DONE! Healthcare Bill Passes House; Left Out At the Left Forum; Teabaggers Go Racistic,

March 21st, 2010 - by: danny

DOWN TO THE WIRE: THE HEALTH CARE VOTE PASSES

11:37 PM THIRD VOTE: BILL HAS PASSED

I am off to sleep and so will miss the statements by the President and the House leaders. Oh, so disappointed. Maybe I can add them in the morning.

High Fives At The White House

7:21 AM. Here you go. DB: Obama Will Sign Bill In Two Days.

AP reported: “President Barack Obama celebrated the passage of health care legislation with hugs, high fives and an emboldened attitude. Said the president to the nation, “Tonight, we answered the call of history.”

At nearly midnight in Washington, with a big swath (A “swath” I was happily part of, DS) of the country asleep or headed that way, Obama strode into the ornate East Room with Vice President Joe Biden backing him. There was no hour too late for the president to embrace this moment.

“I want to thank every member of Congress who stood up tonight with courage and conviction to make health care reform a reality,” Obama said as the top members of his own health care team stood beaming nearby. “I know this wasn’t an easy vote for a lot of people. But it was the right vote.”

Many of those Democrats who voted against did so out of political fears of being baited and targeted by the “Obamacare” haters in the next election. They are running scared.

ANALYSIS: NYT:Passed…. But At What Cost?

Robert Reich On What It Really Means.

Paul Krugman: Fear Struck Out.

This ordeal is not over yet.

WP: Now it goes back to the Senate.

The Spectacle

There were three votes: The Dems win the first, the big one, with 219 (to 212)–three more votes than needed. 34 Democrats vote against. It is still tight. Now the Repugs are injecting abortion politics–pandering to the rights of the UNBORN, trying to scuttle the bill. Bart “Mr. Right To Life” Stupak called them on it and said it was not a pro-life measure. Stupak’s “conversion” made the bill possible reports Alternet,The Times reported that within the chamber, someone on the Republican side shouted “Baby Killer!” This cynical maneuver and abrasive rhetoric failed!

The Washington Post reports:

The House has approved the Senate version of the health-care bill in 219 to 210 vote. This bill now goes to President Obama for his signature. The House will now vote on the reconciliation bill.

The Hill reports:

“Nancy Pelosi showed Sunday why she is one of the most powerful Speakers in history. In shepherding one of the most controversial bills through the House, Pelosi achieved what some thought what was impossible after Scott Brown’s victory in Massachusetts two months ago.”

All those comparisons to Social Security Are Over The Top.

10:39—The NY Times is live blogging the House Vote. They have more patience and less emotion that I do. Here ware the last two speakers before the voting process began:

Ms. Pelosi stands to speak, amid boisterous cheers. She says, Just think, members of Congress are joining those who passed landmark legislation like Social Security and Medicare.

Saying Americans are endowed with certain inalienable rights – life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, Ms. Pelosi says the health care legislation “will lead to healthier lives, more liberty to pursue hopes and dreams of the American people.”

She’s now trying to get members to repeat the refrain: Pass Health Care Reform. But they’re mainly clapping.

10:12 P.M. A Majority Turned Minority

Mr. Boehner, who knows all too well what it’s like for the majority to lose control of the House, recalls that moment in 2007 when he turned the gavel over to Speaker Pelosi after Republicans were defeated. He said he then told Ms. Pelosi that this is the people’s house. “The moment a majority forgets it, it starts writing itself a ticket to being the minority,” Mr. Boehner says.

10:07 P.M. Boehner Leads a Chorus of No’s
Mr. Boehner, his voice rising, asks if members can say the bill was derived through transparency and openness? “Hell, no, you can’t!” Mr. Boehner answers.”

It comes down to No We Won’t Versus Yes We Will.

Once again, true to form, the GOP was the party of NO, referencing everything BUT the issues of health care reform, playing to fears and uncertaintees while bad-rapping the Dems by practically charging them with treason and constantly changing the subject. Pelosi does not take the bait, does not respond to the attack and instead goes positive. She seems genuinely excited to be at this point, and is actually somewhat inspirational although we have heard it all this before. The bill may be a dog but she is making it smell sweet. Somehow, she cobbled the votes together and has gone from zero to shero.

THE CONGRESS VOTES ON HEALTH CARE REFORM
AT THE LEFT FORUM
THE SEVENTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE WAR

I spent part of the weekend at the annual Left Forum in New York with more than 250 political panels, in just two and half days. The annual talkfest started with Jesse Jackson and ended with Noam Chomsky.

It’s one event where leftists often at each other’s throats with a miasma of sectarian and theoretical differences actually submerge their differences in discussions about the issues all care about. This was not a zone that BarackObama would feel comfortable in, and disillusion with and even despair with his policies was one force uniting this disparate factions, except this who will insist they never bought the Kool Aid in the first place. They were not disillusioned because they insisted they were never illusioned.

Sunday may have been Health Care Reform Day in Congress and for the rest of the country but at Pace College which hosts the function that subject seemed to be only of minority interest. I went to panels on Labor, Haiti, Africa, Afghanistan and spoke at one on Mass Media and The War on Terror.. The latter was written up in The Mantle, a forum of progressive critique at the New School. Check it out. I had hoped to be able to discuss my arguments on the financial crisis as a crime story—the work I am doing now–or even preview my forthcoming film Plunderthecrimeofourtime but that was not to be. I guess I am not perceived as left enough or theoretical enough or somethin’….I was left out, for the most part, at the Left Forum…

While I was there, I kept checking the news Apps on my iPhone to find out what was happening in Washington. The bulletins were fast and furious: The Dems had the votes, no, they didn’t have then yes they did etc. It was non-stop seesaw. It was clear the vote would take hours, if not all day.

When I got home, C-SPAN reported the votes were there but then,explained the deals that have been made to get them – especially on the abortion issue will further demoralized supporters of heath care. The bill has been compromised for months. First Single Payer was trashed and then Medicare for all and then The PublicOption and, all the while, the righteous right kept up its mantra about the dangers of socialism.

The real Socialists at the Left Forum could only laugh but they have no influence in this process which has been more about procedure and posturing than the substance of the issue. Many of the promised benefits of the bill are years away, assuming the Supreme Court and the Tea Party militias don’t intervene.

Other protesters are on fire. About 7000 thousand people mobilized by the Answer Coalition were out in the streets of Washington on Saturday. Marchers for immigration reform made their stand on Sunday”

“WASHINGTON — Frustrated with the pace of action to overhaul the country’s immigration system, thousands of demonstrators descended on the nation’s capital Sunday, waving American flags and holding homemade signs in English and Spanish.

President Barack Obama, who promised to make overhauling the immigration system a top priority in his first year, sought to reassure those at the rally with a video message presented on giant screens at the National Mall. The president said he was committed to working with Congress this year on a comprehensive bill to fix a “broken immigration system.”

(As if 7 PM, the bulletins were say the Dems may not have the vote. The Hill reports:

“Democrats are worried about holding their members together on a GOP motion that could kill the healthcare bill.

Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) said House leaders are specifically concerned about a Republican motion to recommit that would contain only language on abortion that Stupak originally had wanted to include in the Senate bill.

The concern is based on the fear of GOP attack ads painting Democrats who vote against a motion to recommit that includes Stupak’s favored language on abortion as “flip-floppers” on the issue.

Sixty-eight Democrats voted for Stupak’s language in a November vote. They could be portrayed as flipping if they now voted against it.”) An hour later, The Hill sent out another breaking news bulletin saying the Dems now have the votes.

Watching the debate is painful. Almost no one speaks clearly without hesitations and half-sentences. The Republicans avoid talking about health care and focus on the Socialist Danger, recycling message points ad-finitem as if they have been programmed. The Dems are unimpressive. It is still droning on with short statements and little substance.

The BS and bluster went was on the air almost without a break as the two sides clashed one more time on this issue—before they will begin clashing on the next and the one after that. The real issue is not health care but political power. The GOP wants it back and will do and say almost anything to confuse the public and stop the bill. The Dems will calim almost anything to get it through, even though many have doubts with its ability to really fix a broken system (It will take years, l0 million people are left out, its about money, not health, the private insurers will benefit etc etc

Meanwhile back in the House chamber they were voting on a variety of issues but the important one happened around 6:30

“The House on Sunday took the most critical step yet toward adoption of legislation to overhaul the nation’s health care system, approving the key procedural measure necessary to pass the bill.

The procedural vote, 224 to 206, showed that Democrats and President Obama had succeeded in cobbling together the votes they need to achieve a goal sought by presidents and progressives for more than a half-century.”

While C-SPAN was decoding the obtuse proceedings, while politicians were submitting statements for the record to position themselves for re-election, while the drone of pro/con protests filled the air, over at the White House, the President was still wheeling and dealing with woman’s lives, as AP reported:

“Obama lobbied by phone from the White House, took the crucial step of issuing an executive order that satisfied a small group of Democrats who demanded that no federal funds be used for elective abortions. “We’re well past 216″ votes, a majority, said Rep. Bart Stupak of Michigan, swinging behind the bill after leading the holdouts in a rebellion that had left the outcome in doubt.]

Democratic aides confirmed his vote count.

After more than a year of political combat – certain to persist into the fall election campaign for control of Congress – debate on the House floor fell along predictable lines.

“The public has been grievously and purposely lied to,” by Republicans in their efforts to defeat the legislation, said Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., a clear reference to GOP accusations that included the claim that there would be death panels for elderly patients.

THE STATE OF THE DISCOURSE

‘Tea party’ protesters accused of spitting on lawmaker, using slursBy Paul Kane – WaPo

“Hundreds of conservative activists gather outside the US Capitol to protest health-care legislation.”

A wild day on Capitol Hill By Mike Madden and Alex Koppelman – Salon

Spitting and Slurs Directed at Lawmakers By Robert Pear – New York Times (blog)

“Thousands of opponents of the health care legislation circled the Capitol on Saturday waving signs and chanting slogans.

“And while most of the invective was directed at the health care bill itself, several House members said there was an ugly tone to comments made by some demonstrators against three black lawmakers:

“An aide to Mr. Lewis, a leader of the civil rights movement in the 1960s, said that as he walked to the Capitol, Mr. Lewis was called racial slurs. A spokesman for Mr. Cleaver said that a protester spat on the congressman as he was walking to the Capitol for a vote.

“Democratic aides said some demonstrators made anti-gay remarks to Representative Barney Frank, Democrat of Massachusetts, who is gay.

“The No. 3 Democrat in the House, Representative James E. Clyburn of South Carolina, said, ‘I heard people saying things today that I have not heard since March 15, 1960, when I was marching to try to get off
the back of the bus.’”

Tea Partiers Call Lewis ‘N****r’, Frank ‘F****t’, At Capitol Hill Protest

Tea partiers and other anti-health care activists are known to get rowdy, but today’s protest on Capitol Hill– the day before the House is set to vote on historic health care legislation–went beyond the usual chanting and controversial signs, and veered into ugly bigotry and intimidation.

Civil rights hero Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) and fellow Congressional Black Caucus member Andre Carson (D-IN) related a particularly jarring encounter with a large crowd of protesters screaming “kill the bill”… and punctuating their chants with the word “nigger.”

Standing next to Lewis, emerging from a Democratic caucus meeting with President Obama, Carson said people in the crowd yelled, “kill the bill and then the N-word” several times, while he and Lewis were exiting the Cannon House office building.

OVERSEAS

Heavy Rains Swamp Camps Holding Haiti’s Homeless

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — One of the heaviest rainfalls since Haiti’s Jan. 12 earthquake swamped homeless camps Friday, sweeping screaming residents into eddies of water, overflowing latrines and panicking thousands. The overnight downpour sent water coursing down the slopes of a former golf course that now serves as a temporary home for about 45,000 people… located behind the country club used by the U.S. Army 82nd Airborne as a forward-operating base…. Aid workers said people were swept screaming into eddies of water and flows ripped down tents an Israeli aid group is using to teach school…. the deluge terrified families who just two months ago survived the collapse of their homes in the magnitude-7 earthquake and are now struggling to make do in tent-and-tarp camps that officials have repeatedly said must be relocated…

Officials know they must move many of the 1.3 million people displaced by the earthquake before the rainy season starts in earnest in April. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told reporters at the golf-course camp Sunday that the people living there were in particular danger.But after two months of searching and wrangling with landowners, the government has still not opened any of the five promised relocation sites better able to withstand rain and aftershocks on the capital’s northeastern outskirts. Aid groups are also struggling to open their own camps. ”It’s been frustrating to us because we need to have those sites in order to build something … better. Until we can do that people have no incentive to move,” U.N. humanitarian chief John Holmes told The Associated Press during Ban’s visit. ”We’re running out of time, honestly,” Holmes said.

ISRAEL-AMERICAN RELATIONS

While the NY Times reports that the rift between Israel and the US has been chilled out, The Guardian sees a growing disconnect.

ELECTIONS IN FRANCE

Press TV: French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s ruling center-right bloc has suffered a comprehensive defeat in regional elections that comes as the last major national test before the country’s 2012 presidential vote.

As polling stations closed on Sunday, initial estimates gave the Socialist party and its Green allies some 54 percent of the vote at a national level, while Sarkozy’s Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) won only 36 percent.

According to exit polls, the far-right National Front won just under nine percent of the vote nationwide.

The News Dissector