Arkansas Blog

Best I can tell, Arkansas's senior U.S. senator has backed herself into the most difficult of corners.

If Lincoln can't see the need to get this bill to the floor for discussion, I don't think the Democrats need her chairing the Agriculture Committee. Find someone with a backbone when we vote next time but in the interim, find someone else else to run the Ag Committee.

Don't worry about the flames from Clinton's faux fire of money. That giant sucking sound from 3rd world nations will naftra out all flames before they roar. That Mexican Whirlpool factory will see to it.

It's a smart tactic for the Democrats to use Halter to counter the pressure that Baker is applying on Lincoln.

Seems like old times with Joe Conason back in town. The only thing missing is hobo-reporter Murray Waas.

Durango, the mess is of her own making. And it's not too late to get out of it. All she has to do is to do the right thing: "My constituents deserve decent health care, and the government shouldn't have to pay giant insurance companies for doing nothing. I'm voting for the health care bill, and I'm going to push for it to include a strong public option." If she did it now--right now, all the pressure would be on Nelson, Landrieu, and Lieberman, and she'd go back to what she was before--unknown. But she would have stood up for her constituents and her country over the special interests.

Yeah, I'm holding my breath.

Why is this so hard?

The US pays twice as much for less than the 30th best health care system in the world. Blanche votes against the very idea of debate, or after debate Blanche votes to continue the only for-profit system of medical insurance in the world. Blanche has cashed more lobby/bribes than any other Senator.

Blanche retires on her bibery fund. Arkansans die from lack of health care, in no small part because the medical profession have come to see themselves as an economic aristocracy.

What's new?

Unfortunately what President Clinton is saying is a whopper of a lie. The health care bill has no cost savings. The Democrats had to provide gifts to their special interests. This bill is nothing but a boondoggle. Senator Mary Landriau will be laughing to the bank with the $100 million dollars that the bill sends to Louisiana.

hmmm, Halter, sounds nice doesn't it
Senator Halter
Senate Dirksen Bldg
Washington DC 20001

What can you possibly thinking? Why do you want Government Controled Healthcare? Do you think it is FREE? It is not! In fact, it will cost more than the insurance you have now.
85 per cent of Americans have health care and with the house or senate bill, they will pay more.
If you don't have health insurance you will be forced to pay for it. If you are driving a new car and can't afford health insurance, you will be fined. I don't think anyone wanting this bill understands what it is about. We will start paying 5 years in one bill and 4 years in the other bill before the care kicks in. Medical devices (wheelchairs, hips, and diabetic supplies) will all be taxed.
If you are 18 35 years old and have a policy for $180. a month, that isn't good enough. You will be required to have insurance equal to a percent of your salary and could have to pay another $200 to $300 a month. If you don't do that, you get a fine. Next is jail. This is America. This is a TAX bill, not a health care bill. Does no one on this site see that this is another power grab? Why can't we just pay for people who can not afford health care? Is that just too simple?

"What can you possibly thinking? Why do you want Government Controled Healthcare? Do you think it is FREE?"

Jesus, what turnip truck do you think we fell off of?
Go spew your anti-health care reform talking points somewhere else.
No one think it is "FREE"...

Guess what, when someone who is un-insured gets healthcare and can't afford it we are already paying for it. What do you think should be done? Just let 40,000 Americans die each year because of a lack of heath insurance? What would you do to help those folks who are gonna show up at that health care clinic?

Lincoln wil hear the voice of LIncoln. if she is true to the Cougars and what her teachers tried to communicate to her. I just returned from the medical school libary trying to prepare for a forthcoming conference, in a gold rated, LEED certified facility, that emerged after the collapse of the first World Trade Center. But I ponder about the term in the medical journals that refers to "collaborative translation studies". Just how many of you have been in collaboration with your physicians in the care of your health? I've been trying to get a handle on this where no one has to burn up any currency...rather would like to create a little, in the terninology of a few investment bankers fromm Arkansas's banking community I've met.

Now what we got going on here, sweethearts, is a little Washington high drama involving among others Miss blanche and the reid meister. You got to start thinking like a washington type before you can appreciate this little play. Since it is being conducted for your benefit here is the deal.

harry baby has the simple majority to get this bill passed. However, he needs 60 votes to get it to the floor for debate. He needs Miss blanche's vote to meet that 60 threshold. He does not need her vote to meet the simple majority once it gets to the floor for an up and down vote. Miss blanche can vote against the bill on the final vote----that gives her political cover with the rubes back at home----but she needs to pretend to be noble by voting for the debate. She knows that if she votes for the bill she is dead politically in Arkansas where the people hate the obamacare bill.

Now, get the picture, sweethearts? Miss blanche gets the political cover and harry baby gets his Senate obamacare bill passed in the final vote without Miss blanche's approval. The demos get what they want and Miss blanche gets the cover she needs for reelection.

I assume that the folks at the ark times know this and just don't want you folks to be confused with this little parliamentary trick. Again, maybe they are not wise to the ways of the folks in Washington? I'll let you be the judge of that.

Goodness me, i was surely worried about this until bo-regard showed up to explain it to all us dumb people. I dont know how we managed to get by without him, except for the fact that he seems to have gone through several incarnations. One of these happy days, the "folks at the ark times" will get sick of him and/or decide he/she has gone too far, and the rest of us will be allowed to wallow in what bo-regard considers our ignorance in peace.

Oh, so you don't support 'diversity' of ideas? Right, sweetheart? I never took you for a censor, tina!

Once again, I hate to say it, but I think Beau is right and she will vote to advance the bill to the floor. Will she vote for it when it comes to a vote on its merits. I think it depends on a lot of things, such as how it is amended, and what happens in the real world while the bill is debated. Congress does, on occasion, tune into the real world. Gosh, I hate to ever being in agreement with Beau.

According to the Congressional Research Service, 97% of bills that make it to the house in this situation pass. It takes 60 votes to amend.

According to the Congressional Research Service, 97% of bills that make it to the floor in this situation pass. It takes 60 votes to amend. (CORRECTION)

Thanks to "Engine Charlie" (blue name) after WWII, health care in the U.S. was tied to employment, and now thanks to the Big Corps who are paying Mizz Blanche's bribes, health care and the needs of U.S. employees have been shipped to where no worker will ever vote.

How many times do I have to explain that politicians have no higher level of morality than street-walkers? More money equates to more service.

How many dollars have you sent to Mizz Blanche? Why do you expect more servce?

I miss Bill Clinton as POTUS.

I miss Monica Lewinski as POTUS mistress.

Really, the only problem the trolls have with Bill Clinton is that he got nine blowjobs and it took $50 million dollars to prove it.
Bill Clinton was a great President, and George Bush was the worst ever.

What makes bubba a 'great' president?

What made Bill Clinton a great president? The comparison to other recent presidents and his good fortune to preside over a booming economy. Put him next to Lincoln or FDR or Washington and he's strictly run-of-the-mill.

I think my ole' buddy Bill is out of touch with most Americans that have to sit around the kitchen table and figure out how they are going to pay the bills. But for the first time in history we have a man in the White House that has a inkling of an idea. He says health care is breaking this nation, and I believe him.
And the only ones with enough capital to stand up to big insurance is us the American People, we are supposed to be the Government. If we stand by and let the Lobbyist of Big Insurance win this, that may mean, we sold our last chance to take our government back, and they''re may be nothing left to take back if Lobbyist win this one. Health Care in this nation is just 50 cents of our GDP income of bankrupting this country.

Ok, how did bubba cause a 'booming economy' as President?

If health care was such a problem and such a major concern of Americans, why did every poll show it far down on the list of concerns by Americans?

Lord, what a group of ppl.. all of you have missed the mark..
during a recession such as we are in, increasing Health Care Taxes, Energy Taxes, taking control over a large portion of the contry's wealth, for the first time in our history, legislation mandating how we are to live our lives or go to jail, this is the basis of a disasterous ending of the Democratic Republic we call the United States of America.. There have been forces afoot for many years which have been nibbling at our freedoms one bite at a time.. indoctrinating the younger generations, because controlling the youth is the easiest way to effect a massive change,.. this is the biggest push they have attempted.. When our military has to fight without our country protecting what we believe in then come home and still have to fight to maintain our Constitution, there is definatelly something wrong with this picture..
This Cap and Trade, Health Care "reform" and all the other Socialist agenda is a special interest group worming their way into taking over our country with making our ppl dependent on the government and not our own devices which is what made this country what it is in the first place..

Thomas Jefferson stated, " A Government large enough to give you everything you need, is large enough to take everything you have"..

What makes all of you think the Government OWES you anything.. governments are devised to maintain national security, infrastructure, provide a legal system which regulates order, etal,.. not the 'parent' which spoon feeds you all your wants.. that style of Government is a anarchist socialist regime.. AKA Communism, this is what we are heading for.. Is this what you want??

Bill did one good thing--facing a $270 billion deficit (seems puny now, doesn't it?), he rammed through a tax increase. It cost him Congress, but coupled with the reduced paranoid expenditures with the end of the Cold War and the boom in productivity from the silicon chip, he guided the country to prosperity. But with Neutron Newt in charge on Capitol Hill, he wasn't able to proceed with any other reforms like Kyoto, and he shied away from environmental activism--in fact, he submitted his best environmental actions, like tougher arsenic limits and the roadless ban, when he was about to leave office and Bush could negate them. And he presided over the financial market deregulation that led to our current chaos. Obama comes in with water gushing from a dozen holes in the dyke and is still trying to pursue a progressive agenda; Bill never really tried.

Oh, and Thomas Jefferson said no such thing, Jean, bet your bottom dollar. You guys have to stop making up Jefferson quotes; the man has been dead for 205 years and can't fight back.

beauregard,

You really do have a reading comprehension problem, don't you?

You ask, "Ok, how did bubba cause a 'booming economy' as President?"

I didn't say he created it. Read what I said: "his good fortune to preside over a booming economy". Do you need shorter words than "good fortune"? He got lucky with the economy. What little credit he deserves was for not screwing it up.

I am not a Bill Clinton fan. He was part and parcel of twenty-eight years of conservative presidential disaster, consistently promoting the corporate agenda and pushing American politics to the right. Clinton didn't push quite as hard--gjdodger correctly gives Clinton credit for raising taxes. That part was good for the country--but he sure did put his shoulder to the wheel of destruction. Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush. Pee on 'em all.

Now we have Obama, who is, just barely, a liberal. Yay. If he had an energized party pushing him left--but he doesn't.

If you sincerely believe that obama is 'just barely a liberal' then you reveal your lack of reality immediately. Bubba always takes credit for the prosperity that existed during his administration to the tech bubble. The press have never asked him exactly what he did to create that prosperity because they know he didn't. Timing is everything in politics.

Unfortunately for us in the case of obama and pelosi, we have a very serious situation that is directly caused by the actions of government. We are on the verge on bankruptcy due to entitlement costs that we simply can't afford. This situation will be significantly exacerbated by the obamacare bill.

beauregard,

We've yet to see Obama's presidency in full--and I'm rooting for a full eight years, then eight of Hillary (the better angel of Bill Clinton's nature)--but so far, Richard Nixon was more liberal than Barack Obama. I've yet to see anything as liberal as, for instance, establishing the Environmental Protection Agency, detante with the Soviet Union, or the opening to China. Nixon proposed a better federal health insurance program better than anything we're going to get this year, too.

Part of the business of Reagan, Bush, Clinton, and Bush was changing perceptions, so that what was liberalism is now radicalism, what was moderation is now far left liberalism (Obama), and what was far-right radicalism is now mainstream.

I don't blame you for drinking the Kool-Aid. Like Bear Whiz Beer, it's in the water.

I'm not a nixon fan so you are whistling in the wind with me on that topic. Our financial situation today is grave. It was not in prior administrations. Bush was irresponsible in his spending on government. However, we have put that irresponsibility on steroids under obama and pelosi. We are going bankrupt. The Chinese know this and are looking for ways of disinvesting themselves from the dollar. When they refuse to loan us money we will simply monetize the debt and see the dollar tank along with our standard of living. I think it is inevitable with the democrats in control and I'm not sure that even if we kick the bums out in 2010 and 2012 we will survive. I hope I am wrong for the sake of this Republic.

"What made Bill Clinton a great president? The comparison to other recent presidents and his good fortune to preside over a booming economy. Put him next to Lincoln or FDR or Washington and he's strictly run-of-the-mill."

What's run-of-the-mill here is what's attempting to pass itself off as logical thinking.

President Clinton had the "good fortune to preside over a booming economy" (handed him on Inauguration Day, by implication).

Clinton and his administration actually had nothing to do with his being in the top 5 Presidents, nor the economy showing its largest surplus, nor international relations and respect at a near-forgotten peak.

Just luck, Razorbabies. All of It. Clinton's "good fortune." The man himself is "strictly run-of-the-mill" as Presidents go.

Lincoln, FDR and Washington, unlike Clinton and by contrast and implication, had lots better luck!

They didn't really DO anything either. Just the "good fortune to preside" over the Civil War and Emancipation; the Great Depression and WWII; founding our country!

Personal skillsets, education, leadership abilities -- not so much when it comes to Presidential legacies. It's all a matter of luck.

Lincoln, FDR and Washington had better luck than Clinton and were therefore greater Presidents, according to the above premise.

Wait. That can't be right.

Okay. REGROUP! Let's run in the mill in the other direction.

It's that those OTHER Presidents were "great" leaders who dynamically shaped America and "made a difference" (in the tired tribute-dinner cliche) while Clinton was a just passive temp figurehead who got lucky. So to speak.

But wait. That's all kind of biased and shallow and nonsensical so that can't be right either.

Presidents are "great" if I think so. Otherwise they're just "lucky."

Huh?

Either direction one runs in this millogical treadwheel, Razorbabies, it's still in silly circles going nowhere.

You make a fair point, Norma, that the three very greatest of our presidents had the fortune, both good and bad, of being called to service during trying times. (Washington, of course, had quite a bit to do with creating the challenge to which he rose.) So let's look at the fourth-greatest, a step below the three biggies, Lyndon Baines Johnson. LBJ and JFK had very similar situations, yet while Kennedy kept his thumb up his butt and various other appendages up Marilyn Monroe, Johnson rose to the occasion and led us to civil rights and the Great Society. Similar situations (though LBJ got the added boost of emotion following Kennedy's death), including their joint genocide in Vietnam, but much different results. Kennedy was a run-of-the-mill president; Johnson was not. Or let's compare Clinton to his doppleganger, Ronald Reagan, magnificent communicators who consistently sold out their core constituencies and made them like it. A plus for performance, C minus for results.

P.S. LBJ, like FDR, enjoyed presidentially privileged penis placement, but unlike Bill Clinton, they had the brains and self-discipline to keep from doing to their supporters and constituents what they were doing to their girlfriends.

Forget, hillary. She is an old broad now and will be an even older broad then. She is out.

How do those of you who support the health care bill propose to pay for it? More taxes? Higher costs for senior citizens? Higher medicare taxes?

There is no such thing as a free lunch. Someone has to pay the price.

You need to read Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. And I don't mean Google it to see what someone else thinks it is about. I mean read it.

Someday the "someones" who have to pay for these things will disappear. But you don't care. You'll be dead by then. Let our kids and grandkids figure it out. Let them study history and realize that the only way to get rid of unfair taxes from an oppressive government is to revolt the way our founding fathers did over 200 years ago. Of course, our kids and grandkids will also have to deal with socialism, so it will be an uphill battle.

I only hope you live long enough to feel the pain and see the wrong of what you are doing.

Who is John Galt?