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Pelosi: Lawmakers Should Sacrifice Their Jobs for Health Care
What a awful photograph of Nancy. That is bound to give someone nightmares. Eww!House Speaker Nancy Pelosi urged her colleagues to back a major overhaul of U.S. health care even if it threatens their political careers, a call to arms that underscores the issue's massive role in this election year. Nancy, being from a safe district, doesn't have to worry about losing her income, only her position as majority leader... Lawmakers sometimes must enact policies that, even if unpopular at the moment, will help the public, Pelosi said in an interview being broadcast Sunday the ABC News program "This Week." Consent of the governed isn't a requirement in a system of rule. It's only necessary when dealing with free men and women. "We're not here just to self-perpetuate our service in Congress," she said. "We're here to do the job for the American people." "Whether they like it or not!" It took courage for Congress to pass Social Security and Medicare, which eventually became highly popular, she said, "and many of the same forces that were at work decades ago are at work again against this bill." It took courage for them to pass the Volstead Act, and it took courage for them to pass the Smoot-Hawley tariff act, too. The Missouri Compromise took courage, I'll betcha. And so did the Alien and Sedition Acts. It's unclear whether Pelosi's remarks will embolden or chill dozens of moderate House Democrats who face withering criticisms of the health care proposal in visits with constituents and in national polls. "Nancy! Whenever I go back to my district they pelt me with dog turds!" "So why do you go back to your district? They don't have anything to say that you want to hear!" Republican lawmakers unanimously oppose the health care proposals, and many GOP strategists believe voters will turn against Democrats in the November elections. It'd be a real good idea to keep an eye on the rinos, though. Pelosi, from San Francisco, is more liberal than scores of her Democratic colleagues. It's San Francisco, after all. If found in bed with the proverbial dead girl and a live boy it'd increase Nancy's margin of victory by five percentage points. I'm surprised she hasn't thought of it yet. But she generally walks a careful line between urging them to back left-of-center policies and giving them a green light to buck party leaders to improve their re-election hopes. Only for show. Never when the vote's gonna be close. Health care's gonna be close, even when they go for 50 percent plus one vote... Her comments to ABC, ... the network that's shutting down... in the interview released Sunday, seemed to acknowledge the widely held view that Democrats will lose House seats this fall -- maybe a lot. If the Publicans don't get overconfident, and they don't let the Malefactors of Great Wealth divide them to conquer, they could end up taking back both houses. Even if they're as stoopid as they've shown they can be in the past, they're gonna pick up seats, and maybe lots of them. They now control the chamber 255 to 178, with two vacancies. Pelosi stopped well short of suggesting Democrats could lose their majority, but she called on members of her party to make a bold move on health care with no prospects of GOP help. "Time is up," she said. "We really have to go forth." "And I'm not just saying that because there's no way I'm gonna lose my seat!" Her comments somewhat echoed those of President Obama, who said at the end of last week's bipartisan health care summit that Congress should act on the issue and let voters render their verdicts. "That's what elections are for," he said. "I don't have to worry about it until 2012. Congressmen are little people from where I sit!" The White House says Obama, perhaps on Wednesday, will announce a "way forward" on health care. He, Pelosi, and Senate Democratic leaders have left little doubt that they hope to pass a Democratic-crafted bill under "budget reconciliation" rules that would bar Republican filibusters in the Senate. It's unclear whether Pelosi can muster the needed votes in the House. "Vote for the bill and I'll sleep with you!" "Oh, Gawd, Nancy! Not that!" "Okay, vote for it or you'll find me in your bed, nekkid!" White House officials say they will redouble efforts to remind voters that the Senate passed an Obama-backed health care bill in December, with a super majority of 60 votes. The new plan calls for the House to pass that bill and send it to Obama's desk, and then use Senate budget reconciliation rules to make several changes demanded by House Democrats. Following a Republican victory in Massachusetts last month, Democrats now control 59 of the Senate's 100 seats, one vote short of the number needed to block GOP filibusters. Pelosi told CNN that "in a matter of days" Democrats will have specific legislative language on health care to show to the public and to wavering lawmakers. She predicted voters will warm up to the bill once they understand its details. "When we have a bill," she said, "you can bake the pie, you can sell the pie. But you have to have a pie to sell." Obama and Democratic lawmakers say they may add several more Republican ideas to their legislative package, even if it's unlikely to attract a single GOP vote. One idea, by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., would focus on battling waste and fraud in the medical system. The main elements of the Democratic plan are known, and opposed by Republicans in Congress. It would insure about 30 million more Americans over 10 years with subsidies for the poor and a new requirement for nearly everyone to carry health insurance. It would also bar some insurance company practices, such as denying coverage to people with medical problems. And it would establish government-run exchanges to help individuals and small businesses obtain insurance policies, although it would exclude the "public option" that many liberals wanted Posted by: Delphi 2010-03-02 |
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