Grassley: Perfection is the Standard
In case you were wondering, here’s yet another indication that Chuck Grassley isn’t serious about doing health reform:
“We need to slow down and do a little less,” Mr. Grassley told another town-hall gathering in Pocahontas, Iowa, Monday afternoon. “We need to fix what’s broken and leave alone what’s working well.”
In an interview, he vowed not to vote for an “imperfect bill” that includes a public option or gives the government too much control over end-of-life issues.
It should be obvious that when you’re talking about doing something like comprehensive health care legislation, you’re talking about passing an imperfect bill. Congress just isn’t going to write and pass a perfect bill. The standard is that you try to pass a bill that makes things better. A Senator talking about the need to avoid imperfection is a Senator looking for excuses to vote no. Delaying health reform, meanwhile, is part of an explicit strategy to kill reform. Max Baucus and Barack Obama need to cut this guy loose and drop the “gang of six” nonsense or else it’s very hard to see how anything is possibly going to get done.
35 Responses to “Grassley: Perfection is the Standard”
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August 25th, 2009 at 11:31 am
6 months with single-payer (or a close approximation) and the citizens of Iowa would torch Grassley for trying to undo it. That’s why Grassley is making such idiotic noises.
August 25th, 2009 at 11:38 am
This idea of slowing down is getting old. We already have slowed down, and on top of that, we’ve been debating health care in earnest since the 1991 recession, and going back years before that. This issue has been studied, talked about and politicized to death. We actually need to speed things up. Its time to shit or get off the pot.
August 25th, 2009 at 11:40 am
it’s been a struggle, but grassley has now unseated lieberman as the senator you most want to punch in the nose.
August 25th, 2009 at 11:41 am
When will some of his “colleagues” call him out on the outrageous shit that spews from his mouth?
We need a democratic truth squad IN THE SENATE to police the blatant falsehoods being promoted by the repiglicans. I am so sick and tired of the “comity” that the Senate is famous for only being applied to democrats not criticizing repiglicans and allowing repiglicans to lie repeatedly about health care with no consequences.
August 25th, 2009 at 11:46 am
Everybody knows that Grassley is not serious about reform, giving another “proof” of that is useless. But neither is Obama, and unlike Grassley he has a lot of power.
Bashing senators every day never gets old, but it is Obama’s secret deal with pharma lobbyists that doomed this “reform” from the start.
August 25th, 2009 at 12:03 pm
Obama chooses to empower Grassely for a reason: Obama doesn’t want health care reform.
Grassely and the town hall teabaggers are exactly what Obama wants: excuses to do nothing. Excuses to enrich his buddies on Wall Street while claiming he simply can’t fight for health care reform.
This is the result of decades of Democratic cowardice, compromise, and corruption; Democrats are constitutionally incapable of governing and do not deserve to hold the levers of power. The are disgusting excuses for politicians and couldn’t politic their way out of a paper bag. Why anyone bothers with these incompetent tools is beyond me.
August 25th, 2009 at 12:08 pm
I thought the Most Important Thing Of All was getting a bipartisan bill! By that standard, any possible bill — by definition a compromise — would by definition be imperfect from the point of view of any individual senator.
August 25th, 2009 at 12:13 pm
If Grassely is really not for government subsidized insurance he should go out and get his own rather than burdening the tax payer to subsidize his.
I would love to see what these guys would be paying in the “Real” market.
Challenge you Congress to get their insurance on the open market and stop being subsidized by our tax dollars.
August 25th, 2009 at 12:22 pm
In case you were wondering, here’s yet another indication that Chuck Grassley isn’t serious about doing health reform…
No. I wasn’t wondering. I doubt many of your readers were, either. Seriously, this is getting old quickly. Yeah, we get it: Republican political calculus favors denying the president any victory on healthcare.
I’m much more interested in hearing about strategies for victory. Let’s hear about bill splitting, and candidates to replace the current Senate parliamentarian, and reconciliation, and ways to buy off intimidate this or that senator.
The wallowing in pessimism on the part of liberals is beginning to become a self-fulfilling vicious cycle.
August 25th, 2009 at 12:29 pm
I wonder if Sen. Grassley would be so kind as to catalog the perfect bills he’s previously voted for. I’m curious. Douche.
August 25th, 2009 at 12:29 pm
Re Matthew’s comment “Delaying health reform, meanwhile, is part of an explicit strategy to kill reform. Max Baucus and Barack Obama need to cut this guy loose and drop the “gang of six” nonsense or else it’s very hard to see how anything is possibly going to get done.”
———-
But ..but…I thought that was the point. Grassley and the “gang of six nonsense” are the COVER for not getting anything done.
Read the script for the Morality Play.
The Good Democrats threaten to actually reform healthcare,
the panic-stricken insurance companies cough up $Millions in campaign donations to the Democrats,
the Democrats tell the press that “healthcare reform is looking difficult”,
the insurance cpmpanies frantically throw ever more $Millions to the Democrats and –at the key dramatic point–
Rahm Emmanuel throws up his hands in despair and cries “IT’s Just too Hard. The Evil Republicans have beaten us” and the curtain falls to wild applause.
Oh — and millions of OFA little people like myself get mail asking us to donate Money so that Obama can WAGE WAR on our behalf for Healthcare Reform against the Monied Interests .
August 25th, 2009 at 12:30 pm
Chat with Matt Taibbi right now, for those who want to know who is really “serious” about real reform:
http://firedoglake.com/2009/08/25/talking-health-care-reform-with-matt-taibbi/
August 25th, 2009 at 12:48 pm
“Make your 2009 donation today.
Prove the naysayers wrong. Show them we have the fortitude to keep up the fight. Help us overcome the huge financial advantage of the special interests and the Republican Party.
We need your financial support to reach out to people across America — so we can give the President a chance to cut through their lies and implement long-overdue reforms.
We need your help to stop our opponents from continuing to delay, deny and water down the President’s legislative priorities to create new jobs, lower the costs of health care, protect the environment and wean America off of dangerous sources of foreign oil.
Republican obstructionists are trying to take the teeth out of real reform — with their sneaky legislative maneuvers, scare tactics and filibuster threats.”
———-
Yeah, we don’t want none of that water-downed healthcare.
The sneaky Republicans must be the ones taking soft drinks
out of Max Baucus’s refrigerator at night.
August 25th, 2009 at 12:53 pm
Vote the damn thing out of committee and then force the Republicans to have a real fillibuster.
August 25th, 2009 at 1:35 pm
America’s disastrous health care system is responsible for incalculable amounts of illness, death, lost productivity and federal deficit — not to mention anxiety, anger and disgrace. And it’s not going to get fixed, writes Matt Taibbi in the new issue of Rolling Stone, because it’s encased in another failed system: the U.S. government. Rather than attempt to remedy the problem this summer, our government sat down and demonstrated its dizzying ineptitude. “We might look back on this summer someday and think of it as the moment when our government lost us for good,” writes Taibbi. “It was that bad.”
Taibbi breaks down the five steps Congress took to be sure no bill would pass — aiming low, gutting the public option, packing it with loopholes, providing no leadership and blowing the math — in his story, which is available on stands now.”
August 25th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
I’m sorry, Don, but did you have anything constructive to add to this discussion? Any ideas on how to get a public option passed in the Senate? Don’t give me any crap about “dems have 60 votes,” because anyone who can count knows that that’s not the case. We have 58 plus Bernie Sanders and Sen. Droopy Dog (I-Conn.), and that’s only if we can manage to cart Ted Kennedy and Robert Byrd in from their death-beds long enough to have a vote. Furthermore, we already know (because he’s said so) that Sen. Dog thinks we should “slow-down”–in other words, he’s a GOP vote in all but name on this one.
So, until you have something helpful to add, please quit it with all the recriminations and anti-Obama screed. You’re starting to sound like everyone’s least favorite concern-troll, Petey.
August 25th, 2009 at 1:47 pm
“Obama chooses to empower Grassely for a reason: Obama doesn’t want health care reform.”
This is almost certainly wrong. Not to mention just plain stupid.
August 25th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
Well, you can’t fix cancer by pretending it is just the common cold. ANd you can’t fight for healthcare reform if you’re secretly meeting with Bill Tauzin behind closed doors.
I have repeatedly noted why healthcare is stalling — the people whose rice bowls are at stake have been mounting a propaganda war for months while the WHite House been silent.
All the pressure Congress is feeling is coming from the industry Astrotuff , while the progressives and liberals are in disarray because they have not been led. Only recently have we begun to understand why.
August 25th, 2009 at 1:57 pm
Of course, you could always send Rahm Emmanuel out to “lift moral”:
http://campaignsilo.firedoglake.com/2009/08/07/rahm-goes-apeshit-on-liberals-in-the-veal-pen/
August 25th, 2009 at 1:58 pm
correction: “lift morale”
August 25th, 2009 at 2:05 pm
Don,
Once again, I ask: What would you propose doing differently? Like it or not (and believe me, as a former employee of a small, center-left political strategy/lobbying firm, I don’t) lobbyists are a major feature on the DC political landscape. No one is going to be able to get a health-care deal without some level of buy-in from the Billy Tauzins of the world.
Only talking to those who agree with you is what got us into such enviable positions under the last administration. I repeat: What would you do differently?
Because just constantly running-down the people who are on your side is not a strategy for success in my book.
August 25th, 2009 at 2:08 pm
Re Sahu at 21: “Because just constantly running-down the people who are on your side is not a strategy for success in my book.”
————-
That’s actually pretty hilarious.
From http://firedoglake.com/2009/04/08/white-house-may-be-dictating-message-but-not-to-us/?
“There’s a big problem right now with the traditional liberal interest groups sitting on the sidelines around major issues because they don’t want to buck the White House for fear of getting cut out of the dialogue, or having their funding slashed. Someone picks up a phone, calls a big donor, and the next thing you know…the money is gone. It’s already happened. Because that’s the way Rahm plays.”
August 25th, 2009 at 2:12 pm
Obama wants a “reform”, but either he’s just punking us and only cares about insurers’ money to get re-elected, or he really believes in ‘Nudge’ incrementalist bullshit and bipartisanship with Neanderthalian GOP senators.
Either way, the result as usual is the same radical right-wing policy: giving trillions in taxpayer money to the private sector with very little ‘trickle-down’ to the people.
August 25th, 2009 at 2:26 pm
RE “the result as usual is the same radical right-wing policy: giving trillions in taxpayer money to the private sector”
———–
Right. Not only will they continue to let the insurance companies screw you in the butt on the cost of individual coverage, they will NOW HOLD YOU DOWN while the insurance companies sodomize you.
Maybe Third Way will convince them to throw a bottle of Vaseline per month into the prescription plan.
August 25th, 2009 at 2:32 pm
“Obama wants a “reform”, but either he’s just punking us and only cares about insurers’ money to get re-elected, or he really believes in ‘Nudge’ incrementalist bullshit and bipartisanship with Neanderthalian GOP senators.”
Yes, that must be it. God forbid we wait until, you know, an actual, final version of a bill is under consideration.
August 25th, 2009 at 2:43 pm
Wow, Don, you manage to find one conspiracy-theory-pedaling diary on one of the most left-wing sites in Left Blogistan. Dear god, it must be true!
Look, I’m disappointed that we are where we are–I would have liked nothing better than to have an actual bill to defend by this point. I also think that there are many places to point the finger of blame for the lack of such progress. I just think that it’s ludicrous to heap most of it on the one man in Washington, President Obama, who most desperately needs this to pass. If HCR doesn’t pass, then there will be an electoral blood-bath for the Dems next fall, crippling the rest of his agenda and most likely leading to another massacre at the polls two years later.
Either Obama is deliberately committing political suicide, or you’re just flat out wrong on the merits of your argument, Don. I think I, and anyone else with more than two brain-cells to rub together, knows which one is the case.
August 25th, 2009 at 2:45 pm
Oh yes, once again it’s the left that is acting irrationally and demanding the moon. Pleeeease. It’s the centrist Democrats, the appeasement monkeys, the compromisers, the incrementalists, that are dooming reform. And please spare me the tired old defeatocrat line that you centrists would love real reform, a single payer system or strong public option, it’s just not achievable. IT WOULD BE POSSIBLE IF YOU COWARDS FOUGHT FOR WHAT YOU CLAIM TO WANT. How can the majority of Democrats be for single payer but they are scared to have a vote on it??? If the majority of Republicans had an issue that the majority of them supported and they won historic victories and controlled all the levers of government would then cut and run and ask their opponents to help them write bills? Or would hey fight on behalf of their party’s majority position?
This liberal is done with the bullshit excuses and I’m not going to be taken for a sucker any longer.
You suckers can keep blaming the victim; it’s the far left’s fault for not buying Obama’s snake oil. He really, really, really wants change but all he can muster is a giveaway to the insurance industry. Suuurrre.
Suckers. Democrats are losers that have no balls. Pure cowards. Always waving the white flag of surrender.
If you think Obama wants REAL health care reform (like single payer or a strong public option) you are a pure fool.
August 25th, 2009 at 2:57 pm
“If HCR doesn’t pass, then there will be an electoral blood-bath for the Dems next fall”
—————-
Oh, I am sure SOMETHING will pass. And I am sure Rahm will call it “healthcare reform”.
And last time I checked, having backroom meeting with lobbyists like Billy Tauzin was hardly falling on one’s sword politically. Quite the reverse. Money is the mother’s milk of politics and “political suicide” is being stuck with sucking on a dry teat.
Are Rolling Stone and the New York Times small sites in Left Blogostan?
I guess Sahu came in late. Try this:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/13/health/policy/13health.html?_r=5&pagewanted=1&th&emc=th
I sure they are looking out for the little people. That explains the secrecy, why Aetna’s stock is up 20 percent in the past month, and why Matthew has been posting “It’s all Max Baucus’s Fault!” five times a day for the past month. Don’t want to shut Max out of getting credit for a Progressive Victory.
August 25th, 2009 at 3:10 pm
After all, everyone knows that the way to win a political battle is to stay silent and in your tent, above the fray, while your opponent has unfettered access to the microphone –with no fear of being called on what he says.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20090824/sc_livescience/majorityofamericansbelievehealthcarereformmyths
”
Majority of Americans Believe Health Care Reform ‘Myths’
livescience.com – Mon Aug 24, 5:05 pm ET
More than 50 percent of Americans believe a public insurance option will increase health care costs, according to a new survey on assertions the White House has called myths. “
August 25th, 2009 at 3:42 pm
“on assertions the White House has called myths.”
Ok, the best you can come up with to back up your assertion that the White House isn’t doing anything is a poll showing that, in spite of weeks of White House denunciations, half of America is stupid enough to believe the right-wing/corporate lies.
What you are failing to account for is that the media is not a passive conduit of information. They fundamentally shape the debate by granting differing degrees of airtime to critics and proponents and, here’s the kicker, they’re owned by major corporations who also have major stakes in…wait for it…the health industry!
Could the Obama administration do more to push back on this? I tend to doubt it, simply because there is a sizable body of research indicating that if you spend all your time saying “We will not ration health care,” or “we will not pull the plug on Grandma,” then after a while a lot of people will forget that little word “not” and the take away message will be, to them, “we will ration health care” and “we will pull the plug on Grandma.”
When you add in the fact that the media is in the tank 100% for the opponents of reform, I’d say that it’s a miracle that most polls still indicate, in spite of the poll you cite and all the astroturfing by the GOP and the Health Industry, that upwards of 70% of Americans still support the Public Option.
I know that we won’t agree on this, but I think that you owe us more than the bile and hatred towards a fellow Democrat that you’ve been spewing non-stop since this debate began. Again, what would you do differently, Don? What magic wand are you going to wave and miraculously get a good bill out of the Senate? In short, either provide helpful ideas, or shut the hell up, because all you’re currently doing is weakening the coalition for reform.
August 25th, 2009 at 4:23 pm
The same magic wand that Bush used to get results out of the Senate when he had a 51 vote majority.
August 25th, 2009 at 5:25 pm
Yes, that must be it. God forbid we wait until, you know, an actual, final version of a bill is under consideration.
That is some great advice from the corporate tool lawyer.
He will surely be receiving a nice bonus this year.
August 25th, 2009 at 5:32 pm
“That is some great advice from the corporate tool lawyer.
He will surely be receiving a nice bonus this year.”
Hilarious. In other words, you’ve got nothing.
But hey, don’t let common sense get in the way of a good bout of inchoate rage. Rant away, my friend; and, come November, one of us will be positioned for a good “I told you so.”
Now, excuse me, I’ve got to go take the Ferrari to the country club, Lol.
August 25th, 2009 at 5:39 pm
Why does Grassley keep saying he wants a bipartisan bill? He obviously does not. The Dems really need to move on without the Republicans.
August 25th, 2009 at 6:57 pm
Of course Gr-asshat is looking for an excuse to say no – he has literally no negative consequences back in his home district for saying no (and you know agri-state senators – they’re usually Pork Masters at the beck and call of the local powers that be), and risks at saying yes.
Plus, he benefits either. If the Democrats, disgusted, kick him out, he can say, “I fought for compromise, but the hard left Democrats intent on killing grandma refused to listen”. If they don’t, he can vote against it anyways, saying “I won’t vote for a good bill/I’m standing up for America.”