Archive for October, 2009
The Public Option And Much-Needed Competition
At this point in the progress of the health-care reform bill, we are all supposed to go down on bended knee, and praise the Lord, and celebrate how the public option, which looked practically dead two weeks ago, not only came back to life but actually made it into the Senate version of the bill. [...]
White House Denial Still Unconvincing
Last Friday, TPMDC reported that although Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was very close to rounding up 60 votes for a public option with an opt out clause, the White House was pushing him to do with the public option with a trigger instead, in order to (maybe or maybe not) get Olympia Snowe‘s official [...]
You All Must Be So Proud
Sources: White House Pushing Back Against Senate Public Option Opt Out Compromise – TPMDC (10/23/09): Multiple sources tell TPMDC that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is very close to rounding up 60 members in support of a public option with an opt out clause, and are continuing to push skeptical members. But they also say [...]
Misdiagnosis
Deeds should’ve listened to us, senior Obama officials say – WaPo (10/22/09): Sensing that victory in the race for Virginia governor is slipping away, Democrats at the national level are laying the groundwork to blame a loss in a key swing state on a weak candidate who ran a poor campaign that failed to fully [...]
Leadership
(1) This was the overnight news from the sausage factory: In pushing to include a government-run health insurance plan in the health care bill, the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, is taking a calculated gamble that the 60 members of his caucus could support the plan if it included a way for states to opt [...]
Compromise
Snowe: I Do Not Support Opt Out Compromise, Would Likely Filibuster Public Option Bill – TPMDC (10/22/09): In a huddle with reporters moments ago, I asked Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) for her thoughts on a public option compromise that would allow states to opt out of a national government insurance program, and her answer could [...]
Coming Soon: Incontrovertible Evidence Of Torture?
Binyam Mohamed is one of the victims of TWAT (The War Against Terror). The bare facts are: Mohamed, arrested in Pakistan in April 2002, was accused of training at al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan, joining a squad of al Qaeda bomb-makers in Pakistan and plotting to set off a radioactive bomb in the United States. [...]
Telling It Like It Ain’t
(1) Marcus Baram has a story in The Huffington Post where he compares the growth in “the average annual salary for all workers across the country” and “the average financial industry employee’s annual bonus” between 1985 and 2008. A well-conceived comparison, and the numbers are pretty telling. The average worker’s salary increased from $19,000 to [...]
Someone…I Don’t Remember Who…Predicted This
Obama Tells Dems They Can Be ‘Own Worst Enemies’ And Asks For Health Care Unity – TPMDC (10/20/09) “There are going to be some disagreements and details to work out … but I want to say to you Democrats, let’s make sure that we keep our eye on the prize,” Obama said during a Webcast [...]
Presidential Helplessness
How bizarre is this? The president of Lithuania, Dalia Grybauskaite, suspects that Lithuania hosted a secret CIA prison for terror suspects in 2004 and 2005, as alleged by an ABC News report last August. She suspects it, but isn’t sure. And apparently she can’t just summon a few officials, or make a few phone calls, [...]