Rep. Paul Ryan, a Republican deficit hawk, just made a compelling case for how the Senate health reform bill is actually not the cost saver the Congressional Budget Office says it is. His main point was that the Senate bill makes cuts and collects taxes for 10 years, but only includes 6 years of spending. [...]
When you’re a politician, talking about your own personal experience can be an effective way of connecting with voters on policy issues. It’s humanizing and makes you seem accessible. Politicians know this, of course, which is why we learned some interesting personal details at the summit today about senators Tom Harkin, Mike Enzi and Jay [...]
No one in the room at the health care summit has worked longer on the issue than John Dingell, the senior member of the House. Indeed, for him, this cause has been a family legacy. I checked in with him at the lunch break by email, and here’s what he thought of the morning:
The summit just broke for lunch. They are running way over time and Demcorats are getting more of it, partly because President Obama is talking a lot in response to statements by Republican lawmakers. Make no mistake about it. This is Obama’s meeting. He’s running it – calling on lawmakers one by one and talking [...]
(UPDATE: One of the quotes below was slightly off in my original version – it’s been corrected. And here’s a link to video of the exchange described below.) President Obama and John McCain just got into a little tussle that you’ll probably see on TV later. McCain made a statement that the Democrats crafted their [...]
It’s been very easy to dismiss the entire health care debate as empty rhetoric, mischaracterizations and political posturing. But, as some summit attendees just pointed out, there are actually ideological differences between what Republicans and Democrats want for health care reform. A conversation at the summit about the exchange, pooling and small businesses just crystallized [...]
Here’s what happened: The President was explaining that the Congressional Budget Office predicts premiums in the individual and small group market will go down under the Senate bill. Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander interrupted the President to say this isn’t true. The President explained how it actually is true and how Alexander was misconstruing the CBO [...]
TIME’s Sophia Yan files this report: On the morning of President Obama’s bipartisan health care summit, a new poll finds 52% of voters oppose the current proposal and 59% of voters prefer to simply start over, according to a survey by Public Opinion Strategies and the Center for Health Transformation. Half of those polled would [...]
