December 2009
12 posts
1 tag
Lack of Leadership in Washington, DC
In early December, The TSA posted on the Internet its Standard Operating Procedure Manual to the embarrassment of the Administration. This obvious mistake brought into question back in December as to whether or not airport security was jeopardized.
On Dec. 8, 2009, Sen. Lieberman (I-CN) who is the chairman of the Homeland Security committee in the Senate, called on the U.S. Senate to confirm the...
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Health care only 1/2 done
While the Senate passed the HC bill on Christmas Eve by a vote of 60 to 39, the process is only 1/2 done. You see the House must do one of the following after they reconvene the 3rd week in Jan., 2010:
—Adopt (rubber stamp) the Senate bill w/out changes. This requires a majority vote in the House
—Further amend the Senate bill w/changes which would require another 60 vote threshold...
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Health care passes in the Senate--Merry Christmas!
The Senate has passed the HC reform bill early Christmas eve by a vote of 60 to 39. This action sends the bill to the House for consideration late Jan., 2010. They can do 1 of the following:
—Adopt the Senate lang. after several attempts to change (amend it) This requires only a Maj. vote in the House and would send the bill to the POTUS w/out any further action by the Senate
—Amend...
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Leadership "code talk" on Health Care
The Senate is in session again this weekend in an effort to pass the HC reform bill by Christmas eve. The Majority Leader Sen. Reid (D-NV) appears to have the needed 60 votes to pass the HC bill after a few more wee hour session days between now and Christmas eve. One key swing vote, Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE), may have tipped the hand of the Democratic strategy as a whole for getting the bill to the...
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Vital health care vote @1AM on Monday
The Senate is in session again this weekend in an effort to pass the HC reform bill by Christmas eve. The clerk is being asked to read the entire “manager’s amdt” which will take until mid to late afternoon. Afer which, members will try to delay the procedure of filing cloture so that the vote would not be able to occur at 1AM on Monday. If the vote occurs at 1AM on Monday, and...
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Senate in all weekend to pass Health Care
The Senate has positioned itself to ultimately pass the Health care reform bill by Christmas day, assuming the Senate Democrats can garner the 60 votes needed to invoked cloture, three separate times. The first of these super majority votes will be needed early Monday. Dec. 21.The Senate Democrats were able to position themselves by abusing Senate Rule 15 and by muscling adjournment resolutions...
Health Care inches closer to passage before...
The Senate inched closer to passing HC before Christmas by the Leader deciding to drop the Medicare expansion, thus allowing Sen. Lieberman (Indep-CN) to say he is now willing to vote to close down debate and be the last of the 60 votes needed. However, much needs to be done to get it to the finish line before Christmas. The Congress needs to fund the Dept. of Defense and increase the Debt limit...
Good news, earmarks are down but price tag is up...
Since the Senate had to pause the HC debate earlier last week to consider the appropriations conf. report, the HC consensus among the America people became even more clear that they do not want Congress to pass this current HC bill. A report from the Centers for Medicare services, the enforcement and regulatory arm of Medicare, declared that the current Senate HC bill would increase HC costs by...
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Can someone tell me what comes after a Trillion?
Congress has failed to do its job as outlined in the Constitution by not passing the 12 appropriations bills needed to fund the Federal Government. Consequently, they are having to pass a couple of Omnibus approps. bills. Without these bills, the Government would shut down at midnight Friday, Dec. 18. With this in mind, the first one they are passing lumps 6 of the bills together funding agencies...
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Senate health care debate this weekend but not for...
The Senate is still playing nice between the two parties and probably will thru the unusual weekend session. However, by mid next week, the Leader will have to either start to muscle the bill through the Senate by using his priority recognition to offer blocking amdts or pivot off of Health Care to proceed to the vital pieces of legislation stacking up on the Senate calendar. By Friday, Dec. 18,...
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Senate having their first votes on amdts to Health...
The Senate reached agreement on the amdts that they have been debating today in the Senate.Tomorrow at 11:45 they will vote on the Mikulski (D-MD) amdt on women’s health and then the Murkowski (R-AK) amdt on mammogram and women’s health. Both have to get 60 votes to pass otherwise by consent they are automatically withdrawn.Then at 2:45 they vote on the Mike Bennet (D-CO) amdt on...
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Senate playing nice-nice.......for now!
While the Senate Democrats and Republicans are currently playing nice-nice during the opening debate on the Health care reform bill, it is anyone’s guess as to when this comes to an end. They are currently allowing for alternating speeches, amdts and the like. It makes me pine for the good ‘ole days when Senators acted as legislators and not children needing supervision. However, there...