Healthcare CBO score released with good news for Dems
From the New Republic’s Jonathan Cohn:
Democrats in the administration and Congress have agreed on a set of amendments to the Senate health care bill. And, according to House leadership, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is certifying that the amendments will reduce the deficit. That should fulfill the parliamentary requirements of the reconciliation process, satisfy the demands of many nervous Democrats, and clear the way for the House to vote on health care reform. Read more
Getting to ‘yes’: Dennis Kucinich will vote for healthcare reform
One by one, the “kill the bill” Democrats (myself included) have walked back from the precipice, deciding that dumping the president this early in his term would take the party down in a giant, ugly cataclysm of electoral failure, leaving Republicans free to take over Washington, repeal Medicare, privatize Social Security, impeach Barack Obama (they’ll come up with the crime later), reinstate torture, and maybe even invade Iran. Well, ok maybe it’s not that dire (yet) but anti-mandate liberals are definitely walking back, including Howard Dean, Keith Olbermann, Markos Moulitsas and now, Dennis Kucinich, who announced this morning that indeed he will vote for the reconciliation bill, even without the public option. Watch:
…to which the ever-mannerly Obama says, “thank you.” This is an important move for Kucinich, who takes a potential primary issue off the table (clearly, he didn’t have the stomach to become the Ralph Nader of helathcare.) And it gets Mother Nancy one step closer to 216, and maybe more, since Kucinich’s switch will provide cover for other liberal House members who might have held out for the public option. FDL’s whip count has it razor close, but a go if no other Dems switch to “no.”
UPDATE: Jane Hamsher of FDL is not amused, and reports that Kucinich will return money raised for Democrats including him who pledged to vote against any bill without a public option.
UPDATE 2: Kucinich’s flip-flop may have also gotten him off MoveOn’s target list.
Healthcare countdown: do they or don’t they (have the votes)?
House and Senate leadership: Clyburn, Hoyer, Reid, Pelosi, Schumer and Van Hollen
Last week in The Hill, Speaker Pelosi seemed to say she has the votes needed to pass healthcare. On Sunday, House whip James Clyburn said they don’t (yet). John Boehner seconds Clyburn (except for the “not yet” part,) but the White House says it’s going to pass (with Axelrod adding “make my day,” in response to GOP threats to run on repeal.) It’s almost confusing enough to make you listen to Lawrence O’Donnell, who is still scarred by the Clinton healthcare flop and believes that nothing, and I do mean nothing, can pass. Ever. … although he refused to put money on it this morning on “Morning Joe.” Also during the show, Dylan Ratigan made the excellent point that if Democrats are going to put their jobs on the line anyway, they should have done so for a stronger, more game-changing bill. Read more
Pelosi tells her members: brace yourselves for a healthcare vote
From Politico:
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told her members Friday to brace themselves for a climatic health care vote as early as next week, warning them to clear their schedules for next weekend and promising to stay in session until the landmark vote, people present at the meeting told POLITICO. President Barack Obama has postponed an overseas trip until March 21, and Pelosi said, “I am delighted the president will be here for the passage of the bill. It will be historic.”
Here we go!
Mother has the votes on healthcare
If the healthcare vote in the House were held today, Speaker Nancy Pelosi would have the votes to pass it. Read more
The Catholic church has a veto over healthcare reform?
Rep. Bart Stupak: working for the voters of Michigan, or for the Catholic church?
A story in Politico paints a disturbing picture of the power a group of Catholic bishops, acting through their man on the Hill, anti-abortion zealot Bart Stupak, are wielding in the battle over healthcare reform: Read more
Anthony Weiner knocks the GOP as insurance subsidiary. Deal with it.
Rep. Anthony Weiner is a Congressman in the old fashioned tradition, a leading voice of the “Democratic wing of the Democratic party,” and just ahead of Alan Grayson and Mother Nancy, my favorite member of Congress. Watch Weiner as he dresses down the Republican Party as a “wholly owned subsidiary of the insurance industry” for its intransigence on healthcare reform (plus the response from the House’s version of Eddie Haskel). Enjoy:
Weiner did ignore the Democrats’ own wholly owned insurance industry subsidiaries, Ben Nelson, Evan Bayh, Blanche Lincoln and the so-called “Independent,” Joe Lieberman, but no matter. I still look with envy upon his District. Meanwhile … Read more
Lincoln Diaz-Balart to retire
How come when Republicans decide not to run for re-election the media don’t consider it a sign of the demise of that party? Just asking… Anyway, my Congressman (funny, because I don’t live in Miami, which has been the sole focus of his political life) Lincoln Diaz-Balart is calling it quits. Can’t say I’ll weep. Diaz-Balart and his brother Mario have dragged Miami politics kicking and screaming into the belly of the old Cuban parliament, where their father served as Speaker and as undersecretary of the interior during the brutal (some would say fascist) Batista dictatorship, (and a former roommate and brother-in-law, of Fidel Castro.) The Diaz-Balarts’ war on Uncle Fidel has been the all-consuming drive of their political lives, to the detriment, in my opinion, of their districts, not to mention to Americans’ freedom to travel, or to enjoy the occasional Los Van Van concert without enduring a three-part harangue (from them and their partner in crime, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.) Politico reports LDB will announce his retirement at a presser this afternoon. And they add, rather of matter-of-factly: Read more
For the White House, a matter of (no) trust
An item from TPMDC on Friday that should be sobering for the White House. Democratic members of the House of Representatives just don’t trust the White House anymore, having delivered their 218 votes, only to watch the White House defer to conservative Senate Democrats at every turn, and they sure as hell don’t trust the Senate, let alone promises to fix the bill later if they pass the Senate version. If anything is stopping healthcare reform from going forward, that, and not Scott Brown’s election in Massachusetts, is what’s doing it.
Cao to Steele: bring it on
Louisiana Rep. Ahn Joseph Cao was the lone Republican vote in the House for the healthcare reform bill. And he’s warning RNC chair Michael Steele: if you come after me, you’ll lose. From TPMDC:
On November 5, Steele issued the following warning to Republicans considering voting for the House Democrats’ health bill:
Candidates who live in moderate to slightly liberal districts have got to walk a little bit carefully here, because you do not want to put yourself in a position where you’re crossing that line on conservative principles, fiscal principles. Because we’ll come after you. You’re gonna find yourself in a very tough hole if you’re arguing for the president’s stimulus plan or Nancy Pelosi’s health plan. There’s no justification for growing the size of government the way this administration and this Congress wants to do it.
So what was Cao’s response? Read more
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