Quote Originally Posted by Total_Blender View Post
What we will be left with ultimately will be a consolidation of the House and Senate bills. I'm hoping the final product is closer to the House bill. As the process continues, we progressives are putting pressure on our congressmen to drop things we don't agree with like mandates, Cadillac taxes, etc etc.
I'm proud of you, you strayed away from the party talking points for a minute.

On to your points now.

The cannot push more towards the House bill because it wouldnt have a snow ball's chance in hell of passing the Senate if it moves far from it. The problem the dems face is that it stands the same chances in the House if it strays too far from their bill.

Quote Originally Posted by Total_Blender View Post
Jimmy, what are you reading about the "buying of Nelson" etc?
Quote Originally Posted by article
The new bill has the federal government permanently paying 100 percent of the cost to expand Medicaid in Nebraska, while other states will pay 2.2 percent of the price to expand the program to millions of uninsured Americans.
Also, notice the quote from Reid at the end of the article. He says some states got preferential treatment in exchange for votes. That is called bribery in any other circumstance. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/bribe

http://www.politicsdaily.com/2009/12...h-care-reform/

You can also search for "cornhusker kickback".


And here is an article about Mary Landrieu's deal.
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefi...siana-purchase

Quote Originally Posted by Total_Blender View Post
As far as transparency in the process and televising the negotiations... it seems to me:

1.) It would probably be very boring and few of those who are calling for it to be televised would actually watch.
Thats not the point. Obama made the promise during the election and the CEO of C-Span is asking for access. Yet, now he is being turned down.

Quote Originally Posted by Total_Blender View Post
2.) The concessions made for televising the sessions (having to mic everyone up, having to speak one at a time, etc etc) would only slow the process.
C-Span CEO already said they had access to the equipment to make the taping completely unobtrusive.

Considering they dont plan to start benefits for 3+ years, I dont think its all that much of a hurry to get this through anyways. We can wait the extra 5 minutes a day for politicians to speak 1 at a time and act civilized.

Quote Originally Posted by Total_Blender View Post
3.) It seems that even though these negotiations aren't televised that news about what goes on is still getting out. You guys seem to have enough to bitch about, right?
Again, thats not the point. This is a campaign promise that Obama made and he is going back on that. He might as well say that he doesnt want the press in there because airing the scale of corruption in the US Congress would lead to the downfall of every politician in Washington.