An excise tax on high-end health insurance benefits is an extremely regressive tax on the middle class. Even though Ezra Klein claims this tax is progressive, it is not. It would raise relatively little money from the wealthy. It is true that the bottom 30% is unlikely to pay very much of the new excise [...]

Gerry McEntee is president of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). He leads one of the largest unions in America and has been one of the most vocal advocates for progressive health care reform. He is one of the few establishment figures willing to openly challenge Obama for repeatedly breaking his [...]

The cost of securing the support of one unneeded Republicans senator keeps growing. To add to the list of other terrible ideas that Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) is urging be part of health care reform, here is a new one courtesy an interview with Ezra Klein. What are your personal concerns going forward? I’m still [...]

The latest CBO score of the House health care bill has been leaked. It shows the bill cost about the same but covers more people than the Baucus bill. Blanche Lincoln is open to maybe supporting the trigger. There are rumors that a public option will be completely left out of the merged Senate bill. [...]

Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) opposes the public option and voted against both public option amendments in the Senate Finance Committee. And now, she has told the local Arkansas News that she is open to Olympia Snowe’s worthless trigger idea: “If within those first three or four years all of the things that we’re doing are not [...]

In a conference call today, Senate HELP Committee chairman Tom Harkin (D-IA) again stated his conviction that health care reform will have a public option. In defense of the public option Harkin pointed out that a majority of Senate solidly supporting the idea. “There are 52 solid Democrats for a public option and only about [...]

The Senate is planning to move with remarkable speed (for them) to pass $245 billion doctors fix for Medicare. The bill will completely skip the normal committee process and head straight to the floor next week. At issue is the is Medicare sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula. The formula would mandate automatic cuts to Medicare [...]

The Hill is reporting that Mike Ross is “suggesting” opening Medicare to all: Ross (D-Ark.), who had emerged as a leader among centrist Blue Dog Democrats opposing the public health insurance option, has suggested something his colleagues consider even more drastic – opening Medicare to those under 65 without insurance. Sounds like a dramatic about [...]

In an interview with Bloomberg Television, Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) put the responsibility for getting a public option squarely on Senate Majority leader Harry Reid’s shoulders. HUNT: Well, let me ask you about that, because it would appear there are not the votes for the kind of public option that you’ve advocated and maybe even [...]

Anonymous senator clearly can’t count. Pelosi may have the votes for a modified robust public option. Democratic leadership starts tying the individual mandate to the public option. It looks like we are about to play health care Jenga. Specter Urges Democratic unity on cloture vote. It’s Reconciliation Day!!!