If he's lost Feinstein...

[Yonivore]

...ObamaCare is screwed. (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/09/12/MNBR19LPMV.DTL)



“I just find that if you’re going to remake a sixth of the American economy, it’s very difficult at this time of great economic angst.”

and


“There is real concern over debt and deficits, and whether this bill will create additional entitlements. That’s important to me and I think it’s important to them.”
Discuss.

[hope4dopes]

...ObamaCare is screwed. (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/09/12/MNBR19LPMV.DTL)



and


Discuss.She'll tow the line, but it will cost something.

[Wild Cobra]

She'll tow the line, but it will cost something.
Isn't she the one that owns grape farms in California, maybe wineries too?

Maybe she's holding out to make sure her illegal workers get covered better.

[Yonivore]

She'll tow the line, but it will cost something.
I don't know. At some point, constituency -- and getting re-elected -- has to count for something.

[Yonivore]

There's definitely a disturbance in the force...

Health-Care Math (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/12/AR2009091202347.html)

Sunday editorials are where the major newspapers take their stands on administration policies. The Washington Post editorial page has been a reliable Obama supporter...'til now.


Mr. Obama says he won't add one dime to the deficit, but a lot of dimes remain unaccounted for.

They pretty much tell the President: Do the math...your deficit neutral claim is a Wilsonian lie. And, they don't use a back-bencher to break the news...Frank Rich is their principle editorialist.


When politicians start talking about paying for programs by cutting “waste and abuse,” you should get nervous. When they don’t provide specifics — and when the amounts under discussion are in the hundreds of billions of dollars — you should get even more nervous.
Hmmm....well, maybe Rich will try and find the dimes.


Beyond the insurance tax, Mr. Obama was vague about where the money would come from, and administration officials have since declined to provide specifics. Previously, the administration outlined $635 billion in Medicare and Medicaid savings, but it is not clear what it now envisions beyond cutting payments to Medicare Advantage plans that receive higher payments than regular Medicare providers and reducing subsidies to hospitals for treating the uninsured as that population diminishes. Squishy talk about cutting “hundreds of billions of dollars in waste and fraud” isn’t enough.

Nope. "Squishy talk!" :lmao

Finally:


The president has staked out two principles with admirable firmness: Health reform must not add to the federal deficit, and it must slow the rate of health cost inflation. Now he needs to support the detailed measures that will fulfill both pledges.
Feinstein? The WaPo? What's happening????

As Roger Simon allowed (http://pajamasmedia.com/rogerlsimon/2009/09/12/america-goes-to-washington-i-was-wrong-about-the-tea-party-movement/), over being wrong about how many people would show up in Washington, yesterday but which, I believe, still relevant in this context:


"If I were Obama & Co., I’d be afraid, I’d be very afraid. . . . Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod are going to be looking at each other like nervous apparatchiks in the Politburo because someone is going to have take the bullet for the disaster they have wrought. Emanuel is looking like a particular dummy right now for opening his mouth about not missing a good crisis.”

[Yonivore]

And, as if to put an exclamation point on the whole matter, we have Thomas Sowell (http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/09/12/obamas_rhetoric_vs_common_sense.html):


“To tell us, with a straight face, that he can insure millions more people without adding to the already skyrocketing deficit, is world-class chutzpa and an insult to anyone’s intelligence. To do so after an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office has already showed this to be impossible reveals the depths of moral bankruptcy behind the glittering words.”
I know, he's a conservative economist and columnist but, somehow, I think Feinstein and the WaPo have come to realize the truth of Sowell over the "truth" of Obama.

Maybe, just maybe, a million+ Americans, on the Washington Mall, had something to do with it.

[Yonivore]

I do think Glenn Reynolds (Instapundit) makes a valid point:


I’ve said this before, but those in the GOP who think that the Tea Party movement is for their benefit need to think again. Roger Stone spoke, and while nobody had anything against him in particular, several people told me that they thought the GOP was trying to co-opt the Tea Party Movement, and they weren’t happy about that. My advice to the GOP — and, for that matter, to those Democrats who care — is to try to find a way to address the Tea Party crowd’s interests, bearing in mind that if you don’t they’re just as happy to throw Republicans out of office as Democrats.

[exstatic]

See, you're just not used to seeing this: it's called discussion, dissent, and negotiation within your party. Since the GOP will brook none, it's not surprising you don't recognize it.

[Yonivore]

See, you're just not used to seeing this: it's called discussion, dissent, and negotiation within your party. Since the GOP will brook none, it's not surprising you don't recognize it.
But, I thought the President said the time for discussion was over.

[Winehole23]

Losing Feinstein is a symptom. If Obama lost Pelosi or Reid, that would be a full on disease.

You posted the thread about Obama lacking the votes in the House, so it should be pretty clear to you already that there's significant horse trading to be done on the Jackass side of the aisle. The inference that losing a very liberal pol like Feinstein foreshadows the downfall of health reform this year is overblown and wishful thinking IMO.

[Yonivore]

Losing Feinstein is a symptom. If Obama lost Pelosi or Reid, that would be a full on disease.

You posted the thread about Obama lacking the votes in the House, so it should be pretty clear to you already that there's significant horse trading to be done on the Jackass side of the aisle. The inference that losing a very liberal pol like Feinstein foreshadows the downfall of health reform this year is overblown and wishful thinking IMO.
Fair enough but, to this point the Democrat oppostion to ObamaCare has pretty much been limited to those 44 who said they wouldn't vote for it with a "public" option and the 47 who said they wouldn't without it.

Until now, not many, and particularly not many ultra-liberals such as Feinstein, have expressed any reservations about the cost.

[exstatic]

But, I thought the President said the time for discussion was over.

He can say what he wants. The discussion is over when the bill comes up for a vote. He'll exert whatever influence he has, but at the end of the day, he'll sign whatever bill hits his desk.

[Yonivore]

He can say what he wants. The discussion is over when the bill comes up for a vote. He'll exert whatever influence he has, but at the end of the day, he'll sign whatever bill hits his desk.
As long as we all recognize, the time for discussion is far from over.

[Winehole23]

As long as we all recognize, the time for discussion is far from over.Despite your rhetorical question upstream, I think the president realizes it too. There's plenty to discuss.

[Yonivore]

Despite your rhetorical question upstream, I think the president realizes it too. There's plenty to discuss.
Agreed. And, so we do...here and elsewhere.

[hope4dopes]

Isn't she the one that owns grape farms in California, maybe wineries too?

Maybe she's holding out to make sure her illegal workers get covered better.

I think you're thinking of pelosi, she takes money from the Untied Farm Worker, but in the vineyards she owns she doesn't use union labor, nor legal labor.She also owns a swanky like 500dollar a night hotel again she takes money from the hotel workers union,but she and her husband don't use union labor in their hotels and most likely legal labor.
She and her husband owned or were part owners in a golf course like community. When they were planning the project they were required to do enviormental impact reports over a salamader habitat, the report never got done and that was like a decade ago.

[hope4dopes]

With a tough if not impossible vote coming up, Fienstien is not going to let as ron emmanuel would say, let a crisis go to waste. She knows her vote is desprately needed and she will want to profit to the utmost.It's her MO she is a political realist and a shark.

[Winehole23]

When they were planning the project they were required to do enviormental impact reports over a salamader habitat, the report never got done and that was like a decade ago.Poor salamanders. It must tear you up, micca. :lol

[Wild Cobra]

I think you're thinking of pelosi, she takes money from the Untied Farm Worker, but in the vineyards she owns she doesn't use union labor, nor legal labor.She also owns a swanky like 500dollar a night hotel again she takes money from the hotel workers union,but she and her husband don't use union labor in their hotels and most likely legal labor.
She and her husband owned or were part owners in a golf course like community. When they were planning the project they were required to do enviormental impact reports over a salamader habitat, the report never got done and that was like a decade ago.
OK, I got the two Californicators mixed up.

Thanx.