I am a dedicated Obama follower, he has my deepest respect, I worry though that if we wait much longer we will never get it done, I hope I am wrong.

I admire the President's focus on rationl thinking, but it scares me, too. The Republican party does not see rationality as a winning strategy. No matter what Pres Obama says or does, they are not going to play ball. They only electoral hope they have, after their last turn at power, is to basically blow up the country and blame it on the Current Occupant.

It's sick, but it fits all the evidence I've seen recently.

Ever been on a beach during an earthquake?

The sand becomes almost like a liquid and you find yourself

in quicksand, losing the sense of solid ground.

The Republicans are shaking the sand so that the Democrats can't get a solid footing.

The solid beach is our economy, public healthcare, whatever, trying to hold us all. The shaking sands suck folks under into the depths of debt.

Why are we rewarding the sand shakers, those that seek to undermine Obama's agenda?

Privatizing is equivalent to waves reclaiming the beach and depositing it in an offshore bank account, shoals of the wealthy and greedy.

We need a solid government, not shifting sands of corporate gluttony.

I can tell you that at least my insurance company, American Family is not waiting.

I received a notice two days ago that it is increasing my private health policy premium by 31%. This is the largest percent increase I have experienced.

Their excuse: health care inflation in my home state of Illinois and the annual increases due to aging.

But the timing of this is very suspicious. The press had informed us earlier that premiums would be rising at the companies anticipated passage of HCA. And, my company has typically announced their premium increases in September.

There is going to be a backlash about this, especially if Congress does not follow through by passing the freaking legislation. And the Republicans are going to use this as a potent political weapon (my cynical mind tells me they will be colluding with the insurance companies on this).

Anybody else out there receiving premium notices?
I have not read any accounts in the press.

I just don't get the whining Senate. I thought they all saw themselves as gods, so why do they need Obama (a mere branch of gov't and former junior Senator) to do anything?

He said it in his SOTU, he said it to there face to get it done, but they need him to tell him HOW to do it? Tell me please what the Senate does that is good for our nation.

Hey liberals! I'm here at the Tea Party Convention! Awesome! There was a prayer breakfast yesterday, followed by a tailgate party and wet T-shirt contest. Today I might even take in some policy meetings.

Lou,

I am a benefits broker. Most of my corporate clients (25-200 ee's typically) are seeing increases between 15-25%. Some a little lower, others a little higher.

I can tell you that medical inflation in the state of Illinois is around 10%. Some of the rest of the increase is due to demographic changes (age, M/F, etc.) Some is due to the other companies in the pool that the insurance companies put you into. BUT, I am firmly convinced that the insurance companies are padding their increases due to the looming reform bill. AND, I am fairly certain that their is collusion in the industry.

It sounds like you buy your own personal policy. If you don't have the benefit of a group policy at your place of work (or if you are self-employed) there is not much you can do to force your premium down other than increase your deductible. And pray for HCR.

I think the President is keeping a "hands off" approach because he's trying to get Congress - the House and Senate - to do the jobs the people elected them to do. Why should he have to spend his political capital on Senators like Lieberman, Landrieu and Nelson - who held the entire process hostage for weeks? No way would I do it if I were him.

I'm betting he realizes a few less Democratic Senate seats will do him a world of good in that the Republicans would have to engage and start working for the benefit of the country. Especially any moderate Republicans who would win in very moderate states.

That's a good game plan in my opinion.

Retired Fed here and the most popular, BC/BS increased premiums 12% in January. Amounts to about $11 more per week.

Grid: Thanks for the comment.

My family deductible is $11,900 which rises every year with inflation. Yes, this is a personal policy, high deductible, health savings account. Yes, I am self employed.

I have checked policies with other companies. There is no price competition on similar policies.

Insurance Companies = Greedy Bastards

Lou,

Yikes. Can I ask how much you pay for the policy?

Grid: The annual premium is now $5652.00. That is for me, wife and 2 kids. It held steadily about $3000 per year for a couple of years, but now seems to be in a rapid growth phase.

The premium on my previous high deductible (non HSA) was over $10,000 and rising rapidly. I don't think my current policy is as strong as my previous policy either. Basically, I am mostly self insured with a fall back catastrophic plan. I am out of pocket almost $18,000 before the insurance kicks in. No eye, no dental. That is all out of pocket, or from the HSA, which is still my own money.

Why can't Congress do their own legislative strategy?? Why does the Prez have to hold their damn hands thru everything?? They act like a bunch of unruly schoolchildren. He has other things to do besides babysit the Congress.

I have already decided this Congress is useless.

This post is depressing. I feel like we elected Mr. Rogers for President. He would take the time to hear "alternate ideas from Republicans?" What is he thinking?

It has been clear to me since the "gang of six" talks that there are several Democratic Senators that do not want to pass HCR in any shape or form without any Republican votes for cover. Chickenshits every one. They are leaning hard on Obama not to make them vote without better cover. This is why I think that the only leverage the House has is to pass the Senate bill. This forces those gutless Senators to vote for changes through reconciliation or, heaven forbid, go to the voters in November with their crappy Senate bill.

These gutless wonders will hate Nancy Pelosi to their dying day and millions of Americans will thank her. I hope Pelosi gives them a hard deadline which is what should have been done with Baucus. She may yet save Obama's presidency.

I can't believe this bullshit, time and again. Do your motherfucking jobs, Congress. You want to pass something, pass it. You make the deals. You make it happen. Jesus Christ. Why does this have to be like reintroducing a zoo animal into the wild? Why does it take this much re-training to get these dumbfucks to do anything?

Obama: "We hope to have a whole bunch of folks over here in the West Wing, and I'll be rolling up my sleeves and spending some time before the full Congress even gets back into session, because the American people need it now."

Oh wait - that was on 12/23, before the Republicans won a 41-59 majority in the Senate.

It is so frickin' unbelievable! Obama is destroying his remaining political capital so fast with all this mealy-mouthed bullshit, it will be impossible to recover. That's even doubly the case considering all the strength of conviction and optimism he expressed just weeks ago. Maybe he is the Manchurian Candidate, sent to destroy America by eliminating by demoralization the only hope for the country surviving, i.e., populist ideas to recover from the devastation wrought by Republicanism -- his base. If the House continues to refuse to pass the structure of reform the Senate handed to them (which is ready to be passed tomorrow, literally, with the amendment bill the House wants to hand over to the Senate for majority reconciliation vote) will undo what was accomplished in 2006 and 2008. Even worse, it will forever brand the Democratic Party as the party of weakness, the party of cowards, the party that talks big about being for "the people" but refuses to deliver when they get some resistance from Republicans. Good luck on exploiting that image to convince Americans that Democrats will be tough on terrorists!

If they are going to have a prayer of saving themselves, the House needs to act now with no leadership from the White House, which it is obviously not going to get (despite the apparent best thanks-I-needed-that face-slap efforts of Senators Franken and Sanders towards Axelrod), and with no advance commitment from the Senate. I started with considerably less skepticism of Obama and his team than Krugman -- in fact, virtually none, since we gave much in money, time and effort to his campaign, including the primary -- and I have come so far so fast to the dark place where Krugman's at now it astounds me.

The first blow was naming an arrogant, divisive, principle-less and ultimately weak bully of a person like Emanuel his chief of staff. The second was, despite Obama's public protestations to the contrary, deliberately scuttling the public option including the compromise idea that received promising comment from a broad spectrum of Democrats. There was the complete failure to educate Americans on both sides of the debate as to what exactly is and is not in the bill.

And now this. Nobody who actually cares could give up this quickly and abjectly.

congress and the president need to hear a very simple message: No Public Option = No Re-election.