WASHINGTON - Senate Democrats said on Monday they would probably drop a compromise to expand the Medicare health program to those  55 and over as  they supposedly struggle to win the 60 votes needed to pass this so-called health care overhaul.  The Congress and Senate were bribed at record levels by the health care industry and it looks like they are ending up obeying those that bribed them over their own constituents across the board.  Even more shockingly even the grossly weakened health care system revisions will not go into effect for over five years. 

It was just recently shown that the health care industry has been paying video game playing children to send automated faxes and emails to the Congress falsely voicing opposition to health care reform.  Millions of letters were bought and paid for by the health care industry and sent to Congress by children who were trying to make Internet money they could spend in the virtual worlds of video games.  It was a scam, by the health care industry, that undermined our entire political system.

Making Medicare the government plan was the only valid goal short of an all out single payer plan which would have, done right, wiped out the deficit and vastly increased the quality and availability of health care and health itself of every single person in the United States.  Remember Michael Moore's movie about health care was not about the people that had no health care, it was about those who had full coverage. 

Photo: The White House.  Where's the change?

hat we now see before us is the gutting of any government plan to the point that we have no real competition to the crooked monopolistic health care system we have today which costs easily several times the most expensive health care system of other nations, all of whom, have longer life expectancies and much healthier populations who receive broadly far better care, than people in the USA, even those with full health insurance .  Anything short of Medicare will mean a very poor government plan, more along the lines of the horrendous Medicaid program which has been cut to the bone to the point where most doctors don't even accept it for payment (that means you can't go to most doctors if you are on Medicaid).  That is if this faux government option survives the bribed U.S. Senate which has proven it is filled with self serving bribed degenerates who exist largely to sell the Senate to the highest bidder and will not even take phone calls from their constituents or give them the time of day let alone a health care system that serves them.

After a meeting to find agreement (closed to the citizens of the United States),  Democratic senators said they were determined to pass the bill by a self-imposed end-of-year deadline.  But what exactly are they passing?  It looks ever more like anything but real change, in fact it looks like it will promote the worst aspects of the current system.

That means dropping a compromise plan to allow those between the age of 55 and 64 to "buy-in" to Medicare, they said, after Senator Joe Lieberman threatened to join Republicans in blocking any bill with the proposal.  The White House could tighten the screws along with the party in power using all kinds of techniques to ram a robust government plan through but so far nothing close to that is happening.  The fact is, Obama has frequently stated that a government plan is not required.

"It is a matter of getting the support of 60 senators and that seems to be a condition to get to 60," Baucus told reporters about dropping the Medicare "buy-in" plan.  Baucus is the biggest bribe taker of anyone.

The plan was announced a week ago as part of a compromise aimed at overcoming objections by moderates to a government-run "public" insurance plan.

The other part of the compromise, which would replace the public option with a non-profit approach featuring private insurers and run by a federal agency, was expected to survive, senators said.  We could easily end up with a system that is far worse than before the "overhaul."

"Put me down tonight as encouraged at the direction in which the discussions are going," Lieberman said after the evening meeting, which he attended. "But it ain't over till it's over."

Many other Senate Democrats, including potential defector Ben Nelson, are waiting for cost estimates on the potential compromise before making their final decisions.  Americans, who broadly support the implementation of a single-payer insurance system, are watching closely to see who does what as part of their efforts at repopulating the Congress with people that actually work for the people that vote them into office and not the bribes they take.

Obama invited all 60 members of the Senate Democratic caucus to the White House on Tuesday to discuss a way to reach agreement.  Agreement has become the mantra, many thing change never really was.  Change was a mantra for Obama to get elected, by most measures change stopped the day he took office.

Republican Senator Olympia Snowe, who has backed some reform efforts and could replace Lieberman as the 60th vote if he defects, and Nelson also have voiced doubts about the Medicare plan.  The overwhelming majority of Snowe's constituents support a robust government plan and don't see the absence of a government plan as being optional.

The Senate has spent two weeks debating the measure, which would extend coverage to 30 million uninsured Americans and halt industry practices like refusing coverage to people with pre-existing medical conditions, it is unclear exactly what this means.

Obama has pushed the Senate to complete work on the bill this year to avoid the issue slipping into next year's congressional election campaigns.  Why couldn't we have major legislation during campaign years? Because they might have to actually serve the interests of the voters over those who bribe them.

The Senate bill would then have to be reconciled in early January with a version approved by the House of Representatives on November 7.

To finish in the Senate by Christmas, Reid must file a series of procedural motions this week to cut off debate and move to a final series of votes.

Nelson has said he wants stricter limits on the use of federal funds to pay for abortions in the bill. He has been working on the issue with Democratic Senator Bob Casey.

"We're working that out," Casey said of the abortion issue.