Word: ganges
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...hope of some is that these disinterested senators (mostly from rural Western states) can craft a bill that is both effective and bipartisan. But it won’t happen. The Gang of Six is the gang that couldn’t shoot straight. The members are financially compromised, too far to the right of public opinion, and uncommitted to civil debate...
...gang has received disproportionate funds from the health-insurance and pharmaceutical industries. Most significantly, Democratic Senator Max Baucus has received $25 million in contributions from health-industry PACs since 1989, more than any Democrat. Republican Senator Mike Enzi has received a greater share of his campaign contributions from health- industry PACs than any other senator. Admittedly, insurance and pharmaceutical companies should have a place at the table. But they shouldn’t be sitting at the head. I doubt that six “co-opted” hired guns can follow the money trail to common ground...
Although the Gang of Six may be centrist in a relatively conservative Senate, the gang is right of public opinion. When the summer meetings began, Senator Baucus refused a seat to single-payer groups, although a sizeable part of his own party preferred the option. Senator Enzi has gunned down subsidies for the uninsured, cut required minimum benefits packages, and weakened regulations to prevent underwriting against the sick. Democratic Senator Kent Conrad won’t support a public option. Even if the gang does manage craft a bill, the chances of it being acceptable to the president?...
...Even worse, some of the gang continues to fan the flames of anti-government protests between the coasts. In a Washington Post interview, Senator Grassley said he would govern “upon the views of whichever group among his constituents yells the loudest” and engenders fear that reform will “pull the plug on grandma.” Senator Enzi has told roaring Wyoming town halls he has no plans to compromise...
...move forward without the Gang of Six? From the onset, many Democrats imagined a certain Central Texas boy twisting arms for Medicare and Medicaid. For them this president is all hat and no cattle...