Rejected Amendments to the Baucus Bill
Bunning Open Records Amendment: would have required the full language and full price tag to be available on the Internet for three days before Congress votes.
Hatch Medicare Advantage (MA) Amendment: would have suspended MA provisions if the CBO finds that (contrary to the President’s promise) seniors are going to lose coverage or benefits.
Kyl Anti-Gag Order Amendment: would have allowed MA insurers to inform seniors of their likely loss of benefits.
Ensign/Cornyn/Kyl Malpractice Lawsuit Amendments: would have provided relief from lawsuits.
The Democrats refuse to vote on the merits of many of these amendments. Instead, Sen. Baucus rules them “out of order” and the vote occurs on whether to sustain or overrule the chairman.
This strategy insulates the Democrats from hard votes — but makes the Finance Committee look like a farce.
so much for the dems being open to republican ideas. i thought president obama said he’d be open to tort reform in his much ballyhooed pep talk to congress.
There are nearly 600 amendments to the Senate Finance Bill. With that many to choose from, you would think Sen. Baucus could find common ground and champion some of the more sensible ones. But, apparently that is too much to expect in this over-charged political process.
Each of these amendments would further ensure transparency and relief in health care reform, but the rejection of Sen. Bunning’s three-day posting requirement is especially onerous.
Regarding the Bunning amendment, openness is not exactly the standard operation procedure of this administration or Congress.
In fact, the Finance Committee doesn’t even have a real bill that they are working with and the President promised during his campaign that bills would be fully available 5 days before he signed them (link….good video…multiple broken promises), but he hasn’t followed that promise and on several occasions blatantly violated his pledge.
I’m trying to track down documentation of any sort on the “measure aimed at rewarding healthy behavior”
(an amendment to the health reform bill,
offered by Republican Senator John Ensign and Democrat Thomas Carper).
Why can I not find this information?
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE58T7IU20091001