For your political trivia file:
I was struck by this passage in today’s NYT story about the Secretary of State:
While their underlings at times grouse about one another — some Clinton supporters call White House officials “The Cardinals” (to suggest that they are too controlling), and some Obama staff members refer to the
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All along, the argument over abortion coverage has missed the mark, in my view. It has been all about how abortion is paid for, when what most people would like to see are fewer abortions.
No one has addressed the question of whether reforming the health care system would make a difference in the number of abortions performed in …
Text is here. No, I haven’t read it yet.
(The English-language version is the committee report, also linked above.)
I’m still going through the CBO document, but one thing that jumps out: It would shift another 1 million people out of the exchanges and into Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program.* The Governors are not going to be happy. Here is an earlier look I took at this issue. Also, Kate and I wrote about this subject in a …
Okay, fellow Catholic school alums, which side would you put your money on to prevail in this one?:
WASHINGTON — Catholic nuns are urging Congress to pass President Barack Obama’s health care plan, in an unusual public break with bishops who say it would subsidize abortion.
Some 60 leaders of religious orders representing
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The latest from our White House Photo Blog. Anyone else suspect the Democrats might be warming up to that whole Department of Peace idea?
As Michael notes, hypocrisy is a well-established parliamentary procedure:
2010: House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer on the idea of passing health care with a self-executing rule:
The House Democratic leader, Representative Steny H. Hoyer, also defended the maneuver on Tuesday. “It is consistent with the rules,” Mr. Hoyer
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There’s a real chicken-and-egg conundrum going on up on Capitol Hill. Lawmakers are clamoring to see the final health care legislation. But their leaders can’t settle on a bill until they know it gets a favorable “score” from the Congressional Budget Office. But the Congressional Budget Office can’t issue its number until it has a bill. …
The Associated Press tells us:
PHOENIX — John McCain and Sarah Palin are scheduled to campaign together in Arizona next week for the first time since they conceded the presidential election in Phoenix in 2008.
Palin and McCain will be at a rally and picnic in Tucson on March 26, followed the next day by a rally in the
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Jay, I’m a bit mystified by this assertion from former Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier in your post:
Dreier, though, defended his record saying there’s a big difference between self-executing amendments and self-enacting large pieces of legislation.
As I noted earlier, when the Republicans were running the House, Dreier …
Nope, you won’t see a public option in the legislation that is expected to come to a vote in the House later this week. But if it passes, we may well see a public option established in some–maybe many–states.
As Kate and I have written before, if this bill becomes law, states will be on the front lines of health reform. What they do …
As we gear up for an election season, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that, for most people, politics is a means to an end, not an end in itself. Xavier University’s new Institute for Politics and the American Dream is releasing its inaugural survey on the state of the American Dream, something it plans to make an annual exercise. …
If the House does succeed in passing this health care bill, that’s a big step. But it is just the beginning of the battle for many members.
The next thing the Democrats will have to do is convince a very divided and skeptical public that they did the right thing. We were reminded of how difficult that can be by Marjorie Margolies, …
