Susan Walsh / AP
+Retirements | 150 days ago

Ben Nelson Retiring, the ‘Kickback’ Kicks Back

By Adam Sorensen

Ben Nelson, the conservative two-term Nebraska Democrat, won’t seek re-election to the Senate next year, according to Politico.

Nelson is 70–not exactly an adolescent, but hardly outside the norm for a Senate whose average member is 62.  He had $3 million in the bank for what was expected to be a uphill re-election battle, with $1 million more from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. But he was also perhaps the most aggressively targeted incumbent on Capitol Hill, already facing a barrage of TV attack ads from outside groups, and he sported one of the single largest albatrosses in recent congressional campaign history.

+Health Care | 472 days ago

Why Congress (Probably) Won’t Scrap the Individual Mandate

By Kate Pickert

Ezra Klein of the Washington Post has said a version of this already today, but it’s worth repeating. There is only a very, very slim chance that the individual mandate will be repealed by Congress, despite Politico’s contention that the policy might be on the ropes thanks to four Democratic senators. As Ezra points out [...]

+Senate | 757 days ago

The Cornhusker Kickback Take 2

By Jay Newton-Small

A conservative Democratic senator is a hold out, and possibly deciding vote, on pivotal legislation that tops the President’s agenda. He had a deal that benefits his Midwestern state, but it was taken out and now his attempts to put it back in and the substance of the deal itself is drumming up a bit [...]

+Uncategorized | 848 days ago

Do Health Care Reform Supporters Have New Reason to Hope?

By Kate Pickert

It’s nearly impossible to say, of course, but it looks like there is some momentum building. Ben Nelson, who apparently planned to filibuster the conference report, is asking Republicans to help him stop reconciliation. Nancy Pelosi says her members will pole-vault their way to a final bill. President Obama, in Tampa today to talk about [...]

+Uncategorized | 853 days ago

Anatomy of Anger

By Karen Tumulty

I was struck by this passage in the Washington Post story about its poll of Massachusetts voters, because it so closely tracks what I was seeing up there anecdotally:

+Senate | 869 days ago

UPDATE: Health Reform and the States

By Kate Pickert

As Karen noted earlier today, she and I have a story in this week’s magazine about how much states will be on the hook if and when federal health reform passes. The impetus for the story was, in part, the growing number of governors across the country publicly slamming the idea of expanding insurance coverage [...]

+Health Care | 869 days ago

Health Reform and the States

By Karen Tumulty

Although the battle over passing health reform is being waged here in Washington, the front lines for implementing whatever passes will be the states. In the new issue of the print magazine, Kate Pickert and I look at what that means. The latest evidence of the Governors’ growing concern about what lies ahead came in [...]

+Health Care | 888 days ago

What A 60th Vote Costs…

By Karen Tumulty

We suspect it can be found in this language on page 98 of the manager’s amendment to the health care bill: ‘‘(3) Notwithstanding subsection (b) and paragraphs (1) and (2) of this subsection, the Federal medical assistance percentage otherwise determined under subsection (b) with respect to all or any portion of a fiscal year that [...]

+Senate | 888 days ago

Senate: The Deal Looks Done on Health Care

By Karen Tumulty

Multiple sources are now reporting that Nebraska’s Ben Nelson, the last Democratic holdout, is now saying he will support the latest version of the health care bill. That makes 60 votes, enough to overcome a fillibuster. So what’s actually in this bill? And what did it take to get the last votes? I’m still going [...]

+Senate | 889 days ago

The Week In Review and What’s Next for Health Reform

By Kate Pickert

Word is that Majority Leader Harry Reid will unveil changes to the Senate’s health reform bill on Saturday morning. The timing is part of Reid’s effort to get a final vote on the legislation by Christmas Eve. Of course, even the most carefully plotted timeline means nothing without the 60 votes Reid needs to break [...]