The Party of No Continues

[Vice President Joe Biden] said Republicans were dishonest about their interest in health care. "The ace we have in our pocket is the Republican party. The Republicans concluded that their success lies in our failure."

He claimed that he knows of at least seven senators who want to vote with Democrats but were instructed by the party not to. "The American people are smart. They smell a rat. They know there was nothing about trying to get a better bill."

HISTORY

President Obama signed major health care legislation into law on Tuesday.

Health Care Bill Passes 219-212

Not one Republican member of the House of Representatives voted for HR3590. Remember that the next time a teabagger cries about not touching their Medicare or some such nonsense about what the founders wanted or intended. Just remind them that "promote the general welfare" is in the Preamble of the Constitution of the United States and what it actually means.

ADDING... Not just Democrats, better Democrats. Below is the list of Democratic House members who voted against the bill.

John Adler (NJ)
Jason Altmire (PA)
Michael Arcuri (NY)
John Barrow (GA)
Marion Berry (AR)
Dan Boren (OK)
Rick Boucher (VA)
Bobby Bright (AL)
Ben Chandler (KY)
Travis Childers (MS)
Artur Davis (AL)
Lincoln Davis (TN)
Chet Edwards (TX)
Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (SD)
Tim Holden (PA)
Larry Kissell (NC)
Frank Kratovil (MD)
Daniel Lipinski (IL)
Stephen Lynch (MA)
Jim Marshall (GA)
Jim Matheson (UT)
Mike McIntyre (NC)
Michael McMahon (NY)
Charlie Melancon (LA)
Walt Minnick (ID)
Glenn Nye (VA)
Collin Peterson (MN)
Mike Ross (AR)
Heath Shuler (NC)
Ike Skelton (MO)
Zach Space (OH)
John Tanner (TN)
Gene Taylor (MS)
Harry Teague (NM)

How Much?!

From The Hill: The comprehensive health reform legislation will cost $940 billion over the next decade, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said Thursday.

The nonpartisan budget office told lawmakers that the health bill set for a vote this weekend would cut the deficit by $130 billion over the next decade, and $1.2 trillion in the second decade of the plan's implementation.

...Wow. This is the part where the GOP calls the CBO a bunch of partisan hacks... that is until they get a set of numbers from the same nonpartisan group more in line with what they think the numbers should show, namely blow the deficit out of the water to the point that we'll be living in grass huts within five years. (AAARRGH! FEAR! RUN AWAY! RUN AWAY!)  But that's never going to happen.  Republican "fiscal conservative" heads explode in 5... 4... 3...

Kucinich To Vote 'Yes' on Health Care Bill

Thank you, Dennis.

"This is a defining moment for whether or not we'll have any opportunity to move off square one on the issue of health care. And so even though I don't like the bill, I've made a decision to support it in the hopes that we can move towards a more comprehensive approach once this legislation is done," [Kucinich] said.

Now if only more progressives could see the forest for the trees instead of working with teabaggers in trying to kill the bill.

I like Dennis Kucinich, but before he decided to vote in favor of the bill, I thought he was wrong. As I think progressives are wrong to throw him under the bus after his years of service because of this one vote.

Jane Hamsher: Dennis Kucinich has called a press conference for tomorrow. Howard Fineman is reporting that Kucinich will vote “yes” on health care...

If... he settles for some worthless reassurances that “Obama will work toward it in the future” (which nobody but Lynn Woolsey is dumb enough to actually believe), or a meaningless symbolic vote that achieves little more than 15 minutes of futile grandstanding, good luck to him. A thousand people have donated over $16,000 to Dennis since yesterday to thank him for standing up for what he believes in. We’ll be asking him to return it.

During the presidential campaign, I donated $50 to Dennis Kucinich when he ran with an idea that he could finance his entire campaign with $50 million. He was looking for $50 from one million donors. He didn't get anywhere close. Are you telling me there aren't a million progressives willing to give $50? Or two million to give $25?

And yet Jane Hamsher gets all crazy on this? Wanting money back from the most liberal representative in the House and working with Grover Norquist to kill the health care bill, under some delusion that they'd what? Start over again next month?  Pathetic.

Dennis Kucinich fought hard, but he's smart enough to know that killing this bill will kill any attempt at expanding health care for at least another decade.

ADDING...  Meanwhile, MoveOn.org has already raised $1 million in just a few days to challenge anti-Health Care Democrats in their primaries. I know they're a much larger organization than FDL, but more and more it just makes it look like Hamsher has jumped the shark.

Progressives Fight Back

I'm expecting (hoping) more progressives push back on the acquiescence of the "get anything passed" mindset just to show that they can't be pushed around.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said late Wednesday that he cannot support the Democrats' healthcare reform legislation in its current form.

Asked by Fox Business Network's Neil Cavuto asked Sanders if he could support the compromise bill. The senator replied "I’m struggling with this. As of this point I am not voting for the bill..."

Rep. Anthony Weiner says the Senate bill is getting worse:

"Every time conservatives or those that are concerned about costs step forward and say they have a problem, they take out something that helps reduce costs. You know, the public option was something that increased competition for private insurance companies and drove down costs; they took it out. Expanding Medicare to allow people not just 65 but 64, 55, the most expensive group to insure get covered under Medicare, now that's been dropped out," adds Weiner. "You know what's puzzling about all this is the very same people who say they're concerned about cost are the ones responsible for stripping out cost savings measures, so it really is a frustrating process to watch going on in the Senate."

This is going to come to a breaking point.