Politics!

[nathansmart]

you mean this?

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theworldnew...-elevator.html

[Berliner]

I mean the whole one man filibuster of the extension of unemployment benefits, which would be incredibly unpopular across the entire political spectrum, and if it becomes common knowledge, could be used to paint Senate Republicans as destructively obstructionist. I live in a bubble, and I don't know if this news is leaving DC, or what kind of a splash it's making.

[nathansmart]

of course it's not - anything that would harm the image of the Republicans never gets more than a few blips on the huffington radar (unless of course it's sexual)

[scamboogah]

People are so short-sighted these days that most of them don't care about anything that isn't happening to them THAT MINUTE. Of the 5% that actually read or hear about this, 4.9% will say to themselves, "Good thing I've got a job so I don't have to worry about that".

These are the same idiots who are constantly being quoted as being completely happy with the insurance they currently have. This infuriates me because it ignores that the current system is unsustainable, and is also the result of asking the question, "Do you like your current healthcare coverage, or would you rather lose it?". Asked this way, of course most people are going to say they like their current coverage.

I want this entire health care mess to either happen or not sooner rather than later. It's really shining a big, bright light on just how awful people can be to each other.

[Berliner]

So you are saying its not general knowledge? I still don't really know. I think almost everyone knows someone who's been laid off recently. Even the craziest teabagger would probably take some pause at this if they understood it. I just don't know if its too technical a thing for it to be very easily digestible in the major news outlets.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezr..._to_end_t.html

[Berliner]

Tell your friends, neighbors, lovers, friend's neighbors, neighbor's lovers, lover's friends, etc...

[Tuohy]

The Daily Show hit this pretty hard last night.

[Berliner]

Oh, cool.

[Adult Ed]

If the GOP were smart, they'd call for cloture. The Dems obviously aren't doing it because they want to make mean old bastard Bunning the story.

[Berliner]

You would need 16 Republican Senators to be willing to pass a motion. That's 16 Republican Senators who would be willing to step back from their ideological rhetoric*.

*It ain't happening anytime soon.

[Adult Ed]

You would need 16 Republican Senators to be willing to pass a motion. That's 16 Republican Senators who would be willing to step back from their ideological rhetoric*.

*It ain't happening anytime soon.

Why would you need 16?

That said, you are probably right but it would still be the smart thing to do. There are GOP senators publicly asking him to stand down but that posturing rings hollow if they won't make a cloture motion.

[Berliner]

You need a signed petition of 16 Senators just to invoke cloture.

Either way they get burned. There has be to Republican Senators willing to back off from their strategy of Democrats: Evil Government Growers, when there are literally hundreds of organizations that track every legislative move a Representative will make, and will use it to haunt them during election time. Anyway, Bunning: a Democrat's best friend. He could've chosen a much better area where he could have made his stand, like defense expenditures, but he decided to touch the third rail.

[Berliner]

So Obama wants to make members of Congress get the same kind of medical treatment as the rest of America:

(D) MEMBERS OF CONGRESS IN THE EXCHANGE—

(i) REQUIREMENT—Notwithstanding any other provision of law, after the effective date of this subtitle, the only health plans that the Federal Government may make available to Members of Congress and congressional staff with respect to their service as a Member of Congress or congressional staff shall be health plans that are—

(I) created under this Act (or an amendment made by this Act); or

II) offered through an Exchange established under this Act (or an amendment made by this Act).

(ii) DEFINITIONS—In this section:

(I) MEMBER OF CONGRESS—The term ‘‘Member of Congress’’ means any member of the House of Representatives or the Senate.

(II) CONGRESSIONAL STAFF—The term ‘‘congressional staff’’ means all full-time and part-time employees employed by the official office of a Member of Congress, whether in Washington, DC or outside of Washington, DC.

[nathansmart]

so, another roadblock for votes?

[Berliner]

Take that kind of cynicism to CaEE!

[nathansmart]

Is it though? Seriously.

[Berliner]

I feel like I'm pretty realistic rather than cynical about all this, and I feel pretty confident that we will see passage fairly soon. I will never say its certain because anything can happen. But nothing has actually derailed this process: town hall freakouts, accusations of death panels, Scott Brown winning. People have always been able to regain their stride.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezr...lace_on_h.html

[nathansmart]

I finally subscribed to the Ezra feed - I always like when you post articles by him.

[Berliner]

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/...-save-it/37009

[scamboogah]

I was very reassured on Monday when Rachel Maddow said over and over again that it's a done deal, and not in a 'talking herself into it' kind of way either. More like, 'Calm down everybody, it's actually going to happen'.

After that, I imagine the real freakout begins (on the teabagger's side).