GMD's odum and FDL's Jane Hamsher team up to pressure Bernie on his healthcare vote (update)

Well, if the boot fits... (0.00 / 0)

Thx for working with FDL to put pressure on Bernie to do what he, and perhaps he alone, can and should do: push back against the bill to the point of making it fail. For people who are represented by Conrad, Nelson or some other ultra-conservative Democrat it would be a bit of a stretch to expect anything more than we've seen: the sellout of Democratic values even before the negotiations started. But for those of us fortunate enough to be represented by Bernie, we have every reason to expect more. He's not beholden to Harry Reid, he's a "self-declared socialist" and claims to represent a particular set of values of compassion and concern that are uniquely at stake in this debate.

I wrote to Bernie a few days ago (back when he along with Gov. Dean was voicing serious skepticism about the bill) imploring him to stand firm and vote against the bill. I got his standard form letter back, but now that we're petitioning him en masse and insisting that he walk the walk I'd be very curious to see what he has to say for himself. I fail to see what he's got to loose here: the GOP, the Blue Dogs and all the Villagers all think he's a looney lefty from Vermont; they're not going to respect him any more for "doing the right thing". But we're his constituents, and we will respect him a whole lot less (as in: not at all) if he caves and suddenly decides this pile of shit really smells like roses after all.  

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by: thingwarbler @ Tue Dec 22, 2009 at 19:45:36 PM UTC

Nice work n/t (0.00 / 0)

Words without action are the ruin of the soul.  

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by: LeftField @ Tue Dec 22, 2009 at 20:06:37 PM UTC

Reinstates the Gay Tax on Healthcare (0.00 / 0)

The Senate bill also reinstates the tax imposed by the IRS on the partner's share of a healthcare premium paid by a business. It's calculated as "imputed income" to the spouse whose employer provides benefits to same-sex partners.

One more reason the Senate bill stinks.

NanuqFC
Men are not governed by justice, but by law or persuasion. When they refuse to be governed by law or persuasion, they have to be governed by force or fraud, or both. ~ George Bernard Shaw

Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder. ~ George Washington

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by: NanuqFC @ Tue Dec 22, 2009 at 23:06:29 PM UTC

Can you point me to details? n/t (0.00 / 0)

Nullius perfectus est

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by: odum @ Tue Dec 22, 2009 at 23:18:12 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Pam's House Blend (0.00 / 0)

You should find the lgbt blogosphere's take on it here.

The discriminatory "gay tax" on employer-provided health benefits for same-sex spouses or partners would continue under the version of health care legislation formulated by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and accepted by all 60 Senate Democrats over the weekend.

Under existing law, health benefits that employers provide to the opposite-sex spouses of employees are exempt from federal income tax. But identical benefits provided to employees' same-sex spouses or partners are taxed as income. Receiving the benefits increases a gay or lesbian worker's taxable income by thousands of dollars a year in what amounts to a "gay tax" on health insurance benefits.

There's a bit more on the site, and some pretty strong rhetoric about withholding taxes and such.

NanuqFC
... [T]he rights afforded every citizen under our Constitution mean nothing if we do not protect those rights -- both from unjust laws and violent acts. ~ US President Barack Obama

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by: NanuqFC @ Thu Dec 24, 2009 at 16:30:08 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

So it doesn't "reinstate" it at all (0.00 / 0)

It just continues current policy?

It's not good policy and I don't care for it, but it doesn't change the existing policy, does it?

Musician, Web Designer, Photographer

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by: JulieWaters @ Sun Dec 27, 2009 at 11:44:52 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

health bill (0.00 / 0)

I want to immigrate to Canada.  I, too, wrote Bernie about the health bill, but he seems to be going to sign it anyway as the about the only attempt at reform that we shall see in this lifetime -- unless Vermont's move toward single-payer can sway the nation, or parts of it, to go along with it. if we can get the legislature to do this, Vermont will have to lead the way once again.    

When you wake up each morning look around you.  It might be the last time you get to do it.  

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by: Watercloset @ Wed Dec 23, 2009 at 00:57:51 AM UTC

Too bad (0.00 / 0)

that the person who wrote that update you linked to was barely comprehensible. I got to the bottom of it and still wasn't sure what the hell he was talking about.

You can read JD's latest at five before chaos. Politics. Godlessness. Music. Films of questionable quality. It's all there, folks.

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by: JDRyan @ Wed Dec 23, 2009 at 02:51:09 AM UTC

Yup. (0.00 / 0)

The cheerleaders are starting to lose cognitive cohesion. This whole scene just gets harder and harder to defend so blithely.

Nullius perfectus est

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by: odum @ Wed Dec 23, 2009 at 03:11:54 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

The full press press (0.00 / 0)

Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. Bernard Sanders, who will support that chamber's bill when the vote happens later this week, is under new pressure from some Vermonters to change his vote.

John Odum, the main blogger at the liberal Green Mountain Daily Web site, announced Tuesday that he was teaming up with the national liberal blog Firedoglake to pressure Sanders to vote against what they call a "dangerous health care bill."

(Welch hasn't given up on public option, Barre/Montpelier Times Argus, 12/23/09)

It's over at http://ramabahama.net ... only it's still under construction (but so is the rest of my life)

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by: Rama Schneider @ Wed Dec 23, 2009 at 11:35:07 AM UTC

GMD is a liberal website? n/t (0.00 / 0)

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by: farjas @ Wed Dec 23, 2009 at 14:44:41 PM UTC

[ Parent ]