Democrat: Suspend health care reform until Brown is seated
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/POLITICS/08/15/senator.visits.myanmar/art.myanmar.webb.afp.gi.jpg caption="Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia said it would be 'fair and prudent' to suspend health care reform legislation."]Washington (CNN) - A moderate Democratic senator is calling on his colleagues to shelve health care reform legislation until Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown takes his seat in the United States Senate.
"In many ways the campaign in Massachusetts became a referendum not only on health care reform but also on the openness and integrity of our government process, Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia said in a statement Tuesday after Brown defeated Democrat Martha Coakley in the special election for the late Sen. Edward Kennedy's seat.
"It is vital that we restore the respect of the American people in our system of government and in our leaders. To that end, I believe it would only be fair and prudent that we suspend further votes on health care legislation until Senator-elect Brown is seated."
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Bravo to the Senator from Virginia who heard the people of Massachusetts loud and clear today.
I guess the days of secret back room deals, bribes and payoff's are over. And to think of the sheer joy of getting to boast to my liberal friends that a little known conservative Republican will be sitting in Ted Kennedy's seat........Priceless!
Welcome Senator Brown!
Wow! A Democrat with a sense of honor. I'm sure all the left wing haters will want to destroy him for it!!!
Oh poor DEMS– these folks have NO backbone whatsoever! With 59 DEMS there they go feeling defeated! Bush did not even have such a number of Senators, yet, just look at the damage the Republicans did!
JUNK the Obama, the Harry Reid, the Nancy Pelosi, the Socialist/Democratic Party Machine, the Big Union Bosses, the Socialist AARP, and the Big Special Interest Groups Health Care Plan & pass the "AMERICA PEOPLE" interests Health Care Plan. No tax increase! No under- the-table deal! No buying votes! What happens to the Obama's campaign promise of openness??? Once again, the apples cannot fall far from their Socialist/Democratic Machine!
Wow, a Democrat who actually believes in fairness and the voice of the American people. It's a nice change.
JUNK the Obama, the Harry Reid, the Nancy Pelosi, the Socialist/Democratic Party Machine, the Big Union Bosses, the Socialist AARP, and the Big Special Interest Groups Health Care Plan & pass the "AMERICA PEOPLE" interests Health Care Plan. No tax increase! No under- the-table deal! No buying votes! What happens to the Obama's campaign promise of openness??? Once again, the apples cannot fall far from their Socialist/Democratic Machine!
A voice of reason has spoken. If we can now get both parties to sit down and work out a health care reform package that will actually work we will all be better off. Throw this piece of garbage out and put together legislation that will truly help solve this problem.
Senator Webb,
You are a class act just like all your preceding Virginia senators. I also believe that Senator Warner shares your views on this issue.
Backdoor politics that leave the American People out is not the way to pass legislation or gain trust and confidence.
I wish you and Senator Warner great future success in representing our country and the Commonwealth of Virginia. I hope you can help the President bring a more balanced approach in leading our nation forward.
Shut this guy up! Ok Dems 1) Where is Tim Kaine; 2) Where is the playbook to keep Dems aligned–we risk losing and blowing the whole thing!! If you keep this up, you will deserve to lose in November. You are playing right into Repub hands.....just a darn shame.
The Democrats area bunch of spineless wimps. Do you think the Republicans would wait until this man was seated to pass the most important bill since the 1960s. No. They would fall in line and get this think done and not care what anybody tought about it. The prolem with this country is that we have the Republicana who don't care anything about the people in it and we have the Democrats who so spineless they can't get anything done.
Jim Webb's mom wanted him to be a Belgian Doctor (like those that ran away in Haiti), but he wasn't brave enough. Run away Jim... Run away.
Actually, it's not a very funny joke. I'm certainly not laughing. After all, only 45,000 people die each year because they lack health insurance, runaway medical costs are the leading cause of bankruptcy, and the United States pays almost twice as much as any other industrialize nation for a truly second-class system. But, sadly, Jim Webb and his new buddy Scott Brown couldn't care less.
This is a moderate democrat's best outcome. Their constituents did not want the health care bill but they were pressured by dim leadership to support it.
Now they can jump ship on Reid and Pelosi and say that it is because they no longer can get it past a republican filibuster.
It's perfect, they can abandon a bill that would have cost the moderate dem’s their next election bid and they can blame its failure on the republicans.
Ah, politics.
I've always wondered how Ronald Reagan's Secretary of the Navy could go along with the trillions in corrupt spending and debt, the Louisiana Purchase, the Cornhusker $60 billion in union payoffs all negotiated in backrooms in Congress or the Capital. It appears that Senator Webb might just be remembering the honoral man and President he served!!!! Let's hope there are a few other Democrats who remember their honor!!!!
It was wasted time that experienced Democratic leaders could not do a dag gone thing in making Health Care reality. Pitiful. Perfectly Pitiful.
Everyone should be ashamed and maybe we need new people- Democrats and Republicans. Pitiful.
Those who have rarely not change for those who do not . Here is a case. Change can't happen!!!
Democrat: Suspend health care reform until Brown is seated
Did the chickenhawks urging an invasion of Iraq in 2003 want to wait until the UN arms inspectors had finished searching for weapons?
Brown's victory is a clear indication that power belongs to the people and it is only they the people that can decide who represents them. Democrats may not be happy with the election result but that is the wish of the people. The people have chosen Brown to be their next Senator.
Americans are too stupid to have competent government. It is clear that decades of shunning intelligence and education as "elitist" have brought on the wave of jingoistic idiocy that now permeates. What a shame.
Well said....in full agreement. However, Pelosi and Obama arrogance willl still plod ahead doing what they want and to heck with the people and the Constitution
For the first time in 14 months, I am proud of my Country!
Hard not to have respect for Jim Webb, whatever your stripes. The guy always responds to the given circumstances with a reasonable, nuanced approach.
I completely agree. As a physician, I believe that the Democrats' bill is positive, on the whole, and that reform is absolutely necessary if our country is going to be able to stay afloat financially.
However, to the American people, the process (which can be viewed/analyzed in the short term) is as important as the result (which is only fully apparent over time). The people of this country want "bipartisanship," but don't fully understand the barriers to achieving that ideal.
If it takes two to tango...let's hope the Republicans can dance.
Republicans don't deserve any consideration – not after spending the last year trying to make our president and our country fail.
If after 8 years of Bush/Cheney and 30 years of voodoo, tinkle-down Reaganomics our country was actually better off, that'd be one thing.
But the GOP's policies are PROVEN FAILURES!
Full steam ahead – pass health care reform NOW!
so much for health care. We will be right back to the beginning. I can't believe people want to go backwards. Oh well so much for the economy recovering. Repos have their way the rich will just get richer. This Brown is a tea bagger. The looneys are loose in massachusetts.
That's a person with integrity.