Can Judd Gregg help White House save health bill?

[Perky]

Now before you start reflexively jerking your knees....either to it being on Politico or the involvement of Gregg. read the article it actualy is pretty interesting reading

Can Judd Gregg help White House save health bill?

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0210/32814.html#ixzz0fG6JQDnm

[DrToast]

1. It's definitely not as bad as you might think

It would be worse than the Senate bill, but far, far better than the crap the Republicans had been pushing, if you could even call that a plan.

Basically Gregg wants the Senate bill, but with more of the Medicare savings going toward deficit reduction. And more of the bill being paid for through taxes on insurance plans.

[CreekDog]

4. Don't the savings help subsidize people getting insurance?

and without that, many of them will not be able to, so the whole deal will unravel?

frankly, any Republican *can* help --the question is *will they*.

[DrToast]

5. I don't know if the subsidies would be worse than the Senate bill

He would tax more plans than the current Senate bill does, so it's possible that they're the same.

However, the general consensus was that the Senate subsidies were already inadequate, so matching them may not be good enough. Cutting them definitely wouldn't be.

[CreekDog]

6. it won't reduce the deficit the way Gregg proposes if it subsidizes people's coverage

remember the medicare savings (largely from their private plans which cost way more) are one thing that helps the bill pay for itself.

if you divert that money somewhere else, then something is *not* going to be funding the subsidies.

so... now it's time to stop defending this crap.

[DrToast]

7. Not necessarily...

The CBO could score that the higher taxes on plans reduce costs faster. That's the whole idea of doing that in the first place.

I'm not defending his plan, I'm just answering the question you asked.

[TheKentuckian]

2. After reading the article

I'll ask you to say hello to Mr. Roarke and Tattoo next time you see them.

Nothing Judd has to offer will "save" a damn thing.
This sort of a logic chain leads one to believe that some folks could give a crap if the bill does anything positive whatsoever as long as Obama can sign something called "health care". The piece of shit could exclusively be devoted to clubbing baby seals and folks would be applauding it as a critical step forward or some such line of bull.

How watered down and/or counterproductive are you willing to go? At some stage, you've lost sight of what you were fighting for.

***edit to advise on unrec***
Is their no line you won't cross?

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

3. F JG.

period

[AlinPA]

8. No. He is filibustering with the rest of the republicans. You can't trust him. nt

[TwilightGardener]

9. My instinct is, Gregg will pull a Snowe--pretend to be somewhat reasonable, drag out

the process, and then suddenly withdraw support even when he gets what he supposedly wants. The GOP leadership is sending Gregg in as a "moderate" decoy to do this, probably figuring that since Obama had apparently trusted him once before, he'll do it again.