He didn’t win it pretty, but he won. Harry Reid showed, once again, why being Senate Majority Leader is the second hardest job in Washington. And on some days, the hardest.
Senate
Merry Christmas to You Too, Senator Coburn
Okay, let’s give Tom Coburn the benefit of every conceivable doubt. Is it possible to read this comment as anything but a wish prayer that catastrophe befall one of his colleagues, especially with the frail and ailing 92-year-old Robert C. Byrd requiring a wheelchair to make it to the Senate Chamber?:
At 4 p.m. Sunday afternoon —
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Senate: The Deal Looks Done on Health Care
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 through it, and will …
The Week In Review and What’s Next for Health Reform
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 an expected GOP …
Why God Invented C-SPAN
Franken tells Lieberman he’s had it:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVRp52op918&hl=en_US&fs=1&]
(H/T our friends at C-SPAN)
Re: 767 Pages…
They really don’t pay the clerks of the Senate nearly enough to make them do this.
Some day, in my next career as Senate Parliamentarian, I am going to rule that if a Senator wants to waste time like this, he (I’m looking at you, Tom Coburn) should be forced to read the darn thing himself, and that the rest of the Senate be forced to …
767 Pages of Single Payer
Heeeeeeeere we go. Right now in the Senate chamber, GOP delay tactics on the Democratic health care reform bill are in full swing. The Senate clerk is reading out aloud the text of an amendment by Sen. Bernie Sanders that would insert a single-payer system into the health care bill. The process of verbally entering amendments into the …
Amidst the Lieberman Drama, Some Wrangling Over Drug Prices
Tonight the Senate began voting on amendments to the health care bill for the first time in days. Near the top of the agenda: an amendment from Democratic Sen. Byron Dorgan that would have allowed U.S. pharmacies and drug wholesalers to “reimport” drugs from foreign countries. It was was voted down 51-48. (Amendments need 60 votes to …
Ben Nelson Is Lobbied By Someone Who Has Been There
If the changes in the health care bill are indeed enough to bring Joe Lieberman aboard, it looks as though we are back to the point where all eyes are on Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson as potentially the 60th vote to bring the bill over the finish line in the Senate. As you might imagine, Nelson is getting pressure from all sides. One of …
The Day After the Public Option Died
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 to a …
Who Should Pay for Health Care Reform – the Rich or the Richly Insured?
Senators Sherrod Brown, Bernie Sanders and Al Franken just introduced an amendment to the Senate health reform legislation that will make the unions happy. They proposed eliminating the bill’s tax on so-called “Cadillac health plans” and replacing it with a new tax on immensely rich Americans. The new tax would be 5.4% and would …
Re Re: Lieberman’s Health Care Coquetry
All of which is why the R-Word seems to be on people’s lips today in DC:
“My guess is that musty folders on reconciliation got dusted off this morning,” Podesta told reporters at a breakfast sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor. The reference was to a budget procedure that requires only 51 votes to pass and can’t be
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An Update on the Senate Health Reform Debate
The Senate health reform bill is in a procedural holding pattern right now. Even though the body will be in session over the weekend, Majority Leader Harry Reid has put off votes on the bill while he waits for the Congressional Budget Office to evaluate a new Democratic proposal that could strip the public option out of the bill. In my …