The sun rises in the east. The sky is blue. Bill Kristol advises Republicans to vote against health care reform. The first time he tried this, in 1994, he established a reputation for tactical “brilliance,” as he managed to intimidate Bob Dole–whose life was saved by government health care–into opposing the Clinton effort. The …
Domestic Policy
Health Reform: Bending that Curve
In reading the comments of CBO Director Doug Elmendorf from yesterday, a number of Swampland commenters asked what, precisely, might be done as part of health reform to (1) put more downward pressure on health costs overall and (2) make it deficit-neutral, as President Obama has promised.
Today, OMB Director Peter Orszag reminds …
Health Care: A Better Way
For the past few years, I’ve been pushing Senator Ron Wyden’s Free Choice Act as the best way to reform the health care system. Ezra Klein, now of the Washington Post and still no relation of mine (except friend), feels the same way and explains the bill here. This is a solution that promises universal coverage, has been scored …
A Big Setback for Health Reform?
Read this quote, from Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Elmendorf, testifying before the Senate Budget Committee. You are going to hear it repeated often by opponents of the health reform bills that have been unveiled thus far.:
Health Care: Which Chart Scares You More?
House Minority Leader John Boehner, borrowing a tactic from the health care wars of 15 years ago, has put together an arresting graphic “to expose the truth about the Democrats’ health care plan to the American people.” Over at TNR, Jon Cohn has responded with one that looks at how things work now. I’m posting both of them below. Which is scarier?
Bargaining Chip
Drudge is going purple-apoplectic about the looming Nationalization or perhaps Government Takeover of health care and all the–red alarm bell here–taxes and–another alarm bell–public options that will surely destroy free enterprise–no, freedom itself!–as we know it…in other words, he and his Republican friends are rabid crazy …
Ted Kennedy’s Health Bill
There was more than little poignance in this statement that was just issued from Hyannis Port. It concerns something that happened minutes ago in the historic Caucus Room of the Russell Senate Office Building:
Sotomayor’s Aristotle
Most lawyers (and any one who’s seen Legally Blonde) know well Aristotle’s famous phrase: The law is reason free from passion.
Playing Good Cop/Bad Cop with Sotomayor?
The Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee are either playing a very delicate game of good cop/bad cop with President Obama’s nominee to the nation’s highest court, Sonia Sotomayor, or they’re fracturing as a conference and a large number of Rs could end up voting for her.
Health Reform and Abortion (Cont’d.)
Last week, I wrote a story about how the question of abortion coverage is complicating the House’s efforts to write a health reform bill. It has also arisen in the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. If you watch this clip, which our friends at the C-SPAN Video Library provided me, you can see how tricky this question …
Health Care: Back to the Drawing Board
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus had hoped to be unveiling a bill around now, but instead is looking for ways to fill a gaping funding hole on the order of $300 billion or so over the next 10 years. That’s because Majority Leader Harry Reid has told him that his original plan to tax high-end health benefits–a proposal that …
Health Reform and Abortion
A tricky question for those who are drafting the legislation.
Health Care: Most Important Meeting to Watch Today
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is meeting with Finance Committee ranking member Charles Grassley and other key Republicans at 12:30 EDT. Time is running out against a self-imposed deadline to pass health care legislation by the August recess. Reid’s message, I am told, will be that Democrats are getting impatient with the mixed …
