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AFL-CIO: No To Stand Alone Senate Bill

By Big Tent Democrat, Section Other Politics
Posted on Wed Jan 20, 2010 at 12:40:25 PM EST
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Maybe the Village Dems can pick up the slack for the November elections if the unions sit them out, but the AFL-CIO made their views plain regarding the possible passage of a Stand Alone Senate health bill:

AFL-CIO legislative director Bill Samuel tells me in an interview that labor won’t support any efforts by the House to pass the Senate health bill in its current form [. . .] “We don’t want the House to pass the Senate bill,” Samuel said a few moments ago by phone. “We would not be in favor of passing the Senate bill without fixing the problems that we’ve identified.”

(Emphasis supplied.) How are the Village Dems at GOTV and such?

Speaking for me only

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    AFL-CIO: No To Stand Alone Senate Bill | 22 comments (22 topical)

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    Yay. (5.00 / 0) (#1)
    by Cream City on Wed Jan 20, 2010 at 12:43:13 PM EST
    Now I have hope for change.  

    Btw, the last line of the post (5.00 / 2) (#10)
    by Cream City on Wed Jan 20, 2010 at 01:01:28 PM EST
    just keeps making me chuckle, envisioning the elite and the geeks emerging from their caves to go door to door to deal f2f with the folks for a change.:-)

    Parent
    Barney Frank Says "NO"! (5.00 / 1) (#18)
    by Cugel on Wed Jan 20, 2010 at 02:18:29 PM EST
    The House is NOT going to pass the Senate Health care bill without changes.

    I told him we should just pass the Senate HCR and be done. He stated that all that would do was rile up the electorate and guarantee our further losses in November. I told him that caving in to Republican foot-dragging would kill the bill and we would not have HCR for another 15 years. He thought our best route was to try to get Snowe to come aboard with a revised Senate bill. I told him that was ridiculous, that the Republicans were emboldened by this win and I was incredulous that he thought there was any chance of getting even one Republican vote to make this bipartisan. Barney Frank insisted to me that there was not the vote in the House now to pass the Senate HCR. I asked him personally if he would vote to pass the Senate HCR as it stands and get it on Obama's desk. He said he would not vote yes on the Senate bill. He cited the abortion and plan tax portions of the bill for his opposition. He thought the Democrats were headed for heavy losses if they didn't drop the current HCR and try to pass some revised version."


    Parent
    Huh? Exactly. I have hope for change (none / 0) (#22)
    by Cream City on Wed Jan 20, 2010 at 07:09:08 PM EST
    in a revised version.  To revise means to change. . . .

    Parent
    Yep. (5.00 / 3) (#2)
    by jbindc on Wed Jan 20, 2010 at 12:47:07 PM EST
    More

    Shortly after news outlets called the state for Brown, one AFL-CIO official said that the results in Massachusetts should underscore the need for lawmakers to actually accomplish things if they want to win elections.

    "This election should be a sobering reminder to candidates running in 2010," the labor official said. "Voters are fed up with inaction in Washington and are expecting RESULTS.  If candidates want the votes of working families they need to PASS a jobs bill, health care, financial regulation and labor law reform."

    "If officials go running to the center like some are calling for, and away from what they campaigned on, they learned exactly the wrong lesson from this election," the labor source said.
    But, but, but.... (5.00 / 2) (#4)
    by ruffian on Wed Jan 20, 2010 at 12:50:34 PM EST
    the Dems have millions of email addresses!

    Well (5.00 / 1) (#5)
    by Ga6thDem on Wed Jan 20, 2010 at 12:52:49 PM EST
    unions should remember that they're not wanted in the "new democratic party". Apparently the blue collar voters in MA have heard that message loud and clear. They voted with their feet.

    Do you think Obama will change? I guess that is the million dollar question.

    Yes, he can! (5.00 / 2) (#9)
    by Cream City on Wed Jan 20, 2010 at 12:58:29 PM EST
    After all, he's the one who said he is but a blank tablet upon which others can write, rewrite, revise. . . .  Will he?  Yes, if it saves him.  Will the MA election be enough to wake him up to the need to save himself?  Not yet.  Maybe soon, if the Dems in Congress do not quite do his bidding.  

    Whatever his bidding will be now.  That's the question, too.  Trouble is, there will be one answer one day, another answer another day. . . .

    Parent

    At this stage, there are probably nicer (5.00 / 3) (#16)
    by Anne on Wed Jan 20, 2010 at 01:32:35 PM EST
    things written on high school bathroom walls than have been written - or people would wish to write - on the blank tablet that is Obama...

    Parent
    not exactly (none / 0) (#13)
    by noholib on Wed Jan 20, 2010 at 01:25:26 PM EST
    Coakley did well in the cities, many of which have many blue collar voters (Boston, Springfield, Holyoke, Lawrence, to name just a few).

    Otherwise the point is well-taken.
    New cultural "class" not a substitute for the working and middle class.


    Parent

    she won those cities (5.00 / 3) (#14)
    by CST on Wed Jan 20, 2010 at 01:27:45 PM EST
    but turnout was much much lower there than in other parts of the state.

    I wouldn't call that "doing well".

    Parent

    When the Big 3 were going down, it looked (5.00 / 1) (#6)
    by oculus on Wed Jan 20, 2010 at 12:55:41 PM EST
    like the unions had lost everything.  Pretty good turnaround.

    100 votes (5.00 / 1) (#8)
    by Slado on Wed Jan 20, 2010 at 12:56:16 PM EST
    That's what Stupak says Pelosi would be lucky to get if they tried to pass the Senate Bill as is.

    This is over.  

    They need to start over and pass something much smaller and call it "Health Reform" if they must pass something but there is no way this monstrosity is going to pass now.

    Village Dems betted be very good at GOTV (5.00 / 2) (#12)
    by BDB on Wed Jan 20, 2010 at 01:11:28 PM EST
    because in addition to healthcare, Obama is about to throw teachers under the bus as part of his neoliberal education policy that promotes inferior charter schools (via Stirling Newberry).  

    Oh, good. At last, one of my sibs (5.00 / 2) (#15)
    by Cream City on Wed Jan 20, 2010 at 01:29:26 PM EST
    will be under the bus with me, the teacher who is starting to listen to what I have had to say all along about Obama's fondness for vouchers and such -- as he was behind the funding for those that started in my town and destroyed our school system first.  (My comments on all of that were here more than a year ago, from my research on Obama's part with the Ayers foundation.)  

    The rest of the sibs still are keeping their kool-aid pitchers right next to them.  But maybe their lives will be changed, and not in a good way, by other goodies coming our way.  And then the Dems will stop destroying our family values.

    Parent

    Wait til Josh Marshall (5.00 / 4) (#17)
    by observed on Wed Jan 20, 2010 at 01:37:15 PM EST
    explains the reasons why Obama's future shared values solution to SS---cutting benefits and privatizing---is what we wanted all along.

    Parent
    Josh Marshall led the fight against (none / 0) (#20)
    by MKS on Wed Jan 20, 2010 at 05:50:40 PM EST
    privatization....He was instrumental in defeating it when the Republicans had the majority.

    Parent
    Um, that was sort of my point. (5.00 / 2) (#21)
    by observed on Wed Jan 20, 2010 at 06:05:12 PM EST


    Parent
    Good. (none / 0) (#3)
    by lilburro on Wed Jan 20, 2010 at 12:47:14 PM EST
    Good good good.  Also certain Village Bloggers are warming up to reconciliation.  Also good.

    Must move soon though (none / 0) (#7)
    by MKS on Wed Jan 20, 2010 at 12:56:14 PM EST
    There  may be 50 votes in the Senate--we only need 50 as Biden can break the tie....

    But the House--are there 218 there?

    Parent

    Not (5.00 / 1) (#11)
    by Ga6thDem on Wed Jan 20, 2010 at 01:06:51 PM EST
    according to the above poster. It looks like half the people in the house are not abandoning the bill.

    Parent
    Weenies (none / 0) (#19)
    by MKS on Wed Jan 20, 2010 at 05:48:21 PM EST


    Parent
    AFL-CIO: No To Stand Alone Senate Bill | 22 comments (22 topical)

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