Thursday, March 25, 2010

Today in the Senate and Obamacare.....BFD

  I do not know if what I hear is true that president obama wants tee shirts with BFD printed on them..........hmm, classy.
 Why, are some surprised with the 'violent reaction' and the threats on Democrats who voted for the Obamacare bill?  I wish no one harm, but people are really angry and we have been voicing  it for months and were not heard. And I do believe that Tea Party gatherings are infiltrated by those who want members to be seen as a 'dangerous faction' and being Republican backed.   Neither is true with the people I know and have meet at the rallies.  Meanwhile, back at the Senate and according to the Washington Post:



"Today, Republicans will give Democrats one last chance to reject the horrible impact the underlying bill and this last-minute add-on will have on our country," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Wednesday. "Unfortunately, we already know that they plan to turn the other way."
Another proposal would have eliminated an array of smaller provisions that benefit particular states or regions, provisions Republicans derided as "sweetheart deals" whose only purpose was to win the support of specific Democratic lawmakers.
Other amendments would have stripped the bill of tax increases that will affect individuals who make less than $200,000 a year -- upholding Obama's campaign pledge not to raise taxes on the middle class, Republicans said -- and erased a requirement that employers offer affordable coverage to their workers or face penalties.
Under another proposal, offered by Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), Obama and members of Congress would have been required to buy insurance through state-run exchanges that were created by the legislation and that will start in 2014. The amendment failed, but the White House announced that Obama would use the exchanges anyway, apparently assuming he will win reelection in 2012. That prompted Grassley to quip: "This is a little presumptuous."
As the Senate staged a series of rapid-fire votes, only a handful of Democrats defected, suggesting that the package of changes would easily be approved in the final vote. The package was written under special budget rules, known as reconciliation, that protect it from a Republican filibuster. Just 50 of the 59 Democratic senators need to vote "yes" in order to send the bill to Obama for his signature, completing the most significant social legislation in nearly a half-century.
Although much smaller than the bill Obama has signed, the measure would make major changes to that legislation to bring the final package in line with a compromise worked out between House and Senate leaders. Federal subsidies would be expanded slightly for people who need help buying insurance, and the coverage gap known as the doughnut hole in the Medicare prescription drug program would be closed by 2020. Seniors who fall into the doughnut hole this year would be eligible for a $250 rebate.
The measure would also change the annual penalty on individuals who do not purchase insurance to at least $695 a year or as much as 2.5 percent of annual income. And it would dramatically increase the penalty facing employers who do not offer affordable coverage, to as much as $2,000 per worker.
The most significant change, however, would be the method of financing the overhaul. A new 40 percent excise tax on high-cost insurance policies would be delayed until 2018 and replaced by a new tax on the nation's highest earners. Families earning more than $250,000 a year would for the first time have to pay a 3.8 percent Medicare payroll tax on capital gains, dividends and other investment income.

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