Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
by Michael Muskal
If Congress does not pass a bill soon, the fight for a healthcare overhaul could be pushed back for a generation, Vice President Joe Biden warned this morning.
With Democratic senators ready to meet with President Barack Obama this afternoon, Biden appeared this morning on MSNBC's Morning Joe.
Biden, a former longtime senator who now presides over the Senate, where he still has close ties, also criticized Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), one of the 60 whom Democratic leaders are counting on to advance the bill, for blocking an effort to expand Medicare coverage to those younger than 65, part of a key party compromise.
"I think Joe's judgment is wrong in this," Biden said. "I'm confident Joe is going to see the light, I'm confident he is going to vote for a final bill, but there is an awful lot of gamesmanship going on right now."
If a healthcare bill doesn't pass, overhaul "is going to be kicked back for a generation," Biden said.
See more on Biden in DC Now, and see the full interview above here in the Swamp, courtesy of MSNBC.





Comments
Just about every with a brain knows that this is a spending bill and not a reform bill. Even the polls show that most people with reform and the same people do not think this bill is it.
Posted by: Crooks_In_DC | December 15, 2009 11:04 AM
Taxation without medication.
Posted by: Nash | December 15, 2009 11:22 AM
"I'm confident Joe is going to see the light, I'm confident he is going to vote for a final bill, but there is an awful lot of gamesmanship going on right now."
Translation: "We're digging into every slush fund available and making offers. Every senator has his price."
Posted by: Kathy | December 15, 2009 11:40 AM
INTERESTING PERSPECTIVE:
*
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/Why-Dems-push-health-care_-even-if-it-kills-them-8658408-79264542.html
Posted by: Bobby Mobbie | December 15, 2009 12:11 PM
Those short-sighted, small-intellect Republican-Libertarians could care less if 10 more generations do not have healthcare or have inadequate, hollowed-out healthcare !! Guess who is their biggest cheerleader, none other then Senator Lieberman, leading the way to that trough sponsored by the Healthcare Corporations !! The biggest opportunist in Congress, Senator Lieberman, who gets his marching orders from, among other strange constituents, the Healthcare Corporations. He has betrayed our democratic ideals and has sold the American working men and women down the river. The Healthcare Corporations get richer, even through Medicare, and those Corporations' clients/patients get an early grave, because of Corporate Greed. America is supposed to help her citizens, not assist Corporations in reaping outrageous profits and in the process, shorten some of her citizens lives. Beware, America, for what you wish for, you may live to regret it !!
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS, BRING THEM HOME, ALIVE AND WHOLE. NOW.
Posted by: Don Fitzgerald, IL | December 15, 2009 12:33 PM
Joe Biden--surprise, surprise--supports the Democrat's bill!
And what do opponents think of the latest ReidPelosiObamaCare bill?
You won't find out, if The DNC Swamp is the only thing your read.
Instead of merely publicizing what the Democrats say, perhaps the DNC Swamp should (shudder) actually talk to both sides on this!!!!!
Posted by: Dissent is Patriotic | December 15, 2009 1:35 PM
SILLY DIMWITTED DONNIE:
It's exactly the other way around (I wouldn't in a million years expect you to get it, ever). This is not a health care reform bill (any of the bloated, bastardized, distended versions that have been floated, yet sank). It's a spending bill.
It's really only about 10 million people (remove the illegals, remove the youngsters that don't want to pay for health care, remove the people that can afford it but choose not to pay for it, etc.) . . .
That's what this is about 10 million people. Changing the whole system of the many that are mostly satisfied for the few that aren't.
Just cut the 10 million a check (every last one of them, even if it's you Donnie-Boy). Even a fat check. It'd be cheaper than this disaster.
OR . . . How bout real reform:
Tort reform
Sell insurance across state llines
Effectively (not rhetoric) cut down on Medicare/caid fraud.
See how far that gets us . . .
Posted by: Bobby Mobbie | December 15, 2009 1:59 PM
Hey DONNIE BOY . . might want to check your facts, then post (though it's never stopped you before). Fact: a paltry 2.2% profit margin. DO YOU HEAR THAT DONNIEBOY (AND THE REST OF THE OBAMATRONS) 2.2%!!!!!! PLEASE READ IT AGAIN, MAYBE SAY IT OUT LOUD!!!
=============
THE NUMBERS:
Health insurers posted a 2.2 percent profit margin last year, placing them 35th on the Fortune 500 list of top industries. As is typical, other health sectors did much better - drugs and medical products and services were both in the top 10.
*
The railroads brought in a 12.6 percent profit margin. Leading the list: network and other communications equipment, at 20.4 percent.
=======
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20091025/D9BI4D6O1.html
Posted by: Bobby Mobbie | December 15, 2009 2:30 PM
WHY IT WON'T WORK:
http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/12/healthcare_the_poisoned_chalic_1.html
Posted by: Bobby Mobbie | December 15, 2009 3:07 PM
Bobby - Be very careful, you're liable to confuse the heck out of Don making him look at facts...
Posted by: Barry J | December 15, 2009 5:25 PM
Flatliners,
Name a gov't run social program that has nmet the customers' needs AND come in under budget?
If you want to see gov't run health care, look at the various states trying it and look at their financial condition.
Posted by: Terry | December 15, 2009 6:39 PM