Iranian Gov't Stops Revolution Protests; Human Rights Violations

Senator Joe Lieberman Explains (on first video below) How Congress Plans To Help Stop Iran's Unacceptable Regime & Violation of Human Rights.

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Iran’s Show Of Force Quashes Protest Attempts


A massive Iranian security presence, including riot police and gangs of motorbike-riding militia, appeared to snuff out attempts Thursday by anti-government protesters to orchestrate counter-demonstrations on the anniversary of the revolution that created Iran's Islamic republic.

Police clashed with protesters in several sites around Tehran, firing tear gas to disperse them and paintballs to mark them for arrest. Gangs of hard-liners also attacked senior opposition figures as they tried to attend the rallies — including the wife of the head of the reform movement.

Plainclothes Basiji militiamen beat 65-year-old Zahra Rahnavard with clubs on her head and back until her supporters formed a human ring around her and whisked her away, according to the Web site of her husband, Mir Hossein Mousavi.

Foreign media, including NBC News, were only allowed to cover the official ceremonies in Freedom Square, where hundreds of thousands of Iranians gathered to mark the revolution's 31st anniversary.

NBC's Ali Arouzi reported that he and the handful of other accredited reporters in Iran were bused into the official rally in Freedom Square, penned into a certain section, barred from talking to even the government supporters and then bused out of the area. He said they were told that they were absolutely prohibited from going out independently to film activities on the streets of Tehran.

The anniversary celebrations were an opportunity for Iran's clerical regime to tout its power in the face of the opposition movement, which has persisted in holding mass street protests since disputed presidential elections in June in defiance of a fierce months-long crackdown.

Based on the reports out of Tehran, the security clampdown appeared to have succeeded in preventing a major opposition turnout. Their numbers were not immediately known — but opposition Web sites spoke of groups of protesters in the hundreds, compared to thousands in past demonstrations.

Official media made no mention of clashes or arrests and state television said "tens of millions of people" attended rallies in support of the revolution across the country of 70 million.

One protester told The Associated Press she had tried to join the demonstrations but soon left in disappointment. "There were 300 of us, maximum 500. Against 10,000 people," she told an AP reporter outside Iran.

"It means they won and we lost. They defeated us. They were able to gather so many people," she said. "But this doesn't mean we have been defeated for good. It's a defeat for now, today. We need time to regroup." She spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation by authorities, who have jailed protesters for talking to foreign media.

Internet disruptions

Tehran residents also reported Internet speeds dropping dramatically and e-mail services such as Gmail being blocked in a common government tactic to foil opposition attempts to organize.

Heavy numbers of riot police, members of the Revolutionary Guard and Basij militiamen deployed at key squares and major avenues in the capital to prevent protests from marring the annual mass rallies for the revolution's anniversary.

State television showed images of thousands upon thousands carrying often identical banners marching along the city's broad avenues toward the central Azadi, or Freedom, Square. There, the massive crowds waved Iranian flags and carried pictures of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic state, and his successor as supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

In a nationally televised address in the square, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad proclaimed that Iran has produced its first batch of uranium enriched to a higher level, reiterating that Iran is now a "nuclear state."

'Death to the dictator'
Ahmadinejad made no mention in his speech of Iran's political turmoil.

For days ahead of the anniversary celebrations, anti-government Web sites and blogs have called for a major turnout in counterprotests. Groups of opposition protesters gathered Thursday in several locations around Tehran, wearing green clothes and waving green balloons — the opposition's signature color.

Meantime, opposition Web sites sought to gather as much information as possible from the protests.

* "Security forces fired tear gas to disperse a group of protesters who were trying to march toward Azadi Square as they chanted 'death to the dictator,'" the Web site Rahesabz said, reporting an unknown number of arrests. Police and Basijis on motorbikes swept toward central Tehran, where protesters and security forces clashed in several locations, it and other opposition Web sites reported.

* The Web site, Iran's Green Voice, said security forces fired shots and teargas at supporters of opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi staging a rally in central Tehran. Mousavi and his wife attended one of the rallies, it said.

* Another opposition site, Norooz, said 30 people were arrested in one Tehran square.

* The various sites, many run from outside of Iran, also featured videos allegedly taken during protests. The Website, IranNewNow, had a live blog based on reports from the streets with many of the uploaded YouTube videos.

While msnbc.com can not confirm the provenance, date and other information about these clips, we are posting some here as there is no other source of video from the street protests.

Security forces also briefly detained the granddaughter of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the architect of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, and her husband, who are both senior pro-reform politicians, according to the couple's son, Ali.

The granddaughter, Zahra Eshraghi, and her husband Mohammad Reza Khatami, who is the brother of a former pro-reform president, were held for less than an hour before being released, their son told the AP.

Text messaging, Internet service hobbled

Iranian authorities again tried to squeeze off text messaging and Web links in attempts to cripple protest organizers. Internet service was sharply slowed, mobile phone service widely cut and there were repeated disruptions in popular instant messaging services such as Google chat, though some were sporadically accessible.

Many Internet users said they could not log into their Gmail account, Google's e-mail service, since last week.

"We have heard from users in Iran that they are having trouble accessing Gmail," Google said in a statement. "We can confirm a sharp drop in traffic and we have looked at our own networks and found that they are working properly."

Opposition members went on roof tops late Wednesday and shouted Allah-u-Akbar ("God is greatest") in protest — echoing similar cries after the disputed June election as well as anti-shah protests more than three decades ago.

The opposition claims that Ahmadinejad's victory in the June 12 election was fraudulent and that the true winner was pro-reform leader Mir Hossein Mousavi. Hundreds of thousands marched in the streets against the government in the weeks after the vote, prompting a massive wave of arrests.


Sources: AP, Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, Youtube

Nelson Agrees To Vote For Obama's Health Care Bill

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Final Democratic holdout to support health bill

Sen. Ben Nelson intends to support health care legislation backed by President Barack Obama, giving the measure a 60th and decisive vote, Democratic officials said.

These officials say the Nebraska Democrat will make an announcement later Saturday. Marathon negotiations with the White House and Senate Democratic leaders produced fresh concessions that will mean additional abortion restrictions in the legislation.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because Nelson hadn't announced his decision.

Word of Nelson's decision came as Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada unveiled a final series of revisions to the health care bill, and Republicans dug in to prevent its passage for as long as possible.

In earlier developments, Obama warned Saturday the country's powerful insurance industry was determined to thwart a dramatic improvement in patients' rights as it lobbies against his signature healthcare reforms.

"They want to preserve a system that works better for the insurance industry than it does for the American people,'' Obama said in his weekly Internet and radio address.

Obama has asked the Senate to finish by year's-end to prevent the issue from spilling into the campaign for November 2010 congressional elections. Opinion polls show the bill losing public support, with majorities now opposed to it.

The healthcare bills would significantly expand coverage for currently uninsured Americans, and would also prevent insurance companies from denying coverage to people on the basis of pre-existing health conditions.

Opponents of reform say it will drive up the costs of coverage for many Americans and represents an unwelcome government intrusion into the private sector.

Obama said that healthcare reform would cut costs and shield patients from corporate abuse.

"The protections currently included in both the health insurance reform bill passed by the House and the version currently on the Senate floor would represent the toughest measures we've ever taken to hold the insurance industry accountable,'' Obama said.

"The insurance industry knows all this. That's why they're at it again, using their muscle in Washington to try to block a vote they know they will lose,'' he said.


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McCain Fires Back At Franken, Defends Lieberman

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Franken vs Lieberman: Dems Controlling Health Care Debate

Al Franken objects to Joe Lieberman talking


Sen. Joe Lieberman just wanted an "additional moment" on the floor Thursday to finish his speech about health care.

But when he asked for unanimous consent to finish his remarks, Democratic Sen. Al Franken wouldn't let him.

"In my capacity as the senator from Minnesota, I object," said Franken, who shrugged his shoulders as he was presiding over the Senate.

"Really?" Lieberman asked, flashing a grin. "Don't take it personally," as he was granted consent to include the rest of his remarks in the congressional record.

Franken didn't take it personally, leadership aides and his office said. Both said that the leadership is strictly enforcing a 10-minute speaking rule, an unusual move that is irking long-winded senators.

Jim Manley, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, said the objection was not directed at Lieberman, who is the source of liberal ire for his position on the health care bill.

"We did that to maintain order and that no senator had an unfair advantage over another in terms of speaking," Manley said. "It was a simple request of the leader and Sen. Franken was adhering to the request of his leadership."

Earlier on the floor, Sen. Mark Begich (D-Alaska), presiding over the Senate, objected to Sen. John Cornyn's (R-Texas) request for additional time to speak — clearly annoying Cornyn.

Begich later withdrew his objection and allowed Cornyn to finish speaking.


Sources: Politico

Lieberman May Seek GOP Bid In 2012

Lieberman: GOP bid a "Possibility"


Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) said Tuesday that it is a "possibility” that he will run as a Republican when he seeks reelection.

“I don't know what I'll run as,” Lieberman said during an interview with CNN. “I like being an independent. So that's definitely a possibility. But I'd say all options are open.”

Lieberman lost a Democratic primary challenge in 2006 to Ned Lamont, though he went on to win the general election running as an independent. Lieberman enraged his former Democratic colleagues this week by threatening to withhold his vote on health care reform.

While the Connecticut senator said it was “unlikely” that he would run as a Republican when his seat is next up in 2012, he insisted that he would not “foreclose any possibility.”

“I think the more likely thing is that I'd run as an independent because that's what I am,” he said.

Lieberman also tried to dispel speculation that he may oppose health care just to stick it to the Democrats who did not support him in 2006.

“That's just poppycock,” Lieberman said. “This is all about what I think health care reform should be.”

“The president and I have a very good, mutually respectful relationship,” he added. “If I had any sense of vendetta against the Democratic Party, I wouldn't be in the Democratic Caucus today.”



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Sources: Politico, Google Maps

House Dems Accuse Senate Dems Of "Dithering"

House Dems: Senate is "Dithering"


House Democrats’ long-simmering frustration with the slow pace of the Senate has begun to boil over, with a broad swath of Democratic representatives accusing their Senate colleagues of failing both their party and their country.

The cross-chamber assessment is brutal:

• “There is a growing sense that we’re lifting more than our share,” says California Rep. Xavier Becerra, a member of the Democrats’ leadership team in the House. “Members are hoping the Senate will kick into gear because the public expects a lot more to get done.”

• “Sometimes I get the feeling that some of those guys [in the Senate] just like to see their names in the paper and see their faces on TV,” says Massachusetts Rep. Jim McGovern.

• “I talk a lot about the psychology of consensus,” says House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.). “Too often, it appears, that the psychology in the Senate is the psychology of one.”

• “When it comes to a jobs bill, the Senate seems more interested in dithering,” says first-year Rep. Tom Perriello, a Virginia Democrat whohas taken heat back home for tough votes on climate change and health care — two issues that remain bottled up in slow-moving Senate deliberations.

• “If you just take a look at the number of bills we’ve sent to the Senate and what they’ve done, I don’t know what they’re doing with their time honestly,” says Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Cal.).

• “I think the majority leader sometimes has to have the leadership to resolve these things,” says Pennsylvania Rep. Joe Sestak, a Democrat challenging Sen. Arlen Specter, in a direct attack on Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.). “I understand it’s politically challenging, but we have the votes — and we should be doing much better than we are. I think this place needs a change, quite frankly.”

Reid spokesman Jim Manley said he understands the House Democrats’ frustrations but argues that their anger is directed at the wrong set of senators.

“We appreciate their concerns, but give me a break: The real concern is Senate Republicans,” Manley said.

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) said the Senate is just a different place.

“You see, we have different rules here,” he explained. “It’s called the ‘filibuster.’ Maybe they haven’t followed the number of Republican filibusters here, which is an all-time record.”

Senate Republicans, in turn, say Senate Democrats are to blame: With 60 votes in their caucus — a number that includes independents Joe Lieberman and Bernie Sanders — Democrats have the votes they need to overcome Republican filibusters if they can just agree among themselves.

But they can’t — or at least they haven’t — and that makes House Democrats nervous that they’ve been left exposed heading into the 2010 midterm elections. They’ve taken the heat for tough vote after tough vote. And with the Senate having failed to act, they have little to show for their efforts.

House Democrats kicked off 2009 by passing a huge economic stimulus package — only to watch it whittled down to win over three recalcitrant Republican senators.

In June, they made a tough vote on climate change in the hope of setting the stage for a deal in Copenhagen — only to watch the bill slide to the back of the line in the Senate.

In November, they worked overtime to approve a health care reform bill — only to watch the Senate slow roll it through long committee deliberations and then an agonizingly slow ballet with Sen. Joe Lieberman and other moderates.



Last week, they passed sweeping reforms for the rules that govern the nation’s financial institutions — knowing full well that the bill won’t look much like the one they passed when — or if — the Senate gets to it.

And this week they’ll try to pass legislation to help address the nation’s unemployment crisis — even though they know there’s no chance the Senate will do its part until after the holiday break.

The Senate started 2009 at a faster clip. At the beginning of the session, it passed legislation to expand children’s health insurance, control tobacco and respond to a Supreme Court decision on gender pay discrimination. But things have slowed down drastically since; the Senate took four weeks to pass a widely supported extension of unemployment benefits when the House passed it in a matter of hours.

For House Democrats, the Senate health care debate has been particularly painful.

The fate of the Senate bill remains in doubt even after Reid made a series of concessions this week to appease Lieberman, who declared that he would join the Republicans in filibustering any bill that contained either a public option or a proposed expansion of Medicare.

Lieberman’s one-man act prompted Connecticut Democratic Rep. Rosa DeLauro to call for his recall and another Connecticut Democrat, Rep. John Larson, to ask: “What gives a senator that right?”

The answer: The Senate rules, which give just about any member the power to stall legislation — especially when that member is the would-be 60th vote to invoke cloture.

On the House side, the speaker has the Rules Committee to help limit debate on the floor and keep the minority party - or her own upstarts - in check. In the Senate, an objection from a single senator creates the need for a procedural vote and a time-consuming process that can paralyze the chamber for days.

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) — a former House member himself — said there’s built-in tension between the two bodies, and that the tension leads to frustration among members of both.

“I understand that. I meet with them all the time — they are not happy with the pace of our deliberations,” he said. “But unfortunately, it reflects more on the institution than any given member ... [T]he rules here are designed to block. That’s what the founding fathers had in mind.”

Some House Democrats aren’t buying it.

“I know their rules are different over there,” McGovern said. “But like-minded people should be able to come together on this stuff. So it is frustrating. ... They’re definitely slowing things up.”

Of course, not all House Democrats are unhappy with the Senate’s slow pace.

South Dakota Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin said she’s glad the Senate takes more time to consider “legislation [that] is overreaching in some cases.” Still, even she says the Senate has “broken down” as an institution with the use of the filibuster.

Should Reid get a health care bill passed before Christmas, party leaders will still need to decide how to pay for it — through either a tax on high-end plans or a surtax on the wealthy — and then figure out how to wrap up differences on abortion, immigration and cost containment.

But House Democrats aren’t in the mood to trust their colleagues in the Senate, and that will make the process more difficult — even as Democrats acknowledge that they need to start getting some of these bills wrapped up if they want to reap the rewards next November.

Hoyer told reporters on Tuesday that it’s been “a very productive Congress, or House term, but it won’t be productive unless we can get those bills through the Senate.”


Sources: Politico

Lieberman Ready To Vote, Dems Want To Recall Him

Connecticut Democrat calls for Joe Lieberman Recall


A House Democrat from Connecticut said Tuesday that Sen. Joe Lieberman should be recalled from office over his opposition to the Senate health care bill.

"No individual should hold health care hostage, including Joe Lieberman, and I'll say it flat out, I think he ought to be recalled," Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) told POLITICO.

Connecticut has no recall law for state officials, and the Constitution does not authorize states to recall members of Congress since each house has the authority to police its own members.

But DeLauro’s comments speak to concerns running through Democratic circles in Connecticut and in Washington after Lieberman exerted his will on Democratic leaders and the White House, saying he would join a GOP filibuster if the bill included either a public insurance option or a provision allowing people aged 55-64 to buy into Medicare.

Now it appears that the leaders will drop those plans to win the support of Lieberman and the rest of the Democratic caucus.

“There’s huge concern that borders on frustration,” Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.) said of Lieberman’s position.

“It goes beyond frustration in Connecticut in terms of the way people feel,” Larson said. “I have a great deal of respect and I have long admired Joe Lieberman. This goes against the grain of most of what he’s fought for and stood for all of his life. It’s thoroughly frustrating and disappointing for so many of us.”

Lieberman spokesman Marshall Wittmann denied that the senator was trying to block health care legislation.

“The truth is that Sen. Lieberman is seeking to pass a health care bill as soon as possible that will provide coverage to millions of Americans who lack health insurance.”

Lieberman told reporters Tuesday that he’s been working to get a bill through the Senate that enjoys majority support in the public.

In a statement, Lieberman denied flip-flopping on the Medicare buy-in proposal, saying that his support for the plan during his campaign for vice president in 2000 came at a time when the national debt was less than half what it is now – and when Medicare was not on the cusp of going broke and when there was no “viable” proposal like the one being considered on the floor.

He said comments he made to the Connecticut Post in September endorsing the idea were “before we had a bill for consideration on the Senate floor that contains extensive health insurance reforms, including limiting how much more insurance companies could charge individuals based on age and providing subsidies that would specifically help people between the ages of 55 and 65 to afford health insurance.”

He added: “I look forward to passing a bill that will give the American people genuine health care reform without impeding our recovery from the current recession or adding to our exploding national debt.”

Sen. Kent Conrad of North Dakota, a Democratic centrist, said Lieberman has actually made it easier to reach a deal on the health care bill.

"In a curious way, it may make it more possible to get something done," Conrad said of Lieberman’s position. "Because he wasn't the only one with these concerns, it's very clear - he vocalized concerns many were having."

Lieberman's home-state colleague, Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd, said the frustration arose mostly out of support for the public option back in Connecticut.

Asked about the anger directed at Lieberman, Dodd said: "It's just people's frustration for getting a bill done and strong support for a public option."





Joe Lieberman: Ready to vote for Reform


Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) said Tuesday afternoon he thinks he's ready to vote for the Senate health care reform bill — and that his positions on the Medicare buy-in do not contradict his previously stated stances on the issue.

Coming off Monday’s caucus meeting where Democrats backed away from the Medicare buy-in and the public option, Lieberman talked of his willingness to vote for reform.

"To be as explicit as I can be now, if as it appears to be happening, the so-called public option, government-run insurance program is out, and the Medicare buy-in—which I thought would jeopardize Medicare, cost taxpayers billions of dollars over the long haul, increase our deficit—is out, and there's no other attempts to bring things like that in, then... I am getting to that position to where I can say what I wanted to say all along, that I'm ready to vote for health care reform."

Lieberman was adamant that he had not flip-flopped on the issue, despite his support of a Medicare-buy-in-like proposal in 2000 as a vice presidential candidate and then again in an interview a few months ago in the Connecticut Post. He said the current economic situation cannot be ignored in crafting what he believes to be the best bill possible.

In 2000, “the party platform was to suggest one way to reform health care was to allow 55 to 65 year-olds to buy into Medicare. That's a very stressed age group when you don't have insurance. But a lot of things have changed in nine years,” he said. The U.S. government was running a surplus, not a deficit, and Medicare wasn't on the verge of imminent bankruptcy.

"In the Connecticut Post interview—I finally got to see that on TV last night—it looked to me as if I was referring to things I had supported in the past to make the point that though I was against the public option, I was not against health care reform. And of course I did that before the Finance Committee Bill came out very large and again, I'd say generous."

Lieberman, who appeared with ranking Homeland Security Republican Susan Collins of Maine to speak about the Ft. Hood shootings, was not the only one who faced questions as a perceived on-the-fence voter for health care reform. But Collins, a moderate, said that even with the removal of the public option and the Medicare buy-in she could not see herself voting for the Senate bill as it is now.



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Joe Lieberman Says "Medicare Plan Didn't Make Sense"

Sen. Joe Lieberman says "the Medicare Plan didn't make sense"

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Will Congress' lack of fear of Obama sink health care? NBC News' Savannah Guthrie discusses whether Obama's style of leadership will result in getting Democrats to agree on health care legislation.

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Biden: 'Awful lot of gamesmanship' on health care. Vice President Joe Biden talks about the ongoing struggle getting the health care reform bill passed, and of Sen. Joe Lieberman's vote and judgment.

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Pres. Obama works to solidify support for health bill



After months of turmoil, President Barack Obama is calling Senate Democrats to the White House to say it's time to come together and pass legislation embracing a wholesale remodeling of America's health care system.

The meeting set for Tuesday afternoon comes a day after Senate Democratic leaders suggested they were ready to abandon the last vestiges of a government-run insurance program that liberals have long sought, in order to placate moderates and secure the 60 votes they need to overcome united GOP opposition.

Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is racing to finish the sweeping bill by Christmas. There's not a vote to spare in the 60-member Democratic caucus, and Obama planned to drive the unity message home.

"President Obama will tell senators that that they've come much farther than any previous reform effort, and that the lion's share of the work is behind us," said Dan Pfeiffer, White House communications director. "He'll underscore that now is the time to come together and finish shaping legislation that will garner 60 votes and pass the Senate in short order."

"He will make it clear that the American people should not have to wait another decade or more for legislation," Pfeiffer said.

"I think what we need to hear from the president is how we get the unity in our caucus for 60 votes. We don't want a pep talk," liberal Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., told reporters Tuesday. "We want to see a president who will be committed to some of the concerns that many of us have without a public option — do you really have accountability on private insurance."


Tea Party Rally

The White House meeting coincides with a Capitol Hill rally planned by conservative activists opposed to the bill, with speakers including talk radio host Laura Ingraham and Republican Sens. Tom Coburn and Jim DeMint.

Opponents are stepping up their criticism as Senate Democratic leaders push hard to finish the bill. To that end the Democratic leadership indicated Monday night following a senators-only meeting that it was prepared to jettison an expansion of Medicare, initially proposed as a backup to the government option.

"Put me down tonight as encouraged about the direction these talks are going," Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., said following the meeting, only 24 hours after he rattled Democrats by threatening to oppose the legislation over the Medicare provision.

"I think Joe's judgement is wrong on this," said Vice President Joe Biden on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" Tuesday. "I'm confident that Joe is going to see the light," he continued. "I'm confident Joe is going to vote for a final bill here, but there's an awful of of gamesmanship going on right now."

Liberals had sought the Medicare expansion as a last-minute substitute for a full-blown, government-run insurance program that moderates insisted be removed from the legislation. But it drew strong opposition from Lieberman and quieter concerns from other Democrats — all of whom hold votes essential for passage.

It also drew criticism from doctors and hospitals, who are paid less to treat Medicare patients than those covered by private insurance companies.

Reid did not say flatly that Democrats had decided to drop the proposal for uninsured Americans as young as 55 to purchase coverage under Medicare, the government program now open to people when they turn 65. But several senators said it appeared inevitable.

"We're not going to get all that we want but we're going to get so much more than we have," liberal Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., said.

The overall measure, costing nearly $1 trillion over a decade, is designed to expand coverage with a new requirement for nearly everyone to purchase health insurance, and ban industry practices such as denying coverage on the basis of pre-existing medical conditions. Obama also has urged Congress to slow the growth in health care spending nationally; several days after Reid submitted a package of revisions, lawmakers awaited final word from the Congressional Budget Office on that point.

Medication woes

Disputes over abortion and the importation of prescription drugs from Canada and other countries also simmered as the Senate entered a third week of debate on the legislation.

In a gesture that Democrats said was aimed at the AARP, Reid promised that any final compromise with the House would completely close a gap in Medicare prescription drug coverage generally known as the "doughnut hole." The Senate bill goes only part way toward that goal.

Less than an hour after Reid spoke, AARP CEO A. Barry Rand issued a statement thanking the Nevada Democrat.

Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., led an effort to lift a long-standing ban on the importation of prescription drugs from Canada and elsewhere. Obama favored the plan as a senator, but the pharmaceutical industry is opposed, and the White House appeared anxious not to jeopardize a monthslong alliance with drug makers who have been helpful in trying to pass the overhaul. A vote was set for late Tuesday.

The obstacle that loomed largest was the Medicare expansion proposal, vestige of a monthslong debate over the role of government in the newly revised health care system. It emerged last week as part of a framework agreement between moderates and liberals. Additionally, the proposal called for creation of nationwide plans run by private insurance companies under the supervision of the Office of Personnel Management, which oversees health plans for members of Congress and other federal workers.

The two provisions were seen as a replacement for Reid's initial call for a government-run insurance plan to compete with private industry, a liberal priority opposed by moderates as an unwanted government intrusion. The one unrelated to Medicare is expected to survive, but without standby authority for the OPM to set up a government-run plan if no private coverage options materialize.


Sources: MSNBC, Morning Joe Show

Harry Reid Ordered To Cut Deal With Joe Lieberman

White House to Harry Reid: Cut deal with Joe Lieberman



The White House is encouraging Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to cut a deal with Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), which would mean eliminating the proposed Medicare expansion in the health reform bill, according to an official close to the negotiations.

But Reid is described as so frustrated with Lieberman that he is not ready to sacrifice a key element of the health care bill, and first wants to see the Congressional Budget Office cost analysis of the Medicare buy-in. The analysis is expected early this week.

"There is a weariness and a lot of frustration that one person is holding up the will of 59 others," the official said. “There is still too much anger and confusion at one particular senator’s reversal.”

Lieberman threw health care reform into doubt Sunday when he told Reid that he would filibuster the bill if it allowed Americans ages 55 to 64 to purchase coverage in Medicare. His comments on CBS’s “Face the Nation” set off a series of private meetings Sunday between the Senate leadership and top White House aides, including Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, who encouraged Reid to cut the deal with Lieberman, the official said. The White House declined to comment.

Reid has called a special Democratic caucus meeting for 5:30 p.m. Monday.

If they still hope to pass a bill by Christmas – which is still a top consideration at the moment — Democrats have only limited options:

• Reach an agreement with Lieberman, which would mean stripping out the provisions that have kept progressives on board. This will likely cause problems on the left – maybe even defections – unless the White House steps in to persuade senators such as Russ Feingold of Wisconsin and Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

• Win over Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), but she has also voiced serious reservations about the Medicare expansion, and has resisted pressure from the White House and Senate Democrats to finish the bill by Christmas.

Reconciliation, a procedural maneuver to get around a filibuster, remains on the table, but it’s not a viable option at the moment, the official said. It would push the issue into next year with no guarantee of success.

Democrats are frustrated because they believe Lieberman keeps moving the goal posts. He supported the Medicare buy in the 2000 presidential campaign, and in September reiterated support for the plan in an interview with the Connecticut Post.

Lieberman has denied giving his approval of the Medicare buy-in during the negotiations last week among a group of 10 moderate and liberal senators.

"Contrary to the claims of anonymous aides, Senator Lieberman told Reid on Friday that he had problems with the Medicare provision," Lieberman spokesman Marshall Wittman said in a statement.

"This position was also told to negotiators earlier in the week. Consequently, Senator Lieberman's position came as no surprise to the Democratic leadership. Any contrary charge by aides who cowardly seek to hide under the cloak of anonymity is false and self-serving," he added.

Wittman issued the statement in response to reports that Lieberman, according to anonymous Senate Democratic aides, had initially indicated support for a proposal allowing uninsured individuals as young as 55 to purchase Medicare coverage.


Sources: Politico

Lieberman Rejects Medicare Buy-In Plan...60 Votes Needed

Medicare Plan meets resistance

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Joe Lieberman says No to Medicare Buy-In


Sen. Joe Lieberman told Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid Sunday that he couldn’t support a new Medicare proposal floated as a compromise to the public option, a development that complicates the bill’s path towards passage before the end of the year.

In a meeting in Reid’s office just off the Senate floor, aides said the Connecticut independent reiterated his concerns with the public insurance option and told the Nevada Democrat that he couldn’t support a new plan to allow people as young as 55 to buy into Medicare.

“On Friday, Sen. Lieberman told Sen. Reid that he had problems with the Medicare buy-in proposal,” said Marshall Wittmann, a spokesman for Lieberman. “Sen. Lieberman affirmed that position with Sen. Reid today.”

A Democratic leadership aide confirmed Lieberman’s comments in the face-to-face meeting, which was first reported by the Huffington Post.

Lieberman’s opposition means that Reid may once again be short of the 60 votes needed to break a filibuster if the majority leader moves forward with a health care bill that includes a Medicare buy-in proposal, whose costs are currently being analyzed by the Congressional Budget Office. Both Lieberman and fellow centrist Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) laid out their concerns Sunday with the Medicare buy-in plan on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

“On part of it - the so-called Medicare buy-in - the opposition to it has been growing as the week has gone on," Lieberman said. "Though I don't know exactly what's in it, from what I hear I certainly would have a hard time voting for it because it has some of the same infirmities that the public option did.”

Nelson worried that the plan was a “forerunner of single payer,” a label that Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) strongly rejected.

The opposition from Lieberman and the concerns of centrists adds a new wrinkle to efforts by Reid to strike a compromise – since all 40 Republicans are expected to vote to sustain a filibuster. Reid will need the support of Lieberman, Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.) and 58 Democrats to advance the measure.

If he kills a public option or the Medicare buy-in plan, he could lose the support of Sanders and several of the more liberal members of the Democratic conference. But keeping either of those plans, or one that would “trigger” a public option if private insurers don’t hold down costs, would lose Lieberman - forcing Reid to find at least one moderate GOP senator to advance the proposal.

To win the most likely potential GOP defector, Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), Reid would likely have to make modifications and slow the debate down since she’s signaled that the Senate needs to take more time to deal with the expansive issue.



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Sources: Politico, MSNBC, Google Maps

Senate Medicare Buy-In Plan Hits A Wall...Bad Deal For Voters

Medicare Plan meets resistance

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Wealth over health in reform bill? Wendell Potter, former CIGNA Vice President, explains a loophole in the Senate health care reform bill, which bans insurance companies from putting lifetime limits on coverage but not annual limits.

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Medicare Buy-In Plan runs into resistance


A plan to let people as young as 55 buy into Medicare, heralded as a breakthrough in the Senate's health care debate, ran into resistance Sunday from lawmakers who can make or break Democrats' efforts to reshape the nation's health insurance system.

Independent Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut declared the early Medicare buy-in a bad deal for taxpayers and the deficit. He pleaded with Democrats to start subtracting expensive proposals from the overhaul, saying, "We don't need to keep adding onto the back of this horse or we're going to break the horse's back and get nothing done."

Government accountants are poring over the latest compromise proposals to see how much they would cost, and some lawmakers are reserving judgment until that plays out this week. Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri said she would "absolutely" vote against the package if it seemed destined to increase people's out-of-pocket costs and the national debt.

In the meantime, only a few moderates have come out against the Medicare plan. But in a legislative struggle that is a game of inches, Democrats need all 60 votes in their caucus, and they don't yet have them.

"I think it's going to pass out of the Senate before Christmas," President Barack Obama told CBS' "60 Minutes" in an interview airing Sunday night. Lieberman said there was a chance, if Democrats "bring in some Republicans who are open-minded."

But Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell said no way: "With the American people as overwhelming opposed to this bill as they are, for the Democrats to basically arrogantly take the position that we're going to ignore public opinion and jam this through before Christmas, I think that's really a stretch," said McConnell, R-Ky.

Forerunner of Single-Payer?

The early Medicare buy-in was part of a compromise reached last week when Senate Democrats dropped the idea of setting up a federal health insurance plan to compete with private insurers. Many Democrats who had favored that public option only grudgingly let it go, in return embracing the Medicare proposal as an appealing way to help people 55 to 64 — a group often vulnerable to losing employer-based health insurance when it's needed the most.

Under the compromise, private nonprofit plans overseen by the federal government would be offered in the marketplace.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., said he was working with Lieberman and others on controlling Medicare costs, and he voiced confidence fellow Democrats can get past their divisions. Party leaders, resuming the debate Sunday, are pushing hard to finish the Senate overhaul legislation before Christmas and to begin negotiations with the House, which has passed its plan.

But while saying "I want to be a friend of the process," Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., sounded distinctly down on the Medicare proposal.

"I'm concerned that it's the forerunner of single-payer — the ultimate single-payer plan, maybe even more directly than the public option," he said. By single-payer, he meant national health insurance run by Washington.

Nelson already says he won't support the bill unless fellow Democrats establish a firewall to ensure no public money goes toward abortion coverage.

Lieberman was a firm opponent of the bill's original plan for a public insurance option. Even with it out, he said he would find it hard to vote for the bill if it contains the Medicare buy-in as written. "The opposition to it has been growing as the week has gone on," he said. Lieberman, Nelson, McConnell and Rockefeller spoke on CBS' "Face the Nation." McCaskill was on "Fox News Sunday."




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Sources: MSNBC, Google Maps

$446.8 Billion Omnibus Spending Bill Clears The Senate

GOP Couldn't Stop Senate Spending Bill


Aided by Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman, the Senate tied up some loose ends Saturday when Lieberman cast the crucial 60th vote that helped Democrats put an end to a Republican filibuster on an immense end-of-year spending measure. The bill will boost budgets at the Education and State Departments, among others.

The $1.1 trillion bill, which will be the subject of a final vote Sunday afternoon, finishes off the majority of the year's budget work, with only a Pentagon spending bill remaining. Republicans Thad Cochran of Mississippi, Richard Shelby of Alabama, and Susan Collins of Maine all crossed party lines to advance the bill, while Democrats Evan Bayh of Indiana, Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, and Claire McCaskill of Missouri voted "no."






$446b Senate bill clears hurdle

A $446.8 billion omnibus spending bill cleared a last major hurdle Saturday even as Democrats and the White House struggled to find the votes to expand Treasury’s borrowing authority to finance the growing national debt.

Three Senate Republicans joined Democrats in mustering the 60 votes needed to cut off debate, and the leadership hopes to complete action Sunday, sending the measure onto President Barack Obama for his signature.

Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) is determined to next finish a long-delayed Pentagon budget bill before Christmas—the last major piece of the 2010 budget. Earlier suggestions that defense may be held back have been rejected. But with that train moving forward, House and Senate Democrats admit privately that internal divisions could force them into a short-term interim solution in financing on the debt.

It is the third weekend of the last four that the Senate has been in session, and Saturday’s Senate roll call stretched for more than an hour as Democrats called in their members to get to 60. “Shabbat Shalom” said Sen. Joseph Lieberman, greeting photographers at the Capitol after walking from his home because of the Jewish Sabbath.

The underlying bill, impacting more than a dozen Cabinet departments and major science and regulatory agencies, continues a steady escalation of domestic appropriations, which have seen double-digit growth rates for many agencies under Obama.

It has often resembled a double-time forced march after the appropriations process largely collapsed in the last year of the Bush Administration.

In less than a year’s time, the president will have signed not just his $787 billion stimulus bill but two omnibus packages covering both 2009 and 2010. The Departments of Labor, Education and Health and Human Services, for example, will have gone from about $145 billion — as of last winter — to $163.5 billion for the coming year, a 13% increase worth $18.4 billion.

In the same time frame, much of the accumulated debt now facing the government is still owed to the economy and a structural deficit in place long before Obama took office. But the president’s aggressive spending makes him a target and threatens to split Democrats even as he must hold his party together behind healthcare reform.

The timing could not be more difficult. Treasury is fast approaching the point where it will have exhausted its borrowing authority to manage these liabilities. As part of the spring budget resolution, the House authorized a $925 billion increase in the current $12.1 trillion debt ceiling, but this has stalled in the Senate, and both chambers realize they will have to go back to the well again before the 2010 elections.

This has led to a proposal by the leadership to double up its efforts and in a single stroke raise the ceiling by as much as $1.8 trillion to put the issue behind lawmakers before going before the voters.

It’s a mind-boggling number for many. “We used to think in billions,” complained Senate Republican Whip Jon Kyl of Arizona in Saturday’s floor debate. “Now we’re talking trillions and it’s just being tossed around as if it’s nothing.”

As first outlined by House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D—Md.), the leadership’s intent is to attach the debt measure to the same $626 billion defense measure that Inouye wants to see approved before the holidays. Included in that budget is about $128 billion for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan; Democrats were betting that this would create enough political momentum to carry the day — even with the debt provision attached.

But moderates in both chambers are anxious, and given the competing pressures to add jobs-creation funds and other year-end priorities, the ambitious debt strategy is at risk of collapse.

Vice President Joe Biden has stepped in, with Hoyer and Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin (D—Ill.) taking the lead for their respective chambers. But if a deal is to be salvaged, it could demand more hands-on involvement by the president to bridge differences in his party.


Sources: The Daily Beast, Politico

Moderate Dems Skeptical About Newly Proposed Medicare Plan

Moderates Democrats uneasy with Medicare plan


Senate moderates who are the linchpin to passing a health care reform bill raised fresh worries Thursday about a proposed Medicare expansion, complicating Majority Leader Harry Reid’s hopes of putting together a filibuster-proof majority for the legislation in the coming days.

Two days ago, the Medicare proposal appeared to be the elusive bridge between liberals, who were being forced to give up a public health insurance option, and moderates, who said they couldn’t vote for a bill that included one.

But by Thursday, the shine had dimmed, as senators grew restless over a lack of information and declined to commit their votes until they could review the legislative language and the Congressional Budget Office cost estimate. Republicans also stepped up their criticism of the plan.

The three moderates — Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), whose votes could make or break health reform this year — expressed varying degrees of resistance to the Medicare idea.

Snowe said the Medicare expansion exacerbates an “already-serious problem,” with the low government reimbursement rates for doctors and hospitals that serve Medicare patients. It could force her to vote no, she said.

Lieberman indicated that he was growing “increasingly concerned” about the proposal.

And Nelson said allowing people ages 55 to 64 to purchase Medicare coverage could simply be an intermediate step on the way to an entirely government-run health care system — “which I do not like.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if this thing does not become a viable option,” Nelson said. “I think it is going to be the lesser of the popular things, but I am keeping an open mind.”

On the floor, Republican senators waved around a scathing editorial from The Washington Post, reading the headline several times throughout the day: “Medicare sausage? The emerging buy-in proposal could have unintended consequences.”

They seized upon one sentence in particular — that the proposal “is a far more dramatic step toward a single-payer system than lawmakers on either side realize.”

“I’m very puzzled ideas like this are being cooked up behind closed doors two weeks before Christmas, and we don’t know what they are,” said Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.).

Reid will not release details — even to senators — until he receives the CBO analysis, which isn’t expected until early next week. At that point, Reid has less than two weeks to tweak the plan if the price tag is too high, brief his caucus, lock down the votes and clear a series of procedural hurdles for final passage.

The Medicare buy-in proposal has been kicked around policy circles for years, but it has been absent from the current health care debate. Democrats had become intimately familiar with the ins and outs, benefits and ramifications of the public option because it was all anybody talked about for the past year.

Senate moderates who are the linchpin to passing a health care reform bill raised fresh worries Thursday about a proposed Medicare expansion, complicating Majority Leader Harry Reid’s hopes of putting together a filibuster-proof majority for the legislation in the coming days.

Two days ago, the Medicare proposal appeared to be the elusive bridge between liberals, who were being forced to give up a public health insurance option, and moderates, who said they couldn’t vote for a bill that included one.

But by Thursday, the shine had dimmed, as senators grew restless over a lack of information and declined to commit their votes until they could review the legislative language and the Congressional Budget Office cost estimate. Republicans also stepped up their criticism of the plan.

The three moderates — Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), whose votes could make or break health reform this year — expressed varying degrees of resistance to the Medicare idea.

Snowe said the Medicare expansion exacerbates an “already-serious problem,” with the low government reimbursement rates for doctors and hospitals that serve Medicare patients. It could force her to vote no, she said.

Lieberman indicated that he was growing “increasingly concerned” about the proposal.

And Nelson said allowing people ages 55 to 64 to purchase Medicare coverage could simply be an intermediate step on the way to an entirely government-run health care system — “which I do not like.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if this thing does not become a viable option,” Nelson said. “I think it is going to be the lesser of the popular things, but I am keeping an open mind.”

On the floor, Republican senators waved around a scathing editorial from The Washington Post, reading the headline several times throughout the day: “Medicare sausage? The emerging buy-in proposal could have unintended consequences.”

They seized upon one sentence in particular — that the proposal “is a far more dramatic step toward a single-payer system than lawmakers on either side realize.”

“I’m very puzzled ideas like this are being cooked up behind closed doors two weeks before Christmas, and we don’t know what they are,” said Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.).

Reid will not release details — even to senators — until he receives the CBO analysis, which isn’t expected until early next week. At that point, Reid has less than two weeks to tweak the plan if the price tag is too high, brief his caucus, lock down the votes and clear a series of procedural hurdles for final passage.

The Medicare buy-in proposal has been kicked around policy circles for years, but it has been absent from the current health care debate. Democrats had become intimately familiar with the ins and outs, benefits and ramifications of the public option because it was all anybody talked about for the past year.


Sources: Politico