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Monday, November 22, 2010

Well, that worked out well, didn't it.
Posted by Jill | 9:17 PM
Remember when the White House expended everything it had in order to try to woo Maine Senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe to vote for health care reform, because Barack Obama believed that if two Republican Senators voted for his sop to the insurance companies (which in no way satisfies their gaping maw), that made it "bipartisan"? That's why single-payer never even merited a passing mention, and a public option was taken off the table before anyone could discuss it.

Well, here's how that worked out:
ens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins are co-signing an amicus, or friend of the court, brief to be submitted to the federal court in Florida that will hear a constitutional challenge of the federal health care reform law.

The brief was initiated by U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and boasts signatures of 30 Senate Republicans. The lawsuit was brought by the attorneys general for several states and the National Federation of Independent Businesses, a small-business trade organization.

At issue is a requirement that U.S. citizens purchase health insurance beginning in 2014 or face a fine -- known as the "individual mandate."

Snowe was the only Republican to support any version of health care reform, but ultimately voted against the final bill. The version Snowe supported did include an individual mandate, but her aides said she opposed that provision and hoped to change it through the amendment process.

Snowe was concerned with the concept of government mandating an individual purchase of something, especially because she did not believe health insurance would be sufficiently affordable, her office has said.

Snowe and Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., tried to amend the reform to reduce the number of people subject to the mandate and allow Congress more flexibility to review the mandate altogether, but it failed in committee.

"The individual mandate has no place in a health care reform bill unless and until affordable health insurance is available for all Americans," Snowe said in a release about the brief.

"We must take seriously the gravity of this imperious and intrusive government mandate and repeal the individual mandate before millions of Americans are forced to purchase health care coverage that they neither want nor can afford."

Supporters of the individual mandate say it will help keep health insurance costs down because it spreads risk: Those who decline to buy insurance are often the healthiest, while those who buy it are often need it most and, therefore, cost more to cover.

Snowe, one of the senators most likely to vote across party lines, faces re-election in 2012. Many expect she will face a strong primary challenge, given the experience of several incumbent Republicans in the 2010 election cycle.

Some also speculate she's trying to improve her conservative credentials by signing her name to the court challenge.

Collins and Snowe are going to get Tea Partied right out of the Senate, as is anyone who dares to put the good of the nation, or even its national security, above Mitch McConnell's stated primary agenda of ensuring that Obama is a one-term president.

Meanwhile, Obama continues to preach the gospel of conciliation with these people, who would murder him with their own hands if they thought they could get away with it.

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3 Comments:
Anonymous Anonymous said...
Per Willie Brown, Speaker of the California State Assembly, 1980–1995, "The only honest politicians are the ones that stay bought."
11/23/10, 1:46 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...
And Obama's STILL talking about "bipartisanship," even as these people figuratively slap him in the face again and again.

We didn't elect a second Franklin Delano Roosevelt--we elected a second Neville Chamberlain.
11/23/10, 3:44 PM  
Anonymous mandt said...
Collins and Snowe...the sooner these old broads are gone, the better!
11/23/10, 7:58 PM  
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