Rockefeller: The ‘insurance industry is not running this markup, but it is running certain people in this markup.’
Rockefeller: The ‘insurance industry is not running this markup, but it is running certain people in this markup.’
Yesterday, ThinkProgress reported that Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS) argued that the Senate Finance Committee should put off a vote on health care legislation until the bill is put on the committee’s website for a full 72 hours — in order to allow time for senators to consult with health insurance lobbyists. Earlier this month, Obama Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said that special interests on K Street saw a copy of Baucus’ bill before the White House did. Today, in response to an amendment offered by Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), Sen. John Rockefeller (D-WV) called out this special-interest representation:
ROCKEFELLER: This is a very very important amendment, and it’s a very very bad amendment. If there’s anything which is clear, it’s that the insurance industry is not running this markup, but it is running certain people in this markup. [...]
CORNYN: With all due respect, senator, I don’t know what amendment you’re referring to —
ROCKEFELLER: I’m referring to yours.
CORNYN: — you’re certainly not referring to my amendment —
ROCKEFELLER: I am.
Watch it:
Transcript:
ROCKEFELLER: This is a very very important amendment, and it’s a very very bad amendment. If there’s anything which is clear, it’s that the insurance industry is not running this markup, but it is running certain people in this markup.
What you have done through your amendment, Sen. Cornyn, is to take the very clear fact that those who are self-insured through their companies — that the insurance companies would be grandfathered from ever accepting any of the disciplines which we are putting on the rest of non-self-insured population. So that what you’re saying, almost half of all Americans, because of the grandfathering, will not get the restraints on the caps, the recissions, all of those things, which are standard fare for what we think over here. We think the insurance industries are the major problem.
As Maria Cantwell says, this bill is about giving subsidies to insurance companies to do what’s — instead of giving it, helping people. This is the grandfather of all grandfathers.
CORNYN: With all due respect, senator, I don’t know what amendment you’re referring to —
ROCKEFELLER: I’m referring to yours.
CORNYN: — you’re certainly not referring to my amendment —
ROCKEFELLER: I am.
CORNYN: — because what you’re proposing by proposing new mandates on employer-provided policies — we’re not talking about insurance, we’re talking about coverage that’s provided by an employer that’s subject to the Employee Reduction Insurance Act. It’s not standard insurance policy.
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Go Rockefeller>>>>>>>>>. there needs to be more ass kicking>>>>>>
It almost feels as if the tide might be coming back in.
September 24th, 2009 at 5:33 pmYes, yours, dickhead? What did you think I said? Yes, You, DICKHEAD! Your effing owned by the effing insurance industry!
September 24th, 2009 at 5:35 pmNo, not the dufus next to you! YOU!
and this from a Rockefeller. Go get em, Jay.
September 24th, 2009 at 5:38 pmTake it in the shorts Cornryn.
September 24th, 2009 at 5:41 pmGo Rocky. Give ‘em hell.
September 24th, 2009 at 5:43 pmThat is a fundamental problem with the lobbies. I don’t think that 1) they should have any access, 2) not industry money should be allowed in any campaign, and 3) the lobbies should be banned in their entirety.
September 24th, 2009 at 5:45 pmI’m glad the amendment was defeated.
September 24th, 2009 at 5:47 pmIt is time for the Dems to play catch up. They sat back and listened to the lies being told over their summer break. Maybe they were saving it up. Somebody went at it with Sen. Kyl today too. Teehee.
September 24th, 2009 at 5:48 pmFinally a Democrat in the senate other than Russ Feingold and Al Franken who shows some testicular fortitude. Refreshing.
September 24th, 2009 at 5:49 pmWow, that’s a stone cold slam. You can almost hear the icewater chills going up Cornyn’s spine.
September 24th, 2009 at 5:55 pmWay the hell back in the olden days of our democracy, legislators used to have these folks called staffers.
They would do stuff like research, inquire, interview and were well versed in the process of writing legislation.
They would know the existing body of law and know how their proposed legislation modified, altered or overrode it.
WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED!!!
September 24th, 2009 at 5:57 pmThank you, Senator Rockefeller, for standing up to Cornyn and the insurance companies. We need a public option. Too many people are dying because they do not have health care. Remember, we are 37th in the world in health outcomes. What a disgrace!
September 24th, 2009 at 6:03 pmMethinks all of the congresscritters and their staffs and all U.S. government employees, military included, should be recipients of whatever healthcare this Congress is trying to shove down the throats of the taxpayers.
September 24th, 2009 at 6:06 pmOT — Baltimore ACORN is suing the ho, pimp and those who ran the story for 5M. It’s against the law in Baltimore to record people w/o their permission.
September 24th, 2009 at 6:08 pmGood. I knew this would happen due to MD law. They deserve this.
September 24th, 2009 at 6:12 pmShorter Rock: You dont run me.
September 24th, 2009 at 6:13 pmAs you divide me so shall I divide you.
September 24th, 2009 at 6:18 pmHmm… mild-mannered Rockefeller is reaching the end of his rope? I hope so. All the Dems need to hang together and stand up against the repugs.
Today, Kyl and Baucus got into it a little today, with Kyl getting his knickers in a twist when he got called on his filibuster-like time waster.
September 24th, 2009 at 6:30 pmOh. . . . . something ain’t right.
There’s a place where money grows on trees
Now the only way to reach it is on your knees
C’mon down you old fart-let’s see if you’ve got a heart
It ain’t true-it’s all lies
Are you the devil in disguise?
Won’t give up-won’t bow down
I’m gonna tear your playhouse down
Twinkle twinkle twinkle little star
Who the hell now do you think you are?
David Byrne
September 24th, 2009 at 6:38 pmFor the life of me, I don’t know how in the hell Cornyn got appointed to the bench in Texas (or elected to it) but he is way out of his league in the senate…..he is as dumb as Inhofe and as big a whore as Inhofe.
September 24th, 2009 at 7:51 pmRockefeller let Cornyn know that he was on the teat.This is a tough row to hoe.
September 24th, 2009 at 7:59 pmWow, Jay your da man! Finally, someone with the b*lls to tell it like it is. It takes a Rockefeller. I think I see the new President after 8 years of Obama.
September 24th, 2009 at 8:02 pmI am glad to see that I am not the only person who has called John Cornyn a lying sob. He gets regular emails from me telling him that very thing.
September 24th, 2009 at 8:36 pmThis comment has been voted down. Click to read.
They are so good at fake outrage. “How dare you accuse me of something everyone knows is going on!” he thundered.
September 24th, 2009 at 8:51 pmPolitically Superior says:
Another corrupt rockefeller .
You got something against rich people…?
September 24th, 2009 at 9:26 pmRockefeller is a smart, decent man who actually cares about the average citizen, as oppposed to Cornyn the corporate whore.
The stupidity of the trolls on this blog continues to delight me.
I don’t see much chance of a permanent repiggie majority any time soon.
September 24th, 2009 at 9:29 pmUosdwis says:
They are so good at fake outrage. “How dare you accuse me of something everyone knows is going on!” he thundered.
We have to protect our phoney baloney jobs here, gentlemen! We must do something about this immediately! Immediately! Immediately! Harrumph! Harrumph! Harrumph!
September 24th, 2009 at 9:46 pm.
Q U E S T I O N:
… OF, FOR, and BY the Corporations?
NOT IN MY AMERICA!
Q U E S T I O N:
… In what part of the Constitution are corporations granted the ability to review and weigh in on Legislation?
.
September 24th, 2009 at 10:23 pm.
WHEN LEGISLATORS PLACE CORPORATIONS BEFORE THE PEOPLE…
… AMERICA BECOMES A SHADOW OF IT’S FORMER SELF!
.
September 24th, 2009 at 10:25 pm.
WHEN LEGISLATORS MUST MEET WITH LOBBYISTS THAT WORK FOR (?), AND NOT THE CITIZENS WHO SUFFERS FROM THE ABUSE OF (?)…
… YOU KNOW WHO (?) WILL BENEFIT FROM ANY LEGISLATION AGAINST BENEFITING THE PEOPLE WHO ELECTED THESE LEGISLATORS.
Q U E S T I O N:
IS THAT DEMOCRACY IN ACTION?
WILL 2010 BE THAT ACTION?
VOTE THE CROOKS OUT!
.
September 24th, 2009 at 10:31 pmHoly Cow!! I just watched that. Thank you Senator Rockefeller! That was just the kind of push back I was hoping for.
September 24th, 2009 at 10:48 pmPoliticallySTUPID
What a shock another ignorant conservative
September 25th, 2009 at 8:18 amI think the Dems should do something similar to what Gringrich’s Republicans did in 94. Get all of the real Dems together for a press conference. Point out how they have made every effort to involve the Republofascists in the legislation, but they have made it clear that they support nothing other than the for-profit status quo. This legislation is too important to let an extremist, miniscual, irrelevant minority obstruct it any further.
From this point on, the Dems have made a contract with America to deliver real, useful, conscientious healthcare reform that actually reforms healthcare for the lower 98% income bracket and puts them ahead of the million dollars spent daily by the for-profit, pay-or-die, corporate ceos trying to salvage their excessive lifestyles at the expense of the lives of 45,000 Americans per year.
September 25th, 2009 at 8:26 amPolitically Superior seems to think that a Democrat who was the governor of WEST VIRGINIA, and has been one of their Senators for 25 years is “corrupt” just because he falls on the more progressive side of this issue.
Because West Virginia is a Progressive Mecca, of course.
Politically Superior, you’re an idiot.
September 25th, 2009 at 10:26 amRockefeller: The ‘insurance industry is not running this markup, but it is running certain people in this markup.’
that’s what I thought
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September 25th, 2009 at 9:59 pm