Klobuchar supports reconciliation, public option

[...] The Minnesota Independent published part of a prepared statement from Klobuchar: [...]

A more accurate headline would be “Klobuchar sort of supports reconciliation, public option”.

She says she supports it, but she won’t sign the letter. Typical of Amy to avoid taking a firm position for as along as possible. This is the kind of “courageous” leadership we’ve come to expect from her.

[...] The Minnesota Independent published part of a prepared statement from Klobuchar: I would want to make sure that the bill contains the Medicare care cost reform measures included in the existing bill. I am also supportive of the President?s efforts to forge a bipartisan agreement. We must reduce health care costs for the people of this country. [...]

You are so lucky to have Senator Klobuchar! The Senator has always seemed to this Southerner as a caring, generous, smart, and genuine citizen who works hard not just to represent her fellow Minnesotans but to give hope and support to all of us across the nation who have pride in this country and what it means to be an American versus an American’t.

Jim C

Amy is working hard to be an invisible Senator. Then in 30 years she’ll have a tearful retirement from the Senate. The end.

Using reconciliation to passs the health insurance bill is just one more way to side step the real desires of the public which will not be good for this nation. Legislators
like Klobushar, Franken, and Feingold and Kohl from Wisconsin are not looking out for the best interests of the people they are just looking out for the Democratic Party.

Maybe Amy thinks the letter might actually accomplish something. If she knew it was dead in the water, she’d have signed it yesterday. Or maybe she’s just busy writing legislation to ban sharp things on kids’ toys.

gilby 1524 -

maybe you think passing legislation that over 70% of Americans want (that’s more than 2/3rds of the American people if that makes it easier for you) is sidestepping the desires of the American public. Maybe you went to one of Neal Bush’s failing charter schools and your math skills are not what they should be.

Don’t know and don’t care.

Saving the lives and health of over 45,000 Americans yearly is something I do care about.

And her name is spelled “Klobuchar”, if you had read the article carefully you would have known that.

I like Amy and since I have Al sort of leading the charge, I’m OK with her reticence. My guess is she has a future that could involve the White house. I wonder what Republican loser they will put up against her? They could not have done worse than that empty suit Kennedy last time. Maybe Norm the Weasel wants another shot at losing… this time it would be big time.

Ms. Klobuchar is a weenie.

All Minnesotans and all in this country deserve Single Payer Health Insurance.

There is no reason that health care in this country should not be free for all of us. It should be a right. Ms. Klobuchar will never get my vote again until she comes over to the correct position on Health Care.

I do not understand why the Republicans voters like being shafted by the Insurance Companies and Special interests.

T.B., I’m glad the figure is only 45,000 people.

Tom, 70% of Americans OPPOSE the current health care and even more oppose the public option.

Try looking at objective sources like Scott Rasmussen before spewing your left-wing hatred.

It never seizes to amaze me at how cruel liberals and Democrats are.

Amy never takes a stand up front for Dems. She can’t make a decision with out her Republican buddy Olympia Snow. She needs to sign on to the public option but she will hold her breath doing so. Amy refused signing the E Verify a few months back also. Who does Amy work for?? Which side is she REALLY representing? I will not vote for her again, even if it means leaving that box empty. She is spineless when it comes to taking a stand for her party! She has proven so many times over. It is time to replace Amy with anyone else. Allow Franken to become the Sr. Senator in MN. as he is earning it over Klobuchar.

STRAIGHT_TALK_LUIGI

I believe you meant “ceases” not “seizes” – both perfectly fine words, but not really interchangeable.

And it NEVER ceases (see the difference here?) how selfish, out-of touch and just plain wrong people who consider themselves conservatives or republicans tend to be.

[...] Minn Indy on Klobuchar, Reconciliation and Public Option. [...]

Interesting comments. If the Democrats use reconciliation to pass this bill a new precedent may be set. I would then assume no one would complain if in 2012 or 2016 a Republican president and a Republican congress would repeal a single payer system using reconciliation. Single payer is an option but could the country afford it and the fallout. Congress could simply pass a bill covering all Americans under Medicare tomorrow. Insurance companies would be out of business. The fallout would be millions of Americans who work for health insurance companies would be unemployed. Billions of dollars of stock would be wiped out, stock that Americans have invested retirement funds in. Some retirement funds and investment firms would be wiped out causing more unemployment. More foreclosures. Billion of dollars of payroll taxes and taxes on insurance company profits would stop being paid to the government. Out of business insurance companies would leave behind thousands of empty buildings paying no property taxes to local governments. Mortgages on buildings would not be paid putting more stress on banks. The only way a single payer system could be paid for so every one can have “free” healthcare would be to create a new healthcare payroll tax of at least 30% withheld from every Americans paycheck. It would have to be big enough to cover “free” healthcare for everyone and make up the lost tax revenue from out of business insurance companies and pay for the new government bureaucracy. Would the government bailout middle class taxpayers who had money invested in insurance companies? Whether done overnight or over a period of years it would be a crushing blow to the economy.

How is it a new precedent? Reconciliation has been around since the early ’70s, and according to PolitiFact it’s been used more often by Republicans.

Lynn,

Your response represents the difficulty in having a serious discussion with the Right.

(a) no one’s talking single-payer right now. You’re defending against a plan that isn’t on the table right now. Anyway, private schools, transportation and couriers continue to exist and do well despite the public option existing in these industries. Besides which, we don’t permit child prostitution in order to help employ many pimps, have them buy office space and help the stock market. The businesses of America have to conform to the public good to a reasonable extent. For many of us, death by spreadsheet seems like just as egregious an industry as child prostitution. But the key point: single payer is not the debate we’re having in the country right now.

(b) There would be no “new” precedent set. The Republicans used reconciliation plenty in the Bush years. Now that the other party is in the majority, they want to act outraged when this “terrible tactic” (that they themselves used) is employed for something they don’t want. (Not unlike the hysterical cries about the deficit which no one heard when Bush and the GOP majority was running up and enormous one.) The Founding Fathers never encoded a 60% majority as a requirement for laws. The filibuster’s original usage was to ensure debate not to block majority rule. The GOP will soon shatter all records for its usage. Reconciliation is a fine response to that.

Conservatives love to tell horror stories to justify their positions like this; So often they are nothing but greedy or otherwise half-baked positions based on what-ifs based on what-ifs based on what-ifs, and couldn’t make any sense unless significant relevant facts are ignored or dismissed. Listen to a conservative caller or interviewee on talk radio, it’s like they’re basing their comments on the same script from some handbook of propaganda.