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8 a.m. ET: President Obama and congressional Democrats moved closer to the end of a very bumpy road this week, as the House now has a health-care reform bill that is expected to pass the chamber and the Senate is crafting a measure that is similar in many key respects.
Nancy Pelosi and her fellow House Democrats unveiled their long-awaited health bill Thursday morning, one that includes a more moderate version of the public option -- with negotiated reimbursement rates for providers -- after leaders could not muster 218 votes for the more "robust" version. The Wall Street Journal writes, "While liberals praised the measure, key blocs of House Democrats haven't offered their endorsement. The fiscally conservative Blue Dog coalition said Thursday that it wants more proof that the bill lowers federal health spending in the long term." The Associated Press looks at the losers, noting that the measure "would impose an array of new taxes, fees and government mandates on major players in the health industry, including insurers, doctors and drugs and medical devices makers." Care for illegal immigrants remains a sticking point, as does funding for abortion.
Despite some griping from both the right and left, the bill looks destined to pass when it hits the floor next week. In an interview Thursday with David Rogers, Pelosi said “I’m not big on showing weakness. It’s not my thing. I don’t like to have predictable losses.” Writing on the bill unveiling event Thursday, Dana Milbank says "Pelosi's legislative finesse was not matched by her skills as a pep rally organizer. Only about 80 House Democrats, about a third of the caucus, were on the stage on the cool and gray morning." Ezra Klein has John Dingell -- a longtime supporter of a single-payer system -- saying the House bill "is as good as can be done now."
How much will the bill actually cost? Glad you asked. Roll Call writes that Pelosi "had touted the bill as costing $894 billion when she released it online earlier in the day, but that number nets out $167 billion in new pay-or-play taxes on individuals and businesses." The actual "gross" cost -- the number most commonly used when discussing CBO scores -- is $1.055 trillion, though the agency also found that the measure would cut the deficit by $104 billion, and that "the deficit would continue to shrink slightly in the second decade after the bill is adopted, a key issue for many moderate Democrats." That didn't stop Republicans from seizing on the higher top-line number, emphasizing that it exceeded Obama's desired $900 billion price tag. As Politico puts it, "Both numbers are correct, but Democrats shifted the terms of the debate and cherry picked the lower one." The New York Times adds that "Republicans said gimmicks had been used to hide the measure’s long-term costs." (Perhaps more importantly, CBO also concluded that the public insurance plans envisioned in the House bill would likely have higher premiums that private plans, the opposite of what Democrats hoped.)
In the Senate, Harry Reid is still juggling the competing demands of various lawmakers in his hunt for 60 votes. Bloomberg writes, "The Nevada Democrat is under growing pressure to exempt more workers from a proposed tax on high-end insurance plans; cut in half a proposed $40 billion fee on medical-device makers; increase subsidies to help lower-income Americans get coverage, and make it easier for the elderly to buy medication." David Broder dumps on Reid's plan to include a provision allowing states to opt out of the public plan, lamenting that the leader "bent to the political pressure and put his own needs first." While the House bill includes a revocation of the insurance industry's antitrust exemption, the Senate bill won't, according to Huffington Post. The New York Times profiles Tom Coburn, who -- shockingly -- hates Democrats' reform proposals and plans to slow them down on the floor as best he can.
Separate from the health-care fight,
The Washington Post writes on the contents of an internal House ethics committee report, leaked after being placed on a publicly accessible computer network, that detailed the status of probes against more than two dozen lawmakers as of July. Most notably, the report reveals that seven members of the House Appropriations subcommittee on defense are under investigation for their ties to the now-defunct lobbying firm PMA. Politico writes that "Republicans — who have pummeled Pelosi for not doing more to 'drain the swamp,' as she promised in 2006 — pounced on the suggestion that the Democrats' ethics problems may be much wider than previously reported."
On the Foggy Bottom front, Hillary Clinton has had a busy week. David Plouffe's book has been getting considerable play, particularly its revelation that Obama had considered Clinton as a potential running mate more seriously than had previously been known. In her current job, Clinton made headlines Thursday by pressuring Pakistan to do more to crack down on al Qaeda, suggesting that some Pakistani officials were deliberately underperforming at that task. "It is extremely rare for an official of Mrs. Clinton’s rank to say publicly what American politicians and intelligence officials have said in more guarded ways for years," observes the New York Times. While in Pakistan, Clinton paused to announce that a deal had been reached in Honduras to allow the deposed former president to return to power.
By
Ben Pershing
|
October 30, 2009; 8:00 AM ET
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Go to full archive for The Rundown »
Posted by: scrivener50 | October 30, 2009 9:57 AM
For the last two days, NBC Nightly News has not mentioned the revised Health Care bill released on Thursday. Wonder Why?
They covered an SUV that was swept away by high water in Little Rock, but not a $1B Health care Bill that has dominated public interest for three months.
Incompetence, oversight, or a direct manipulation of the news?
Posted by: Heinz57opinions | October 30, 2009 11:51 PM
next time we fight a war I sure hope we can use this same approach - you can only send troops if you reduce the budget at same time
Posted by: dmyers412 | October 31, 2009 2:28 AM
Pelosi's health care bill is a sham. It's already been discovered that we can't afford the plan and will not have the money to pay for it. So everyone ends up on Medicaid (but Pelosi calls it something else so you won't think you're getting Medicaid). Why isn't Congress & the President getting the same plan? Why are they above us?
Posted by: 45upnorth | October 31, 2009 10:37 AM
We are being forced into socialism by a one party controlled fascist regime that will undermine America more than the Jihadists could do. This mockery of a travesty of a sham rationed Obamacare will kill good medicine here just as it has in the U.K. and Canada. Medicare will suffer as well. Forcing Americans to buy something they do not want or need seems to be unconstitutional. I hope it is.
The only way to beat Obama in the next election is to run a moderate Republican not a far right conservative. Abortion issues have been decided by SCOTUS and back alley abortions should not return. Gays will win out eventually because they are right on the Constitutional issues, even if they conflict with the religious teachings of many churches. The latter should follow the law of the land.
We need fiscal conservatives that understand lower taxes creates job and revenue. That government must protect consumers but not strangle innovation nor socialize this great country built upon capitalism and free enterprize. We need a strong military and appeasers in the White House are anathema to our freedoms here. Neville Chamberlain proved that for us and history is the best teacher after all.
Posted by: mharwick | November 1, 2009 6:02 AM
We will be seeing an independent and Democratic backlash against Congress in their total lack of responsibility and accountability to the American people over the Health Care Bill. Seniors and military retirees are not happy, and will not put up; with the shenanigans we are seeing in the House and Senate. The "Closed Door" partisanship, we are seeing will, not go un-noticed in the 2010 and 2012 elections. What really bothers me is that only a few select individuals from the Democratic Leadership and the White House even know what is in their Health Care proposal. I seriously doubt, that the 72 hours being allowed to read the bill, will be enough time much less read any additional amendments I am sure will be added at the last minute. Just look at what is available to see in the proposal now. Who can understand what is hidden in the wording. I doubt that many can understand what the proposal means. Heaven Help us.
Posted by: dnicolo1 | November 1, 2009 1:16 PM
The comments to this entry are closed.
ATTENTION MEMBERS OF CONGRESS, TEAM OBAMA: Health Care Reform a Cruel Joke Until Team Obama Ends Ongoing Bush Era Crimes Against Humanity
SECRET USE OF MICROWAVE/LASER RADIATION 'DIRECTED ENERGY WEAPONS' ON U.S. CITIZENS BY MULTI-AGENCY 'EXECUTIVE ACTION' PROGRAM
Thousands of unjustly targeted Americans are being damaged by the devastating physiological effects of being silently irradiated by microwave and laser radiation directed energy weapons by a secret executive branch multi-agency coordinated action program...
...the weaponization of the electromagnetic spectrum, a silent "final solution" that may have the nation's political leadership in its ideological cross-hairs.
This technology is capable of altering moods, emotions, inducing fatigue, weakness, exhaustion, confusion, life-altering injury, disease and a slow-kill death.
And key elements of the federal bureaucracy -- chief among them the defense/security/intel establishment -- are proliferating these technologies by various modalities, reported to include terrestrial and satellite electromagnetic microwave/laser emissions -- in one iteration, disguised as cell towers.
American citizens and families targeted by this covert torture matrix also are subject to financial sabotage that decimates their livelihoods and financial resources...
...and relentless "community stalking" -- harassment, surreptitious home entries and vandalism by government-enabled vigilantes affiliated with federally-funded community policing and anti-terrorism organizations.
Warrantless, covert placement of GPS tracking devices and misuse of cell phone technology to hunt down the unjustly targeted enables this grassroots terrorism.
But the Obama administration continues to allow these warrantless intrusions into the lives of unjustly targeted American families.
By its naivete -- its unquestioning rubber-stamp approval of the deployment of these destructive technologies and programs -- the Obama administration risks presiding over the destruction of democracy, the rule of law, and personal liberty.
PRESIDENT OBAMA, CONGRESS:
BAN the use of microwave/laser directed energy weapons on U.S. citizens or any human being (including experimentation) as cruel and unusual punishment and a crime against humanity.
BAN the warrantless tracking of individuals with GPS devices, or via cell phones -- the electronic backbone of an American Gestapo now operating on YOUR watch.
http://nowpublic.com/world/gestapo-usa-govt-funded-vigilante-network-terrorizes-america OR (if link is corrupted/disabled):
http://NowPublic.com/scrivener RE: "GESTAPO USA"