The New York Times on health care reform's prospects in the Senate:
Democratic leaders believe Senator Olympia J. Snowe of Maine, the strongest Republican supporter of comprehensive legislation, might provide that 60th vote [to overcome a filibuster]. If Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska, the strongest Democratic skeptic, defects on a filibuster, Democrats see one more potential ally in Maine’s other moderate Republican senator, Susan Collins
My favorite part of yesterday's Concord Coalition event was when (jump to 51:20) Sen. Collins let stand the impression that the pending health care bills provide insurance to illegal immigrants.
Lovely.
Former Maine AG Steve Rowe, via Dirigo Blue:
Maine and the nation need healthcare reform that gives every person access to affordable coverage that cannot be taken away. Our families and small businesses will not see a true economic recovery unless we can hold down healthcare costs.
One important way to keep costs down is to provide the choice of a public coverage option to compete with private insurers. With one insurance company now covering 71% of Mainers, we have little choice and even less competition. A public option would give us the choices we want, while providing the competition that will help hold down costs for everyone.
Did Sen. Collins or her staff try to pull a blog post after hearing objections from the Department of State?
Curious stuff.
From the Sierra Club:
Date: Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Time: 11:30am - 2:00pm
Location: Nonantum Resort
Street: 95 Ocean Avenue
Senator Collins will be in Kennebunkport on Tuesday August 25th at 12pm. Rally for a clean energy future at the event and show Senator Collins that Mainers want her support for strong national climate legislation that will curb global warming pollution and put people to work in a new clean energy economy.
Senator Collins' vote is critical to pass clean energy legislation and right now she's not sure if she'll support it. We need a huge crowd to send her the message that Mainers want a clean energy future.
Big Oil and Big Coal are pulling out all the stops to persuade our Senators
to stick with the status quo: dirty energy that pollutes our air and stagnates our economy.
Don't let Big Oil and Big Coal speak for you. Can you join the rally for a clean energy future?
On Saturday, Seacoastonline and PPH ran articles about Sen. Collins' recent overseas trip.
Both articles focused on Afghanistan. Both included a list of the places Collins visited. And both stories left her stop on the the Greek island of Rhodes off the list.
Here's Deborah McDermott at Seacoastonline:
[In addition to Afghanistan,] the trip also included stops in Libya, Yemen, Kuwait and Iraq.Here's Beth Quimby in PPH:
Collins...spent the past week on a tour of the Middle East and northern Africa, [in addition to Afghanistan] also making stops in Iraq, Libya, Yemen and Kuwait.To the average Maine news consumer, it's almost as if Collins didn't actually touch down on the paradise vacation island during a crucial period in the national discussion of health care reform. (A discussion which, just weeks ago, the junior senator said needed to be prolonged in the interest of getting a deal done.)
So were McDermott and Quimby working from the same misleading press release?
In a Monday morning e-mail, Quimby said there was, "no mention of Greece as far as I can recall." No word yet from McDermott.
Maybe the lesson here is that you just can't trust Sen. Collins' office--even with something as mundane as an itinerary?
(Photo of Rhodes by jsfiveash.)
Just two weeks after we applauded Sen. Collins for acting like a grown-up on cash for clunkers, she's resorted to treating Mainers like children, and telling them fairy tales about health care.
I mean, "the non-partisan Lewin Group"? Canadians pouring into American hospitals?
What's next? A gig on Fox News?
Sen. Collins breaks her silence about her recent brief stay in Rhodes.
No real explanation, though, about how the Greek Island stop fit into the larger scheme of things. (And no word on whether she made it to the beach.)
(Photo by pictalogue.)
Sen. Collins has had some genuinely interesting and thoughtful things to say about her overseas trip. (Still waiting to hear about Rhodes, though.)
To be clear: The issue here isn't congressional travel. The issue, given Collins' rhetoric on health care reform, is the timing.
The video from last fall's first debate takes a while to load. (Click "play" and then wait a few seconds. You can then click "pause" and it will keep loading.)
If you're patient, at 41:59 you'll see Sen. Collins talk about her desire for Congress to set aside two or three months to work on "virtually nothing but health care."
Of course, it's hard to stay focused on the mundane details of legislation when an opportunity to chat with the deputy foreign minister of Greece is dangled in your face.
What a difference a year makes.
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Via Athens News Agency-Macedonian Press Agency:
Arizona senator and former US presidential candidate John McCain, as well as Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman and Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, on Tuesday evening arrived on the Dodecanese holiday island of Rhodes for a short visit.TripAdvisor notes, "whether your interests are beaches, bars or ancient sites, Rhodes offers an abundance of all three." (More on Rhodes here. Photos here.)
On Wednesday the three US senators were given a guided tour of the island's capital by Rhodes Mayor Hatzis Hatziefthymiou...Afterwards, the three US lawmakers met with Deputy Foreign Minister Yiannis Valinakis, with talks mostly touching on Greek-American relations.
All three US senators expressed their admiration for the island's natural beauty and praised efforts to preserve cultural heritage in the country.
Who do you suppose paid the bill for such vital diplomacy?
Amazingly, no blog posts, as yet, from Sen. Collins about her Greek Island stop. No tweets from Sen. McCain (R-AZ) either.
Probably too busy crafting amendments to improve the prospects of health care reform.
(Photo of a Rhodes beach by mrngr.)
Sen. Collins: Serious or not serious?
Until last week, Republican Sen. Johnny Isakson was among the most enthusiastic backers of end-of-life counseling in government health care programs like Medicare.
That was before conservatives called it a step toward euthanasia and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin likened the idea to a bureaucratic "death panel" that would decide whether sick people get to live. And even though those claims have been widely discredited, the issue remains a political weapon in the increasingly bitter health care debate.
Now, Isakson and other Republicans who eagerly backed the idea are distancing themselves from it or lying low in the face of a backlash from the right.
[...]
Isakson and other Republicans such as Sens. Richard Lugar of Indiana and Susan Collins of Maine have co-sponsored legislation in recent years promoting the counseling, including in initial Medicare visits and through a proposed government-run insurance program for long-term care.
[...]
Isakson, who initially called Palin's "death panel" characterization "nuts" in an interview Monday, declined later in the week to criticize Palin's statement...
Spokesmen for Lugar and Collins — two other longtime proponents of end-of-life planning — declined to comment on the House bill.
And yet somehow I developed the impression that slowing down health care reform was necessary precisely so that Sen. Collins and her fellow "moderates" could spend the recess doing the serious work required to reach a compromise. Silly me.
Anyway, she's blogging from the road.
More from the Concord Coalition:
We have sold out of reserved seats for the event on August 25th. There may be extremely limited seating available, on a first come first serve basis, on the day of the event.And:
The event is not a Senator Susan Collins town hall meeting; rather, Senator Collins will participate with our panel of budget experts. We have been doing these Tour stops since 2005 and we have worked with a number of politicians from both sides of the aisle.More details here.
If you would like more background on the Tour, please go to http://www.concordcoalition.org/act/fiscal-wake-tour
The panel for the 25th will consist of:
Hon. David M. Walker, President and CEO of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation and former Comptroller General of the United States;
Robert L. Bixby, Executive Director, The Concord Coalition
Will Marshall, President, Progressive Policy Institute
Stuart Butler, Vice-President, The Heritage Foundation
Senator Collins and the panel of experts will participate in a question and answer session following the presentations.
Sen. Collins has proposed exactly the kind of end-of-life care proposal that, in recent days, has been used as a jumping-off point by right-wing scaremongers and lunatics working to hijack the health care reform debate.
With the decibel level rising, Collins has remained silent on the issue, even as the scaremongers have taken center stage in the national debate.
And the Maine press hasn't so much as acknowledged Collins' proximity to the controversy.
"I'm always surprised when I hear some of my colleagues describe the public plan as being needed to keep the insurance companies honest...when insurance carriers are regulated in every state in the nation," Collins said. "They are a heavily regulated industry."
Breaking with tradition, Sen. Collins has agreed to participate in an open forum in Kennebunkport--hosted by the Concord Coalition. From the press release:
Tuesday, August 25Jeff Thiebert, national grassroots director for the Concord Coalition, tells us that the room seats 150, with space for another 50 in an overflow area.
Noon until 2:00 p.m.
Lunch begins at Noon and the discussion begins at 12:30 p.m.
Nonantum Resort
95 Ocean Avenue
Kennebunkport, MaineThis event is free to the public, but seating is limited. Donations will be accepted...If you are interested in attending please RSVP to jthiebert@concordcoalition.org or call (936) 676-1899. (Emphasis added.)
"We are optimistic that we will have a full house," Thiebert says. So it probably makes sense to reserve as soon as possible.
But will the junior senator take unscreened questions from regular citizens? "I am unclear on the exact specifics of the agenda," says Thiebert. "My colleague has been working with all of the panelists and Senator Collins' office on the specifics."
Indeed.
Still, it's hard to see how Collins could expect constituents to sit through a two hour event billed as a "public discussion" without an opportunity, somewhere along the way, to quiz their senator.
If we learn more, we'll pass it along.
They write letters:
When the new owners took over, I hoped the Press Herald would be less bland and more informed.
Your editorial urging Sens. Snowe and Collins to act like "real Republicans" on health care reform certainly failed the second test.
I served in Congress for 12 years with both of our senators. We worked together on many issues, but trust me, they are real Republicans. They just don't uniformly ignore evidence that conflicts with standard Republican rhetoric...
Your readers can get that unfounded opinion from Fox News. But the plans don't do that, and neither does Medicare, our country's most popular and cost-effective health care plan...
Our senators' constituents want real reform, and they won't get that from "real" Republicans.
Tom Allen
Portland
