Blue Dogs say they've reached a compromise on health care

Hmmmm.... Blue Dog Democrats, fiscal conservatives and socially liberal and Moderate Republicans are socially liberal and fiscally conservative. Centrist?

A public option is well tried in California's Medi-Cal Managed Care system implemented in 58 counties. A county offers a local plan (public/private) or a state plan (private) for its Medi-Cal participants/members. And still has 6+ million uninsured.

This is the piece meal and if the most viable, to get more people have access via insurance --then it is a "step in the right direction."

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Blue Dogs say they've reached a compromise on health care

(CNN) -- A group of fiscally conservative House Democrats announced Wednesday they reached a deal with the chamber's Democratic leaders on a health care reform bill.

Rep. Mike Ross of Arkansas, speaking for the Blue Dog Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said the agreement calls for the panel to begin debating the bill later Wednesday but for no vote by the full House until after the upcoming August congressional recess.

Ross and the Blue Dogs had threatened to derail the bill in the committee because of concerns that it costs too much and failed to address systemic problems in the nation's ailing health care industry.

The Energy and Commerce Committee is one of three House committees that needs to pass the bill before it is voted on by the full chamber. The other two committees have already cleared it.

The Blue Dogs had presented committee chairman Rep. Henry Waxman a list of 10 items that they wanted changed in health care reform proposals. Neither side revealed what the 10 items were.

Waxman said his committee would take up the bill Wednesday at 4 p.m., with hopes of approving it by Friday.

Ross said the deal between four Blue Dogs on the House committee, the House Democratic leadership and the White House lowers the cost of the House health care reform plan by $100 billion and also exempts businesses with payrolls below $500,000 from having to provide health coverage for workers.

He also said the bill's government-funded public insurance option -- a key provision for President Obama and Democratic leaders -- would be a choice for consumers instead of coverage forced on people without health insurance.

Republican opponents of the public option and some Democrats, warn such a not-for-profit plan would have a competitive advantage over private insurers and eventually wipe them out.

"The public option will be required to negotiate with health care providers just like private insurance companies do to insure we have a level playing field," Ross said.

The announcement came as Obama held a town hall meeting on health care in Raleigh, North Carolina. Another town hall meeting is scheduled for later Wednesday afternoon at a Kroger grocery story in Bristol, Virginia.

If Congress fails to act soon, Obama warned the Raleigh audience, health costs will double over the next decade, make millions more Americans uninsured and bankrupt government on both the state and federal levels.

The president accused his critics of mischaracterizing his plan as a government takeover of health care.

"No one is talking about some government takeover," he said. "I'm tired of hearing that. ... These folks need to stop scaring everybody."

He also brushed aside criticism that the plan is being rushed through Congress without adequate time for review and debate.

Congressmen will have plenty of time to read the bill, Obama insisted. Noting that Congress won't finish deliberating the legislation until after its August recess, Obama said he'd be willing to invite any representative or senator over to the White House to review the bill "line by line."

Earlier Wednesday, CNN obtained an e-mail from a top aide of Senate Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus that aimed to debunk a Washington Post headline that negotiators in that chamber were close to a deal.

"While progress has been made in recent days, neither an accord nor an announcement is imminent," wrote Russ Sullivan, Democratic staff director for the committee. "In fact, significant policy issues remain to be discussed among the Members, and any one of these issues could preclude bipartisan agreement."

While several senators have been more upbeat about the negotiators' progress over the past 24 hours, there is also concern about managing expectations, and about backlash from senators left out of negotiations who have not been briefed on all the details of the talks.

Still, Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa told National Public Radio on Wednesday morning they are "on the edge" of a deal this week.

CNN's Dana Bash, Evan Glass, Deirdre Walsh and Ed Henry contributed to this report.

"Just Us" Prevails amongs Republicans in Sotomayor nomination.

Ahhh! the view from across the pond. mid paragraph is a well formulated caption of how Republicans on the panel viewed her nomination. Keep us the "just us" syndrome in IA, AL and elsewhere.



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Sotomayor confirmed by Senate judiciary committee
Daniel Nasaw in Washington
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 28 July 2009 15.15 BST

Barack Obama's first supreme court nominee moves a step forward toward becoming first Hispanic on the bench

Sonia Sotomayor has advanced a step further toward taking a seat as America's first Hispanic supreme court justice today after a Senate panel confirmed her nomination.

Sotomayor, a New York federal judge, won the vote in the Senate judiciary committee which now forwards her nomination to the full Senate.

Sotomayor is President Barack Obama's first supreme court nominee. If confirmed by the full Senate she will replace David Souter, a liberal justice, and federal court watchers say she is unlikely radically to alter the court's ideological makeup.

Sotomayor emerged from a week of gruelling confirmation hearings intact, withstanding repeated questioning by Senate Republicans about her views on positive discrimination, her public remarks about the role her Hispanic heritage plays in her judging, and even her temperament. The hearings presented the spectacle of a cadre of aging white male conservatives aggressively taking a Hispanic woman to task for statements in which she said she was proud of the way her upbringing affects her legal sensibility.

Sotomayor faced a team of Republicans attempting to tread warily between pleasing their conservative, often largely white supporters, and alienating Hispanic voters, who constitute one of the fastest growing electorates in the country.

"I question if Judge Sotomayor will be able to set aside personal biases and prejudices to decide cases in an impartial manner and in accordance with the Constitution," Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa said yesterday in announcing his plan to vote against her.

Republican Alabama senator Jeff Sessions, who has led the opposition to Sotomayor, yesterday wrote in USA Today raising the spectre of "judicial activism", a term without any agreed-upon legal meaning that conservatives invoke to oppose liberal judges whom they say would craft policy from the bench rather than adhere to the law.

"I don't believe that Judge Sotomayor has the deep-rooted convictions necessary to resist the siren call of judicial activism," wrote Sessions, whose early political career was tainted by accusations of racism. "She has evoked its mantra too often. As someone who cares deeply about our great heritage of law, I must withhold my consent."

Democrats, meanwhile, have noted Sotomayor's 17 years on the federal bench, more experience than any sitting supreme court justice had upon ascending to that court. They also praise her rise from a hardscrabble upbringing in a housing estate in a poor section of the Bronx, New York, through Princeton and Yale law school, and her experience as a prosecuting attorney and corporate litigator.

"Judge Sotomayor has the superior intellect, broad experience, superb judgment and unquestioned integrity that would make her an outstanding nominee at any time," Senator Ted Kaufman of Delaware said last week.

Reengaging in Blogsphere

How can one be relevant and still advance thoughtful pieces to a broader audience?

Out from the routine of commenting, posting, and linking, how to better utilize the capabilities of a site and the limitations of one's intellect and time commitment.

This iteration will be mundane, accessible and potentially challenging to have readers respond and use as a forum to find words and language for shared or divergent ideas.