From TheStreet.com Network
Everyone's fretting about the new tax brackets -- or at least everyone who's rich or who lives in a high-tax state -- over the health care plan coming out of Congress. Everyone thinks that Nancy Pelosi can never be defeated. She is a juggernaut. More powerful than a speeding bullet. Etc.
But the Senate could be a different story. Remember Pelosi and co. need 60 votes, and there are exactly 60 Democrats. There are two publicly quoted Democratic senators who are not even the most likely biggest objectors -- Sen. Ben Nelson from Nebraska and Sen. Evan Bayh from Indiana.
Sen. Jeff Bingaman, a Democrat from New Mexico who sits on the Finance Committee, says, "I don't think it is going anywhere in the Senate." He's a key vote. There are two Democrats from Arkansas who are both up in 2010; both are questionable supporters of the bill.
I count six to eight Democrats in the Senate who are against this socialization of medicine at the expense of the rich. That's all you need to stop it.
I think the Senate will pass something on health care, but it will not contain the massive tax increases. And that's why the market can rally in the face of what would be horrible news for the class that is the big buyer of stocks.
Oh, and just to be sure, the Blue Dog Democrats may block this piece of legislation in the House. This health care reform could very well be stillborn.
Random musings: I'm watching Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT) (Cramer's Take) and 3M (NYSE: MMM) (Cramer's Take), which are either breaking free from strikes (MMM) or have gigantic buy interest in the above strike (CAT). Remember, the CAT chatter from Credit Suisse yesterday was most damaging, and people are yawning. ... Disney (NYSE: DIS) (Cramer's Take) seems like a play on lower gasoline prices. It has ramped. ... Colgate (NYSE: CL) (Cramer's Take) remains the standout in the soft-goods game, but Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) (Cramer's Take) is closing in...
Jim Cramer is co-founder and chairman of TheStreet.com. He contributes daily market commentary for TheStreet.com's sites and serves as an adviser to the company's CEO. At the time of publication, Cramer had no positions in the stocks mentioned.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-18-2009 @ 9:16AM
Ed said...
When Acorn comes around to your home to do the census, some of the data they will gather will be how many people live at your address and how many of the indigent you could take in. They will use that information later for Obama’s pledge to eliminate homelessness. At least none of this has been a surprise. The President said that he would do everything he has done when he was campaigning. Were you listening?
7-19-2009 @ 11:16AM
cabo79 said...
Massachusetts tried universal health insurance, most middle income peoples that could use it just couldn't afford it. At this point the costs of health care in this country have gotten plain ridicules, it cost $15,000 to have a baby in a hospital with a normal delivery and a two day stay. What a joke. The main reason for this situation is laws passed by your governments both State and Federal that infuse large amounts of money into the system and give near monopoly status to hospitals and drug companies. Ever wonder why there are lots of abortion clinics and no birthing clinics? Anyway I see the system crashing under its own weight in the next ten years. Only hope is to start a parallel system run by the government much like education. Private care and public care. The public system would compete with the private system and help bring down the costs of the private system. The thinking behind everyone paying for public schools even if you are wealthy and send your kids to a private school is that everyone benefits from a well educated population. The same goes for health care, we all benefit from a healthy work force. The current VA hospital system could be a nucleus for the start of the public system.
7-19-2009 @ 2:05PM
Nick said...
Jesus Christ, you could at least do a 2 second Google search to make sure you have your facts straight.
The health care bill can (and will be, if there aren't 60 votes) be passed under budget reconciliation, meaning it only takes 50 votes (plus Biden as tie-breaker) to pass.
Not only that, but according to Gallup polling, the most popular way to pay for health care was *gasp* raising taxes on the rich, which had 70% support.
So boo-hoo, the rich will have to pay higher taxes that wont even approach what they were for Reagan's first six years. Get over it.
7-19-2009 @ 11:53PM
tom scott said...
if cap and trade tax passes,wait till election day dems are done oboma will get his purse strings cut,my step dauter voted for oboma and has buyers remores.and she is a gosiper.she sees what he is doing to raise all our taxes not just the rich.they want more money and they are out to steal it.times are bad and to raise taxes is a lemon.but they will see!!!
7-20-2009 @ 2:57PM
Darren said...
This legislation is long overdue and desperately needed. I am a small business owner and think the proposed legislation doen't go far enough. I want the profit incentive out of health care. I want "socialized" medicine (at very least a govt run option). If that gives you fear then think of the other services that work quite well and are "socialized". Consider Police, Fire departments, Roads and Bridges and the Military. All "socialized". What do you think would happen if we privatized all those services? A confusing patchwork quilt of under-serviced, massively expensive beurocracies where the top 5% are ok but the rest of us suffer. Just like what we have now under our current system of health care. Want to pay for it? Easy, the U.S. spends 22% GDP on defense. Thats 330 billion every single year (or 3.3 trillion over 10 years!!). China, the next highest global defense spender, spends 19% GDP on defense. However, dollar for dollar, the U.S. spends 7 times as much as China does! If we spent just 5 times as much as China we could fund whatever we wanted. The current legislation (as proposed in the house bill) would spend one trillion over ten years. Out of control defense spending is the 800 lb gorilla in the room that no one wants to acknowledge. Just as President Eisenhower predicted. No one bats an eyelash when president Bush increases the national debt from 2 to 11 trillion but when president Obama wants to spend 1 trillion (over 10 years mind you) to fix an obviously terrible health care "system" everyone shouts "HOW DO WE PAY FOR IT!!" I am baffled by the mind set. I was a Field Artillery officer in the Military. My wife has some medical issues. It is hell to try to get her private insurance company to pay for anything! Her premiums are near 1000 dollars a month!! Yet they deny every single claim that has ever gone in and try to prove that everything is "preexisting". Everyone that has had similar experiences with their private insurers will agree. The system needs to change drastically! This legislation is just a step in the right direction. Now is the time.
7-21-2009 @ 6:59PM
Larry said...
John Stewart called this Wall St. thief out a while back. People like Cramer are the ones who caused this financial disaster and made themselves super rich in the process. People like him should be hanged.
8-04-2009 @ 10:17PM
Cybercorrespondent said...
George Soros and the democrats have a goal to destroy the dollar and to push for a global currency. As a result, George Soros would make billions just as he did from his attempt to destroy the British Pound. To push for global dominance they have chosen a messenger who will not oblige to his constitutional obligation to prove that he is a US citizen and created legislations such as the Stimulus Bill, the Equal Pay Bill, the Global Poverty Bill, the Tobacco Bill, the Climate Change Bill, the upcoming Health Reform Bill, the UN sponsored Bill that will force Americans to pay a global tax and whatever else they have hidden in the bills no one has read. If George Soros and the democrats are allowed to succeed, it will bring America to a $2 trillion dollars plus deficit, make the dollar worthless and cause this country to self-distrust.
Cybercorrespondent
http://cybercorrespondent.blogspot.com
8-22-2009 @ 12:55AM
Cybercorrespondent said...
An apdate to my previous post
The push for global currency and the destruction of the dollar has started
BANGKOK- Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz is telling us that the U.S. dollar-based system is flawed and risky and that the "dollar now is yielding almost zero return. The question is do we go to a new system in an orderly or disorderly way." Stiglitz urged rich nations to provide funds to help poorer countries avoid a steep crash during the financial crisis.
The group has called for global coordination to avoid competition to cut taxes, and for a worldwide increase in tax on high earners. Dubbing itself the "Shadow GN", the group has urged governments to opt for bank nationalizations rather than bailouts in order to drive the pace of fresh lending.
Stiglitz said a new global reserve system would be good for global aggregate demand, global stability and global equity.
cybercorrespondent
http://cybercorrespondent.blogspot.com
8-28-2009 @ 9:09AM
Cybercorrespondent said...
Save yourselves while you still can. This is the most important video you will ever watch. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAaQNACwaLw&feat...
George Soros and the progressive democrats he has in his pocket have a goal to destroy the dollar and to push for a global currency. As a result, George Soros would make billions just as he did from his attempt to destroy the British Pound. To accomplish his goal, George Soros and his team of democrats have chosen a messenger who via teleprompter will spread their message and will not oblige to his constitutional obligation to prove that he is a US citizen. Please view
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qe2bpV1QlkE To help George Soros push for global dominance, the democrats have created legislations such as the Stimulus Bill, the Equal Pay Bill, the Global Poverty Bill, the Tobacco Bill, the Climate Change Bill, the upcoming Health Reform Bill, the UN sponsored Bill that will force Americans to pay a global tax and whatever else they have hidden in the bills no one has read. If George Soros and the democrats are allowed to succeed, it will increase the deficit by trillions, make the dollar worthless and cause this country to self-distrust.
Wake up America before it’s too late. Please also watch this video-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9-2PhChboU&feature=player_embedded
cybercorrespondent
http://cybercorrespondent.blogspot.com