Yes, they’re worried about seniors with paddle boards — in a sense.
As Speaker Pelosi right now meets with her caucus for the second time today and the third time this week as members try to come to consensus on a health care bill, here’s a story from this week’s dead tree edition on what has so many of her freshmen and …
For the most part, 13-10 vote tallies on the Senate Finance Committee’s heath reform bill this week will be strictly along party lines. There are 13 Democrats on the committee, including Chairman Max Baucus, and 10 Republicans. But a 13-10 divide this afternoon on an amendment from Democrat Bill Nelson indicated a different kind of split.
The senior Senator from Maine may well be the most closely watched person on Capitol Hill these days. In the upcoming issue of dead-tree TIME, I have a story that examines what drives her in the health debate and the stamp she has already put on the legislation. The question I couldn’t answer: Will she end up voting for it?
Wrapping up around 11 p.m., Day 2 of the Senate Finance Committee Markup of its health reform bill did not offer any surprise changes to the bill. On nearly every amendment that drew out partisan division or contentious debate, Democratic Chairman Max Baucus either won the vote along strict party lines or ruled the amendments were not …
Before the lunch break in the Senate Finance Committee’s markup on health reform legislation, members engaged in a long and ultra-wonky debate on Medicare Advantage. The debate was essentially about whether more than $100 billion in cuts to Medicare Advantage will lead to a reduction in benefits. At the risk of being unclear, the …
While members expected the Senate Finance Committee to begin its Wednesday markup by returning to the contentious amendment related to a White House deal with pharmaceutical companies, Democrat Bill Nelson – who had introduced that amendment – was not present. (* In my original post, I mistakenly identified the senator as Ben Nelson. The
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One of the most fascinating things about this national conversation that we are having about health care policy is the fact that just about everyone has something to contribute. We have all seen the system work, and we have all seen it fail. That’s why some of the greatest insights can come from unexpected sources. Take what happened to …
It’s easy to get in the wonk weeds with health care, so here are a few quick and easy highlights from the first day of the Senate Finance Committee markup that ended around 10 p.m.
Not really, but his promises are – namely, his health reform promise that “if you like what have, you can keep it” and his campaign pledge not to raise taxes on American families whose income is less than $250,000 year. Republicans are doing their best to keep these promises fresh in everyone’s mind, while pointing out how they …
One provision in Chairman Max Baucus’s original Chairman’s Mark is a new tax on so-called “Cadillac” health insurance plans. The original Baucus mark calls for insurers to pay a 35% tax on plans that cost more than $8,000 for individuals and $21,000 for families. The logic here is that very expensive plans that require little or no out …
Hi Swamplanders. I’m staff writer Kate Pickert and I’ve been covering the health care reform debate for Time.com. I’m joining the Swampland crew for a few days this week to help Jay Newton-Small and Karen Tumulty cover the Senate Finance Committee markup of Chairman Max Baucus’s health reform bill. Here in the Hart Senate Office …
It starts–finally–in just a few hours. With the bang of a gavel in the high-tech cavern that is the conference room of the Senate Hart Office Building, the Senate Finance Committee will sit down around a table and confront the question of whether it can actually produce a health reform bill.
[UPDATED with NRSC response.]
About a month ago, a Republican National Committee mailer surfaced, showing that the party had sent out a bogus “poll.” The poll asked recipients if they were concerned that Democrats would pass health care reform that would deny Republicans treatment because they were Republicans. This ridiculous and …
