Calm before the storm: Does silence on Warren signal decision soon?
An eerie calm has descended over the blogosphere after the feeding frenzy that broke out earlier this week on whether President Barack Obama was poised to name Elizabeth Warren to lead the new consumer financial agency.
The week started with an avalanche of stories and blogs speculating on the possibility of Obama naming Warren, a Harvard law professor, as an interim director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
The move would have allowed Obama to avoid what would likely be a heated confirmation battle.
Senators Chris Dodd, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins expressed reservations about the temporary appointment on Tuesday, urging Obama not to bypass the Senate confirmation process.
But today, there has been little grist for the mill when it comes to public comments on Warren. Sometimes in Washington, silence means something is brewing.
Could this mean a decision is imminent?
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs seemed to signal the process was moving closer to a decision but gave no specifics on timing.
Snowe says “yes” to Wall St. bill
The decision is in….
Senator Olympia Snowe has ended the suspense, announcing that she will support the financial regulatory reform bill.
Snowe, a moderate Republican from Maine, joined fellow Republicans Scott Brown and Susan Collins – the other senator from Maine — in saying “yes” to the measure that most in their party strongly oppose.
Their backing leaves Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Democrats just one vote shy of the 60 needed for the measure to advance.
While still on the fence over the weekend, Snowe said that the most important thing for her was “to get it right.”
In a statement on Monday, she said the legislation isn’t perfect but “takes necessary steps to implement meaningful regulatory reforms, create strong consumer protections, and restore confidence in the American financial system.”
The three Republican renegades each got some change they wanted before getting behind the bill.
Will she or won’t she?
The suspense continues…
All eyes are on Senator Olympia Snowe, a moderate Republican from Maine, who has not yet decided on how she will vote on financial regulatory reform.
Snowe’s could be the crucial 60th vote after Republican Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown said on Monday that he will support the bill.
On Saturday Snowe said she hadn’t decided and that the most important thing was “to get it right.” Her view had not changed so far today, a staffer tells me.
Republican Senator Judd Gregg told CNBC TV that he expected Democrats to win enough support to pass a broad financial regulation bill.
Democrats are closing in on that magic 60 votes needed in the Senate to clear a procedural hurdle after Brown said: ”While it isn’t perfect, I expect to support the bill when it comes up for a vote.”
If they fail to gain Snowe’s support, the vote will likely have to wait for the governor of West Virginia, a Democrat, to name a Democrat to fill the late Senator Robert Byrd’s seat.
Senate healthcare bill: Opt-out is in, Snowe is not
The opt-out is in.
The Senate healthcare reform legislation will include a form of public option that would allow states to opt out of participating in a government-run insurance plan if they choose.
And Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says his Democrats will support it.
“While the public option is not a silver bullet, I believe it’s an important way to ensure competition and to level the playing field for patients with the insurance industry,” Reid said.
But by including the opt-out, the Democrats lost the lone Republican senator to vote for healthcare legislation — Senator Olympia Snowe from Maine — who opted out because of the opt-out.
Snowe, who favored a trigger (those of you following the debate know what that means), says she’s “deeply disappointed” with Reid’s decision.
And the responses are rolling in:
I watched in dismay for months as inlaws and friends suffered and eventually died while waitin for tests and treatments that would have begun in days in America. Public option is NOT the answer. Government cannot run this system. The pay scake abd such DOES lead to rationing of care. This is not from the “greed of the government” as often cited. It is from the lack of doctors. With pay limited to government levels, the best and the brightest do not have a desire to be doctors. We had about 40 doctors in our city. Population was slightly over 100,000.
The First Draft: Let it Snowe, Let it Snowe, Let it Snowe
Republican Senator Olympia Snowe is having her day in the sun.
Snowe blanketed morning TV talk shows. The main question posed to the Maine moderate: How does it feel to be all alone?
“I have to focus on what I think is right. My constituents expect that in Maine, they want me to do what I think is right for the country, for the state,” she said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”
“And so I decided to set aside my own differences and try to see what was right for the country and moving forward.”
After becoming the first (and only) Republican to vote for healthcare reform, siding with the Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee bill Tuesday, everyone is imagining all sorts of intrigue.
Will she get a stern talking-to by Republican leaders (plenty of hidden backrooms in the warren of Capitol Hill)? Will they try to lure her back to toe the line with promises of a top seat on a top committee? Will Republicans outright shun her, make her stand in a corner, wear a big red letter???
With all the Republican pressure, will she melt?
She voted against making the bill available for debate
Snowe jumps ship in attempt to turn healthcare “Titanic”
Well, she did it.
Republican Senator Olympia Snowe, a moderate from Maine, jumped off the Republican steamer to vote yes on the Senate Finance Committee’s healthcare reform bill.
In explaining why she was voting against the Republican line, Snowe likened changing the healthcare status quo to “turning the Titanic around” before it hit the iceberg.
She became the first Republican to vote for changing the healthcare system, which has become President Barack Obama’s signature domestic issue.
The committee voted 14-9 for the bill, almost fully on party lines.
Snowe cited hurdles that have in the past sunk healthcare reform attempts and said it was time to change the trend of inaction.
“So is this bill all that I would want? Far from it. Is it all that it can be? No. But when history calls, history calls,” Snowe said.
The First Draft: H-Day
Will Republican Senator Olympia Snowe, a moderate from Maine, become the first Republican in Congress to back a healthcare reform bill?
Will one or more Democrats defect from President Barack Obama’s signature issue?
The suspense is almost too much to bear…
The Senate Finance Committee meets at 10 a.m. to vote on its version of sweeping healthcare reform.
While the panel is expected to approve it, the drama is all in the HOW and WHO…
Of course today’s vote is still some steps away from when a bill would go before the full Senate for consideration, but it will offer some insight into how the rest of the journey will progress (or not).
A classic example of what will happen with a government single payer system was amplified for me today.I walk my dogs in a park which has it,s upkeep contracted out to a private company.They employ a young man who on his own manages the park and does a great job in the process.Occasionally the city “Parks and Recreation”crews show up and no one seems to know what they do! Today two trucks pulled up and 6 city employees got out,and the 2 hours i was there all they did was lean against their trucks doing nothing apart from the occasional “high fives”.Welcome to government heath care!
Pistol Packin’ Pelosi? finger on healthcare trigger
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has put the insurance industry on notice that if congressional Democrats are forced to compromise on a government-run health insurance plan and accept a “trigger” proposed by Republican Senator Olympia Snowe, get ready for some major fire power.
Snowe has proposed a compromise that would “trigger” the creation of a new public plan should insurance market reforms fail to meet affordability and quality benchmarks.
At a news conference in San Francisco, Pelosi was asked about the “trigger” idea that has gained new strength in recent days as the White House looks for a potential compromise that would help get President Barack Obama’s proposed healthcare overhaul through Congress.
Pelosi warned insurance companies that they should accept the Senate health committee proposal that would create a public plan because “if they want no public option but a trigger, you can be sure that the trigger will bring on a very robust public option.”
The Senate health committee version would put the public option on a more even competitive playing field with private insurers than the original House proposal. The House bill moved closer to the Senate version in a compromise with conservative Democrats worried that the public option would undermine private insurers.
One thing is for certain, the healthcare fight is far from over.
I can not believe what has happened to my country. Who are the idiots who sent this elitist, treasonous, sociopath, Palosi to Washington anyway? Read history people. We are moving quickly down a path that has never turned out well anywhere in the world. Ever! You left wing nuts may just get what you think you want but you will be sorry.
The First Draft: The president keeps campaigning
Back from his overseas trip, President Barack Obama has spent this week as campaigner-in-chief.
Every day Obama has pushed lawmakers to approve an overhaul of the healthcare industry — the president’s top legislative priority.
And last night he made a quick trip up to New Jersey to do some political campaigning and inject some presidential charisma into Governor Jon Corzine’s struggling re-election campaign.
While Obama was stumping for Corzine, his vice president Joe Biden was on a similar mission — campaigning for the Democratic nominee for governor in Virginia, Creigh Deeds.
The Virginia and New Jersey governor elections in November are among the first major contests since Obama took office in January and could be seen as barometers of his success in achieving his agenda.
Obama is also pressing Congress to pass healthcare legislation before its August recess.
After meeting Obama at the White House on Thursday, moderate Republican Senator Olympia Snowe said she urged the president to be patient. She told him it was “overly ambitious” to set an August deadline for Senate passage of the massive healthcare overhaul.
another very unpopular democratic politician having to get obama to try and bail him out. his trip to nevada to try and rescue harry reed did not make a lot of difference. this is now a one man party as the popularity of the democratic congress sinks even lower,they have built this man up, now if it is all a ruse and he does not live up to the great expectations that people were lead to believe was a certainty ,then these are going to be interesting times politically,particularly if in two years we are bleeding taxes and unemployment is about 13%.
Obama trying hard to get healthcare back on track
President Barack Obama is pushing hard to get health care reform back on track after it veered a bit off course while he was in Europe last week.
He has spent the better part of the week pushing the issue. First he went after “nay-sayers and cynics,” warning them “don’t bet against us.”
“I just want to put everybody on notice, because there was a lot of chatter during the week that I was gone: We are going to get this done,” he said. “Inaction is not an option.” Then he stood with nursing leaders in the Rose Garden and tried to buck people up.
“It’s time for us to buck up Congress, this administration, the entire federal government to be clear that we’ve got to get this done,” Obama said. “Our nurses are on board. The American people are on board. It’s now up to us.”
The last couple of days he has been meeting with lawmakers, listening to their concerns about the legislation and prodding them to action — not always to good effect.
Maine Senator Olympia Snowe said she told the president Thursday his goal of passing a bill early August wasn’t realistic.
“It is important for us to take the time to work through these issues,” she said after a White House visit. “I thought it was overly ambitious to accomplish passing it on the Senate floor before the August recess.”
Obama needs to read the Bible, and pray everyday. Not to mention, he needs to “love” everyone he sees; even those who persecute him.
Obama doesn’t need to get everyone under his thumb and fix it so America will be controlled by the government. That’s evil.
Obama needs to be an inspiration, so Americans will concentrate on putting the Lord Jesus Christ #1 in their lives.
Whoever came up with the idea to put God out of the country should be fired.
