No Vote on healthcare till Jan 2010

BELGRADE, Montana (CNN) -- President Obama on Friday took his push for a health care overhaul to traditionally conservative Montana, saying a bill to extend coverage to the uninsured while helping those already with coverage will pass this year.


"We're taking some time to make sure it's done right," Rep. John Murtha tells his constituents.
2 of 2 However, an influential Democratic representative said the House would only pass a health care bill in January or later, signaling continuing rifts within Obama's party on his domestic priority for 2009.

"We're taking some time to make sure it's done right," said Rep. John Murtha of Pennsylvania. "I don't know that we'll get something done before January, and even then we may not get it done. We're going to do it right when it's finally done."

Obama told a largely supportive Montana audience at his second of three town hall meetings this week that fixing the health care system requires improving health insurance practices and reducing the costs of treatment. He sought questions from skeptics of his proposed health care overhaul, seeking to confront some misconceptions fueled by opponents Democrats say are undermining the debate.

One man who identified himself as a proud National Rifle Association supporter and believer in the Constitution asked how the government would pay to expand health insurance coverage to 46 million uninsured people.

"You can't tell us how you're going to pay for this," said the questioner, Randy Rathie, a welder from Ekalaka, Montana. "The only way you're going to get the money is to raise our taxes. That's the only way you can do that."

Obama responded with his oft-repeated explanation that two-thirds of the cost of overhauling health care -- estimated at about $900 billion over 10 years -- would come from eliminating waste and improving efficiency in the current system, which includes the government-run Medicare and Medicaid programs for the elderly and impoverished.

The rest would have to come from new revenue, he agreed with the questioner, and he called for reducing the amount of deductions that people making more than $250,000 a year can make on their income taxes.

"If we did that alone, just that change alone ... that would raise enough to pay for health care reform," Obama said, noting that would meet his election campaign pledge to avoid any tax increase on people earning less than $250,000 a year.

However, Obama said some taxes would have to be raised, and the crowd applauded when he said he believes people with more money, like himself, ought to pay a heavier burden.

"We've got to get over this notion that we can have something for nothing," Obama said. "That's how we got into this deficit and this debt in the first place."

In reference to emotional and heated debate at some other town hall meetings across the country in recent weeks, Obama told Rathie, "I appreciate your question, the respectful way you asked it, and by the way, I also believe in the Constitution."

Afterward, Rathie said he was impressed by Obama's performance but remained skeptical.

"I don't think he knows where that money's going to come from," he said. "If he does, he's not saying."

Obama noted there is more work to be done, with Congress seeking to merge at least four bills, along with a possible compromise agreement being negotiated by Democratic Sen. Max Baucus and five other members of his Senate Finance Committee, into a single bill in September.

Another questioner chosen when Obama asked for a skeptic identified himself as an insurance provider who wanted to know why Obama and Democrats are vilifying the insurance industry in the health care debate. Earlier in the meeting, Obama described what he called discriminatory practices by insurance companies that dropped coverage of people who became sick or refused to cover those with pre-existing medical conditions.

Obama noted some insurance companies are contributing to the reform debate, but said others are spending millions of dollars to try to defeat any health care legislation. For a health care overhaul to work for everyone, he said, it has to ensure all Americans are covered so that insurance companies have incentive to participate.

They won't be able to exclude coverage for pre-existing conditions or "cherry pick" healthy people while refusing coverage for sick people, Obama said, so increasing the total numbers covered will be the enticement.

On Saturday, Obama will hold another town hall meeting in Grand Junction, Colorado, before vacationing in some national parks with his family next week. In addition, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Obama will hold "some events not yet announced" in coming days.

While Obama has said consensus can be reached on health care reform, contentious town hall meetings held by lawmakers around the country have created a different impression.

The White House, and many Democrats in Congress, hope that by building support in the West, the president can start to turn the tide. Though the region is largely Republican, Obama made some inroads in the latest election. He won in Colorado and lost by just a slim margin in Montana.

However, Murtha's comments in Bentleyville, Pennsylvania, to CNN affiliate WJPA signaled continuing divisions among House Democrats over the scope and pace of health care legislation.

"We said to the speaker [House Speaker Nancy Pelosi], the leadership, let's not rush this thing," Murtha said. "Let's do it right, so we'll have a uniquely American plan, if the thing passes."

Obama's town hall events are just part of a larger Democratic strategy for winning support in the region.

The Democratic National Committee began a TV ad this week promoting the president's health care plan. A committee spokesman said the ad will run on national cable as well as on local cable in New Hampshire, Montana, Colorado and the District of Columbia.

The group Families USA, which supports the president's plan, also launched a campaign Thursday that includes an ad running in a dozen states -- among them Montana and Colorado.

But groups opposed to the president's plan have their own campaigns.

One voter in Livingston, Montana, not far from where the president spoke in Belgrade, summarized the kinds of concerns that she and many others in the region have.

"I believe that there is a health care crisis, I really do," Sonja McDonald, who voted for Obama in 2008, told CNN's Ed Henry on Thursday. "Do I believe that the government needs to be more involved? No!"

Henry met McDonald at a clinic that gets half its funding from taxpayers.

"The government being involved is fine," McDonald said. "It's just ... when they try and overstep, when they try to say, 'No, this is what needs to be done.' "


http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/08/...are/index.html


Seriously ?!?!!!? Jan 2010 ?! what do they intend to do till then ?! This is seriously pushing CIR way pass midterm elections.

Bullshit! Bush was able to do whatever he wanted with this contry with barely a smidge of a majority for only part of his presidency. He didn't "negotiate" shit. I know Obama and the Dems are better, but what f***ing good does it do then to have 60 votes in the Senate, majority in the House and a Democratic Presidency if it's not enough to get shit done??????!!!!!!!

They make Bush look like f***ing Einstein: He only looked stupid, but boy was he smart to get his crap "done", if you can call ruining the country that.


WTF?????!!!!! Health care should have been out of committee and floored for a vote back in June. And we would have had immigration reform discussions by now. F***k the Democratic wimps. You know who is actually holding her promise? House speaker Pelosi. Health care reform is pretty much done in the house. IT'S THE SENATE! YOU KNOW, WHERE 60 VOTES ARE NEEDED TO PASS A FILIBUSTER? WHAT DO YOU SAY? WE HAVE 60 VOTES? THEN WTF IS THE PROBLEM??????!!!!!

I think this pushing immigration further and further down would be a wonderful idea, if we could some how freeze ourselves and have time not pass us over. Or we can simply stop time.

Wait has anyone discovered how to stop time yet?


dam!

At least Bush knew he had the power to do executive orders and he abused it with no hesitation.

Is every representative required to be involved with the health care in some form or manner till its brought out to a vote or do only a selective people get involved ?!

Reason I ask is, is it possible they may start moving on climate/ financial regulation while the chinks in health bill are being ironed out - or do they just sit on their ass meanwhile

Liberal bloggers watch Obama closely
They wish he'd done more in his first months, and now want action


The Associated Press
updated 11:30 a.m. PT, Fri., Aug 14, 2009
PITTSBURGH - They wish he'd done more in his first eight months, but the liberal bloggers who helped propel Barack Obama to the White House are far from giving up on him.

Gathered in Pittsburgh for the annual Netroots Nation convention, they say they're not disappointed. At least not too disappointed. Yet.

If politics is a meal being served up by the new president, they're just looking for something to at least sweeten the bland, sometimes bitter fare they've grown to expect in Washington.

"He's making some strides ... but I think there needs to be more action," says Los Angeles-based blogger Lisa Derrick, who writes daily about politics, entertainment and pop culture on Firedoglake.com under the name LaFiga.

Rumblings on the left could spell trouble down the road for the president and for other Democrats. The group MoveOn.org is threatening to run ads against moderate and conservative Democrats who don't toe the line on Obama's health care overhaul push.

The president himself is giving too much ground on health care, in the eyes of some of the bloggers here. Some also think he ought to be getting out of Iraq faster. They want him to do away with the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy.

"There's a degree of accountability that's necessary," said Derrick.

The White House hasn't forgotten the bloggers Obama courted in the presidential campaign. His team has elevated the Internet presence of the White House to new heights. And senior Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett will be here in Pittsburgh to address the Netroots convention.


Denim everywhere, the convention's informal atmosphere reflects the vast election support Obama garnered among youngish, tech-savvy people, many of whom became involved in the political process for the first time.

Determine to remain vigilant
After actively helping usher Obama into the Oval Office — often employing Web-based organizing — many now refuse to relinquish their newly discovered role in democracy, determined to remain vigilant in ensuring the president makes good on campaign promises.

"I will wait and see. I will watch, but I don't see myself at the point of completely disappointed," said Karen Johnson, a Portland, Ore., "lurker" on the Daily Kos Web site, meaning she comments and reads daily, but doesn't blog.

Still, there is disappointment, many say, that Obama has failed to actively pursue what they call Bush-era crimes — from torture in the terror war to a blurring of lines at home between the Department of Justice and the White House.

And they view the health care debate with trepidation, saying Obama has not provided a clear plan or spoken out strongly enough against hardline critics who have turned some lawmakers' town hall meetings into screaming matches. Now, they say, Obama is on the defensive, weakening his attempt to overhaul the system.


"They're compromising too easy, too soon," said Pittsburgh-based blogger David DeAngelo, who writes on the Web site 2politicaljunkies.

"But on the other hand, it's going so much better than a McCain presidency would have," DeAngelo added.

DeAngelo's blogging partner, Maria Lupinacci, who initially supported Hillary Rodham Clinton, said if Obama does not provide a viable public health care option to compete against the private sector, he will lose the support of progressive liberals.

Despite the criticism, the blogging duo stops short of outright disappointment.

"I always saw him as a good, liberal Democrat. I never saw him as progressive, so he's doing what I expected," Lupinacci said. "So, I'm not necessarily surprised, disappointed or happy."

The wars
Most bloggers are understanding of Obama's position in Iraq and Afghanistan. Though many would prefer an immediate troop pullout, they acknowledge the obstacles, intricacies and complexities of both wars.

Here, the virtual world meets reality.

Some bloggers say it would be nice if the United States could just leave and hope for the best — but they also say it would be dangerous and counterproductive in the current environment.

Others back Obama completely in Afghanistan, supporting troop enhancements and empathizing with him for being left to clean up what they describe as the mess created by the Bush administration.

"They're the ones that attacked us," Sean Wong, a Los Angeles-based blogger who writes under the name Bruin Kid on the Daily Kos Web site, says of Afghanistan.


Obama, Wong adds, has also improved U.S. standing internationally, reversing in just the first few months of his presidency much of the damage done by Bush administration policies.

Wong wishes Obama would have taken strong measures early on that he feels could have been done without the loss of significant political ground — such as repealing the military's ban on enlisting gays — he echoes the general feel in the convention corridors.

"I'm still happy with what he's done," he says, grinning.


Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32419235...s-white_house/

I wouldn't trust someone like John Murtha... one of the most corrupt members of Congress...

^

Regardless, Obama has said bill vote by end of this year. google it. There isnt much difference between end of year and Jan.

Can somoene answer my question, while the Bill is being forumlated by a select few... can the congress in general start moving on the next legislation or do they just idle till the current legislation is voted on ?

I never liked this Obama guy. Lets just hope he finish the health care deal soon and moves over to immigration fast.

Hmm... Don't listen to what idiot senators have to say.. Listen to the big boss (Obama). He has said on his town hall meetings that he wants to do it before 2010, he has also said the sooner the better.