Sen. Joe Lieberman has found an ally for the middle-of-the-road Medicare reform proposal he laid out a few weeks ago. On Tuesday, the independent Senator from Connecticut and conservative Republican Tom Coburn unveiled a tweaked version of Lieberman’s plan. They hope to build a coalition of support for the proposal, which they say could save $600 billion over the next ten years. The plan won’t save Medicare for all future generations, but it’s full of reasonable ideas that could gain bipartisan support – if politics don’t stand in the way.
Maybe Joe Lieberman was feeling left out of the current debt ceiling and budget fight. That might explain why the independent Ssenator from Connecticut has chosen this moment to offer a new plan to reform Medicare. Lieberman laid out his proposal in a recent Washington Post op-ed. The headline, “How Medicare Can Be Saved,” is [...]
Gail Collins may have done the impossible this morning in the New York Times, summing up one senator’s illustrious career in a single sentence. If you’re continually admiring yourself as you walk away from your group, eventually people are going to feel an irresistible desire to trip you. Read her entire, and entirely biting, take [...]
“The reason I have decided not to run for re-election in 2012 is best expressed in the wise words from Ecclesiastes,” Joe Lieberman told the gathered crowd Wednesday afternoon in a hotel ballroom in Stamford, Connecticut. “‘To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under Heaven.’” For many Democrats, Lieberman’s retirement [...]
A Pentagon working group is now studying the issue of repealing the “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy that has banned gays and lesbians from serving openly in the military since 1993. The final report is due December 1, but Democrats in Congress do not want to wait that long to take action undoing the policy. [...]
What is it about Senator Lindsey Graham that brings out the Mr. Smith in the most inveterate politicians? First, Chuck Schumer unveils their working draft of immigration legislation in the vain hope that by making a good faith, bipartisan bid some other Republicans might sign on; the response has not been deafening. Now Senators John [...]
Another day, another exercise in damage control from the Senate Majority Leader’s office. The latest centers on a story in the upcoming edition of the New York Times Magazine, in which Harry Reid is reported to have called Joe Lieberman a double-crosser. This statement, just issued by Reid’s office, is not exactly a denial: REID [...]
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 [...]
Franken tells Lieberman he’s had it: (H/T our friends at C-SPAN)
Progressives are sad. It now appears that the public option will be stripped out of the Senate health reform bill. Joe Lieberman said he would filibuster legislation that included a public option, so he is the villain of the moment, but other key senators – including Democrat Ben Nelson – had also voiced strong opposition [...]
