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   Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Gnter Grass still thinks reunification was a bad idea.
 Forty years of writing from Taylor Branch, James Fallows, Katherine Boo, Marjorie Williams, Joshua Micah Marshall, and more.
 With help from Washington, the for-profit college industry is loading up millions of low-income students with debt they'll never pay off.
 The best recent memoir from republican Washington is a hoax. That should tell you something.
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November 10, 2009
THE END-OF-THE-YEAR DEADLINE.... About a week ago, there were a few reports that the Senate is unlikely to get health care reform done before the end of the calendar year. On Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) was asked, "Will you pass health care reform this year?" He replied, "We are not going to be bound by any timetables." The push, however, is still on. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters, "We want to get health care done by the end of the year.... And when we say the end of the year, we've got a pretty firm end-of-the-year deadline." Meeting that deadline isn't going to be easy. Right now, The Senate is in a holding pattern, waiting for a CBO score. If it comes by the end of the week, as the leadership hopes, expect a quick turnaround.
Monday is Nov. 16, which at first blush may look like it gives the chamber plenty of time to get this done before the end of the year. But the closer one looks, the more arduous the schedule appears. The moment Reid can move forward, he will. The first step will be a Republican filibuster on the motion to proceed -- just getting the process started, letting the debate begin. If the majority can overcome that first level of GOP obstructionism, they'll run into another -- Republicans may demand that the entire bill be read aloud, a tactic that is usually waived as a routine Senatorial courtesy, which would add a few more days of delay. Clearing these hurdles would give the chamber three weeks in December to debate the bill and consider amendments. Even optimists seem to think that the best we can hope for is Senate passage by Christmas. At that point, conference negotiations and final votes would occur in the New Year, with the expectation that the bill would be signed into law before the State of the Union address. "I'm optimistic about that," Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chairman Robert Menendez (N.J.) said of such a timetable. —Steve Benen 8:00 AM Permalink | Trackbacks | Comments (12)Comments
The moment Reid can move forward, he will. Wrong. That sentence should read: The moment Reid can capitulate, he will I wouldn't be even slightly surprised if Reid's "movement" involved going to Holy Joe and promising to rewrite the bill to funnel 20% of all federal tax revenues directly into the coffers of the health insurers while banning abortion and naming Joe Senate Majority Leader. (And Joe would probably filibuster even that bill.) Posted by: Domage on November 10, 2009 at 8:05 AM | PERMALINKharry reid ushering it thru? you can bet there won't be a vote before year's end. unless it's to guarantee its failure. Make them work through the holidays...I have to. Posted by: SaintZak on November 10, 2009 at 8:15 AM | PERMALINKI second what SaintZak says. If Republicans want to filibuster, make them do it on Christmas Eve. Posted by: tom on November 10, 2009 at 8:16 AM | PERMALINKI feel like everyone is being way too positive around here lately and exhibiting too many glimmers of hope. I think we need more gloom-and-dooming and whining and generalized bitching. Let's not save our criticisms for specific actions or pair them with suggested solutions. It's preferable to obsessively screech in as unspecific and sweeping a manner as possible, all day and every day, world without end, amen. Posted by: pessimissus on November 10, 2009 at 8:18 AM | PERMALINK@Saint & Tom-That would only fuel the war on Christmas onslaught that will be rearing it's ugly head shortly. Posted by: Dave on November 10, 2009 at 8:21 AM | PERMALINKYou know I am not really sure I like the house bill. Hot button stuff aside it has giant holes. The public option looks a lot like the place health care insurers will want to dump sick people. The exchanges won't cover that many people. Most importantly there are virtually no real breaks on rising costs. The "good parts" of the bill won't even kick in until 2013. I am sorry but I don't know why progressives are happy about this bill. Posted by: Ron Byers on November 10, 2009 at 8:27 AM | PERMALINKI'll repeat a suggestion I made earlier: Every 12 minutes the "funeral march" (dum dum da dum da da dum de dum de dummmm) should sound out over the sound system on the Senate floor. That should be followed by some Democrat shouting out, "Human life is sacred, huh?" Light a fire under these @sshole Republicans and @sshole DINOs.
@Saint & Tom-That would only fuel the war on Christmas onslaught that will be rearing it's ugly head shortly. No doubt. But they really don't need three full days to do their Veterans' Day photo ops, nor do they need the entirety of Thanksgiving week off. They can deal with the horror that is the nation's airports and roads on Wednesday night like the rest of us. Posted by: shortstop on November 10, 2009 at 8:32 AM | PERMALINKI hope they've still got that speed-reading guy on retainer... Posted by: Redshift on November 10, 2009 at 9:26 AM | PERMALINKIf Harry Reid wasn't the mealy-mouthed chickenshit that he is, he would cancel the holiday recess (other than the actual holidays) and start calling for cloture votes ASAP and continue calling them until they can vote on the bill. Make them wear Depends (if they aren't already). Posted by: bdop4 on November 10, 2009 at 9:56 AM | PERMALINKCan anyone shed some light on Thom Hartmann's proposal that if HC reform goes down in flames in the senate... that because the reconciliation process is for budgetary issues only...and because Medicare is a budgetary program...the reconciliation process can be used to expand Medicare for all requiring only a 51 vote majority? If true then why has no senator even mentioned this possibility? Of course we know senate repubs will use every tactic possible to stall, water down and corrupt HC reform as they attempt to kill it. I hate it when they try to tell us what the American people want or support based on the loud mouth few rather than the polls of their constituents. Seems that the people are ignored when ever they disagree with what the senator wants. Posted by: bjobotts on November 10, 2009 at 2:47 PM | PERMALINKPost a comment
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