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United States News Title: Democrats Gain Support as They Move on Health Vote By Laura Litvan and Kristin Jensen March 19 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. House Democrats, who cleared a big hurdle in their effort to overhaul the health-care system by producing compromise legislation, are picking up fresh support for a showdown vote this weekend. Democrats need about six more votes from House members to pass the 10-year, $940 billion bill, Obama administration officials said today. President Barack Obama and Democratic leaders aim to sway some in a pool of 14 or 15 undecided lawmakers to get to the 216 votes needed to pass the measure, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “We are going to have the votes, when the roll is called,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told reporters today. A vote is scheduled for March 21, leaders said. Obama has met or called about three-dozen lawmakers in the last five days and cleared his schedule today for more last- minute appeals, including a rally in Fairfax, Virginia. At least four Democrats agreed to switch their votes to back the bill this week. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi may need more to make up for defections by Democrats concerned about issues ranging from the cost to whether restrictions on abortion funding are strong enough. Senate Version Democrats say the legislation will cover 32 million uninsured Americans, curb medical costs and reduce the federal budget deficit. “This is history,” Pelosi said yesterday. The Senate, which passed its own version of the legislation in December, will take up the revised measure next week. House members objected to key provisions of the Senate bill, and Democratic leaders unveiled a compromise measure yesterday that was crafted to settle the differences. The legislation represents the most significant health-care revamp since the creation of the Medicare program for the elderly in 1965. Americans would benefit from more access to preventive care and young adults could stay on their parents’ insurance until age 26, Democrats said. Insurers such as Indianapolis-based WellPoint Inc. would get millions of new policyholders while being required to accept all customers. Cutting the Deficit Democrats got a boost yesterday when the Congressional Budget Office said their bill would cut the deficit, a critical element for winning support. New taxes, industry fees and savings in Medicare more than make up for the extra costs, the CBO said. Republicans are universally opposed and have vowed to block the plan. They say it uses budgeting gimmicks because much of the expansion of insurance coverage comes later in the life of the bill, and that it costs too much. “They can tweak this thing and tweak it,” House Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio told reporters. “Still, it’s a trillion dollars they are going to spend.” Business groups are mounting a last-minute lobbying campaign against the legislation, and Caterpillar Inc. sent a letter to Pelosi and Boehner saying the bills would raise its costs by $100 million in the first year alone. “We can ill afford cost increases that place us at a disadvantage versus global competitors,” wrote Gregory S. Folley, vice president and chief human resources officer at Peoria, Illinois-based Caterpillar, in the March 18 letter. Lobbying Lawmakers Obama says the U.S. can’t afford not to overhaul the health-care system, and yesterday he postponed a trip to Indonesia and Australia to lobby lawmakers. Ohio Representative John Boccieri today told reporters he will support the new legislation after voting against a version passed by the House in November. The White House yesterday released a statement saying that Tennessee Democrat Bart Gordon also switched sides. So did Colorado Representative Betsy Markey, said her spokesman, Ben Marter. Ohio Democrat Dennis Kucinich, who voted “no” on the earlier House bill, said on March 17 that he will support the new legislation. And Representative Dale Kildee, an anti- abortion Michigan Democrat, said he decided to support the new bill after consulting a Roman Catholic priest. The Democrats lost one vote today. Representative Dan Lipinski, an Illinois Democrat, who voted in favor of the original House bill, said today he’s switching his vote to “no,” citing concerns about abortion. The original House bill passed 220-215 in November. Since then, Democrats lost four “yes” votes because of vacancies and a switch by the only Republican who supported the bill. Abortion Fight All told, 37 sitting Democrats voted “no” on the original bill. Another 40 supported the measure while also voting “yes” on language calling for stricter controls on federal abortion funding that was put forth by Michigan Democrat Bart Stupak. Some of their votes might waver because the Senate bill’s language is less stringent. Stupak says he can’t support the new legislation without changes on abortion. Others are undecided, including Indiana Democrat Brad Ellsworth. While abortion remains a concern, he said parts of the bill are good. “It meets most of my requirements,” he said. House and Senate lawmakers designed the bill that will make changes to the Senate legislation under a process called reconciliation. It will allow the Senate to pass the revised bill with a simple majority after the House passes the original Senate measure and the changes. Under the reconciliation bill, individuals who don’t purchase insurance would face lower fines than in the original Senate bill. Angering Insurers That’s likely to upset insurers, who objected to any weakening of the insurance mandate, saying that only sick people would seek coverage and insurance rates would rise. The plan also requires the industry to pay $58.8 billion in fees from 2014 to 2018, with adjusted levies afterward. “This legislation will drive up health-care costs by adding billions in new health-care taxes and encouraging people to wait until they are sick before getting insurance,” said Karen Ignagni, the president and chief executive officer of the trade group America’s Health Insurance Plans, in a statement.
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#1. To: Brian S (#0)
One of the unintended consequences of this insanity passing - if it does in its current form - is a one term failed Presidency. Unemployment will jump again in the 'official numbers' significantly higher than 11%. Watch and see. My advisors, both accounting types and legal types, are saying if it passes 'as is' my best option is to terminate the staff, and then bring them back under one variation or another of a 'personal services contract'. If my business, which has a small staff internally, is getting this advice, do the math and consider what a corporation employing several thousand is being told today.
They are out of their fucking minds. Tell your sheisters to check case law on "personal service contracts" being used to circumvent employment and tax laws. I work under a personal service contract, Boofer.
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