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Reconciliation bill passes Senate

The Senate has passed a package of fixes to the health reform bill, signed by President Barack Obama, by a vote of 56 to 43. The reconciliation bill now goes back to the House for a second vote after Senate Republicans succeeded in making minor changes to the bill. The House plans to vote later Thursday – finally capping a year-long effort to remake the American health care system.

But the work isn’t done quite yet.

The bill passed 56 to 43, with Vice President Joe Biden presiding over the chamber. Senate Republicans forced a pair of changes to the reconciliation bill overnight, sending it back to the House for a final vote later Thursday.

Democrats believe the minor changes – to language regarding Pell Grants for low-income students – won’t derail House passage, meaning that Democrats are set to finally conclude the legislative struggle needed to make health reform a reality.

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Time Magazines Piece on State of the Union

Barack Obama addressing a joint session of Con...
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TIME Magazine has a piece. I’m stunned. It’s on their website by Michael Scherer, but I’m still stunned. “Confident Republicans Give Obama a Frosty Reception.” This is a review of the speech that I would never expect to see anywhere, on a blog or in the dead tree version of TIME Magazine. “Stand-up comics call it a ‘tough crowd,’ but then tough crowds are part of their business. It’s a whole other matter to be met with cold stares when you are the President of the United States, talking in prime time before a joint session of Congress, when your party controls both chambers by historic margins.


“President Obama spoke the first 676 words of his State of the Union address on Wednesday night before the first hand clap. His tone was so somber, and the room’s mood so grave, that no one moved when Obama said, ‘We must answer history’s call.’ There were no ovations when he called for ‘Democrats and Republicans to work through our differences, to overcome the numbing weight of our problems.’”

The reason is nobody believes him. The Democrats have no desire to “work with Republicans.” All they want to do is say Republicans won’t come to the table. The Republicans know there’s nothing in it for them to work with Democrats. Obama “got no love for saying, ‘The worst of the storm has passed.’ By the time he announced that ‘we cut taxes for 8 million Americans paying for college,’ Obama was forced to go off script. ‘I thought I’d get some applause on that one,’ he said…” The reason he didn’t is because he hasn’t cut taxes. He’s referring to a tax rebate of a couple hundred bucks that people got, but not a tax cut. It was a lie.

Now, this is the key line: “I thought I’d get some applause on that one,” Obama said when he talked about “tax cuts” to eight million Americans paying for college. There aren’t any. He has not cut anybody’s taxes. He’s talking about tax rebates. It’s a one-time thing. Shearer points out “There was some giggling…” Obama was laughed at a lot of times last night. “[S]ome of them relented, offering the congressional version of a golf clap,” you know, making a point that it was not really applause. Shearer says, “So it went all night for the President, who a year ago came before the same body to announce, ‘Now is the time to act boldly and wisely.’ That bold wisdom has, in the course of a year, been transformed into a much more qualified vision of something short of significant legislative failure.

“‘To Democrats, I would remind you that we still have the largest majority in decades, and the people expect us to solve some problems, not run for the hills,’ he said. While the Democrats at times seemed to be considering the exits…” Have you heard this analysis of this speech anywhere in the State-Controlled Media? It’s right there at TIME Magazine. And it gets funnier. “While the Democrats at times seemed to be considering the exits, the Republicans in the crowd handled the event with a renewed sense of confidence. A few minutes before Obama arrived, Republican Representative Mike Pence, standing in Statuary Hall, explained that he had turned down a chance to run for the Senate so he could help lead Republicans back to power in the House.

“‘This is a genuine, authentic, American movement,’ he said of the” the conservative ascendency here, talking about “New Jersey, Massachusetts and Virginia. Inside the chamber, the GOP did away with the pranks and gimmicks they displayed the last time Obama addressed a joint session. Eschewing paper signs or rude interruptions, they seemed content to pass the time with the sort of cool confidence that accompanies a sense of ascendancy. House minority leader John Boehner, bronzed and cocky, kept making faces and spreading his hands in disbelief at Obama’s applause lines.

When Obama spoke about creating jobs for small business, Boehner spread his hands and cocked his head as if to say, ‘So now you’re getting it.’ “When Obama congratulated himself for not raising income taxes by ‘a single dime,’ Boehner looked incredulous — as if to say, ‘Really, he wants credit for that?’ When Obama asked ‘if anyone from either party has a better approach’ to health care reform, Boehner shot out of his seat and raised his hand. He was not called on.” Obama’s not interested in anybody else’s ideas.

Anyway, it goes on like this, ’til the last paragraph. “‘Our Administration has had some political setbacks this year, and some of them were deserved,’ he said. ‘But I wake up every day knowing that they are nothing compared to the setbacks that families all across this country have faced this year.’ Once again, in response, the chamber before him declined to offer a round of applause.”

Pelosi was trying to. She looked like a trained seal at Sea World. She was trying to get everybody out of their seats. There was some applause but, folks, the speech was a downer. It was not raucous applause. Even the traditional applause that greets the arrival of the president was not what it was.

Excerpt from Rush Limaughs website.

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