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 […]

Let the show begin! Streaming live HERE. Via C-SPAN 3: Preshow: McCain and Boehner look like they’re planning a date. Giant square table, nobody gets a sweet spot. Everyone looks Very SeriousTM. 10:06 – President Obama enters, and gets right down to business. Opens with a few opening remarks. Refers to last year’s health care summit and calls this one […]

This morning, the White House offered to put the GOP’s health insurance reform plan online alongside their own plan in preparation for Thursday’s bipartisan summit. Problem is: there isn’t one. Via Dan Pfeiffer at the White House blog: What you can’t do just yet is read about the Republicans’ consensus plan – because so far they haven’t announced what proposal […]

On February 18, 2010, Organizing for America (OFA), Health Care for American NOW! (HCAN) and no less than THIRTY other organizations sponsored a CALL FOR ACTION rally in Madison Heights in southeastern Michigan calling for Congress to act now on jobs for Michigan. These sponsoring groups represent a broad coalition of interests including health care reform, peace, immigration reform, clean […]

Jumping Hay Zooz on a pogo stick. Open Left spells it out. First the Republicans DEMANDED that President Obama put any health care plans up for discussion at the February 25th summit online for everyone to read. If the President intends to present any kind of legislative proposal at this discussion, will he make it available to members of Congress […]

I hate to give Brian Rooney more attention than he deserves because the only thing that would be worse than Tim Walberg regaining his seat in MI-07 would be if Brian Rooney were to succeed in defeating Mark Schauer. But his latest “press release” screams to be addressed. It is a nauseating example of exploiting one’s children, in this case […]

In his Op-Ed in the Detroit News today, Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Coathanger) turns on the charm offensive. And it’s nauseating. Oh, he starts out reasonable enough: I adamantly oppose the sweetheart deals provided to certain states in this bill. This reform should be about providing access to affordable health care for all Americans. Where you live should have nothing to […]

I’m frankly puzzled by the meme that the debacle that is the Congressional debate on health insurance reform is President Obama’s fault. Let’s review: Not one single Republican has supported it with votes (outside of Snowe allowing a vote to go forward which she subsequently voted “NO!” on.) The major evisceratory surgeries on the legislation have been primarily to appease […]