Saturday, August 22, 2009

No Red America, No Blue America. Just One Purple America.

Robert Reich is very skeptical about the 'Gang of Six' senators from the Senate Finance Cte. who are working on the health care bill:

I really don't get it. We have a Democratic president in the White House.
Democrats control sixty votes in the Senate, enough to overcome a filibuster. It
is possible to pass health care legislation through the Senate with 51 votes
(that's what George W. Bush did with his tax cut plan). Democrats control the
House. The Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, is a tough lady. She has said
there will be no health care reform bill without a public option.

So why does the fate of health care rest in Grassley's hands?

It's not even as if the gang represents America. The three Dems on the
gang are from Montana, New Mexico, and North Dakota -- states that together
account for just over 1 percent of Americans. The three Republicans are from
Maine, Wyoming, and Iowa, which together account for 1.6 percent of the American
population.

So, I repeat: Why has it come down to these six? Who anointed them?
Apparently, the White House. At least that's what I'm repeatedly being told by
sources both on the Hill and in the administration. "The Finance Committee is
where the action is. They'll tee-up the final bill," says someone who should
know.


Reich was former Secretary of Labor in the Clinton Administration. I'm as mystified as he is as to why the White House would be supporting such a strange process.

This is one more piece of evidence that, when push comes to shove, this administration is turning out to be very conservative, i.e. beholden to the corporations. Is this Obama's true MO?

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