Obama: Bipartisan health deal may not be possible

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

WASHINGTON – After a day of debate and disagreement, President Barack Obama concluded Thursday's unprecedented live talkfest on health care with the bleak assessment that accord between Democrats and Republicans may not be possible. He rejected Republican preferences for seeking a step-by-step solution or simply starting over.

Obama strongly suggested that Democrats will try to pass a sweeping overhaul without GOP support, by using controversial Senate budget rules that would disallow filibusters. And then, he said, this fall's elections would write the verdict on who was right.

"We cannot have another yearlong debate about this," Obama said at the end of a 7 1/2-hour marathon policy session.

"This will take courage to do," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. said in her own closing speech. "But we will get it done."

"We have a very difficult gap to bridge here," said Rep. Eric Cantor, the No. 2 House Republican. "We just can't afford this. That's the ultimate problem."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_health_care_overhaul

[Pooky 3,844]

"We cannot have another yearlong debate about this," Obama said at the end of a 7 1/2-hour marathon policy session.

Too right. After November, we can have a straight up-an-down "No" vote on it. Unless, that is, the Democrats filibuster it.

[scandal 951]

Incidentally, did anyone notice that there were no teleprompters in Blair House today? CSPAN had hours and hours of continuous live coverage. The only theatrical prop in view were the stacks of paper Republicans kept thumbing through, as though somehow the density of the bill is what's inherently wrong, not the shameful state of health care in America. As to Obama, somehow there he was, hour after hour, holding his own in debate with Lamar Alexander, John Boehner, John McCain, and other Republicans - what exactly is that complaint I keep hearing about the teleprompter supposedly chained to his ankle?

[Niels Bohr 72]

I got one for you.

It's okay to spend billion of dollars to kill people in the US (invasion of IRAQ), but, it's not okay to spend billion of dollars so people in the US live longer. The irony.

[Pinocchio Liberal 268]

Seems as though the dems were trying to out do each other on their pitty stories. Clyborn what a fvckin idiot! Pelosi? Seems she could use a frontal lobotomy. Oh and Harry Reid if he cared about Jose's daughter so much why didnt he help him out with a couple bucks from that crooked land deal he made?

Our president looked like daddy daycare!

[Pooky 3,844]

I got one for you.

It's okay to spend billion of dollars to kill people in the US (invasion of IRAQ), but, it's not okay to spend billion of dollars so people in the US live longer. The irony.

It's perfectly okay to spend money to let the US population live longer. The Bill(s) on the table do nowhere near enough to that end to justify the cost.

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

I know why Obama hasn't released his college grades. He's a complete moron.

[Pinocchio Liberal 268]

I know why Obama hasn't released his college grades. He's a complete moron.

My question is, why didnt this meeting take place before a bill was ever written? Answer: The desperation of an IDIOT and his followers.

[Pooky 3,844]

"This will take courage to do," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. said in her own closing speech. "But we will get it done."

Of course it will take courage. You need courage to pull the biggest "healthcare reform" con job this country has ever seen and do it with a straight face.

[Ali G. 37]

Of course it will take courage. You need courage to pull the biggest "healthcare reform" con job this country has ever seen and do it with a straight face.

Are you for real? You actually think Obama is trying to game the country? So what are those against the much needed reform doing? Being patriotic or something..

Yes, how patriotic to borrow $1 trillion and waste 5,000 lives avenging the deaths of 2,000 NYers, the same people who would sell half of America for a profit, yet ignoring the Americans that die daily because of health care denials, lack of adequate coverage and the other dodgy shenanigans.

Edited February 26, 2010 by Booyah

[Obama 2012 1,714]

Are you for real? You actually think Obama is trying to game the country? So what are those against the much needed reform doing? Being patriotic or something..

Yes, how patriotic to borrow $1 trillion and waste 5,000 lives avenging the deaths of 2,000 NYers, the same people who would sell half of America for a profit, yet ignoring the Americans that die daily because of health care denials, lack of adequate coverage and the other dodgy shenanigans.

2,973 victims and over 6000 injured to be exact

and regardless he does have a point. The current bill doesn't 'fix' anything. It just is a money grab with mandates for coverage... it really changes nothing.

[Pooky 3,844]

Are you for real? You actually think Obama is trying to game the country? So what are those against the much needed reform doing? Being patriotic or something..

Yes, how patriotic to borrow $1 trillion and waste 5,000 lives avenging the deaths of 2,000 NYers, the same people who would sell half of America for a profit, yet ignoring the Americans that die daily because of health care denials, lack of adequate coverage and the other dodgy shenanigans.

His intention is good. The Bill(s) under consideration are not. Not even close.

And before you accuse me of being an RWN, go look at everything else I've posted on healthcare reform. I don't like the Bill(s) out there, I've never liked Obama's leave it to someone else approach and I detest the payoffs, buyoffs, opt-outs and sweetheart deals that the Democrats have finagled into the Bill(s) just to buy the votes to pass something. This country deserves better. It deserves real, meaningful, healthcare reform.

[Ali G. 37]

2,973 victims and over 6000 injured to be exact

and regardless he does have a point. The current bill doesn't 'fix' anything. It just is a money grab with mandates for coverage... it really changes nothing.

ah okay, so that justifies $1 trillion and 5,000 lives does it? Interesting cost benefit analysis on that one.. What about Cigarette companies or those that have acquired cancer / leukemia due to negligence by private organizations pumping chemicals into the environment? Because it's cheaper to poison American families to death rather than disposing it properly. Or even drug dealers. Why don't we spend $5 billion let alone a trillion tackling those killers of Americans?

Which part of the bill do you find fails to fix anything? All of the points I have analyzed provide a great new health care option for the country and those less fortunate.

I detest the payoffs, buyoffs, opt-outs and sweetheart deals that the Democrats have finagled into the Bill(s) just to buy the votes to pass something. This country deserves better. It deserves real, meaningful, healthcare reform.

I strongly agree with you on that point.

Edited February 26, 2010 by Booyah

[spookyturtle 9,466]

I know why Obama hasn't released his college grades. He's a complete moron.

He's President of the US and you're a whiner on a internet forum.

[scandal 951]

His intention is good. The Bill(s) under consideration are not. Not even close.

And before you accuse me of being an RWN, go look at everything else I've posted on healthcare reform. I don't like the Bill(s) out there, I've never liked Obama's leave it to someone else approach and I detest the payoffs, buyoffs, opt-outs and sweetheart deals that the Democrats have finagled into the Bill(s) just to buy the votes to pass something. This country deserves better. It deserves real, meaningful, healthcare reform.

Pooky, I have read many of your posts on the subject. And in general I applaud your tenacity in demanding more, rather than less, reform. If I understand your position you'd like to see the US move aggressively to a single payer model. Me too. Ideally, we'd remove the inefficiencies and waste and countless hours spent filing and approving and appealing preapprovals, claims, and denials. Just think of all the postage and paper saved merely by not needing to send out all the damned EOB statements! I think the difference between your position and mine (and, I suspect, most Democrats involved in crafting the present legislation) is a recognition of the political process in this country. Half a loaf is better than no loaf. I know you disagree, and apparently would prefer no loaf at all until a perfect bill can be passed. If I thought we had any hope at all of such a thing in my lifetime I might agree with you. Meanwhile we're wasting money for unacceptable healthcare results and millions uninsured and terrified of a pre-existing condition or a job loss tossing them out of the system altogether. Better half loaf than none at all, I say.