Another Mainer

"My hope is we that can fix the flaws in the bill and come together with a truly bipartisan bill that could garner widespread support," Collins said in an interview. "I think this bill is far superior to the ones passed by the Senate (health) committee and the three House committees, but it needs substantial additional work."

I have to see the full text of the interview but her remarks above do not, in my opinion, provide any signals that she will (or may) be voting for the Reform.

This is a comment made by a Republican Rep about a bill which she thinks needs "substantial review". Not a remark different from that of many others who will not be voting in support of the bill either.

LM

http://theblindspotsofgod.wordpress.com/2009/10/11/i-fully-support-gun-ownership/

Thanks, Jay. Any latest word on why Collins might change her mind? It's probably NOT pressure from Repub. top brass, but is there arm-twisting from folks back home? Or a back-scratching deal with Reid or Schumer (or the WH?)? Keep up media competition with Snowe? Or a personal matter? Please let us know, thanks.
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(yes, even with lightheartedness, my questions to you, KT, and Amy are serious, not rhetorical or meant to feed the crickets)

"My hope is we that can ... come together with a truly bipartisan bill that could garner widespread support," Collins said
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My hope is that the NFL can do a do-over of the 2008 Super Bowl and the Patriots win 98-0, CC Sabathia can collide with Mark Teixeira on a popup leaving both of them with career-ending injuries, and Ed McMahon is resurrected by God for the sole purpose of giving me 100 million dollars.
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But it's not going to happen, so so what?
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This is so godd*mn stupid. The GOP has made abundantly clear that they won't support anything, viewing this instead as a chance to drive down Obama's poll numbers and do a 1994 in 2010.
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Who the hell cares what Collins thinks about anything anyway. There are 60 Democratic senators. Is some Nelson or Lieberman really going to filibuster a health reform bill?!?

Do Snowe and Collins support socialized medicine primarily because they are stupid or because they know that their useful idiots from every political advocacy group of the Washington press corps (i.e., ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, CNN, NPR, MSDNC, the New York Times-Democrat, the Washington Post-Democrat, the execrable Associated (with terrorists) Press, et al.) will shower them with unending love for supporting socialized medicine?

Clyburn told Andrea Mitchell today that the House has a robust Public Option that will fix all the problems Collins mentioned.

How long will Snowe and Collins be able to ignore polls like this one from Ben Stein?

http://digs.by/Xq9

I think Collins sees the train leaving the station - she should quit dithering and get on board. Her constituents want her to.

Susan Collins is signaling she's open to voting for health care reform...
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That's a overstatement, Jay, a knee-jerk reaction to another non-statement of support from a Republican...Everyone on Capitol Hill is in favor of reforming health care, just not in the same way.
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No need to further water down an already-weak Finance Committee offering (and a subsequent reconciled bill) by chasing after another single Republican vote.

This proves that conservatives were wrong when they claimed Obama was being ineffective—the truth is Obama is being too effective, pushing his destructive, big-government agenda on American in an effort to destroy the Republic.

Yeah. I said it.

You saw government in action in the stupidity of suspending the boy who brought his boy scout camping utensil to school before it was overturned. That is far from the only example. In my state, a kid was suspended from school for having a Tweety Bird keychain because the chain on it was long enough the school (government) official decided it fit the definition of weapon. This is the government mentality in work and so many people want them to be making decisions about healthcare or to have a government option. Why do you now suddenly think your government will function better than above, or at the post office, or anything else they do other than wage war? The answer is, they won't. You will have the same ineptitude making decisions about healthcare. That is completely ludicrous and without logic. Tell me one thing government does well and efficiently and I will reconsider. And don't waste your time touting Medicaid/Medicaire. The money wasted in them alone is staggering.

Collins was trying to make a nonsensical statement in order to trick people like JNS into thinking she was a big player (cf. Joe "he's with us on everything but the war" Lieberman). Then, when people like JNS read more into her nonsensical statement than she wanted, her office has to clarify that she is in the exact same, teabagging position she has been in all along.
http://is.gd/4jAQv

CNSNews has a list of the NEW taxes and fees included in this Baucus bill (to keep things in perspective):

-- $201 billion in new taxes on high-premium health care plans.

-- $83 billion in new taxes paid by workers who will receive less employer-sponsored coverage or lose that coverage altogether but will be compensated with higher wages or monetary benefits, which are taxable.

-- $23 billion in penalty fees paid by employers who do not comply with the federal insurance mandate.

-- $4 billion in penalty fees paid by individuals who don't have health insurance.

-- $16 billion in new income and Medicare payroll tax revenue due to changes in Medicare.

-- $180 billion in other tax revenues items calculated by the non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT).

entire article: http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/55398

Also, a provision that raises the threshold at which medical expenses become tax deductible, from 7.5 percent of income to 10 percent of income, would reportedly yield the government $15.2 billion in new revenue from sick and disabled Americans with high out-of-pocket medical costs.

pafro....try reading the article and you won't have to assume what something is referring to. Unless you are afraid to broaden your horizons from you myopic view.

The local school suspended the child and the school board stepped in and allowed him to return to school. The whole matter was contained at the local level. And yet you are using this to attack the effectiveness of a possible federal program? You need to work on coming up with a better analogy.

ANY and ALL government institutions are buried in bureacracy and inefficient. Saying otherwise is just completely blind to facts.
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The first tenet of the Church of Reagan. It's a matter of faith so don't think you can argue using counterexamples or reason........
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If you accept the premise that there are idiots spread evenly throughout society and judge institutions based on how the lines of accountability flow, then you can not only see the source of the myth but also it's failure to track with reality.

Could someone that is not delusional explain to me how you can have someone say this...(Sen Susan Collins, R Maine).
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“I am troubled that the legislation would cut nearly $500 billion from Medicare, which provides care for our oldest Americans and our most vulnerable citizens. These cuts would adversely affect the ability of Maine's hospitals and other health care providers to provide essential services to Medicare patients. Medicare, which is so critically important to our nation's seniors, is already in financial trouble. It should not be the piggy bank for new spending programs when revenues are needed to shore up the current program” .
“Finally, I am disappointed that the Finance Committee did not focus more on cost containment, which should have been one of the most important goals of this bill. For example, the legislation contains no meaningful medical liability reforms to reduce frivolous lawsuits and reduce the costly practice of defensive medicine. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that medical liability reform could save $54 billion in health care costs over the next decade. And the bill should do more to reform the health care delivery system in ways that would curb costs and improve the quality of care.

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And then someone like JNS says this...
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"That didn't take long. Susan Collins is signaling she's open to voting for health care reform if Dems can "fix the flaws" in the bill..."

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Wishful thinking perhaps? Or, simply what it is on JNS's part, the liberal media SPIN in favor of Obama!!

Rusty:
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Dow just hit 10k. The recession is bottoming out.
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And states might get the option to exercise a public option - yahoo! States' Rights!
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Looks to me, rusty, and xxept, the train will be leaving in the next couple months...

53_3: When you get on a roll it's like watching a master with oils and a blank piece of canvas. You don't want interrupt, you just want to watch and enjoy.

Wow sacred. You really do care!
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I'm touched.
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Either that, or that was the business end of a 2x4 that just whipped by me ear*...
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*I was going to change it to 'my ear', but then, why not take the time to honor Pirate Wench, too.