At this point, it's pretty clear that Republicans are irrelevant to the healthcare reform effort. Of all the Republicans in the house and senate, efforts are being made to work with only one -- Maine Senator Olympia Snowe. Not that they're needed to bring efforts to a near-standstill. The more conservative Blue Dog Democrats are doing a fine job of that themselves.Still, Republicans need to appear to be doing something, despite the fact that they're not. The position that the current system is unsustainable and needs to be changed is the consensus position, yet Republicans -- in their secret heart of hearts -- are the primary defenders of the status quo. That might be by default or that might be by design. In practice, the distinction is meaningless since the outcome would be the same -- nothing happens. Relatively toothless, the GOP can't stop reform, but they can slow it down and give the Blue Dogs a chance to do their dirty work for them by demanding that the final bill be as industry-friendly and consumer-exploitative as possible.
To that end, they've been spending a lot of their time wasting everyone else's time. Even now, the delaying tactics continue. We've been waiting for a final bill from the Senate Finance Committee to move forward. This is Max Baucus's seriously awful bill. But it's not seriously awful enough, apparently, so Think Progress reports that GOP committee members are offering BS amendments to further delay progress.
In all, members have offered 534 amendments to Baucus's bill. Given the deeply flawed nature of the draft, it shouldn't surprise anyone that a lot of these amendments come from dems seeking to patch holes. According to TP, these include "provisions re-instating the public insurance option, striking the network of consumer-driven cooperatives, expanding Medicare to Americans aged 54 to 65, and improving affordability standards."... [CLICK TO READ FULL POST]
