The Detroit Free Press is reporting that Michigan 7th District Congressman Mark Schauer received a threatening phone message on Thursday: Another Michigan congressman says he has received violent messages following his vote in favor of health care reform legislation. U.S. Rep. Mark Schauer, D-Battle Creek, said Thursday a caller from outside his district left a message saying, “I hope you […]

A Democrat-sponsored bill before the House of Representatives represents the most sweeping effort at deficit reduction in over a decade. Said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer: It is the largest deficit reduction measure…since Clinton’s budget in 1993, which ushered in the great economy of the 1990s. This historic move to lower the US deficit reduces it by $138 billion in […]

First off, let me say that if I could, I would grab Bart Stupak by the lapels and shake him silly for his obscene obstruction of health insurance reform and his inflicting his religious views on the rest of the country. I find it offensive and enraging and, as a Michigander, he’s a tragic embarrassment to me on this issue. […]

It’s starting to look like the Republicans are finally seeing the handwriting on the wall with regard to health insurance reform. The signs are everywhere. First we have the Club for Growth’s “Repeal It!” campaign. In this campaign, they are urging their candidates to sign the following pledge: “I hereby pledge to the people of my district/state to sponsor and […]

I first read about this over at Bob Cesca’s Awesome Blog! Go! and was pretty stunned. Seems they held a Republican strategy meeting at which a 72-page presentation was given that laid out their electoral strategy for the remainder of the year until midterms. What tactics will they use? Fear of Democrats of course! Seems some doofus left a copy […]

The next time you hear some Republican say that Democrats are using the budget reconciliation process to ram through health insurance reform and that is an unprecedented use of it that affects 1/6 of our economy, know this: THEY ARE LYING Not only have they used it for gigantic, party line votes themselves, the way it will be used for […]

President Obama will be making a statement today at 1:30 p.m. (Eastern) about the path he wishes to take forward on health insurance reform. I suspect that he will push for Democrats in Congress to pass all of the provisions possible using budget reconciliation. The things that can NOT be passed that way will have to be taken up as […]

A few days ago, I wrote a blog entry titled “Whither OFA?”. In it I talked a bit about OFA and where we’ve been over the past year. Looking forward, I thought some folks might be interested in learning how Organizing for America (OFA) is evolving and suggest that you consider taking another look. The executive summary is this: OFA […]

Yup. Twenty demands by Republicans at yesterday’s bipartisan Health Care Summit to scrap all existing legislative efforts and start anew. And there were only ten of them there. Sheesh. Pat Oliphant nailed it: My name is Eclectablog and I am a politaholic. I actually took a vacation day yesterday to watch all seven hours of President Obama’s bipartisan Health Care […]

I was very surprised to Markos Moulitsas, owner of Daily Kos, link to an anti-OFA screed, describe OFA’s organizational model as “OFA’s whatever-the-fuck-it-is-that-they’re-doing model” and declare “Sounds about right”. It’s particularly surprising when the ridiculous screed was so full of contradictions, misinformation and general WATBing about how the Democratic party has done gone and changed. With all due respect to […]

The Senate has passed the jobs bill that made its way painfully through Congress these past few weeks. From the Associated Press: The Senate has passed a bill aimed at boosting job growth by giving tax breaks to businesses that hire the unemployed. The jobs legislation would also extend highway and mass transit programs through the end of the year […]