I agree with Howard

Commentary By Ron Beasley

Nate Silver disagrees but I don't:

Howard Dean: “Kill The Senate Bill”

In a blow to the bill grinding through the Senate, Howard Dean bluntly called for the bill to be killed in a pre-recorded interview set to air later this afternoon, denouncing it as “the collapse of health care reform in the United States Senate,” the reporter who conducted the interview tells me.

Dean said the removal of the Medicare buy-in made the bill not worth supporting, and urged Dem leaders to start over with the process of reconciliation in the interview, which is set to air at 5:50 PM today on Vermont Public Radio, political reporter Bob Kinzel confirms to me.

The gauntlet from Dean — whose voice on health care is well respsected among liberals — will energize those on the left who are mobilizing against the bill, and make it tougher for liberals to embrace the emerging proposal. In an excerpt Kinzel gave me, Dean says:

“This is essentially the collapse of health care reform in the United States Senate. Honestly the best thing to do right now is kill the Senate bill, go back to the House, start the reconciliation process, where you only need 51 votes and it would be a much simpler bill.”

Kinzel added that Dean essentially said that if Democratic leaders cave into Joe Lieberman right now they’ll be left with a bill that’s not worth supporting.

John Cole sums up the Lieberman Senate Bill:

As far as I can tell, the Senate bill has been neutered down to the following changes:

1.) No more recission

2.) No more denial because of pre-existing conditions.

That pretty much is about all I can think of… The bill does nothing to curb costs, allows insurance companies to place caps on payments, bans drug re-importation, does nothing to foster competition.

Basically, unless I am missing something, this is basically the gift of 30 million or more customers at the cost of, well, very little. Maybe Dean is right.

I made it clear that I think that no bill is better than a bad bill and the bill just keeps getting worse.  The oligarchy will make sure there is no real reform until the entire system collapses.  I can't support any bill that forces people to buy insurance from the sociopaths of the private insurance industry.

For the first time in my life I find myself to the left of Thom Hartmann.  He thinks Obama needs this "victory" no matter how shallow it might be.  At this point I don't give a damn about Obama.  If he's going to govern like Clinton or a Republican we might as well have a Republican. 

Comments

[anderson]

Obama is not a liberal. He is a corporatist.

The defeat of the drug importation proposal from a bipartisan group of lawmakers, which would have made it easier to import cheaper prescription drugs from Canada and Western Europe, was a crucial victory for Obama and the pharmaceutical industry.