Either a public option or very highly regulated insurance industry that will prevent the rapid rise in insurance premiums they are continually inflicting on us. With out one or the other, or both of these, the HRC will be useless.

Reid is as old as dirt.

He'll fall from the pressure.

What a waste of humanity.

Reid has some tough issues when it comes to the health care bill that the Senate has to make.  It took a while for both Senate committees to draw them up.  The differences will hard to overcome at this point and have some possible Republican support.  Reid also has the problem that should a bill pass the Senate there will be the House bill to deal with when it comes to conference committee.  He has got a lot on his plate while running for reelection.  I am glad I am not him this year.

Welcome back Mark.  We really missed you.  

I also question whether Harry Reid is strong enough.  Now is the time we really miss Ted Kennedy, or Tom Daschle.  Someone who can carry the tourch across the finish line.  

Jody: Those Hawkeyes look really tough. Time to get ready for those Spartans and Buckeyes.

Ron, thanks for the kind words. It's good to be back -- and rested!  

Either a public option or very highly regulated insurance industry that will prevent the rapid rise in insurance premiums they are continually inflicting on us. With out one or the other, or both of these, the HRC will be useless.
eagle1776 (Sent Monday, October 19, 2009 10:35 AM)

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eagle, isn't the insurance industry already highly regulated?  Isn't that one of the reasons their costs are going up?  Why is it that the only "competition" that is allowed is the public option?  Why don't they let the insurance companies have competition by allowing them to sell policies across all the states? And compete with themselves?

What a waste of humanity. Louisiana CoCo (Sent Monday, October 19, 2009 10:38 AM)

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Pot meet Kettle

My redheaded wife had just finished Ted Kennedy's book this weekend and told me that it is a shame that the Senator passed away at this time.She seems to feel that without his presence or someone like him that it is going to be very difficult for the Senate to reconcile anything on a useful basis. She may be right but I'm hoping sombody steps up. I don't think that Harry Reid is that someone but we can only hope.That's why they play the game and just don't accept the computer generated scores.Somebody is ether going to be a hero or a goat.

Harry Reid a.k.a. "The Fuzzy Stick" being weak?  This spineless, diminutive banty rooster is finished in politics.  Let him live out his last days as a neutered pet at the Chicken Ranch whorehouse in Pahrump, NV. You may wish to check out little Harry's digs at chickenranchbrothel dot com.  He'll be a lot happier there. Here chicky, chicky.

Eagle 1776....You beat me to the punch!  No reform without them!  Thanks.

Schumer made it very simple, Harry reid has the position and its power to insert the public option in the senate bill, it would take 60 votes to remove it from the bill. This would virtually guarantee that the house and senate bills would be reconciled with a public option in it. Reid can then campaign for reelection as a dutifull PUBLIC SERVANT and easily win what he deserves, a restored conscience.

Either a public option or very highly regulated insurance industry that will prevent the rapid rise in insurance premiums they are continually inflicting on us. With out one or the other, or both of these, the HRC will be useless.
eagle1776 (Sent Monday, October 19, 2009 10:35 AM)
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Yes but the nearly $200 MILLION the Trial Lawyers gave to the Democratic Party in 2008 was not useless! It prevented any kind of meaningful tort reform, liability caps or malpractice reform!

Sue on lawyers, sue on! Sue those doctors. Sue those drug firms. Sue those hospitals. Sue those insurance firms. Sue those mdical device makers, including GE Healthcare. GE is LOADED!

From a voice in the wilderness: Why not a high income tax rate, with a high personal exemption to protect the less fortunate, then deduct all health care insurance premiums and out-of-pocket expenses?  That way the government, through reduction in your tax bill, would help you pay for health care by reducing your taxes by as much as 33-40% (the rate). While we're at it, a great way to reduce educational cost as well.    Never happen?  Of course not as long as all wisdom emanates from Washington.

Public option seems like a bad idea if we really want any competition in the field. It's about better regulation which encouraged competition. If we've given up on competition, why have private sector participation at all? I think people are too bent with greed (on both sides, btw) to be willing to think this through. Insurance companies want their cash cow, consumers want a "free" health care option. Where is the fair, competitive and level field?

Why don't they let the insurance companies have competition by allowing them to sell policies across all the states? And compete with themselves?

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Because even if all insurance companies got to compete in all states, they would still try to cut out the sickest of patients in order to improve the bottom line.  Increased competition by itself is not a cure-all.  

the democrat can kiss goodbye to the majority in the house and senate in the next election if the public option is excluded. Harry Raid is nothing but a wimp,he is the wrong person to be in charge. As an independent I will never vote democrat if we dont get a real health care reform and by the way the trigger option is the most laughable kind of reform

I'm getting tired of watching Reid cave in before the fight even begins.  When the Dems got 59 or 60 votes in the senate, Reid still said that it would be tough to pass anything.  That's because he is not a good leader.  He can't even keep his own caucus together on any single issue.  He has truly been a disappointment to this liberal.

My redheaded wife had just finished Ted Kennedy's book this weekend and told me that it is a shame that the Senator passed away at this time.She seems to feel that without his presence or someone like him that it is going to be very difficult for the Senate to reconcile anything on a useful basis. She may be right but I'm hoping sombody steps up. I don't think that Harry Reid is that someone but we can only hope.That's why they play the game and just don't accept the computer generated scores.Somebody is ether going to be a hero or a goat.
Independent Redneck Va

Exactly correct. Obama, Reid, and Pelosi won't compromise to save their soul-less bodies. Kennedy knew when hold them, and when to fold them. It's time to fold-em on the public option, but yet these three nitwits hold to their beliefs, and by doing so, they'll get nothing.

The Obama supporters deny, until they are blue in the face, that Obama is a socialist.

Look at GM and the major financial institutions and soon, healthcare. Government controlling the means of production and the allocation of tax revenues to preferred private institutions.


Government takeover of private industry, government takeover of banking, government takeover of the medical industry IS un-American! Nationalization of industry takes place in dictatorships, socialist, communist and fascist regimes.

Uncle Sam controlling the production and distribution of goods and services is as UN-American as you can get!

You lefties rage against the "greed" of Big Business then in the same breath you scream Gimmie Gimmie healthcare, retirement security, investment security, etc, etc.

Obama ain't your momma. Uncle Sam is not there to bail you out and I STRONGLY disagreed with Bush on the TARP bailout. The gov't still owes us an explanation on where that money went as well as Obamas trillion in stimulus.

TWO TRILLION spent between Bush and Obama and still unemployment continues to rise and foreclosures continue.

JOBS are the issue not health care. HCR is a socialist sideshow.  

The argument that regulation increases costs is a sophistry often employed by those who want unrestrained access to other people's money. If the insurance industry was capable of self-regulation, or if competition kept prices down, a public option would never have been necessary or even desirable. But in an era where mega-mergers and good-old-boy networks have made price fixing not just possible but inevitable, and in a market where stock holders are allowed to press for higher profits as the key measurement of corporate success, the belief that a free market will serve the public's interests is naive at best, and lethal in a venue where life itself is at stake. The public option is the very breath of life for millions of Americans. If it reduces the profits of those already rolling in riches, so be it. I have no problem with denying them their third hummer when others are being denied a treatment they need to live.

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