Olympia Snowe, Superstar
Oct 14th, 2009 | 23 responses
Democratic leaders are willing to offer her the earth, the moon, and the stars if she will only stay, and not leave them (ital is in original):
Democrats really want this bill to be bipartisan — to the point that they’re giving the Republican a space in the negotiations equivalent to the chairmen of the two relevant committees. Indeed, I wouldn’t be shocked if this perk had been negotiated in advance of Snowe’s vote yesterday.
This shifts the room’s balance of power substantially: The negotiations were previously confined to one liberal Democrat and one centrist Democrat. Now they’ll be between one liberal Democrat, one centrist Democrat, and one moderate Republican. In practice, this is likely to mean that Baucus will have something of a trump card against Dodd. If there’s a particularly thorny dispute, and Snowe weighs in strongly alongside Baucus, it’s hard to imagine Reid siding with Dodd, except in the most extraordinary of cases.
Snowe, meanwhile, is making sure Democrats understand that “bipartisan” means “compromise,” and “compromise” means no single-payer no public option no opt-out public option possibly, maybe, “a public option trigger that would implement a government plan only if the private sector fails to provide competition.”
Olympia Snowe doesn’t have the final say, though. According to Chuck Schumer, Harry Reid does:
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) threw down the gauntlet on the public option for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) last night. Appearing on The Rachel Maddow Show, Schumer essentially put the fate of the public option in Reid’s hands — saying that while the bill passed Tuesday by the Senate Finance Committee doesn’t include a public health insurance option, it’s up to Reid to decide whether to include a public option in the bill that merges the Senate Finance Committee bill with the bills passed by others committees — all of which do include a public option.
“Leader Reid has the option of putting it in the final bill,” Schumer said of the public option. “If he puts it in the final bill, in the combined bill, then you would need 60 votes to remove it. And there clearly are not 60 votes against the public option. And so we’re urging him to do that, and he’s seriously considering it.”
[...]
Schumer said this solution might take some of the heat off conservative Democratic senators like Sens. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) and Ben Nelson (D-NE), since they wouldn’t have to explicitly vote to put the public option in the bill, but would merely have to support a bill that already included a public option.“If it’s in the bill, you don’t have to have every Democrat vote for it, because if it’s in the bill, to take it out would take 60 votes,” Schumer said. “So that’s one of the cases, one of those rare moments, where this 60-vote rule which we usually abhor works in our favor.”
Very clever move on Chuck Schumer’s part. I’m sure Harry Reid would have much preferred these private lobbying efforts to remain private, so he could renege with no consequences. He can’t do that now. And he is none too pleased about that:
Speaking to reporters just outside the Senate chamber this afternoon, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid scoffed at the suggestion–articulated last night by Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY)–that the public option is simply in his hands.
“He would rather say anything so it wasn’t up to him,” Reid said, before departing for a meeting with White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, and Sens. Max Baucus (D-MT) and Chris Dodd (D-CT). The four will hold the first meeting about how to shape a health care bill that will soon be introduced on the Senate floor.
Other senators have been significantly less vocal than Schumer (at least in public) with respect to what steps Reid should take to include the public option. I caught up with Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin and asked him whether he agreed with Schumer. He said, “I’m definitely for the public option, I want it included in the final bill. I’m gonna leave it up to the Majority Leader’s judgment and the vote of the Senate as to when that’s going to take place.”
Good cop, bad cop? We’ll see what happens.
opinions powered by SendLove.to
23 Responses to “Olympia Snowe, Superstar”
Well, with Reid's scary numbers back home, perhaps the Dems are looking for a scapegoat to start blaming if something doesn't work out for them. Perhaps Schumer or Durbin are quietly campaigning to be the next Majority leader.
Right now Olympia Snowe holds most of the high cards, and she is a very gifted poker player. Don't bet against her.
She made it clear that she may or may not vote for the final bill. She has outmaneuvered Reid, Baucus, Dodd and Emanuel put together so far. They want her on board for the final bill. To lose her between here and there would be a PR nightmare for D's. They know it, and, more importantly, so does she.
Moderate? Yes. Shrewd? In spades. Gotta admire someone who knows how to play her cards that well.
This empowers the Blue Dogs in their quest for a pragmatic healthcare reform package and not a far-left fairy tale. Asked about this new development the Easter Bunny mourned the setback.
I think the use of the word, “pragmatic” really means “status quo”, which is (of course) nothing to get excited about. As for fairy tales? That quip strikes me as little more than a cynical cheer for lower standards… which I think we've seen more than enough of over the past few decades thanks. Why bother to aim for anything higher than the current miserable state? Goals schmoals… (even Nixon had a better idea)
Well heck. I really don't know what to say about this. The way things are going though, it may be advantageous for Senator Snowe to just go ahead and confess her sins, accept the true faith, and, become a Democrat. She could let her inhibitions run wild with a multitude of good liberal votes that I know deep down she really wants to make.
Thanks Senator! See ya in the funny pages.
Leonidas' comment and those like it make me ponder a bit. Think about why any sane person would object to a public health care program that helps the uninsured and underinsured that pays for itself?
No, I mean REALLY think about it…
Why? The only reason, the one and only reason anyone would object to it is that it cuts into their cash flow in some way via the investment process in MedMob or actually being in the business. What that means is: anyone who objects to the public option is going to Hell because they have chosen money over easing their fellow men's suffering..
You can twist and turn and make up any rebuttal you want to that but it won't change a single iota of the ramifications of the Truth of it.
Getting Sen Snowe involved in supposedly writing the bill gives the Democrats the perfect scapegoat for when it fails. Everything that goes wrong will be eventually blamed on Sen. Snowe. That she is unable to see that she is being played is a massive indication of who stupid she is.
Sil – that pays for itself?
Those are the key words. It does NOT pay for itself, unless by pay for itself you mean it forces massive tax increases (which in turn LOWER, not raise, net revenues. Ask NY Personal income tax receipts were down 10.7 percent, or $410 million. This included a 17.3 percent decrease in quarterly estimated payments—which come largely from the same high-income taxpayers who were hit this year with a 31 percent state personal income tax increase.), and/or massive deficit spending (estamtes range from a LOW of $800B+ to close to $3T).
This is the Liberal's idea of 'pays for itself' – taking other people's money and using at they, in their infinite wisdom, see fit.
Austin
What does your source E.J. McMahon attribute that to? Certainly not health care. It's not even one of their categories.
The Source Austin left out
Schumer (and all automatic public option cronies) will go ignored by both Reid and Obama. Reid can't increase the price tag much more than 100 million over Baucus. Obama wants dearly to hang onto a Republican vote.
Snowe has been acknowledging her possible acceptance of a conditional trigger for about a month and half now. It gives Reid his win (as conditional won't be costed) and Obama his. Snowe gets rewarded. That's the way the game will play out.
Davebo – Sorry your reading comprehensions skills got the better of you again. I was making a simple and obvious (to those who can read at a 6th grade level or above) general observation that raising taxes reduces net revenues, and used a very current example to illustrate that point. (You still with me? The words are not too big for you?).
And there is no doubt that that every health care reform option being considered both raises taxes and requires additional deficit spending from the US Treasury (AKA our tax dollars).
I cannot make this explanation into a picture book for you due to the limitations of DISQUS, but maybe you can get a friend to help explain the tricky parts to you.
Oh Austin! You're so smart!
Let me see if I can point out your logical fallacy without resorting to school yard tactics.
Facts.
At least 48 states have addressed or still face shortfalls in their budgets for fiscal year 2010 totaling $168 billion or 24 percent of state budgets.
There couldn't be a low tax red state among those 48 right?
Oops.. TX? WY? UT? CO? LA? Freaking liberal utopias those! But wait? AL? Not Alabama!!!
Links always help
Now, I wonder what could be causing these shortfalls nationwide in even the redest states?
Hmmmm… What on earth could it be? I'm sure one of you with an education higher than my 6th grade level could clue me in.
You know Austin. When I was a kid my Grandpappy used to set me on his knee and say Davebo. Whatever happens, don't be a prick.
It's too bad you didn't spend enough time with yours.
Hmmm. Sitting on your Grandpappy's 'knee' discussing pricks. Explains a lot.
And please try to be accurate in your insults. I am not a prick; I am an asshole.
FYI – Baucus Bill Would Impose 23% Marginal Tax Rate Increase on Middle Class
CBO Report
Kathy, I'm disappointed you'd go so low, so vigorously. Snowe is a lightweight, more pathetic example in the real world of the worst that liberal people contrive or outright imagine, in their anger, about Joe Lieberman.
On the far-lefty talk radio so far this morning, the word is more realistic, among the impatient, even exasperated liberals, notably among the “progressives”: They're adamant that pleasing Snowe not be any kind of serious objective, sought at the risk of losing far too much in the name of compromise or negotiation even before real negotiating has yet to happen. (The Senate pre-final-legislation dickering is only the warm-up to the real fireworks, the House final-legislation crafting and then the main event, the House-Senate conference, with “progressives” insistent that their lib Dems, especially in the House, not throw away anything, seek as much as they can get, and especially not over-value and defer to Snowe.)
“every health care reform option being considered both raises taxes and requires additional deficit spending”
The Dems are continuing to rely on substitution of Feeling Good for understanding the basics. If or when that fails, there's always the resort to convincing the easily convinced that Somebody Else or Society will pay for this, magically.
(In this case, actually, Medicare providers as well as beneficiaries are going to be robbed — this effort is so sloppy that blatant, raw cannibalism is being sought, with the dirty work being delayed until after the 2010 elections, ideally until after 2012 and re-election of Obama or election of another Dem President. It's so crude as well as sloppy I'm amazed that the Dems believe everyone is so stupid as to either fail to notice the obvious, or tolerate it. Note that with Medicare, Team Obama is engaging in typical low-IQ vote buying and probably a diversionary tactic: Even though the cost of living is stagnant and no Social Security cost of living increase is merited, Team Obama wants to provide a small increase. This is not only cheap vote-buying of those whose votes are so cheaply and easily bought, but very likely related to the current health care effort and continued plans as of now to loot Medicare to “pay” for the new, larger health care “reform” initiative. The most sordid encore will be if this vote-buying increase and diversion of the easily-diverted will be done in the name of facing increases in health care costs!)
“Think about why any sane person would object to a public health care program that helps the uninsured and underinsured that pays for itself?”
You forgot to promise me my free perpetual motion machine, Sil.
Pragmatic means can be done, the pipe dreamers on the far-left don't have enough Democratic Party support to get what they are seeking, time they woke up and smelled the coffee.
On the other hand, some would say supporting theft would send you to hell. Want to help your fellow man? VOLUNTARILY give YOUR OWN money to charity like St. Jude's. I think God would smile more on that than stealing from others.
DLS said “Snowe is a lightweight…”
Whatever Olympia Snowe may be, she is no lightweight. She is the most effective and influential moderate Democrat in the Senate. A fete she has managed to accomplish while remaining a Republican.
[Snowe:] “moderate Democrat”
True! (If she were honest, she'd officially be a Democrat, too.)
* * *
“Pragmatic means can be done”
The “status quo” lie has always been a lie. Even the Republicans currently opposing “reform” aren't opposed to real reform, just being dysfunctional; in addition, they are being sidelined and can't expect their proposals for (real) reform to be taken seriously.
Meanwhile, the impatient, exasperated libbie-Dems are ready to roll. About Steele's recent remark:
“Well, I’m the cow on the tracks, and you’re going to have to stop that train to get this cow off the tracks and move forward.”
The far-left talk radio crowd has had a great morning with this remark.
* No, we don't have to stop the train.
* Run his ass over!
* You've got a union engineer at the controls of the locomotive! Don't expect the train to stop.
* We'll celebrate the passage of health care legislation with hamburger!
Et cetera.
[...] Olympia Snowe, Superstar (themoderatevoice.com) [...]