Earlier I posted about the Obama administration’s options following the court ruling that ends funding for stem cell research.

Now the Dems are scrambling around trying to rectify this horrific decision. Scramble harder, please:

…TPM has learned that Sen. Tom Harkin’s Labor-HHS Appropriations subcommittee will hold hearings next month when the Senate comes back into session.

Harkin spokeswoman Bergen Kenny said the hearings will be held Sept. 16. Congress returns from recess earlier that week. They are still in the very early planning stages, so no title or witness list is yet available. The hearings will be raised in this subcommittee because it handles funding for the Department of Health and Human Services.

Thank you, Senator Harkin. Let’s hope we can start helping people again, instead of allowing them to remain ill or even die.

By GottaLaff

Howard Dean was emphatic that the House must pass a bill first. Here’s what Tom Harkin says:

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) tells Politico that Senate Democratic leaders have decided to use budget reconciliation to pass fixes to the health care reform bill the Senate passed in December.

The House will first pass the Senate bill after Senate leaders demonstrate that they have the votes to pass the reconciliation fixes in the Senate.

By GottaLaff

Tom Harkin:

Nine out of ten of Republican ideas are in the Senate bill that are in the House bill… We’re very close on this.

As for an incremental approach:

You can only do reforms if everyone’s in the pool. … cost controls… this all hangs together. You can’t pick one out and do it without doing the other…. It’s like throwing a 10 foot rope to someone who’s drowning… then a 20 foot rope… He’ll drown. [paraphrased]

And a vital point:

We don’t want to allow segregation in our country… nor on the basis of disability… yet we still allow it on the basis of your health. Why should we? Why should we?… Whenever I hear the word “pool”, I think “segregation.”

By GottaLaff

Finally, it’s possible that a Democratic meme is about to be born. Steve Benen has a good piece up about reforming (what has become the abuse of) the filibuster :

Harkin and his new co-sponsor will kick off a new effort to allow the legislative branch of the government to function again. A press statement from Harkin’s office reads:

Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) will be joined by Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) at a press conference this afternoon following the introduction of their bill to reform Senate rules that have been abused by the minority to create record gridlock. Senator Harkin introduced a similar bill in 1995, when the Democratic Party was in the minority.

“In an economic climate that has been devastating for Americans, it’s time for the Senate to get moving on a jobs bill, on financial regulatory reform, and on health care,” Senator Harkin said. “The minority party has ground Senate business to a halt by abusing the rules, and it’s time to reform the process.”

In the 1950s, there was an average of one filibuster per Congress. Last Congress, motions were filed to end filibusters a record 139 times, and they continue at a similar pace through 2009 (67 cloture motions last year).

[...]. Harkin proposes a new procedural model: the first go-around, the minority could demand a 60-vote majority, as is the case now. But if 60 votes aren’t there to end debate, a week or so later, 57 votes could bring the bill to the floor for a vote. If 57 votes aren’t there, it drops again and again, and after a month or so, a bare majority could approve cloture.

Benen makes a great point:

Also note, the existence of the legislation creates an opportunity for a larger public debate.

Then he makes an even better one:

My suggestion to Harkin’s office is to come up with a helpful frame for the debate. I recommend: “restoration of majority rule.”

Easy to understand, hard to challenge, and appealing. Let’s run with it and help the Dems control the message for once.

By GottaLaff

So close, and yet so far….

Sen. Tom Harkin, the chairman of the Senate Health Committee, said negotiators from the White House, Senate and House reached a final deal on healthcare reform days before Scott Brown’s victory in Massachusetts. [...]

Harkin said “we had an agreement, with the House, the White House and the Senate. We sent it to [the Congressional Budget Office] to get scored and then Tuesday happened and we didn’t get it back.” He said negotiators had an agreement in hand on Friday, Jan. 15.

Harkin made clear that negotiators had reached a final deal on the entire bill, not just the excise plans, which had been reported the previous day, Jan. 14.

Harkin said the deal covered the prescription-drug “donut hole,” the level of federal insurance subsidies, national insurance exchanges and federal Medicaid assistance to states. [...]

A House Democratic aide, however, said not all the issues were resolved.

By GottaLaff

First of all, everything is an uphill battle these days. Second of all, well, I have no second of all. How’s that for pithy? Yep, this flu hasn’t affected my brain cells at all….

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) intends in the next few weeks to introduce legislation that would take away the minority’s power to filibuster legislation. [...]

Harkin believes senators in recent years have abused the procedural move.

Harkin’s bill would still allow senators to delay legislation, but ultimately would give the majority the power to move past a filibuster with a simple majority vote.

His staff said the bill would be introduced sometime before the Senate’s current work period ends on Feb. 13.

It takes 67 votes to change Senate rules, so, good luck Tom.

Several liberal activists as well as Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) this week have called for filibuster reform to make it easier for legislation to pass.

So how exactly would Tom’s idea work again?

Under Harkin’s bill, which is co-sponsored by Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), 60 votes would still be necessary to cut off debate on an initial procedural motion. If senators failed to reach 60 votes, a second vote would be possible two days later that would require only 57 votes to cut off debate. If that also failed, a third vote two days after that would require 54 votes to end debate. A fourth vote after two more days would require just 51 votes.

Well, as long as Traitor Joe’s behind it, how could it lose?

By GottaLaff

GOP Obstruction version 34389734789237892:

Delay. Block. Or in the Old White Rushpublic partys’ case, constipate:

Republican Senator David Vitter (Louisiana) objects to taking a vote on health reform at 6pm on December 23, forcing Senators to remain in session on Christmas Eve.

Merry Christmas.

By GottaLaff

President Obama met with the Democratic caucus today, and spoke for about a half an hour.

I encourage you to find photos of Traitor Joe and deface them, stat:

Lieberman was beaming as he left the room and happy to re-point it out when HuffPost asked him what Obama had said about the public health insurance option, perhaps the most contentious issue still facing Democrats as they negotiate their way toward a final health care reform bill.

“Well, it was interesting to me — of course everybody hears with their own ears — that he didn’t say anything about the public option,” said Lieberman. “In other words, when he outlined how far we’ve come on the bill, he talked about the cost-containment provisions; he talked about the insurance market reforms; and he talked about enabling 30 million more people to get insurance. He said these are historic accomplishments, the most significant social legislation, or whatever you call it, in decades, so don’t lose it.”

Harry Reid says we shouldn’t read too much into that. And he’s always been right about everything. [sarcasm]

Here’s what Tom Harkin said:

“Well, he didn’t mention either abortion or the public option [...] He just laid out in very stark terms for us what the future would be if we didn’t pass [health care reform]. I think he’s right. I think it would be devastating. [...] We want to be more hopeful, we want to give people hope. So I thought his message on that was right on target.”

I’m already hearing very negative reaction on the Internets. People are “giving up” on Obama. Maybe this isn’t what they wanted to hear, but let’s try to be a little more constructive with our feistitude.

Yes, I’d love to see him come out swinging. I am as impatient as the next person, but I’m not ready to throw in the towel just yet.

By GottaLaff

Think positive:

Hopes are running higher than ever for supporters of creating a government-run public option as part of healthcare reform.

It’s what the American people want. Congress members represent the American people. Therefore, it should be what they want…. not what Big Insurance or Big Pharma want. Mmmkay? Stop being owned. That’s an order.

The question is not settled and the healthcare reform project itself is far from guaranteed to succeed but liberals see mounting evidence that their position is going to prevail.

Liberals prevailing is such a nice mental image. I think I’ll use it as my Happy Place today.

Supporters of the public option perceive a tide turning their way –and sweeping up previously reluctant Democrats. “I think people are sensing an inevitability that it’s going to be in the bill,” said Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio). “There is momentum working here.” [...]

Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee Chairman Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), has long cited an alliance with as many as 52 Democratic senators who support the public option. That number has grown, Harkin said Friday.

“I think that maybe three or four, five – somewhere in there – who were … a little bit skittish about that have become more inclined to support some sort of public option,” Harkin said. If Harkin’s assessment is correct, Reid would be as few as three senators shy of the 60 votes he needs to defeat a filibuster against the healthcare reform bill. “I firmly believe that we have 60 votes to proceed,” Harkin said. [...]

In addition to the poll numbers, Harkin credited a strong push by labor unions, a powerful Democratic constituency.

Hence, the motivation for Rushpublics to make every effort to destroy labor unions.

Obama supports the public option but will not rule out the trigger or any other compromise.

Repeat after me, Prez O: Trigger bad. Medicare for All good.

That is not good enough, Harkin said. “I’ve not been very happy with the White House’s lukewarm support of the public option,” he said, articulating a gripe liberals have been making for months.

“I would hope the president would speak out more forcefully in favor of the public option,” Brown said, adding “I expect he will.”

I expect he will, too. He’s doing his “lay back until it’s the right time to strike” thing. I just know he is.

By GottaLaff

Hark!-in:

Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin, the Democrat who chairs one of the Senate committees tasked with developing health care legislation, promised Friday that a health care bill will be on President Obama’s desk before Christmas and will include a so-called “public option.”

But is so-called Harkin saying that it will it be so-called “robust”?

“I believe we are in an irrevocable position,” Harkin said on a conference call organized by the health care reform group Families USA. “The momentum is there. We will not get stopped by the obstructionists. We will have the votes.”

That sounds awfully so-called promising.

Pointing to a Thursday meeting of Senate Democrats in which most members of the caucus expressed support for a government-run insurance plan, Harkin said only five members of his party are holding up progress toward a such a plan.

Those must be the so-called Conservadems.

But Harkin also said he was open to legislation that includes health care co-ops, as long as they are offered as a choice alongside a public option.

Just pass a strong public option already. Many of us are getting so-called antsy.