROMISE AWAY” common sense.
The Healthcare Bill is regressive and repressive and unintelligible!
The vapor Bill piece on Heritage states they could have something for the president to sign by November 1st.
Legit question: That’s a Sunday. Can they/would they actually sign legislation on a Sunday? Just wondering.