All Posts Tagged With: "Health Care Reform"
Delaware General Assembly Pre-Game Show-Tues., March 23, 2010
Before I preview today’s session, I simply HAVE to feature House Concurrent Resolution #28, introduced by the most bat-shit crazy of the House & Senate Rethuglican Caucus. Note the moderate tone this resolution strikes:
URGING THE 111TH CONGRESS TO ABANDON THE IRRATIONAL PURSUIT OF A FISCALLY IRRESPONSIBLE FEDERAL HEALTHCARE ENTITLEMENT PLAN AND ENACT LESS COSTLY ALTERNATIVES [...]
How Will We Tell The Difference?
Republicans are grumpy:
GOP senators emerged Monday to caution that the health debate had taken a toll on the institution, warning of little work between parties the rest of this year.
“There will be no cooperation for the rest of the year,” McCain said during an interview Monday on an Arizona radio affiliate. “They have poisoned [...]
What Determined How Democrats Voted?
Nate Silver does an excellent breakdown of the statistics behind how each House Democrat voted on health care reform. The basic conclusion is that conservative Democrats from districts that had <40% of the vote go to Obama were the no votes. The amount of insurance company money a member received or the number [...]
22Mar2010 | Unstable Isotope | 22 comments | Continued
A Historic Moment
The Senate health insurance reform bill just passed the House by a vote of 219-212.
No matter how you feel about the bill, you must recognize the historic moment. Republicans all voted no. 34 Democrats also voted no.
Speaker Pelosi will be remembered by history as one of the most powerful and effective speakers, ever. [...]
Today’s HCR Vote Program
So today is the day, and today is when we get to know whether Nancy Pelosi and President Obama have been able to pull this one out (Intrade futures on this effort have been going up since early this month — you can buy at this writing at 92.1). You can use this as a live blogging thread (if you are glued to CSPAN and not out in this glorious weather).
21Mar2010 | cassandra_m | 37 comments | Continued
Who Speaks For Me On This Issue?
Exhibit one on why we need to have more representation for women in government: abortion restrictions in the health care reform bill. A group of “pro-life” (which means life begins at conception and ends at birth) Democrats were willing to deny 32 million already existing people health insurance because the bill fails to outlaw [...]
21Mar2010 | Unstable Isotope | 14 comments | Continued
Deem and Pass Is Out
After spending a week getting themselves all riled up about “Demon Pass”, it seems the procedural maneuver has been ruled out:
House leaders have decided to take a separate vote on the Senate health-care bill, rejecting an earlier, much-criticized strategy that would have permitted them to “deem” the unpopular measure passed without an explicit vote.
Rep. Chris [...]
The Bill
Yesterday, Nancy Pelosi and the House Dems got the CBO score on healthcare reform back and posted the bill online for 72 hours for review. The Healthcare and Education Affordability Reconciliation Act of 2010 is posted here [PDF]. Speaker Pelosi’s website has some good links to summaries, the CBO scoring and other info on the bill
19Mar2010 | liberalgeek | 5 comments | Continued
A Letter from Marjorie Margolies
There’s an interesting letter in today’s Washington Post. The letter is from Marjorie Margolies, and it’s addressed, “Dear Wavering House Democrats”. The missive is aimed at the handful of House Dems who may be sitting around, trying to decide whether or not they should vote to pass the health care reform bill. For some (although I [...]
18Mar2010 | Scott P | 13 comments | Continued
CBO Score Is In
According to Jonathan Cohn at TNR, the CBO score is in, and it looks good.
Democrats in the administration and Congress have agreed on a set of amendments to the Senate health care bill. And, according to House leadership, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is certifying that the amendments will reduce the deficit. That should fulfill the [...]
Hopefully Clearing Up a (Talking) Point
I know it’s a slippery slope when you start trying to debunk every inane talking point that comes along, but there was a specific one that I wanted to look into and get the facts on. There’s a certain “saucy” commentor here who keeps making claims along the lines of, “Obama’s going to make poor [...]
18Mar2010 | Scott P | 32 comments | Continued
Health Care Reform: A Wrench In The Works?
The CBO score for the health care reconciliation bill was expected yesterday, but it was not released. The issue appears to be related to the hazards of reconciliation. To survive challenges during the reconciliation process, the items in the bill must be directly related to budgetary items and they must reduce the deficit. [...]
18Mar2010 | Unstable Isotope | 9 comments | Continued
Wednesday’s Evening Read
Time Magazine looks at 10 Ideas for the Next 10 Years. Here is Gregory Rodriguez on The White Anxiety Crisis.
The Times’ Washington correspondent Giles Whittell looks at the our health care crisis, Obama is bashing on the brick wall of unlogic.
Politics editor of The Atlantic Marc Ambinder comments on 3 Reasons Why Republicans Might Not [...]
Kucinich To Vote Yes
Rep. Dennis Kucinich held a press conference to announce that he will vote yes on the the health care reform bill, despite previously announcing he would vote no.
Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) announced this morning that he will in fact vote for the Senate health care bill. Kucinich’s switch was a major pickup for Democrats who [...]
Hissy Fit
As the passage of health care reform becomes more and more likely, the Republican hissy fits have become more and more vehement and more dishonest. First the Republicans were throwing public tantrums about the use of reconciliation, despite the fact that reconciliation had been used multiple times by Republicans (ones currently servng in the [...]
17Mar2010 | Unstable Isotope | 10 comments | Continued
Health Care Reform: The Endgame
Robert Gibbs was on the Sunday shows yesterday and said that by next week health care reform will be the law of the land:
“We’ll have the votes when the House votes, I think, within the next week,” Gibbs said on “Fox News Sunday.”
Gibbs added that those on next week’s Sunday talk shows “will be talking [...]
BREAKING: House Democrats Release HCR Bill
Late last night the House Budge Committee released the legislation that will serve as the basis for debate this week. Note this is the same legislation that made it through the Education and Labor Committee and Ways and Means Committee last year.
Download and read the pdf.
Mr. President, One More Thing Before You Go
Well, it looks like we finally might be getting down to it. After all this time, there might soon be an actual health care reform bill for the President to sign. According to Karen Tumulty at Swampland, the House is looking to schedule a vote on the Senate’s health care bill for next Friday or Saturday. [...]
13Mar2010 | Scott P | 4 comments | Continued
I Have The World’s Smallest Violin
My violin weeps for Bart Stupak. He went from the U.S.’s most important Congressman to irrelevant. He went to a publication that has only the Democratic party’s best interest in mind, the National Review Online to have a pity party complain:
Sitting in an airport, on his way home to Michigan, Rep. Bart Stupak, [...]
Harry Reid Eats His Wheaties
I’d like to start this post with a sincere wish for the rapid recovery of Harry Reid’s wife and daughter, who were in a serious car accident yesterday. Health care reform looks more certain to pass any day now. One hold-up has been the distrust between the House and the Senate. The Senate is now an almost completely dysfunctional body and the House is worried that the fixes to the health care bill will not see action. There are now at least 54 Senators on board with reconciliation for the sidecar bill containing fixes to the Senate bill and Harry Reid has sent a letter of notice to Mitch McConnell that Democrats are going to pursue reconciliation:
12Mar2010 | Unstable Isotope | 2 comments | Continued
Congress and the Exchanges
No, it’s not a new indie band, it’s an aspect of the health care reform debate that just might end up being important. Remember back to last summer? Of course you do. Tiger Woods was a respected public figure, Beau Biden was going to announce his candidacy any day now, and teabagging wingnuts were screaming all sorts of nonsense at Congressmen. One of the not-so-nonsensical things they were yelling, though, was the challenge of, “If the public option/exchanges is so great, why don’t you use it?” Well, this time the Senate listened.
11Mar2010 | Scott P | 5 comments | Continued
A Bill We Should All Support – Medicare Buy-In
Progressive hero Alan Grayson has introduced a short 4-page bill to allow Americans to buy into Medicare coverage (without subsidies). Think Progress’s Wonk Room describes the bill, called the “Public Option Act” or “Medicare You Can Buy Into Act”:
Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) has provided the White House with a real opportunity to win back [...]
How Progressives Have Shaped Health Care Reform
We’re now in the final stretch of the health care reform battle. Within the month we’ll either have a vote or the Democrats will give up on health care reform for the near term (or make some tiny improvements). President Obama is out giving a strong defense for the need for health care [...]
9Mar2010 | Unstable Isotope | 55 comments | Continued
President Obama at Arcadia University
The video is from CNN, where the President told the crowd that the time for an up or down vote on health reform is now and that he wanted a bill on his desk by Easter.
8Mar2010 | cassandra_m | 1 comment | Continued
Obama To Republicans: Go Ahead And Vote Against HCR
Today President Obama drew the line on where HCR will go. (Via Ezra Klein – full transcript posted there)
And so Obama gave no quarter today. Gone was the pretense that Democrats and Republicans basically agree on health-care reform. “Many Republicans in Congress just have a fundamental disagreement over whether we should have more or less [...]
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