Daschle Pledges a Bipartisan Reform of Health Care System

[DeepModem Mom]

Source: New York Times

Former Senator Tom Daschle pledged on Thursday to work with lawmakers of both parties in a grass roots, ideology-free campaign to revamp the nation’s struggling health care system. “We will be guided by evidence and effectiveness, not by ideology,” Mr. Daschle told the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions after saying that he wanted “to work with each of you” on ways to improve health care for all Americans.

“When it comes to health care, we really are in it together,” Mr. Daschle said, adding that to do nothing — or too little — about the spiraling costs of health care, the growing legions of the uninsured and substandard medical treatment in some areas is simply unacceptable.

Mr. Daschle, the South Dakota Democrat and former majority leader, said conversations with ordinary citizens and with business leaders had driven home the depth of the problems related to health care. He said he had been struck by findings that General Motors spends more on health care than it does on steel, and that Starbucks spends more on health care than it does on coffee.

Mr. Daschle, who appeared before the Senate panel as projections emerged that the federal government faces trillion dollar-plus budget deficits, said the recent trend of health care spending running far ahead of inflation is “as unsustainable for our national budget as it is for a family budget.”

Mr. Daschle pledged to avoid ideological factors in making policy decisions, and later during a question-answer session promised to give department scientists “the autonomy they need” and insulate them from “factors having nothing to do with science.” Although he did not say so explicitly, Mr. Daschle was clearly drawing a contrast with the Bush administration, whose critics often accused it of mixing science and medicine with personal beliefs on issues like stem cell research, abortion and sexual behavior....

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/09/us/politics/09daschle...

[rurallib]

1. Forget bipartisan. focus on doing it right.

which means get the profit motive out of health care.

[glinda]

11. Definitely! Just do the right thing.

[No Elephants]

24. Congress? Do it right? Well, having a dream is good, I guess.

[ixion]

2. great... I feel so much better with Tom "no spine" Daschle at the helm...

not.

[Cleita]

3. HR 676 will work just fine. Put the pressure on Nancy Pelosi to bring it

to the floor for debate. Cheesh, it's not rocket science. Bi-partisan in this case means big business gets to continue the mess in health care that they brought to us. No thanks.

[antigop]

6. What you said. Thanks, Cleita. n/t

[Freddie Stubbs]

10. Except that Obama doesn't want this type of health care reform

[Cleita]

13. It's not bi-partisan if it's not brought up for debate.

That's what debate is for, to shoot down the programs that have no merit, but if they aren't brought up then no one will know if they have merit or not. It's seems this new administration's version of bi-partisan is between Republican and Republican Lite. The hell with bringing in the progressive side to get their two cents worth in.

[demodonkey]

15. Well he'd better want it, or History will show this was one of his failings. Mark my words.

Single-payer health care for all. We can't afford NOT to do this.

[defendandprotect]

28. How could Obama possibly argue DIRE ECONOMICS and not move to Single Payer--????

[John Q. Citizen]

4. Uh Oh. Time to buy stock in the insurance industry and big pharma.

OK, I know he just wants to get confirmed. But we need to hold him to his statements on ideology and not let him or anyone reject single payer fee for service without giving it a thorough and complete hearing.

It is the most efficient way to make sure all Americans have access to affordable health care.

I would put it up against anything they can conceive of in a multi-payer soup.

[Blaze Diem]

5. 'Bi-partisan'......'Across the isle'.....is just another way of saying 'Big Fat Clusterfu*k'

sick of hearing it.

[NOW tense]

7. My first instinct is to get pissed, but

I am going to patiently wait for a change. President Elect Obama is not even in office yet. I am really trying to wait on my judgment. Plus I think Daschele learned his lesson on being completely nice, I hope so anyway.

[anonymous171]

8. Rome was not built in a day.

We need to take this one step at a time. We don't want another "Hillarycare" disaster.

[Mithreal]

12. We already have disaster for millions. And Republicans have

gotten so much nicer since the Clintons left the White House.

You are incrementing your fellow Americans to death, poverty, homelessness, misery.

They should just be more patient with Democrats. Rome was not built in a day.

[demodonkey]

17. Tell that to the people who are dying due to denied care by for-profit insurance.

We have to take the profit out of it. Continuing to allow some to make money on other people's sickness and suffering is not only wrong, it does not get the job done in the long run. Greed always beats need.

[defendandprotect]

29. National Health Care has been a "NO" since 1948 and earlier . . .

We've waited long enough!

[brentspeak]

9. "Bipartisan": Holding adjacent beltway cocktail parties on the subject

[Ian David]

14. "Bipartisan" is Latin for "doomed." n/t

[Zorra]

16. In other words, there will be no changes to the US health care system during the

Obama administration.

[midnight armadillo]

22. right

Obama was pretty clear about this during the campaign. He does not support single payer healthcare.

If we want it, it's going to take a massive, sustained grassroots effort to make HR676 and an overhaul of Medicare happen...

[Upfront]

18. Then Forget it.

We won, the people want it, screw the Republicans! We won't get jack shit if we don't take them all on now.

[EFerrari]

19. Thanks, Tom.

[Mika]

20. We'll only get good universal health care when it is FORCED upon us.

Like those poor Cubans have their high quality universal health care system forced upon them.

[Chemical Bill]

21. We're fucked....n/t

[No Elephants]

23. It's surprising how quickly bi-partisan and DLC got old for me.

[ryanmuegge]

25. 20 bucks says it doesn't even see a vote in the Senate.

These pussies are too afraid to take a stand and vote on anything controversial like this. It may compromise the fantastic gigs that they have.

[Sultana]

26. fuck bipartisanship

[defendandprotect]

27. Lucky us . . .!!! Dems giving back power to GOP . . . just like we wanted-!!