Tag: Health Care Reform

Health Care Plan Comparison

Filed in National by on January 29, 2010 0 Comments
Health Care Plan Comparison

Comparison between the Democratic plan and the GOP plan: Mike Castle voted against the Democratic plan and for the GOP plan. Yet another reason why Mike Castle must not be allowed to represent us in the US Senate.

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The Republican Plan To Kill Reconciliation

Filed in National by on January 26, 2010 11 Comments

The Republicans have a plan to defeat Democrats in the Senate trying to use reconciliation. I asked a senior GOP Senate aide to explain the game plan for making this an “extraordinarily difficult exercise.” He said the leadership — Senators Mitch McConnell, Jon Kyl, Lamar Alexander, etc. — are discussing how to exploit the fact […]

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Smell The Bipartisanship

Filed in National by on January 26, 2010 9 Comments

Republicans haven’t changed much from the Bush administration. Bipartisan to them still means that Democrats adopt Republican ideas: Last week, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) “made it clear that the only starting point for bipartisan compromise would be for Dems to drop their health care plan and embrace the GOP one.” Senate Minority Leader […]

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David Plouffe To The Rescue

Filed in National by on January 24, 2010 29 Comments

Yesterday the White House announced that David Plouffe, Obama’s campaign manager, would take an expanded role. Today an op-ed by Plouffe appeared in the Washington Post called “November doesn’t need to be a nightmare for Democrats.” I hope Democrats are listening to him: We still have much to do before November, and time is running […]

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Krugman: Pass The Bill Already

Filed in National by on January 22, 2010 76 Comments

Congressional Democrats, please listen to this man: A message to House Democrats: This is your moment of truth. You can do the right thing and pass the Senate health care bill. Or you can look for an easy way out, make excuses and fail the test of history. A message to House Democrats: This is […]

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It’s Worse Than That, It’s Dead Jim

Filed in National by on January 21, 2010 187 Comments

Well Nancy Pelosi has just come out to say that there aren’t enough votes for the Senate bill in the House.  So the Kill the Bill people have won.  I am sure that Jane Hamsher is sitting on a barstool next to Jim DeMint slapping each other on the back about how much they just […]

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Health Care Reform: The Back-Up Plan

Filed in National by on January 18, 2010 2 Comments

Apparently the Democrats do have a back-up plan if Coakley loses her race and nudie teabagger Scott Brown becomes the next Senator from Massachusetts: As I noted last week, the House could simply pass the Senate bill unchanged, and Obama could sign reform into law. As recently as last week, a number of high-profile Democrats […]

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Thanks, Tom Carper!

Filed in Delaware, National by on January 16, 2010 7 Comments

The pharmaceutical industry lobbying group PHARMA is threatening to pull its support for the health care reform legislation because of a change in the health care bill. The drug industry is threatening to end its support for President Barack Obama’s health overhaul effort because of a rift with the administration over protecting brand-name biotech drugs […]

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Rush Limbaugh Praises Health Care Reform, Unionized Hospitals

Filed in National by on January 5, 2010 6 Comments

Over the Christmas holiday, Rush Limbaugh was rushed to the hospital in Hawai’i because of chest pains. He praised the treatment he got there: “Based on what happened to me here, I don’t think there is one thing wrong with the American health care system. It is working just fine, just dandy.” The SEIU points […]

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Was Fox In On The Scam?

Filed in National by on January 4, 2010 6 Comments

The “grassroots” groups that grew up around the tea party movement were generally funded by industry-backed groups. The tea parties were heavily promoted by Fox News with some of their biggest stars, like Glenn Beck, reporting from the protests. One of the PACs raised money from the tea party protestors, but most of the money […]

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Calculating Subsidies In Health Care

Filed in National by on December 27, 2009 5 Comments

To see if you’d receive subsidies from HCR, check out this interesting little calculator from the Kaiser Family Foundation. This tool illustrates premiums and government assistance under the types of reform proposals being considered in Congress for people under age 65 who purchase coverage on their own in an Exchange and are not covered through […]

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Mike Castle: Gutless Hypocrite

Filed in National by on December 26, 2009 8 Comments

Mike Castle, circa 2004: I supported the Medicare Prescription Drug bill because it was a historic opportunity, since the inception of the program in 1965, to add a pharmaceutical discount benefit to the program. While I realize the law is not perfect, it is certainly a step in the right direction, as the costs of […]

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God Works In Mysterious Ways

Filed in National by on December 22, 2009 6 Comments

Remember Sen. Coburn’s very classy call to pray someone didn’t show up to vote on the Senate health care reform bill? Well, interestingly, this morning one Senator didn’t show up for the vote. It wasn’t Robert Byrd, it was Sen. Inhofe. A caller to C-SPAN worried that his prayer (he called himself a teabagger, too) […]

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