Dems Reach A Deal On Health Care

Blue Dogs say they've reached a compromise on health care
(7/29/09 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.

"Ross [Rep. Mike Ross of Arkansas] said the deal between four Blue Dogs on the House committee [the Energy and Commerce 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. "

The committee chairman (Waxman) wants to take up the bill at 4:00 pm today. (Little wonder the stock market is down; I do believe that the market was buoyed in the last 2 weeks because of perceived delay/defeat of the health care money wasting reform.)

No one knows for sure how much the total cost would be, so "cutting" $100 billion doesn't mean a thing at this point. Exemption of business with payrolls below $500,000 is an improvement from $250,000 originally proposed. And that's a deal for those so-called Blue Dog Democrats??

But wait, the Energy and Commerce Committee of Waxman? What does it have anything to do with health care reform?

I checked around, and found these 5 committees that are involved in crafting the health care "reform".

• the House Committee on Ways and Means (already voted)
• the House Committee on Education and Labor (already voted)
• the Committee on Energy and Commerce (may be voting today)
• the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) (already voted)
• the Senate Finance Committee

Votes in the committees have been strictly partisan, with few Democrats voting no. I don't know for sure whether the Senate is going to use reconciliation process. If they do, all the Senate needs is a simple majority to pass the bill.

And of course, behind these committees, there's the White House with Rahm Emanuel.

With the help of health care industry lobby who's spending $100 million on ad campaigns in support of health care "reform" (that alone tells you who is going to get royally screwed by the legislation - you and me), they are going to ram it through Congress.

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