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Obama Urges House Dems: “This Is It. This Is The Moment.”

In today’s closed-door caucus meeting, President Obama urged House Dems to grasp the magnitude of the historical moment, telling them they were on the cusp of an achievement as momentous as Social Security and Medicare, a House Dem who was there tells me.

“He said, `This is it. This is the moment,’” Dem Rep. Jan Schakowsky said in an interview.

Standing behind a podium as many members snapped pictures on their cell phones, Obama urged members to look beyond self-interested political concerns.

“He asked people who are worried about what’s happening back home to remember why we came to public service,” Schakowsky recounted. “He said, `It is a privilege to be able to do this for the American people.’ He used that word.”

“This is a Medicare moment; this is a Social Security moment,” is how Schakowsky described Obama’s message, adding that he noted that both those programs were greeted by scary language about socialism and the end of capitalism. “But these are the moments people are so proud to have been part of.”

To illustrate the point, Obama singled out Dem Rep. John Dingell, who held the gavel during the passage of Medicare, earning Dingell a standing ovation.

Separately, Sam Stein reports that Obama delved into the politics a bit by pointing out that Republicans would continue to attack Dems no matter which way they voted. Schakowsky adds that he told them Dems are all in this together.

It was only a matter of time before Obama — whose election was itself a world-historical event — stepped in to play the role of historical conscience, and to urge nervous Dems preoccupied by parochial politics and GOP attack lines to think big and bold.

***************************************

Update: One other interesting tidbit: Obama didn’t mention anything about the current standoff over abortion, the anti-abortion amendment going into the bill, or what comes next on that front, Schakowsky says.

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Posted by Greg Sargent | 11/07/2009, 02:29 PM EST | Categories: House Dems, President Obama, health care

114 Responses

  1. josephcast | November 7th, 2009 at 02:36 pm

    This is the moment to pass a regressive bill that destroys women’s choices!!! The Stupak amendment is perhaps the biggest piece of $hit the Democrats have tried to pull-over on us yet. If this passes they had BETTER kill it in conference or they’ve lost this voter- FOREVER! I absolutely mean it. I simply cannot believe they are turning over on this. Catholic bishops- IN! Women- get OUT!!

  2. Greg Sargent | November 7th, 2009 at 02:37 pm

    josephcast, actually, you remind me that he didn’t address abortion in the meeting, she says.

  3. Bilgeman | November 7th, 2009 at 02:43 pm

    Mr. Sargent:
    “In today’s closed-door caucus meeting, President Obama urged House Dems to grasp the magnitude of the historical moment, telling them they were on the cusp of an achievement as momentous as Social Security and Medicare”

    Quite true, that. Socialist Utopiacare will result in an even bigger bankruptcy and drag on our economy than Social Security and Medicare combined.

    Historic, actually.

  4. Marie | November 7th, 2009 at 02:49 pm

    I am as strong on reproductive rights as anyone, but it is stunning to see progressives want to derail this effort for the abortion issue alone. We can tweak this, and we will. Boehner knows it too. That’s why he took 3 minutes of non-leader time to try and frighten Stupak & company about what could happen in conference! I am not willing to let “one” issue, although an extremely important one, blow up this achievement. We have to move this along. Thousands of people are depending on us. I beg you, stop this before this ends up like the failed Clinton attempt at healthcare reform! We freakin’ can’t afford to do that. My family can’t & millions of others can’t either!

  5. ChuckinDenton | November 7th, 2009 at 02:50 pm

    Medicare netted double-digit GOP votes in each house of Congress in 1965.

  6. lmsinca | November 7th, 2009 at 02:54 pm

    Marie

    I agree it is shameful what Stupak is trying to do, but we can’t derail the entire bill because of it. It will be fixed in conference I’m sure because the majority of the Dem caucus will not support the language in the long run.

  7. lmsinca | November 7th, 2009 at 02:57 pm

    Repubs would like nothing better than replacing Medicare with a voucher system yet they pander to and scare Seniors into thinking Dems want to take away their coverage. What a bunch of hypocrits.

    Medicare needs to be fixed, definitely, but I wouldn’t want a Republican to suggest how at this point. Especially when you consider what they managed to do with Medicare Part D.

  8. Greg Sargent | November 7th, 2009 at 02:58 pm

    Here’s my question about fixing the abortion thing in conference: If so, don’t the same anti-abortion Dems again threaten to vote No on the final bill?

  9. Andy | November 7th, 2009 at 02:58 pm

    Surprising that when repubs were in power they didn’t take the opportunity to kill those scary socialist programs social security and medicare. I would bet eliminating social security, medicare and the VA will top the republican agenda next year.

    Greg, I would add to your comment, “whose election was itself a world-historical event ” and doubted by all of those who now believe HCR won’t pass.

  10. ChuckinDenton | November 7th, 2009 at 03:07 pm

    “I would bet eliminating social security, medicare and the VA will top the republican agenda next year.”

    Yeah, don’t hold your breath! LOL!

  11. Freehold | November 7th, 2009 at 03:13 pm

    USS New York is commissioning today.

    The amphibious transport dock, laid with seven and a half tons of steel from the World Trade Center in its bow, will be comissioned in a ceremony at the Intrepid Air, Sea and Space Museum Nov. 7.

    Nice photo.
    http://www.strategypage.com/military_photos/20091102221213.aspx

  12. lmsinca | November 7th, 2009 at 03:15 pm

    Good point Greg, but when it comes to the final HCR vote they won’t have the support of Repubs. which is why it’s passing now. Then they will have to decide do they want to derail the entire HCR bill to get their way on this one issue.

  13. Greg Sargent | November 7th, 2009 at 03:18 pm

    lmsinca — right. at that point it becomes a question of which side of history do you want to be on, period. no more procedural votes to hide behind.

  14. lmsinca | November 7th, 2009 at 03:24 pm

    It boils down to this IMHO, and maybe when the debate goes further than this last minute ploy to strip poor women of their legal rights some of these folks will have second thoughts.

    “This “fine for me, but not for thee” attitude makes a mockery of those who base their anti-choice positions in moral rectitude. Bart Supak, the Catholic bishops, and others on the anti-choice right may not like it, but right now abortion is a legal medical procedure. They know they don’t have the votes to change that law, and so they have chosen to fight by oppressing the poor.

    The prophet Ezekiel had a word for that kind of thinking. Speaking to Jerusalem, Ezekiel called that “sodomy”:

    This was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy. (16:49)

    The prophet Amos had harsh words (especially in chapter 5) for those who despise the poor and crush the needy, all while parading their piety. I know your sins, says the Lord, how you create one set of rules for those who can pay and another for those who cannot. So go ahead — make your offerings, says the Lord, and I will reject them. Sing your songs of praise to me, says the Lord, and I will not listen. “But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”

    I know there is a lot of back-and-forth about what Stupak’s amendment will or won’t do. He could clear that all up if he just reworded his proposal and asked Congress to simply make abortion illegal to anyone earning less than $100,000.”

    http://firedoglake.com/2009/11/07/fine-for-me-but-not-for-thee/

  15. Liam | November 7th, 2009 at 03:34 pm

    Having listened to all those Republican Congress members, one by one, declare that they are against letting Government decide on what medical procedures citizens will be allowed to obtain:

    I am waiting, with great anticipation for all those same Republicans to vote for Government to deny coverage, ruled to be constitutional by the Supreme Court, to pregnant women, who’s lives or health are in danger.

    As for the Vatican. They are a hate organization. They hate women who want to make their own health and reproductive decisions. They also hate and smear the homosexual community.

    Now we have a group of men, who claim that God gave them penises, but absolutely wants them to never use them with women, being willing to drop their celibacy requirements for married Anglican priests, who would be willing to join up with the Vatican in their hate campaign against gay people.

    The Vatican hates gay people so much, that they are willing to drop their no marriage for priests rule, in order to accommodate more hate mongers. This, at the same time that the drove a very popular Florida Priest out of the church for having committed the great sin of falling in love with a women.

    He has since married her. Good for him. At least he is one of the few who came to their senses and realized that his ***** was not given to him, merely to be able to count to 11.

  16. Liam | November 7th, 2009 at 03:37 pm

    Greg,

    Fix this childish censoring.

    Edit;

    Pe*nis was not given to him….

  17. Nick | November 7th, 2009 at 03:44 pm

    Bilgeman, I can only say …oh to heck with it; you’re not worth the keystrokes.

  18. cab91 | November 7th, 2009 at 03:59 pm

    “Here’s my question about fixing the abortion thing in conference: If so, don’t the same anti-abortion Dems again threaten to vote No on the final bill?”

    Here what will happen in conference: The abortion amendment can go if the public option goes too. Package deal.

  19. Joe Lieberman | November 7th, 2009 at 04:07 pm

    Man, I can’t wait to filibuster this thing. I am getting goose bumps just thinking about it.

  20. Liam | November 7th, 2009 at 04:20 pm

    Republican Double Speak:

    “This bill will drive Private Health Insurance Companies out of business.”

    Followed by this:

    “This bill will force millions of Americans, and millions of small businesses to purchase health insurance.”

    According to those bloviating Republican liars;

    The bill will both drive Insurance Companies out of business, while at the same time providing them with many millions more of people and businesses purchasing coverage from them.”

    Bloviating Republican Liars Can Not Keep Track Of Their Own Contradictory Lies.

  21. Joe Lieberman | November 7th, 2009 at 04:30 pm

    Did you people honestly think this thing wasn’t going to pass the House when the Democrats have such a huge majority?

    The Senate is where the real action is. Trying to round up sixty votes on anything even remotely similar to the House bill will be a task so difficult it will make what is happening today in the House look like a freakin garden party.

    You can’t filibuster in the House. And as you all know filibustering is my specialty. Do you really think people like Evan Bayh, Blanche Lincoln, Ben Nelson, Mary Landrieu etc. are going to go for a bill like the one passed in the House? You all know better. You can have your temporary victory today, the Senate is where the real action is, and I can tell you now, I will be filibustering the Reid bill.

  22. Greg Sargent | November 7th, 2009 at 04:41 pm

    Liam — I’ll bring it up with the overlords. Apologies for the inconvenience.

  23. jak | November 7th, 2009 at 04:51 pm

    “Man, I can’t wait to filibuster this thing. I am getting goose bumps just thinking about it.”

    Man, I’m getting goosebumps just knowing that there are republicans losing their collective shittt so much that they would troll progressive websites exposing said fear. *Big Grin*

  24. Bilgeman | November 7th, 2009 at 04:52 pm

    Nick:
    “Bilgeman, I can only say …oh to heck with it; you’re not worth the keystrokes.”

    Yes, quite. I have facts and history very strongly on my side in this.

    If you care to learn something about it, this article, which appeared in 1993 in “Reason” magazine, lays out the tale of what was PROMISED with Medicare when it was enacted versus what it actually cost.

    http://reason.com/archives/1993/01/01/the-medicare-monster/

    The “Money Quote”:

    “At its start, in 1966, Medicare cost $3 billion. The House Ways and Means Committee estimated that Medicare would cost only about $ 12 billion by 1990 (a figure that included an allowance for inflation). This was a supposedly “conservative” estimate. But in 1990 Medicare actually cost $107 billion.”

    Have you got that? The Congress underestimated the cost of Medicare by a factor of 10.

    This Socialist Utopiacare before the Congress now…nobody REALLY knows how much it’s going to cost, but we all suspect that it’s going to be “more”, and it will deliver less.

    If you really want to be a member of the “Reality-based community”,(and not some sick joke of an partisan in-group that calls itself that), you really should simply look at the record of the government’s stewardship of that part of the health care industry that it has had for the last 43 years.

    It ain’t pretty.

    Insanity has been described as doing the same thing over and over, and yet expecting a different result each subsequent time.

    Congress and the government are not the answer, They ARE a very large part of the problem.

  25. Andy | November 7th, 2009 at 04:54 pm

    If it’s just up to Joe to filibuster will he do it or does he need the cover of Bayh, Nelson, Lincoln or Landrieu?

  26. Andy | November 7th, 2009 at 05:06 pm

    Do people in the, “Reality-based community” say “nobody REALLY knows how much it’s going to cost” and goes on in the same sentence to say,”but we all suspect that it’s going to be “more”.

    If you don’t know what the cost is, how would you know if it ends up being more?

    Ok, Ok I am just kidding. Seriously, any chance Medicare is broken because of fraud and abuse and the rising costs of the private healthcare system?

  27. Benton | November 7th, 2009 at 05:18 pm

    Wingnuts and teabaggers everywhere are extremely nervous today. They know in their shriveled, microscopic “hearts” just how effectively the Dems’ ultimate passage of HCR will destroy them.

    Civil rights, Medicare and Social Security, anyone?

    Good riddance to these uppity, arrogant, irrelevant extremist, anti-American swine.

  28. ChuckinDenton | November 7th, 2009 at 05:21 pm

    Bilgeman probably thinks the gov’t ought to be out of the national defense business, as well. After all, how much has the Iraq War overrun its initial “estimate”?

    Seeing as how we gave away some oversight to Blackwater, I’m not real enthused about outsourcing…but, thats just me. And some elected representatives…

  29. Joe Lieberman | November 7th, 2009 at 05:42 pm

    “It was only a matter of time before Obama — whose election was itself a world-historical event — stepped in to play the role of historical conscience…”

    Cult of personality? What cult of personality?

    PS I am still gonna filibuster. Hahahahahahahahahaha

  30. Joe Lieberman | November 7th, 2009 at 05:50 pm

    “Wingnuts and teabaggers everywhere are extremely nervous today. They know in their shriveled, microscopic “hearts” just how effectively the Dems’ ultimate passage of HCR will destroy them.”

    They are not extremely nervous. This will only energize them even more. You idiots don’t seem to realize that we have a bicameral legislature. The bill doesn’t become law when it passes the House. Anyone remember that Cap-and-Trade bill that passed the House? Yeah, I don’t either. There are already sixty senators committed to filibustering this thing in the Senate, and I am one of them. And I hate to break it to you, but it is the Dems who should be nervous. The majority of polls show that people do not want ObamaCare.

    http://www.pollster.com/polls/us/healthplan.php

    It will be months before this thing even passes the Senate, if it ever does, and it won’t be anywhere near what the House bill is. By that time unemployment will be around 10.5% and Obama’s approval ratings will be in the toilet.

    “Good riddance to these uppity, arrogant, irrelevant extremist, anti-American swine.”

    Ah, the ever tolerant left. I knew there was a reason I was committed to filibustering the Senate bill. Good to see an idiot on this site doesn’t realize how hypocritical he sounds when he calls someone else arrogant and anti-American because they agree with him.

  31. Joe Lieberman | November 7th, 2009 at 05:51 pm

    Are you guys looking as forward to my filibuster as I am?

  32. Joe Lieberman | November 7th, 2009 at 05:54 pm

    “Ah, the ever tolerant left. I knew there was a reason I was committed to filibustering the Senate bill. Good to see an idiot on this site doesn’t realize how hypocritical he sounds when he calls someone else arrogant and anti-American because they agree with him.”

    I meant to write because they disagree with him. I was getting a little too excited about my pending filibuster.

  33. Joe Lieberman | November 7th, 2009 at 06:00 pm

    Hey guys, I am working on a new movie. It will star me and Evan Bayh, and we are in talks with Ben Nelson and Blanche Lincoln as well. Check out the poster.

    http://mikk2.wordpress.com/2009/10/31/who-ya-gonna-call-filibuster/

  34. lmsinca | November 7th, 2009 at 08:24 pm

    From TPM

    “A Democratic source tells us the House, which has been debating the health care bill all day, will be able to pass the plan tonight.

    The source said they have the needed 218 votes.

    Votes will start around 10 p.m. The final vote might happen close to midnight.”

  35. Liam | November 7th, 2009 at 08:35 pm

    I hate men who bully women. It made me mad, watching all those men standing up there in support of a bill that would deny a women the right to obtain a legal medical procedure, even though all the funding of coverage for it, was from premiums paid for by private citizens. It makes me sick to hear a congressman stand up in the house and acknowledge that he was doing it for The Catholic Bishops.

    I remember when people were afraid to vote for JFK because they were afraid that The Vatican would get involved in American political decisions. We now have come to the point where The Vatican is actually writing amendments, and having them introduced on the floor of Congress.

  36. Joe Lieberman | November 7th, 2009 at 08:36 pm

    Everybody knows this is going to pass. Pelosi, amazingly, is not stupid enough to bring it to the floor if it didn’t have the votes.

    As I have been trying to tell you people all along, the real fight is going to be in the Senate. I will be joining a Republican filibuster of this bill.

  37. lmsinca | November 7th, 2009 at 08:39 pm

    Thanks Liam

    As a woman, we appreciate your support for the standing law in this country, and I am appalled as well by what they are trying to do.

  38. Jax | November 7th, 2009 at 08:55 pm

    Fake Joe Lieberman serves 2 purposes: Stating the obvious, and showing everyone that he’s scared shittless. LOL

  39. lmsinca | November 7th, 2009 at 09:06 pm

    He seems to be having fun with his silly game, but the rest of us are not playing.

  40. Liam | November 7th, 2009 at 09:14 pm

    It is just a desperate cry for attention. One has to have terrible low self esteem, in order to believe that pretending to be Traitor Joe would enhance their image.

  41. lmsinca | November 7th, 2009 at 09:16 pm

    Wow, Anthony Weiner just nailed the Repubs., love that guy.

  42. lmsinca | November 7th, 2009 at 09:41 pm

    9:14 PM ET — “A Republican vote for health care? Roll Call reports that Louisiana GOP Rep. Joseph Cao may vote in favor of the final health care bill if Rep. Stupak’s anti-abortion amendment passes. Rep. Cao defeated scandal-plagued Democrat William Jefferson in 2008, and faces a major up-hill climb in keeping his seat in 2010 in his overwhelmingly Democratic district.”

    Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/07/house-health-care-vote-br_n_349468.html&cp

  43. lmsinca | November 7th, 2009 at 09:57 pm

    They’re voting on the Stupak ammendment right now, 15 minute vote.

  44. Liam | November 7th, 2009 at 10:10 pm

    The Stupak amendment has passed.

  45. lmsinca | November 7th, 2009 at 10:10 pm

    Stupak ammendment will pass, sheesh, they’ll probably get Cao though because of it. Hope they can clean that out in conference.

  46. Andy | November 7th, 2009 at 10:12 pm

    WOW it looks like we will have a bipartisan HCR bill!

  47. lmsinca | November 7th, 2009 at 10:15 pm

    What’s up next Liam, the Repub. non-reform bill?

  48. Andy | November 7th, 2009 at 10:16 pm

    Listening to Faux News is precious. Rep. Issa says Czars will be in charge of your health care.

  49. lmsinca | November 7th, 2009 at 10:16 pm

    Andy, bipartisan support for denying poor women their abortion rights, you mean?

  50. Liam | November 7th, 2009 at 10:18 pm

    So, will any Progressive Democrats protest the Stupak amendment by voting present, when the bill is voted on?

  51. Liam | November 7th, 2009 at 10:21 pm

    Insimca,

    Yes the Republican sham reform bill is up next. It does not ban the refusal of coverage because of pre-existing conditions.

  52. lmsinca | November 7th, 2009 at 10:23 pm

    I doubt it, they want the bill to pass too badly. The real question is if they strip the ammendment in conference will and of the pro-life dems vote for the final bill.

  53. Liam | November 7th, 2009 at 10:24 pm

    Just like The Communist Revolution;

    Republican want to overthrow the Czars.

    That make The Republicans a Marxist Party.

  54. Andy | November 7th, 2009 at 10:25 pm

    lmsinca… I am sad to say yes, but it’s being reported that Rep. Cao may vote yes on the overall bill.

    I AM PRO-CHOICE and we need to find a way to help poor women get access to the same options that wealthy women have.

  55. lmsinca | November 7th, 2009 at 10:25 pm

    One Repub voted no on the Boehner substitue ammendment. Cao?

  56. Liam | November 7th, 2009 at 10:28 pm

    One Republican has voted against the Republican sham bill. That person will need to start wearing a teabag proof vest.

  57. Andy | November 7th, 2009 at 10:30 pm

    What is Cantor doing???

  58. lmsinca | November 7th, 2009 at 10:32 pm

    I have no idea, I thought debate was over.

  59. Liam | November 7th, 2009 at 10:33 pm

    Michelle is all about Michelle. The reason she wore that stupid Lei was to demonstrate that she has a national following. If I were Hawaiian, all the money in the world, could not get me to Lei that women.
    (Yes; double entendre is intentional)

  60. Liam | November 7th, 2009 at 10:36 pm

    It is just standard rules of order.

    Cantor has the right to ask that the losing motion be reconsidered. It will lose by the same vote. Cantor just used a parliamentary maneuver to gain another chance to slam the Democrats’ bill.

  61. lmsinca | November 7th, 2009 at 10:36 pm

    Funny Liam, I wouldn’t either.

  62. Andy | November 7th, 2009 at 10:41 pm

    Thanks Liam. Steny Hoyer is doing a great job calling out the Rs.

  63. lmsinca | November 7th, 2009 at 10:43 pm

    A motion to re-commit surprise ammendment. Go Steny. Do they have another one?

  64. Andy | November 7th, 2009 at 10:43 pm

    Cantor… let’s record the vote because I am a baby!!!!

  65. lmsinca | November 7th, 2009 at 10:45 pm

    Two dems voting yea?

  66. Liam | November 7th, 2009 at 10:53 pm

    We have that one Republican voting against Cantor, again. I wonder if we can get that brave soul to switch to our party. I like to see a Profile In Courage, when that person knows that the Teabagger Rabble are going to come after him or her.

  67. lmsinca | November 7th, 2009 at 10:53 pm

    Why are any Dems voting yea, are these the ones who will vote no on the bill?

  68. lmsinca | November 7th, 2009 at 10:54 pm

    He or she will probably have to switch to at least an Independent. A true rebel.

  69. Andy | November 7th, 2009 at 10:54 pm

    When this is all done the DNC needs to step up and figure out why we had ANY no votes.

    So far, the justification for voting no is the cost of HCR. But the FACTs are HCR has been designed to be deficit neutral. Of course those who never supported the President and would never support moderate dems, disagree, and claim HCR will destroy our country.

  70. Liam | November 7th, 2009 at 10:56 pm

    Insimca,

    Hard to say. They are probably Blue-Dogs, but I would not entirely rule out that some Progressives might have been registering a protest vote, because of the abortion amendment.

  71. Liam | November 7th, 2009 at 10:59 pm

    From TPM

    GOP alternative amendment (i.e., the House GOP’s bill) goes down to defeat 258-176.

    Late Update: Rep. Tim Johnson (R-IL) was the sole Republican to vote against the Boehner bill. No one seem really clear as to what his reasoning was. As I noted below, Rep. Cao (R-LA) is the only member of the Republican caucus believed to be in play. And he voted for it, though in a high stakes case like this it would not be surprising to see him vote for both.

  72. Andy | November 7th, 2009 at 11:07 pm

    FINALLY! Step one is done the House HCR bill has passed!

  73. Andy | November 7th, 2009 at 11:12 pm

    BIPARTISAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  74. lmsinca | November 7th, 2009 at 11:14 pm

    Now I can go do something else, Congrats House Democrats, you did it.

  75. Liam | November 7th, 2009 at 11:14 pm

    LANDSLIDE VICTORY!!!

    As my father always said; an inch of a miss is as good as a mile of a miss.

    We passed it. Now we are in the red zone, and on to the Senate, to see if we can run it into the end zone.

  76. Andy | November 7th, 2009 at 11:19 pm

    I am sure this will be debated to death tomorrow but how is it that Rep. Cao (R) votes yes and 39 dems vote no.

  77. Liam | November 7th, 2009 at 11:23 pm

    Andy,

    Cao voted for it because he is a Republican incumbent in a Democratic district, with a large number of very poor African Americans.

    As for the 39 Democrats. They are probably from districts where McCain won in November. It is standard practice to not force people to vote for something, if it will hurt them in the coming election, once you have enough voted committed to passing the bill.

    You always try to give cover to your most vulnerable seats.

  78. Andy | November 7th, 2009 at 11:28 pm

    Liam… ok.

  79. Tena | November 7th, 2009 at 11:31 pm

    WOO HOO!

  80. lmsinca | November 7th, 2009 at 11:32 pm

    Thanks everybody for hangin out during the vote, nice to have the company, hubby’s watching football.

  81. Andy | November 7th, 2009 at 11:34 pm

    We all agree this is still chapter one right?

  82. Liam | November 7th, 2009 at 11:44 pm

    No. It is first down on the opponent’s twenty yard line.

    Good night all. If you find my glasses, please leave them at the front desk, and I will pick them up in the morning.

  83. Andy | November 7th, 2009 at 11:46 pm

    One down and the easy one next… the Senate.

  84. Bernie Latham | November 8th, 2009 at 06:16 am

    Title over at National Review’s Roll Call…
    “39 Dems Vote Against Pelosi”

    Gets the blood pumping, doesn’t it.

  85. Bernie Latham | November 8th, 2009 at 06:22 am

    And for the second time in three weeks, the Weekly Standard has Palin on the cover again.

  86. Bernie Latham | November 8th, 2009 at 07:18 am

    Nate Silver on unemployment…
    “This stuff ought to be much more of a reason for Democrats to worry than whatever happened on Tuesday. Even if the jobs come back a little faster than expected once the employment picture in fact turns the corner, which I think is possible, voters are liable to be looking at an unemployment rate on the order of 9.5 percent as they go to the polls for the midterms.” http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2009/11/unemployment-hits-102-percent.html

    He’s right. If the jobs picture doesn’t improve sufficiently, it will give weight to the conservative idea that government is unwilling or unable to work towards citizens’ well-being. Anti-incumbent fervor will rise, alternate theories of power (conspiratorial) will flourish further and voter turnout of moderates and youthful will diminish. Each of those circumstances are much desired by conservative strategists (and their corporate backers) and that’s why they have decided on the present strategy of obstruction. The numerous initiatives and policy changes which the Obama administration has successfully led and put into place will likely be perceived as insufficient or wrongly prioritized if the job picture remains problematic.

    It seems to me that the Palin/tea party vector is, of itself, insignificant or just as likely, destructive to conservative electoral hopes because of its extremism, irrationality, bigotry, dishonesty and mean-spiritedness. But it does provide the present means for base motivation on the right.

  87. Bilgeman | November 8th, 2009 at 08:01 am

    Liam:
    “LANDSLIDE VICTORY!!!”

    220 yeas, 215 nays, 39 Dems against and one GOP for, and you call this a LANDSLIDE!?

    You should be asking yourself why the margin was so thin if this is supposedly what the majority of Americans want.

    And so, it’s off to the Senate, where Nancy and her infestation of California Liberals don’t swing as much weight.

  88. Bilgeman | November 8th, 2009 at 08:08 am

    Bernie:
    “He’s right. If the jobs picture doesn’t improve sufficiently, it will give weight to the conservative idea that government is unwilling or unable to work towards citizens’ well-being.”

    Well now, what do YOU think next year is going to look like when the Bush tax cuts expire, and IF the new Health Care Reform taxes get imposed?

    You think there will be anything left of the Congress when it reaches 12.5% unemployment?

    For all your side’s caterwauling about :inheriting Bush’s problems”, let me give you what the narrative for Campaign 2010 SHOULD be:

    Nancy Pelosi’s and Harry Reid’s Congress was sworn in in January of 2007, and the economy kamikaze’d straight into the toilet since.

    We’ll just remind voters of that fact, and see what they have to say.

  89. oddjob | November 8th, 2009 at 08:29 am

    I 1993 the right screamed and wailed and caterwauled that the raising of taxes proposed by President Clinton at the beginning of an economic recovery was the end of Western Civilization as we knew, and that it was impossible to tax ourselves to prosperity.

    We went on to have the most prosperous era of my adult life.

    It isn’t raising taxes or lowering taxes that necessarily makes a difference. What matters is how federal debt is managed.

  90. oddjob | November 8th, 2009 at 08:30 am

    (In 1993)

  91. lmsinca | November 8th, 2009 at 08:42 am

    Krugman vs. Jonathan Chait on the stimulus. In some ways I actually agree with Bilgeman, Congress was not effective enough, they made the stimulus too small.

    Krugman: “If the Democrats lose badly in the midterms, the talking heads will say that Mr. Obama tried to do too much, this is a center-right nation, and so on. But the truth is that Mr. Obama put his agenda at risk by doing too little.”

    Chait: “So everything that Krugman writes about what Obama should have done really meanss “what Obama should have done to persuade Ben Nelson to act differently.” And Obama does have some influence over Nelson, but ultimately Nelson makes his own decisions.

    Krugman’s column employs a pretty good World War II analogy. Let me use another: imagine a scathing column about the 1938 Munich accord that devotes most of its energy to castigating Czechoslovakian President Edvard Benes for his ineffectual efforts to gain the support of Britain and France, rather than putting Britain and France at the center of the story.”

    http://www.tnr.com/blog/the-plank/obamas-anzio-or-ben-nelsons

  92. lmsinca | November 8th, 2009 at 08:44 am

    oddjob

    If we can manage to hang onto the midterm elections and keep the majority, by 2012 things will have improved enough that we could maintian it for years to come. The need to get the vote out will be huge in 2010.

  93. lmsinca | November 8th, 2009 at 09:05 am

    Bernie

    What gets my blood boiling this morning is 64 Dems. vote against women, and I don’t need the Repubs or anyone else to tell me how that feels. If I wasn’t so desperate for health care reform to pass, I would simply walk away, honestly.

  94. Bilgeman | November 8th, 2009 at 09:15 am

    oddjob:
    “It isn’t raising taxes or lowering taxes that necessarily makes a difference. What matters is how federal debt is managed”

    You kinda conveniently forget that it was in large part because of Clinton’s ‘93 budget that the GOP took control of the Congress in the ‘94 mid-terms, and Clinton thereafter had to start triangulatin’.

    Credit where it’s due, Clinton paid down the debt and actually CUT services,,,Welfare to Workfare, remember?

    That was one of the underpinnings of the prosperity of the 90’s…along with easy credit terms and a go-go market.

    In 1990, the World Wide Web didn’t exist, and cell-phones were the accoutrements of stock-brokers and dope-dealers. By 2000, the PC and the cell phone are “must-have” items.
    That was a BIG market driver that propelled that era.

  95. Bilgeman | November 8th, 2009 at 09:18 am

    lmsinca:
    “What gets my blood boiling this morning is 64 Dems. vote against women, and I don’t need the Repubs or anyone else to tell me how that feels. If I wasn’t so desperate for health care reform to pass, I would simply walk away, honestly.”

    Aren’t you ever happy?

    The fundidng is still in there for abortions, AFAIK, in cases of rape,incest, or health of the mother.

    You want people to pay for your elective “abortion as birth control” too?

  96. lmsinca | November 8th, 2009 at 09:29 am

    From President Obama

    “Thanks to the hard work of the House, we are just two steps away from achieving health insurance reform in America. Now the United States Senate must follow suit and pass its version of the legislation. I am absolutely confident it will, and I look forward to signing comprehensive health insurance reform into law by the end of the year.”

  97. lmsinca | November 8th, 2009 at 09:37 am

    “You want people to pay for your elective “abortion as birth control” too?”

    That’s a conservative male talking. It demeans women and issues they face during their reproductive years.

    By most counts private insurance covers abortion in 46%-75% of the cases and now because less financially secure women will need subsidies to cover at least a portion of their coverage they are left to fend for themselves. And yet more affluent families and women are free to exercize their legal right.

    And no I’m never happy when the causes of women are set back and they are shouted down on the floor of the house by a bunch of rude and angry men.

  98. Liam | November 8th, 2009 at 09:49 am

    Dennis Kucinich voted against the bill. Is this guy just an attention *****? It would appear that is all he is.

  99. Liam | November 8th, 2009 at 09:52 am

    Edit:

    Damn idiotic censoring software.

    just an attention who*re…..

  100. Tena | November 8th, 2009 at 09:52 am

    “Dennis Kucinich voted against the bill. Is this guy just an attention *****? It would appear that is all he is”

    WHAT?????

    OMG

  101. Tena | November 8th, 2009 at 09:57 am

    “Chait: “So everything that Krugman writes about what Obama should have done really meanss “what Obama should have done to persuade Ben Nelson to act differently.”

    That and he insists the stimulus should have been bigger and I’d like to know how he thinks Obama or anyone else could have gotten more money out of Congress.

  102. Liam | November 8th, 2009 at 10:00 am

    List of Democrats who voted against the bill.

    http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/11/08/us/politics/1108-health-care-vote.html?hp

    I can understand why a lot of them, who are from districts that McCain carried last November, voted against it, after it was assured of passage, but Kucinich?

    And Artur Davis?

    He is from a safe district. He had no opponent last year. He is talking about running for Governor of Alabama, as if that State is ready to elect an African American Governor. It would appear that Congressman Davis is trying to trim his progressive sails in order to appeal to people who will not vote for him ever, for any position.

  103. Tena | November 8th, 2009 at 10:05 am

    Did Kucinich make any kind of statement?

    That little twit -

  104. Bilgeman | November 8th, 2009 at 10:05 am

    lmsinca:
    “That’s a conservative male talking. It demeans women and issues they face during their reproductive years.”

    “issues they face”? Uhhh, it’s not like they’re just walking down the street and “hey, presto, you’re knocked up!”.
    Y’all DO have something to do with it.

    “By most counts private insurance covers abortion in 46%-75% of the cases and now because less financially secure women will need subsidies to cover at least a portion of their coverage they are left to fend for themselves.”

    Oh, please. Money is fungible. If Socialist Utopiacare really represents the great cost-savings that it’s being touted as, then the savings should easily cover the cost of an abortion.
    And if the woman uses contraception,and thereby doesn’t have an unwanted pregnancy, then she won’t need
    abortion at all.

    “And yet more affluent families and women are free to exercize their legal right.”

    Look, I have a Constitutionally protected right to free expression, but I’m not expecting YOU to pay for my tattoo, am I?

  105. Tena | November 8th, 2009 at 10:08 am

    “Look, I have a Constitutionally protected right to free expression, but I’m not expecting YOU to pay for my tattoo, am I?”

    For all you know or I know, there is coverage for having a tattoo removed.

  106. Liam | November 8th, 2009 at 10:10 am

    Reality Check.

    Those Anti Abortion Politicians claim that they want to outlaw the procedure because it is the taking of life. They claim that it is murder.

    Last night all those Anti Abortion Republican Congress members voted for to allow Abortions. They are a bunch of sanctimonious hypocrites.

  107. Tena | November 8th, 2009 at 10:12 am

    See, as usual, the trolls want to compare apples and oranges. Getting a tattoo is not a medical procedure. Abortion is.

    Getting a tattoo removed is a medical procedure and it actually may be covered.

  108. Liam | November 8th, 2009 at 10:12 am

    I would be willing to pay for to liberate that tattoo from having to stay attached to that Arse Hole.

  109. Greg Sargent | November 8th, 2009 at 10:13 am

    All, Sunday roundup posted, tons of stuff about the health care victory:

    http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/health-care/sunday-roundup-the-stakes/

  110. Andy | November 8th, 2009 at 10:18 am

    I don’t know about Davis but Kucinich must have voted no because he wanted single payer. Good thing we had the votes.

  111. Tena | November 8th, 2009 at 10:21 am

    “I don’t know about Davis but Kucinich must have voted no because he wanted single payer. Good thing we had the votes.”

    Word.

    Love these “symbolic” stands that kill practical solutions to things.

  112. lmsinca | November 8th, 2009 at 10:49 am

    Bilgeman, I am not going to go around and around with you today, we did that last week about gay marriage and got nowhere, have a nice day.

  113. lmsinca | November 8th, 2009 at 11:43 am

    We are newly energized Freehold and it doesn’t matter the number of votes, it matters that it passed, and we’ve waited a long time. This from Tim Kaine.

    “Despite the overwhelming support this legislation has received and despite a strong mandate from the public for action, the Republicans have held tight to their just-say-no approach, firmly rooting the GOP on the side of the insurance lobby and the status quo that is breaking American families and small businesses. It is evident from their obstructionism that the Republicans are more interested in protecting their own reputations and political fortunes than ensuring that our generation and generations to come have the best possible access to health care. Unfortunately for the Republican Party, their misguided and shameful campaign to kill health reform looks doomed to fail – something all Americans should be thankful for.

    “Today, Congressional Democrats put opponents of reform on notice: the status quo is unsustainable and inaction is not an option. This vote doesn’t mark the end of this process – we still have a ways to go – but it is a critical milestone on the road to passing health insurance reform. The American people want reform – they need reform – and Democrats will not rest until we pass comprehensive health reform legislation.”

    http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/11/kaine-this-day-has-been-a-long-time-coming.php?ref=fpa

  114. News Reference | November 8th, 2009 at 11:31 pm

    Bilgewater keeps descending into a caricature of a right wing extremist.

    Bilgewater openly advocates for the destruction of America.

    Bilgewater has even openly advocated for the return to the days of the slave-selling Confederacy.

    Now Bilgewater is blaming women if they get pregnant without acknowledging the facts of rape or incest.

    Sometimes women don’t make the choice to have ***.

    As despicable as right winger Bilgewater has repeatedly revealed himself to be, his ‘blame the victim’ approach to women is still very disappointing.

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