Small Group Now Leads CLOSED Negotiations on Health Care Bill

[debbierlus]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/17/AR2009101701810.html?referrer=facebook

Three months before he was elected president, Barack Obama vowed not only to reform health care but also to pass the legislation in an unprecedented way.

"I'm going to have all the negotiations around a big table," he said at an appearance in Chester, Va., repeating an assertion he made many times. He said the discussions would be "televised on C-SPAN, so that people can see who is making arguments on behalf of their constituents and who are making arguments on behalf of the drug companies or the insurance companies."

But now, as a Senate vote on health-care legislation nears, those negotiations are occurring in a setting that is anything but revolutionary in Washington: Three senators are working on the bill behind closed doors.

Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) sits at the head of a wooden table at his office as he and Sens. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) and Max Baucus (D-Mont.) work to merge two competing versions of health-care legislation into one bill. The three men will be joined by top aides as well as by members of President Obama's health-care team, led by White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. The sessions started on Wednesday and could be completed this week.

The group will make such key decisions as whether to include a government-run insurance plan designed to compete with private insurance companies. The bill passed in July by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which Dodd led while Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) was ailing, included such a provision, but the legislation passed last week by Baucus's Finance Committee did not.

The bills also differ on how much Americans who do not buy insurance should be fined as the government seeks to get everyone covered.

In the sessions, Dodd in effect represents advocates of the government-insurance option and Baucus represents those less committed to that proposal. The tie-breaking votes are likely to be Reid and, on Obama's behalf, Emanuel. Obama and Reid have said they personally back the government-insurance option but have not ruled out supporting a bill that lacks such a provision.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/17/AR2009101701810.html?referrer=facebook

[Horse with no Name]

1. It's hard to pass the cash around when people are watching

I bet Baucus is authorized to buy ANYTHING/ANYONE he needs for ANY price necessary.

[debbierlus]

2. Yep. Of course, they shut the public out long ago. My favorite was when they arrested Drs & Nurses

For demanding one representative of single payer at the Senate Finance Health Reform Hearings...

'We need more police'....chuckle chuckle chuckle chuckle....

They arrested the doctors and nurses and then closed the hearings.

All of this was behind closed doors. Obama quite simply LIED HIS ASS OFF to get elected.

[truedelphi]

6. I saw Daniel Ellsberg speak tonight, and his

Comments on Obama and other issues were quite interesting.

We really need some new kick ass version of Ellsberg - or say, a half a dozen such people, to come forward and get the truth out there.

[DJ13]

3. Fewer people to blame

Im actually surprised that the same cowards that insist on bipartisanship as a means to give them cover from their voters would forget to provide themselves with cover at this crucial juncture.

[csziggy]

4. Shouldn't Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) as chairman of the HELP Committee be in there?

At least Dodd, who was Teddy's stand in, is in the negotiations.

[GreenPartyVoter]

5. Didn't Harkin sort of bow out in Dodd's favor, or something like that?

[csziggy]

8. I haven't kept up with the news very well this past week

WE got some work done around the farm and with the front that came through, I've had a lot of pain issues. So even though I've had the news on, not much has sunk in.

That would be logical, though, since Dodd wrote the HELP bill along with Teddy Kennedy. But Harkin, in the appearances I have seen, has said he is strong for a public option, so I'd love for both him and Dodd to be in the room.

[SpartanDem]

10. Yeah, he let Dodd be the lead negotiator

since he was the one that got the HELP bill through committee. Harkin may not be the room, but I don't doubt that he's very involved with what's going on inside.

I have designated Senator Dodd to be the lead person on health care reform," Harkin said. "He started it. And I felt it was important to keep him on, Senator Dodd, as our lead person on health care reform."

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/62063-harkin-says-obama-will-sign-bill-with-public-option-by-christmas?page=2#comments

[Ian David]

7. When we see white smoke in the chimney, we'll know there's a health care bill. n/t

[eridani]

11. DUzy! n/t

[Scarsdale Vibe]

9. Synopsis of negotiations: "I wish we had 60 real Democrats. Well, let's pass what we can."

[Rudy Adams]

12. Sadly, Yes

Would that there existed a provision whereby the DINOs are kicked out of the caucus!

[mmonk]

13. Bookmarked. Thanks.