Marjorie Margolies, whose career-ending vote Karen recently recounted, describes rock bottom in a Washington Post column addressed to wavering Dems.
I was pressed on all sides: by constituents opposed, my president needing a victory and Republicans promising my demise. I was in the country’s most Republican district represented by a
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You may not have realized it, given that health care is sucking most of the oxygen out of the room, but the Senate this morning passed the jobs bill 68-29, sending it to the President’s desk to be signed into law. And, no, they didn’t end up pulling an all nighter Monday.
Take a good look around, Democrats, this is likely to be as bad as it’s going to get. As Kate Pickert and I note in a story out today on time.com, the 24-hour cable net cycle has been stuck on ugly process maneuverings in the vacuum of no score from the Congressional Budget Office and no bill. This meme just adds to the back room aura …
Ohio Congressman and former presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich today announced his support for health care reform. Kucinich was one of two progressives who voted against the legislation when it passed the House in November on the grounds that it didn’t go far enough towards the single payer system they supported. The other member …
Official White House Photo by Pete Souza
–As Michael mentioned, the latest NBC/Wall Street Journal poll (pdf) shows a little movement on health reform opinions in Obama’s favor, but it is mostly consistent with recent surveys showing a nation split on the merits of the plan. Pollster Peter Hart suggests the 21-point enthusiasm …
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. …
Official White House Photo by Pete Souza
–As Karen and Jay mentioned, all signs point to Speaker Pelosi using the “self-executing rule” to deem the Senate health care bill passed without a full vote on anything but the reconciliation package of fixes. House Dems really don’t want to have an “aye” for the Senate bill’s warts on …
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 …
Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines. Here’s a brief guide to the health care final sprint (at least the schedule that we can predict) in the House over the next week:
Monday
3pm
This afternoon the fun will begin with an anticipated Congressional Budget Office score followed by* a House Budget Committee markup of the …
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 …
Those are Nancy Pelosi’s words today on why she wants to get health reform done as quickly as possible.
But even among Hill reporters, there’s some confusion over what procedurally will happen this week. Democratic leaders, including Pelosi, are keeping quiet about their precise parliamentary strategy for three reasons. One, if they …
Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts last week lashed out at President Obama for his State of the Union criticism of the court’s Citizens United ruling — the line where Associate Justice Samuel Alito shook his head and mouthed the words “No true.” Roberts, speaking at the University of Alabama, called Obama’s remarks “very …
The Senate is bracing for a possible all-nighter as leaders have thus far failed to reach an agreement on the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act. You may remember this as Harry Reid’s relatively small $15 billion jobs bill that he introduced after yanking the Baucus/Grassley deal. The House then passed an amended version, …
