Christmas healthcare bill deadline iffy

[The Straight Story]

Christmas healthcare bill deadline iffy

WASHINGTON, Dec. 12 (UPI) -- Doubts are growing over whether the U.S. Senate can pass a healthcare reform bill by Christmas, lawmakers say.

While Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., says it's still possible, other senators aren't so sure, the Washington publication The Hill reported Saturday.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., chairman of the Finance Health Care Subcommittee who would serve as a negotiator in conference talks with the House after Senate passage, told The Hill, "I'm assuming we're coming back after Christmas."

"For a lot of people it looks fairly dim," added Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., when the publication asked about the chances of finishing the bill by Christmas. "I don't know what process the leader is going to use to try to move this forward. I know this is a situation where people are not anxious to hang around but there are folks who are threatening to delay it."

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2009/12/12/Christmas-healthcare-bill-deadline-iffy/UPI-72451260647291/

[Cleita]

1. Who cares.

So far all they have done is rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic. I have given up. I don't think I will live long enough to see real reform. Wendell Potter, the former CIGNA executive turned whistleblower, has said that if this is the best they can do, they will have to go back years down the line and do it right because this bill is going to bankrupt us. When will that be? In another ten years? If I'm alive, I will be eighty.

[bluestateguy]

2. I consider end of the year January 20

One year after Obama took office.