Michael noted earlier that the money is flowing for pro and anti-reform TV ads this week. One more was just released – this time from Moveon.org. The ad flashes pictures of Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King, Jr. while a voiceover says voting for health care reform amounts to being “on the right side of history.” Moveon.org, a …
health care reform
Pelosi Aborts Stupak Negotiations
The Associated Press is reporting that Democratic leaders have given up trying to work out a deal with Bart Stupak (and the Catholic bishops) regarding abortion restrictions in health reform legislation. That’s probably a good idea for a couple of reasons: 1) there’s no way to deal with abortion in reconciliation and GOP Senators now say …
Bending the Rules
As the Massa implosion fades, Capitol Hill returns today to health care reform with both chambers considering obscure parliamentary procedures in order to pass legislation before Easter recess, which officially starts March 28. The House is on a shorter leash, with the White House pushing them to get something done before President Obama …
Bart Stupak Has Hope
The leader of the House Democratic opposition to the Senate health care reform bill’s abortion provisions says he is getting more optimistic that a compromise can be reached. From the Associated Press:
“I’m more optimistic than I was a week ago,” Stupak said in an interview between meetings with constituents in his northern Michigan
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Rep. Eric Massa to Resign
Rep. Eric Massa, the embattled New York freshman who just this week announced he wouldn’t be running for reelection, will announce his retirement this coming Monday at 5pm. Massa said in announcing his retirement that it was due to the return of his non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, which has been in remission.
The House Ethics Committee has …
Toles on Health Care
As always, Pulitzer Prize winning Washington Post cartoonist Tom Toles nails it brilliantly:
The Ref Is Already Getting Beaten Up
Here’s a new story from me on the Senate Parliamentarian who’ll be refereeing the process of reconciliation on health care reform. Apparently, Republicans — and keep in mind, Alan Frumin was hired by Trent Lott — aren’t waiting for the process to begin. They’re preemptively calling his foul.
What Obama Will Say Today on Health Care
The White House has released parts of the health care statement President Obama will make today at 1:45 p.m. The President’s remarks are meant to give Democrats the confidence to follow the only available path left – a reconciliation package in the Senate and House passage of the underlying Senate bill. The statement will be a …
Aloha Neil Abercrombie
There’s a legend in Hawaii about a surfer named Eddie Aikau. In the 70’s Eddie was the top lifeguard in Waimea Bay on Oahu, winning dozens of surf competitions. He was always the guy willing to risk his life, no matter how rough the water, to make a save. Eddie volunteered for the 1978 Polynesian Voyaging Society’s 30-day, …
More Polling On Health Care, And The Newt View
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 …
Polling Oracle: What Americans Want On Health Care Reform
Josh Lyman: Numbers don’t lie.
Joey Lucas: They lie all the time. They lie when 72% of Americans say they’re tired of a sex scandal while all the while newspaper circulation goes through the roof for anyone featuring the story. If you polled 100 Donnas and asked them if they think we should go out, you’d get a high positive response,
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Why Olympia Snowe Won’t be There and Other Summit-Related News
Can you feel the excitement in the air? Cable news can. There was a flurry of health care-related news today, most of it summit specific.
For starters, this morning, the White House specifically invited Olympia Snowe to the event. (She is the only Senate Republican to have cast a vote in favor of health reform in 2009 – for the Senate …
Why Heather Graham is Dangerous for Health Reform
Public option supporters inside and outside the Senate are still pushing Harry Reid to bring back the idea and pass it via reconciliation, Jay Rockefeller’s hesitance notwithstanding. My guess is Rockefeller’s opposition to this plan is based on concern that the public option could completely blowup the renewed push for Democratic health …