Health budget passes Senate
The Senate passed their Health care budget today, which would add some people to MnCare instead of kicking people off, as well as allowing small businesses to buy into the plan for their employees. Unlike the House budget, this actually addresses the health care crisis by giving more people insurance, not less. Now the House and Senate are going to have to work out a compromise, which may be difficult given the wide gulf between their approaches.
In my opinion, any health care plan that does not include universal coverage isn't good enough, but clearly, the Senate is better than the House here.
Meanwhile, the House is taking up the K-12 education finance bill today. They will probably be working on this one all night.
posted by MN Politics Guru @ 18:11
3 Comments:
Watched the floor debate, and it reinforced something I've been knawing on for a while. Brian LeClair is the worst politician in the legislature.
I realize that Bachmann gets all the attention. The issues up for discussion at E-Democracy's MN-Politics Discuss list usually runs 90% Bachmann/gay marriage; and 10% everything else.
But it seems like Bachmann has earned a grudging respect for, if nothing else - and I truly mean "for, if nothing else" - building a political profile and following outside her legislative district. She has some degree of political skill, in other words.
LeClair, on the other hand, is a snivelly little wanna-be who obviously wants a statewide following, but can't get one. Imagine the typical comments thread troll for a taste of his personality. He actually acts like that in public.
He's a first-termer who only won his seat by 53% to 46% in 2002. All any DFL challenger would need to do to win is run clips on local TV of LeClair in committee or on the Senate floor, being a boorish, obnoxious, ineffectual little bitch.
Watch the footage of the health care debate today to see what I'm talking about. I've seen him do this in Lourey's Health Committee, too. He seems to have a particular hatred of health care spending. Or, at least, he's feigning hatred, perhaps thinking this is the issue that's gonna propel him to the top.
Too bad Eric Lipman isn't still around. He and LeClair made the perfect Laurel and Hardy--except Stan Laurel was FAR brighter than Visehead (that's what they call LeClair at the capitol).
I am happy to hear senate passed the health care budget. We really need to improve our health care system. Health insurance is a major aspect to many and we should help everyone get covered.
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