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TechnoratiPelosi: Single-Payer Amendment Breaks Obama's Health Care Promise
An amendment to allow states to pursue single-payer health care without incurring insurance-industry lawsuits was stripped from the House bill, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Thursday, adding that it would break President Obama's commitment to people keeping their current insurance plan if they like it.
![[Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi speaks during her weekly news conference at the US Capitol in Washington, DC. (AFP/Getty Images/Mark Wilson)]](http://www.commondreams.org/files/article_images/pelosi_singlepayer.jpg "pelosi_singlepayer.jpg")
She also said that she had yet to decide whether to allow a vote on a separate amendment from Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) that would replace the entire health care bill with a single-payer system. "We are probably going to be addressing some of those issues in the next 24 hours," she told HuffPost.
The amendment to allow states to individually implement single-payer was sponsored by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) and passed the Education and Labor Committee's version of the health care bill. There were shenanigans involved, with Republicans joining Kucinich not because they supported the bill but because they wanted to create mischief. (Asked about the GOP position, Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) said that the party's opposition to single-payer health care trumps its support of states' rights.)
"The three chairmen blended the bills; that was in one of the bills. And in the harmonizing of the legislation, the decision was made not to go forward with that," Pelosi said of the Kucinich amendment. The Ways and Means and Energy and Commerce Committees also passed versions of the health care bill.
Kucinich tells HuffPost that his amendment was scored by the Congressional Budget Office and that it is deficit neutral. The amendment would prevent insurers from suing states after they enact single-payer.
Pelosi said, however, that it was unclear what the overall effect of it would be. It's hard to know, of course, whether and when states would enact single-payer systems.
"All of our decisions are based on what we have to be answerable for in terms of the Congressional Budget Office, about what the cost will be," she said.
"And what does that mean? What does it mean to Medicare? What does it mean to others: If you like what you have now, you can keep it. The President made that commitment and our legislation honors that commitment."
48 Comments so far
Show Allhttp://www.indypendent.org/2009/11/12/you-must-go-to-jail/
you poor fools who have your real estate to protect. get a good lawyer, put the real estate in the name of your new offshore company, stop paying for health care insurance, pay a doc when you need one, if you get a bad health problem, go to a civilized country rent an apartment and buy health insurance there. You'll get better treatment than in the states for much less money. Plane tickets are a pittance compared to the blackmail you're dealing with in the states.
Forget about your government. It's not YOUR government.
Pelosi translation: The insurance companies are owned by extremely wealthy people. And by god, you will pay them!
Insult Nancy all you will, but it takes supreme arrogance to tell the people to fuck off and die. What a woman! Maybe, just maybe she's not even human. Probably one of those free-marketeer aliens from the movie, They Live!"
http://video.google.com/
videoplay?docid=-9005367754264973286#
-TIA
Pelousy sez: "All of our decisions are based on what we have to be answerable for in terms of the Congressional Budget Office ..."
***
Horseshit.
All of your decisions are based on what you have to be answerable for in terms of K Street.
It never ceases to amaze me how gullible the hard-core "grassroots" Republicans seem to be!
They would send their own children to be ground up at the local rendering plant if Boehner, Palin, Bachman, Beck or Limbaugh told them that the true American patriots needed more sausage.
It doesn't matter to them that the bailout started under Bush and Paulson... or that it actually appears to be working... now it's "A SOCIALIST PLOT" under Obama!
It doesn't seem to matter to them that both the AMA and AARP endorse the House Health Care Plan WITH the "public option"... it's A "MARXIST CONSPIRACY" controlled by Obama!
It doesn't seem to matter that Bachman, Beck and others are calling for an armed insurrection against the elected American government... that Limbaugh has frequently been proven to make his claims up out of thin air... Palin can see the Kremlin from her front porch... and Boehner thinks there was a "Preamble to the Constitution"... THESE ARE THE INTELLECTUALS in their world!
In the eyes of these people, anyone who knows the truth and can provide provable FACTS is a dreaded "Liberal"!
Now I know who P.T. Barnum was referring to when he said "There is a sucker born every minute!"
Up yours, Pelosi.
Can we just secede?
Suppose we started "Freedonia", a sovereign collection of people who agree they want to form a nation, based on individual freedom from nationalistic, territory-based governments, communicating via the internet and cooperating economically and politically until we get recognition. If we can get 20 - 30 million members, we're home free :)
How does that sound? :)
Will you start a group on Facebook?
(BTW Groucho Marx already beat you to it in "Duck Soup.")
Joe
The elites are depending on media-based psych-ops tactics to quell the popular revolt.
Here's a thought: What if hundreds of thousands of citizens dropped their health coverage and refused the mandated ruling? What if they went to hospital emergency rooms for well visits along with emergency visits, and didn't pay. We seem to complain about what the "chef" serves up. Bottom line is, we don't have to eat it! If we boycott the choices "our" government gives us, perhaps they will change their offerings. If no one buys health insurance......
I, personally, will be going to my representative's office for health care. They have much better waiting rooms than hospitals.
So essentially what they're saying is "All Animals are Equal, but some Animals are more equal than others."
This is Animal Farm. George Orwell would be so proud!
http://pubofidealism.wordpress.com/
My God...the arrogance of these unprincipled on the health insurance-dole Democrat scumbags is absolutely amazing!
To hell with Pelosi & Obama & the rest of the Corporate Democrats who have destroyed their party and kept this country locked in a tyrannical two-party deathgrip!
Vote No to Obamacare and let the Republicans eat their lunch in 2010!?!?! When Democrats are like Republicans - might as well vote for a Republican! What the hell is the difference between them anyway?
America needs a Progressive Party and we need to build a bottom-up grassroots People's Movement for Economic Justice. The world needs the American People to lead and quit wallowing in our own misery and whining about no-good politicians and bastards on Wall Street!
No more corporate welfare! No more Republican compromises! No more Insurance Care!
Everybody In, Nobody Out! Single-Payer Now!!!
The states can't afford anything ... Washington can only borrow money that it allows the private banking cartel to enter... its numerical bread from our future to the central bank computers.
We can't do shit about the money game in Washington... We gotta forget the Great Game and work on our own environment.
We have a War Economy and that is what rules the money now.
The Empire of War is falling so prepare and get together locally first for the big battle to survive the fall.
Good Luck
Defeat ObamaCare. Enough giveaways to wealthy corporations.
Obama is a total sellout. The Dems are sellouts. The Repubs are of course sold out; they don't even hide it.
I will vote 3rd party and campaign against the whore of SF, Pelosi since I live in the Bay Area. I will call her office tomorrow and let her know.
Why, DJH, did the Bay Area reelect Pelosi? It's supposed to be more progressive in the northern part of the state.
-TIA
But it DEM despicably RENEGES on Obama's PRECEDENT promise of single-payer US health care upon voter/taxpayer delivery of both Congressional houses and (HIS) presidency to DEM! But NooOOOO! Pullosi punch and judy Reid stab US in the Backs MockUS and beat THEMSELVES up on behalf of the Med/Fed monopoly! Bring back Cindy Sheehan!! Single-payer SINGLE TERM for DEM all and their miserepublican mirrorspeakers of the Mouse, Senile and No Account President's Party (NAPPing at the wheel)!!!
Medicare for all, also known as single payer health care, is favored by a majority of Americans.
How can we get Congress to actually do what the people want?
Tell your members of Congress that unless they support Medicare for all, you won't support them.
Take the Medicare For All Pledge now:
http://bit.ly/medicareforallpledge
Obama and Pelosi should be stripped of their own coverage and lynched in public !
FOOLPROOF BULLETPROOF
Preview and preview again and again.
Dropping the Kucinich amendment is nuts. It would save the states which adopt single payer a huge pile of money and get the health insurance industry parasites off the taxpayers' backs.
The president also promised people could choose which health care plan they would have and he's already made clear he's broken that promise to keep the health insurance industry parasites and tyrants happy and to make sure they don't come gunning for his booty with a big time money.
AD
Obama -- no choice, no change, no hope.
Look it's another preview.
Dropping the Kucinich amendment is nuts. It would save the states which adopt single payer a huge pile of money and get the health insurance industry parasites off the taxpayers' backs.
The president also promised people could choose which health care plan they would have and he's already made clear he's broken that promise to keep the health insurance industry parasites and tyrants happy and to make sure they don't come gunning for his booty with a big time money.
AD
Dropping the Kucinich amendment is nuts. It would save the states which adopt single payer a huge pile of money and get the health insurance industry parasites off the taxpayers' backs.
The president also promised people could choose which health care plan they would have and he's already made clear he's broken that promise to keep the health insurance industry parasites and tyrants happy and to make sure they don't come gunning for his booty with a big time money.
AD
"All of our decisions are based on what we have to be answerable for in terms of the Congressional Budget Office, about what the cost will be." How prudent. We are careful about costs
Except when invading Afghanistan
Except when invading Iraq
Except when giving out hundreds of billions in the TARP (Transfer of Assets to Rich People) with few conditions specified or enforced.
Always time to get mean and stingy when it comes to health, education or protection of children.
Joe
Joe ,"TARP transfer of assets to rich people". priceless peace
"adding that it would break President Obama's commitment to people keeping their current insurance plan if they like it."
Since when is the President a dictator? If Congress wants to pass legislation to allow single-payer at the state level, they can and should do it. If Nancy Pelosi thinks her job is to parrot the President and do his bidding, then she doesn't really have a reason to keep her job. Her position (and that of the entire Congress) would be pointless if they exist merely to rubber stamp the President's wishes. What is it about "checks and balances" that she doesn't get?
President Obama doesn't have the intestinal fortitude to veto Universal Single-Payer if the legislative branch gives that to him. If he did, it would end his political career. However, to pass Single-Payer would guarantee a 'promising' future for the President, Congress and the American people.
Universal Single-Payer cares for all the people, all the time. If the President & members of Congress refuse to work without the money of the health insurance lobby, then they don't deserve to be in Washington.
Do the right thing or the voters will do it for you.
Dear Representatives Kucinich, Grayson, Sanders and Weiner:
It looks like you are some of the few honest legislators left, so I ask you to please introduce a bill to ban lobbying, gifts, perks, favors and revolving doors that have corrupted American government and made it one of the worst and least representative governments in the developed world?
Thank you
CD bloggers, please copy this message and send to your progressive representatives.
First of all, Bernie Sanders is a Senator, not a Representative.
Second, Grayson and Weiner are too tight with AIPAC to vote to end lobbying.
q
You can put me on your team anytime, ezeflyer.
Yvette Clark has already gotten such a message from me on several issues.
Joe
I was incensed when Pelosi took impeachment "off the table" for the most impeachable president in the history of the U.S. It was obvious ruling class pandering. Now this. Health care "reform" has been transformed from bringing health care in US up to the standard of other industrialized nations (i.e. universal health care) to an excuse to create a cash cow for the insurance industry. Pelosi is one of the slimiest politicians in Washington.
It is so disheartening to witness this debacle and see how truly powerless people in the US are. So much for the "world's greatest democracy".
Greatest is a euphemism for fattest.
Many wanted Pelosi put up against a wall and shot for keeping impeachment off the table after the 2006 elections. Now, many more will want the same action over her craven behavior--She is essentially a serial killer and deserves its fate.
Yes, I'm stating she's no better than Cheney, Rove or any of the Bushes. The sooner she's removed from politics, the better for the country and the planet.
I'm contributing to any Pelosi opponent next year, too.
"If you like what you have now, you can keep it. The President made that commitment and our legislation honors that commitment." This should be at the top of the list of Pelosi's many outstandingly vacuous and dishonest statements.
She knows perfectly well that anyone who "likes" what he has now is either very, very wealthy, or has not yet been really sick or injured.
I "like" what I have now only because my employer pays for it. If I ever need help, I know perfectly well that I will face the same economic ruin that has already devastated so many lives in the U.S.
We need to make sure that Pelosi and the rest of the bought-and-paid for Democrats lose their next elections.
Would you support an independent or Green challenger to Pelosi?
I don't live in SF, but I supported Cindy with some contributions and much love. She needed some more savvy campaign manager and support.
Joe
I would support a Klingon candidate over Pelosi.
I would support a Klingon candidate over Pelosi.
At least a Klingon would get shit done.
To Speaker Pelosi
The Congress & the President have thrown taxpayer money at Wall Street & wealthy corporations without adequate regulation. The taxpayer was robbed. Now it's time to pay the price, which is Universal Single-Payer Health Care. President Obama's Wall Street bailouts and taking input from health insurance lobbyists killed his right to make such a promise. This wouldn't be the first promise on which he has reneged .
He promised the American people "Change". The PRICE for playing footsie with the AMA, the health insurance & pharmaceutical lobbyists and playing fast and loose with taxpayer money is giving the people Universal Single-Payer Health Care.
Every American WITH health insurance is only ONE catastrophic illness away from complete financial disaster. STOP this insanity.
It's NOT about the President OR Congress getting what they want.
It's about the American people getting what they need, want and deserve.
BTW
The president also PROMISED:
transparency,
health care debate broadcast on cspan,
that there would be an end to lobbying,
to clean up Congressional corruption.
I'm sure you can all add more to my list of broken promises.
The Gorgon Pelosi has already lifted her hind leg, and not in a good way, over the poor little Weiner dog.
Pelosi silenced his yapping by jingling the car keys at him, and now he's not even going to get a ride.
In the Democratic Party spirit of "keeping the powder dry", I'll save further comment for the inevitable sequel: the Gorgon opening the car door, getting in, then slamming the door right in the face of the little guy.
God, Pelosi is an abomination!
· Yr Obd't Servant
This is disturbing. And if you watch her entire answer to this question (which was the first question asked @ her weekly briefing) she did not give a complete answer. Video of her answer: Harmonizing Of Legislation Decision Made No Kucinich Single Payer Amendment!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nDxfN6wqO4
Obama is setting a record for reneging on commitments he made during the campaign...why is keeping your own insurance different?
nancy has taken a mountain of money in the last few weeks
from guess who? derailed the entire process. why can't she just get on her fing broom and go home? if beezelbub runs
against her next year i'm going to mail him a large check.
when these dimosaps lose their seats next year they had
better take some personal inventory to figure out why
this happened ! there will be some clowns losing their seats
for sure! why doesn't business pay their salary as well
as bribing them? it would open up money
that could be spent on worthy causes! i have no doubt
that obama had pelosi do his dirty work. the old good
cop bad cop routine has been dragged out for the 57th millionth
time. the who just came out with a remix just for us cd folks
its titled " won't get fucked again (because i have a steel plate
in the back of my pants)!" who would have ever thought that
harry reid would be maybe the good guy?
Maybe the mountain of money Nancy has taken also went to pay for some face-lifts. Check out the lady's mug in this shot! She'll be rivaling Nancy Reagan pretty soon.
When Pelosi made her debut as Speaker in Nov. 2006 and declared that "impeachment is off the table" she proved beyond the shadow of a doubt that she would capitulate to the corporations and Republicans every time. She has followed through.
The Republicans won't need to try very hard to take control of Congress in the 2010 elections. Much of the Democrats base will sit the election out after seeing how corrupt Obama and the Dem-controlled Congress are.