Ezra Klein: February 28, 2010 - March 6, 2010

Reconciliation

Today, I talked with professional failure-stopper Michael Bennet about reforming the Senate; looked at what a congressional whip does; and wondered when John McCain decided to oppose our last, best hope for reforming Medicare. Here's what I didn't get to:...

By Ezra Klein  |  March 5, 2010; 6:25 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (38)
 
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Can't judge a policy by its price tag

This argument from Charles Krauthammer is really very weird: The final act was carefully choreographed. The rollout began a week earlier with a couple of shows of bipartisanship: a Feb. 25 Blair House "summit" with Republicans, followed five days later...

By Ezra Klein  |  March 5, 2010; 5:47 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (13)
 
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Stupak's abortion argument: Still more about class than choice

Matt Miller hits on one of the most important points in the abortion and health-care debate. The practical effect of Bart Stupak's position is not that the federal government will not subsidize abortion by subsidizing health-care insurance. It is...

By Ezra Klein  |  March 5, 2010; 5:43 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (47)
 
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Your economic problems in graphs

This graph, from EPI, is probably the sort of thing most of you have seen before. The normal takeaway from this is that the American economy is very unfair. But I don't think that's a sufficient conclusion. Rather, there's something...

By Ezra Klein  |  March 5, 2010; 4:45 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (20)
Categories:  Charts and Graphs  
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The breakdown

I talk health care with the Nation's Chris Hayes. The basic point is that the bill is a lot smaller than you think it is, and I get really annoyed when people say it reforms one-sixth of the economy. That's...

By Ezra Klein  |  March 5, 2010; 3:10 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (7)
 
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Always some baseline level of standards. Always.

When people talk about setting standards in the global economy, they tend to imagine one country leaning on another country, or some multilateral trade organization leaning on a member country. But that sort of thing hasn't proved all that...

By Ezra Klein  |  March 5, 2010; 2:52 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (4)
 
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House "no" votes on health care -- in chart form

Wondering who the 39 House Democrats who originally voted no on health-care reform are? The New York Times tells you in chart form and tells you how their district voted in the 2008 presidential election, the percent of uninsured in...

By Ezra Klein  |  March 5, 2010; 2:40 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (20)
Categories:  Charts and Graphs  
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Lunch break

Sorry I'm a bit late on this today, was at a panel. Anyway, you know what's weird? Time....

By Ezra Klein  |  March 5, 2010; 2:24 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (7)
 
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Sen. Michael Bennet: 'Nothing in the rest of the world operates like the U.S. Senate. Nothing.'

Michael Bennet is a freshman senator from Colorado. Usually, freshman senators keep pretty quiet about the institution, as you don't get to be the old guard by giving the old guard headaches. But yesterday, Bennet unveiled the most comprehensive...

By Ezra Klein  |  March 5, 2010; 12:01 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (33)
Categories:  Interviews , Senate  
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A good day for labor unions

I've noted in recent weeks that labor unions haven't been having such a good time of it in the Obama era. It's been better than the Bush era, of course, but the White House hasn't been as staunch an ally...

By Ezra Klein  |  March 5, 2010; 10:37 AM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (8)
 
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How do whips whip?

Most folks know that Harry Reid leads the Democrats in the Senate and Nancy Pelosi leads the Democrats in the House. For Republicans, it's Mitch McConnell in the Senate and John Boehner in the House. But beyond that, people...

By Ezra Klein  |  March 5, 2010; 10:25 AM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (9)
Categories:  Congress  
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Tom Toles is worth a thousand words

By Ezra Klein  |  March 5, 2010; 10:17 AM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (2)
 
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How to make something controversial

People say the media is more viscerally sympathetic to Democrats than Republicans. But working in the other direction is the fact that Republicans understand the media much better than Democrats do. Take the reconciliation process. The media is giving blanket...

By Ezra Klein  |  March 5, 2010; 9:53 AM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (35)
 
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Will a more moderate bill attract more moderate votes?

Yesterday, Rep. Bart Gordon's office sent out a press release saying the congressman believed "the additional cost reduction measures in the President’s new health care proposal are moving in the right direction." This was notable because Gordon was one of...

By Ezra Klein  |  March 5, 2010; 8:59 AM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (19)
 
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McCain's Medicare brinksmanship

"No problem is in more need of attention and action by Congress than the looming financial challenges of entitlement programs," reads John McCain's campaign Web site. But back in Congress, McCain isn't exactly making good on that promise: He...

By Ezra Klein  |  March 5, 2010; 8:36 AM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (10)
 
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Obama promises to pursue a public option later

Raul Grivalja, co-chair of the Progressive Caucus, made some waves the other day by suggesting he was leaning against voting for the health-care reform bill. I've stopped covering daily statements like that one, as it's too difficult to figure out...

By Ezra Klein  |  March 4, 2010; 5:46 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (27)
 
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The Senate parliamentarian

Alan Frumin, the Senate parliamentarian, is in the news lately, as he'll be the guy to decide any technical disputes over reconciliation. If you're looking for a good profile of him and his job, I recommend this one. If you're...

By Ezra Klein  |  March 4, 2010; 4:44 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (21)
 
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Reconciliation and partisanship -- in graph form

The Sunlight Foundation released a great graphic this morning showing the partisan breakdown of recent reconciliation votes. It's a bit big to repost here, but take a look for yourself. Contrary to what some Republicans are saying, those blue and...

By Ezra Klein  |  March 4, 2010; 3:01 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (4)
 
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Exclusive: 'Wellpoint would be a primary beneficiary' if reform fails, investment firm says

"Of course, healthcare reform is a double-edged sword for Wellpoint shares. Should reform fail, Wellpoint would be a primary beneficiary." That comes from the first page of the Cowen and Co.'s assessment of Wellpoint stock in 2010 and beyond. The...

By Ezra Klein  |  March 4, 2010; 2:37 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (36)
Categories:  Health Reform  
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The true cost of the health-care bill, cont'd: An interview with Rep. Paul Ryan

Rep. Paul Ryan is the ranking member of the House Budget Committee. Accordingly, Republicans charged him with making the case against the administration's health-care bill at the Blair House summit. Those remarks can be read here. A few days...

By Ezra Klein  |  March 4, 2010; 2:02 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (50)
Categories:  Interviews  
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'I will take our troops out of the war zone and put them into space'

Introduction Video from Kesha for Congress on Vimeo. Kesha Rogers is a Larouchie who just won the Democratic nomination in Texas's 22nd district. Her triumphant statement is pretty sweet: The victory in the 22nd Congressional District yesterday by LaRouche Democrat...

By Ezra Klein  |  March 4, 2010; 1:31 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (26)
 
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Chat transcript

Robert Dove on reconciliation What do you make of former Senate parliamentarian Robert Dove's comments to TIME's Jay Newton-Small, "I've never seen a two-bill strategy" where reconciliation is used to fix another piece of legislation, he says. "It's permissible, I've...

By Ezra Klein  |  March 4, 2010; 1:00 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (5)
 
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Live chat at noon

Send me questions...with zombies. Or, you know, without zombies. Either way....

By Ezra Klein  |  March 4, 2010; 11:09 AM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (1)
 
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Cutting more deals

I don't want to be unsympathetic to the plight of people in Vernon, Vt., but the fact that a poorly run nuclear plant is important to the economy of a 2,100-person town is really not that important a consideration in...

By Ezra Klein  |  March 4, 2010; 10:22 AM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (18)
 
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The end of Rahmadan

"This is the most unBroderian column I have ever -- ever -- read,"marvels Joe Klein. I agree. And props to David Broder and the op-ed page for publishing it. This type of internal disagreement and willingness to pull back the...

By Ezra Klein  |  March 4, 2010; 10:04 AM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (11)
 
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Tom Toles is worth a thousand words

By Ezra Klein  |  March 4, 2010; 9:37 AM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (5)
 
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What running for office does to people cont'd

In response to this post, a reader who's running for Congress writes in: You are way off, Ezra. The time breakdown on fundraising during a campaign is more like 50-70%. It's absolutely horrifying. I used to be a policy wonk...

By Ezra Klein  |  March 4, 2010; 9:09 AM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (23)
 
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The beauty of boring

Neil Sinhababu writes: As I watch Republicans complain about it, I'm really starting to warm to the boringness of the name. When you incorporate the words "budget reconciliation" into some political attack you're making, its emotional appeal drops by about...

By Ezra Klein  |  March 4, 2010; 8:25 AM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (10)
 
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If you compromise and no one admits it, does it make a sound?

Tim Noah pulls together some quotes from Mitt Romney, who passed health-care reform into law in Massachusetts, and Barack Obama, who's trying to pass a very similar health-care reform bill into law nationally. But because Tim Noah is an...

By Ezra Klein  |  March 4, 2010; 8:02 AM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (28)
 
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Reconciliation

Today I looked at the partisan composition of recent reconciliation votes, ran through Obama's closing arguments on health-care reform, and found myself confused about the Consumer Financial Protection Agency. Here's what I didn't get to: 1) Barbara Mikulski is done...

By Ezra Klein  |  March 3, 2010; 6:35 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (10)
 
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What Reagan deserves

Rep. Patrick Henry's proposal to kick Ulysses S. Grant off the $50 bill and put Ronald Reagan in his stead is sort of awesomely tone-deaf. The proposal here is to send the nation's first black president legislation that would erase...

By Ezra Klein  |  March 3, 2010; 5:44 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (32)
 
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I'm confused about the consumer financial protection agency

FunnyOrDie.com got a serious all-star cast together to produce this video in favor of the Consumer Financial Protection Agency. Funny or Die's Presidential Reunion from Will Ferrell Cute. And possibly the germ of a good "financial regulation ... and zombies"...

By Ezra Klein  |  March 3, 2010; 5:37 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (15)
Categories:  Financial Regulation  
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Members of Congress get the same choices as the rest of us

"My proposal," Obama said today, "would give uninsured individuals and small-business owners the same kind of choice of private health insurance that members of Congress get for themselves." It's worth noting that this is more than a rhetorical flourish. It's...

By Ezra Klein  |  March 3, 2010; 4:23 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (38)
Categories:  Health Reform  
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Obama's closing argument on health-care reform

"We began our push to reform health insurance last March with the doctors and nurses who know the system best," Barack Obama said today, "and so it is fitting to be joined by all of you as we bring...

By Ezra Klein  |  March 3, 2010; 3:08 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (50)
 
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Did Republicans use reconciliation for significantly bipartisan bills?

Among the odder arguments Republicans are making against the reconciliation process is that the process should only be used for bipartisan bills, and since they refuse to vote for health-care reform, Democrats can't give their package of fixes an up-or-down...

By Ezra Klein  |  March 3, 2010; 2:15 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (55)
Categories:  Senate  
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Pieces falling into place for vote on health-care reform

Over the past 48 hours or so, you've seen the pieces falling into place on the path forward for health-care reform. Timetables have leaked, putting passage somewhere in mid- to late March. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer has said...

By Ezra Klein  |  March 3, 2010; 1:56 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (66)
 
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Lunch break

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire hunter. Commentary here....

By Ezra Klein  |  March 3, 2010; 12:30 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (3)
 
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A minority of 59

Who sounds like the majority party in this exchange, and who sounds like the minority party? Democrats wanted a free-standing consumer-protection agency. Republicans were willing only to tuck a new regulator inside another agency. Democrats suggested the Treasury Department. Republicans...

By Ezra Klein  |  March 3, 2010; 11:52 AM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (18)
Categories:  Financial Regulation  
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Chutzpah

The classic definition of chutzpah is when you murder your parents then plead for mercy because you're an orphan. It's time to update that old chestnut: How about when you fire the old Senate parliamentarian for not going along with...

By Ezra Klein  |  March 3, 2010; 11:26 AM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (31)
 
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Obamaism, not Rahmism

I'm getting a bit tired of talking about Rahm Emanuel, but save for the image of Emanuel's uncommonly prominent quadriceps, I liked Noam Scheiber's profile of the chief of staff. In fact, it was the best kind of profile:...

By Ezra Klein  |  March 3, 2010; 11:00 AM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (13)
Categories:  Obama administration  
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Tom Toles is worth a thousand words

By Ezra Klein  |  March 3, 2010; 10:34 AM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (4)
 
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Toward better political candidates

Ross Douthat would like to see more "political journalists, think-tankers or public intellectuals" throwing themselves and their ideas into the arena. The only problem is that the people who spent all their time writing blog posts and reading policy documents...

By Ezra Klein  |  March 3, 2010; 10:32 AM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (10)
 
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Should the post office become Radio Shack?

I'd like to read this Monocle article on how the Swiss postal service is successfully reinventing itself as "a global media and technology company," as that appears to be what our Postal Service wants to do. Apparently, there's a lot...

By Ezra Klein  |  March 3, 2010; 10:15 AM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (18)
 
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Reconciliation

Today I attacked the defenses of Rahm Emanuel; interviewed Kent Conrad on the budget reconciliation process; and gave some props to the White House's policy team, even as I wondered why the Obama administration isn't doing everything it could to...

By Ezra Klein  |  March 2, 2010; 7:28 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (14)
 
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Casualties of the reconciliation process

All hail OpenCongress.org, which has produced a list of the provisions that have been struck from reconciliation bills over the years. It should give you a sense of why it would be difficult to run the whole health-care reform bill...

By Ezra Klein  |  March 2, 2010; 6:14 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (4)
Categories:  Congress  
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What the Obama administration could actually do about jobs

My pick for "most important article of the day" is Neil Irwin's piece looking at Barack Obama's opportunity to reshape the Federal Reserve. The resignation of Vice Chairman Bob Kohn opens a third slot on the Federal Reserve Board,...

By Ezra Klein  |  March 2, 2010; 5:51 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (13)
Categories:  Federal Reserve  
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Dueling Republican op-eds

Orrin Hatch published an alarmist op-ed on the reconciliation process in this morning's Washington Post. It turns out that a budgetary procedure Hatch has frequently used poses a threat to the continued functioning of democracy itself. So, too, does deciding...

By Ezra Klein  |  March 2, 2010; 4:43 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (10)
Categories:  Budget  
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The death of the mail?

Tyler Cowen links to this story outlining the Postal Service's large operating losses and proposed service changes and says that "the U.S. Postal Service is not efficient." Now, Cowen is using the term in its economic sense, but the...

By Ezra Klein  |  March 2, 2010; 3:59 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (52)
 
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The Obama administration's poor relationship with Labor

I don't know why administration officials even say things like this: Vice President Joe Biden told the AFL-CIO that the Obama administration will still be able to push through a controversial union organizing bill that has been stalled for the...

By Ezra Klein  |  March 2, 2010; 3:33 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (22)
 
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How Maryland controls health-care costs

Maggie Mahar reports on a health-care program that's controlling costs in Maryland: In 1977, Maryland decided that, rather than leaving prices to the vagaries of a marketplace where insurers and hospitals negotiate behind closed doors, it would delegate the...

By Ezra Klein  |  March 2, 2010; 2:41 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (21)
Categories:  Health Reform  
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Fightin' words

Some good stuff coming out of the Democratic leadership lately. First, here's Nancy Pelosi with the healthiest perspective on congressional service that I've seen in awhile: Well, first of all, our members -- every one of them -- wants health...

By Ezra Klein  |  March 2, 2010; 2:23 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (10)
 
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White House prepared to compromise, but not capitulate

The White House just released a letter (pdf) pledging to move forward with health-care reform and include some of the Republican proposals offered at the Blair House Summit. The lucky policies are: 1) "Senator Coburn had an interesting suggestion...

By Ezra Klein  |  March 2, 2010; 2:10 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (25)
Categories:  Health Reform  
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Lunch break

OK GO really makes some visually striking music videos....

By Ezra Klein  |  March 2, 2010; 1:00 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (4)
 
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The chairman of the Budget Committee explains the reconciliation process

As chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, Sen. Kent Conrad actually oversees the reconciliation process when it's used. And that means he knows a lot about it: how it can be used, when it should be used, how it...

By Ezra Klein  |  March 2, 2010; 12:30 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (32)
Categories:  Budget , Interviews  
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A policy-driven White House

One further comment on the various Rahm Emanuel stories floating around town lately: They're notable in that they're about Emanuel's performance, rather than schisms in the White House. The stories are arguing that Barack Obama should be listening more...

By Ezra Klein  |  March 2, 2010; 11:08 AM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (12)
 
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Warren Buffett: 'I would vote for the Senate bill.'

I've been getting some e-mail lately about Warren Buffett apparently attacking health-care reform. Turns out he didn't, but that Fox News is saying he did. The relevant quote comes from an interview Buffett gave to CNBC on Monday. "If it...

By Ezra Klein  |  March 2, 2010; 10:21 AM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (71)
 
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Tom Toles is worth a thousand words

By Ezra Klein  |  March 2, 2010; 10:01 AM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (8)
 
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Defending Rahm for all the wrong reasons

My colleague Jason Horowitz has an article today quoting a lot of different Democrats (both named and unnamed) who are defending Rahm Emanuel's strategic judgment. The problem, they say, is not that Rahm has exerted too much influence on...

By Ezra Klein  |  March 2, 2010; 9:54 AM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (41)
Categories:  Obama administration  
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Can preserving the Second Amendments Strengthen Roe v. Wade?

Ben Adler looks at the evolving liberal jurisprudence in favor of the Second Amendment, and the implications it may have for...abortion rights? At the heart of the left-leaning dissenters' argument is a plea for consistency. For decades, liberals have insisted...

By Ezra Klein  |  March 2, 2010; 7:06 AM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (31)
 
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Reconciliation

Today I wrote a short primer on the budget reconciliation process; a short post wondering whether we really want the Senate run by loopholes; a slightly longer post on the tension between individual bloggers and the media organizations that pay...

By Ezra Klein  |  March 1, 2010; 6:31 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (12)
 
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Newt Gingrich and standards of evidence

I've always thought that rumors of Newt Gingrich's brilliance were overstated, and his speech to CPAC did nothing to change my mind: Orwell points out, after ["1984]" became famous, that the novel is not about the Soviet Union. The novel...

By Ezra Klein  |  March 1, 2010; 6:04 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (22)
 
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Paul Ryan and the true cost of health-care reform

After the Blair House Summit, a bunch of you e-mailed to ask what I thought of Rep. Paul Ryan's argument that the bill "does not control costs" and it "does not reduce deficits." There's a lot going on in...

By Ezra Klein  |  March 1, 2010; 5:26 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (112)
Categories:  Health Reform  
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Reconciliation isn't historic, but Republican use of the filibuster is

There's been a lot of Republican talk (and media coverage) of the idea that using reconciliation to pass 11 pages of health-care fixes is somehow a historic break with precedent. It's not. If you're looking for one of those, however,...

By Ezra Klein  |  March 1, 2010; 3:30 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (18)
Categories:  Senate  
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Mend the filibuster, don't end it?

"How about if both parties agree to a limited number of cloture votes per congressional session?" suggests Kevin Drum. "Let's say, 20 per session per party. Ditto for holds." I've heard variants on this idea before, but I don't think...

By Ezra Klein  |  March 1, 2010; 3:00 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (9)
 
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Micro-reconciliation

I've obviously been struggling to sharply explain the difference between passing a bill through reconciliation and making a few small tweaks to a bill through reconciliation. In part, that's because the same word is referring to two fairly different things....

By Ezra Klein  |  March 1, 2010; 2:24 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (12)
 
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Some comments on the Atlantic redesign

It's been interesting watching The Atlantic's writers go to war against The Atlantic's online redesign. Ta-Nehisi Coates takes his shots here, James Fallows unloads here, and Andrew Sullivan really goes to town in this post. As a blogger, I agree...

By Ezra Klein  |  March 1, 2010; 2:00 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (27)
Categories:  Journalism  
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Pelosi's math

Just a quick point of clarification: As Rick Klein (no relation) explains, vacant seats in the House do not necessarily make it hard to pass health-care reform (or any other legislation). As the total number of seated members decreases,...

By Ezra Klein  |  March 1, 2010; 1:36 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (12)
 
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Political systems of nations: Germany

As the dysfunctions of our political system have become a more prevalent theme on this blog, I've gotten a large number of requests for a series exploring the political systems of other countries. How England runs its health-care system is...

By Ezra Klein  |  March 1, 2010; 1:06 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (8)
Categories:  The Politics of Nations  
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Lunch break

The future of medicine in wireless....

By Ezra Klein  |  March 1, 2010; 12:40 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (0)
 
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Think tank

1) A 2008 Congressional Research Service report that will tell you all you ever wanted to know about the budget reconciliation process, and then a bit more even than that. 2) Gary Gorton -- who helped construct AIG's risk model...

By Ezra Klein  |  March 1, 2010; 12:02 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (8)
 
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A reconciliation primer

It is amazing how few reporters understand what the budget reconciliation process is: Either how it works, or what it's traditionally been used for, or what Democrats are proposing to use it for. That confusion creates comical exchanges like this...

By Ezra Klein  |  March 1, 2010; 11:05 AM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (54)
Categories:  Senate  
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The illusion of being informed

A couple of months ago, I was over at C-SPAN World Headquarters to do Book TV. As I was walking out, a producer told me about an idea they were kicking around: They'd have people take to C-SPAN radio...

By Ezra Klein  |  March 1, 2010; 10:40 AM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (9)
 
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The other problem with the filibuster

We tend to think of the filibuster mainly in terms of the problems it causes when the minority has more than 40 votes. But as reader BC e-mails, it's also a problem when the minority has less than 40 votes...

By Ezra Klein  |  March 1, 2010; 10:11 AM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (7)
Categories:  Senate  
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Rule by loophole

I'm not terribly impressed with the Republican Party's sudden distaste for the budget reconciliation process. When Sen. Judd Gregg argued there was nothing strange about using one rule of the Senate (Public Law 93-344, which created the budget reconciliation...

By Ezra Klein  |  March 1, 2010; 9:08 AM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (19)
Categories:  Senate  
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Commented: Should the Democratic Party offer financial support to Democrats who vote against health-care reform?

And if it does, should members of the Democratic base continue to financially support the Democratic Party? I haven't thought about this much, but Phillycomment laid out the position well in Friday's "Reconciliation" (the new name for tab dump) thread:...

By Ezra Klein  |  March 1, 2010; 7:59 AM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (43)
 
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The 1982 election and pundit fallability

Washington is thick with dire predictions for Democrats in the midterm elections and pundits obsessively speculating whether Barack Obama ruined his presidency by trying to solve problems in his first year in office right now, so it was interesting...

By Ezra Klein  |  March 1, 2010; 7:03 AM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (20)
 
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