Forget the Senate, here’s a story from me about what’s going on in the House on health care. House leaders have pulled back from their once-aggressive schedule. “I have no timetable” for passage of a bill, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told reporters yesterday. While eschewing the idea that they would wait for the Senate to …
White House
Barack Obama’s Education Speech: The Not-At-All Socialist Indoctrination
At this point, most of the noise about Barack Obama wanting to indoctrinate school children in a back-to-school speech has mostly faded from view. Newt Gingrich has repudiated it. Historians (and White House aides) have pointed out that past Republican presidents–George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan–delivered the same sorts of messages. …
Van Jones Resigns, Citing “Vicious Smear Campaign”
The writing was, to use a tired cliche, on the wall last Friday, when White House spokesman Robert Gibbs declined to say that President Obama still had confidence in one his advisers to the Council on Environmental Quality, a longtime activist named Van Jones. Republicans in Congress, seeing an opportunity, had begun promising …
UPDATE: The Great Obama Back-To-School Scandal
Apparently, telling Hillary jokes in a public school classroom is not the same thing as “indoctrination.”
Health Care: The Public Option Fallback
Maine Senator Olympia Snowe’s idea of creating a public option as only a fallback if private insurance companies fail to produce genuine competition seems to be gaining currency at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue at the moment. Today’s Washington Post has new details on how a “trigger” would work:
White House Declines To Express Confidence In Van Jones
[This post has been corrected and updated. See notes below in brackets.]
Last night, Van Jones, an adviser to the Council on Environmental Quality, released a statement apologizing for some of his past remarks, and disavowing his signature on a 2004 petition raising questions about the Bush Administration’s involvement in allowing the …
The Great Obama Back-to-School Scandal
Back-to-school season is my least favorite time of the year for one reason: I hate the paperwork. I mean, I really hate it.
So let me state it here and now, before I open my son’s backpack to find yet another permission slip: It is perfectly fine with me if Barack Obama wants to tell my child to do his homework. It would be nice, …
Health Reform: How Much Help Will People Need?
We are in the season of high drama where everyone–understandably–is focused on the politics of getting health legislation done. But it’s important not to take our eyes off the substance of what is being talked about as well. That’s why Jordan Rau’s story today on Kaiser Health News is so important. It takes a look at one of the …
White House To Release Visitor Logs
In a clear break from the George W. Bush White House, the Obama Administration has agreed to release its White House visitor logs, giving the American people a remarkably candid look at who is meeting with the President and top advisers. The logs will be released on a three to four month delay, and there will be exceptions that will …
Can One Facebook Status Change The World?
If you are not familiar with this phrase, you probably have not been checking your Facebook and Twitter accounts today.
No one should die because they cannot afford health care, and no one should go broke because they get sick. If you agree, join us in posting this as your status for the rest of the day.
Call it a victory for …
Re: Health Care: Hitting the Re-Set Button
Following up on Karen’s excellent post on President Obama forthcoming address to a joint session of Congress on health care reform. Obama has always fallen back on his rhetorical gifts – and, generally, it has worked, even when Rev. Wright looked to doom his campaign. Next Wednesday he will again give what will surely be an inspirational …
Grassley: The One Who Got Away
If there had ever been any hope for real GOP support for President Obama’s health care plan, it came in the form of Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, who has been negotiating behind the scenes for months with his good friend Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus. But was getting Grassley on board ever a realistic proposition? And what does …
Health Care: Hitting the Re-Set Button
Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Harry Reid have now formally requested President Obama to address a joint session of Congress:
Our nation is closer than ever to achieving health insurance reform that will lower costs, retain choice, improve quality and expand coverage. We are committed to reaching this goal.
We would
…