{"id":190659,"date":"2009-11-05T16:13:00","date_gmt":"2009-11-05T21:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2009\/11\/05\/healthcare-update\/"},"modified":"2009-11-05T16:13:00","modified_gmt":"2009-11-05T21:13:00","slug":"healthcare-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2009\/11\/05\/healthcare-update\/","title":{"rendered":"Healthcare Update"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"border: 1px solid black; margin: 0px 10px; width: 410px; float: right; text-align: center;\">Click for full size<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/img97.imageshack.us\/img97\/1204\/503135241.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/img97.imageshack.us\/img97\/1204\/503135241.jpg\" bordercolor=\"white\" width=\"400\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a> <span style=\"font-style: italic;\"><span>AARP Executive VP Nancy LeaMond and House Leaders<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<p>Well, today <a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/features\/health\/la-na-seniors-healthcare6-2009nov06,0,4854487.story\">both the AMA and the AARP endorsed healthcare reform<\/a>, which, I think makes the possibility of passage significantly greater.<\/p>\n<p>Note that some of the constituencies in the AMA, most notably, the &#8220;American Assn. of Neurological Surgeons, the American Society of General Surgeons and the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery,&#8221; came out against this, but note that these are people who make their money when preventative care <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">fails<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>Notwithstanding Harry &#8220;No Balls&#8221; Reid&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/40yrs.blogspot.com\/2009\/11\/what-pathetic-excuse-for-majority.html\">statement that there may not be a bill this year<\/a>, the House of Representatives is moving forward full throttle, with a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/apps\/news?pid=20601087&amp;sid=aA0MorUY5hWQ&amp;pos=9\">vote scheduled for this Saturday<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Steve Benin also notices that the Republican opposition to the bill <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonmonthly.com\/archives\/individual\/2009_11\/020809.php\">might not be as unified as it was for the stimulus package<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 153);\"><p>Republicans will overwhelmingly reject the Democrats&#8217; healthcare reform measure when it is reaches the House floor, according to a key lawmaker.<\/p>\n<p>Rep. Kevin McCarthy (Calif.), who serves as deputy GOP whip, told The Hill that the number of Republicans supporting the sweeping legislation will be &#8220;very, very close to zero.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> Mr. Benin, much like I did, &#8220;assumed it was a foregone conclusion that every House Republican would vote against reform, just as every House Republican voted against the economic recovery package and against this year&#8217;s budget plan,&#8221; while this quote implies that there might be 1 or 2, or perhaps even a few more votes for the bill.<\/p>\n<p>I think that this situation can be explained in 4 words, <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Joseph_Cao\">Anh &#8220;Joseph&#8221; Quang Cao<\/a>, the Republican who defeated incumbent William &#8220;Dollar Bill&#8221; Jefferson in an overwhelmingly Republican district, because Jefferson was under indictment for corruption.<\/p>\n<p>He knows that no matter how much support Republicans throw his way, and they won&#8217;t throw much, he&#8217;s a goner unless he actually considers his district&#8217;s needs.<\/p>\n<p>Even in Louisiana, he cannot count on his opposition facing corruption charges for <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">every<\/span> election.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Click for full size AARP Executive VP Nancy LeaMond and House Leaders Well, today both the AMA and the AARP endorsed healthcare reform, which, I think makes the possibility of passage significantly greater. Note that some of the constituencies in the AMA, most notably, the &#8220;American Assn. of Neurological Surgeons, the American Society of General &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[998,1000,1046,1020],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-190659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress","category-elections","category-healthcare","category-legislation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190659"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190659\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}