There was much celebration on Capitol Hill today with the announcement of the new House health care bill.  For myself, as a three time breast cancer survivor, there was tremendous sadness and disappointment in the Speaker. Nancy Pelosi made a choice with regard to the lifesaving biologic drugs I took when I was in chemotherapy [...]

Yesterday Jane followed up on her televised dare to Blanche Lincoln to filibuster the public option, when she warned that if Blanche filibustered, “she’d draw a primary challenger so fast it’d make your head spin.” Jane wrote here:

But there are other things that can make a race attractive to a primary challenger — or, conversely, make Lincoln think twice about joining a Republican filibuster. Like hiring organizers in Arkansas to start knocking on doors and set up phone banks into Arkansas, and compiling the names of voters in the state who would support a primary challenge against her.

We need $30,000 to put this into action. It may well be the most effective $30,000 we spend on health care this year. Or EFCA, for that matter.

We’re already halfway there – in just 24 hours, the FDL community has raised more than $15,000 from more than 400 people. Can you help push us over the top? Click here to donate now to fund organizers in Arkansas.

A lot has been made of the fact that the new health insurance exchange would only be open to a small subsection of the population which is uninsured or works for a small business. The new public option will only be available to people on the new exchange. As a result, most people would be [...]

Today, Nancy Pelosi unveiled the House’s health care reform bill. The bill will cost $894 billion over the next ten years, but will be fully paid for. It will expand coverage to an additional 36 million Americans and eventually close the Medicare Part D doughnut hole. Thanks to the successful efforts by the Blue Dog [...]

In a huge victory for the health insurance industry, hospitals, and PhRMA, the Blue Dogs managed to stop the robust public option tied to modified Medicare rates. The Blue Dog Coalition, who must call themselves “fiscal conservatives” purely as part of some elaborate ironic joke, fought tooth and nail to kill the robust public option, [...]

The House Bill is expected to be unveiled tomorrow. It will likely not have the robust public option, which is a double slap in the face. By saying he would put the public option opt-out in the Senate bill, Reid has crossed the Rubicon. Jane dares Blanche Lincoln to stand in the way of health [...]

Evan Bayh (D-IN) said on CBS’s Washington Unplugged said that if fifty senators were dead set on getting a real public option they could always do that by using reconciliation. Reconciliation measures can’t be filibustered, so a bill brought up through reconciliation would only need a simple majority to pass (50 votes plus the VP). Evan [...]

The merged House health care reform bill is expect to be announced tomorrow around 10:00 AM EDT. Reporting indicates that it is unlikely to contain the public option tied to Medicare rates favored by progressives. This will hurt the public option’s ability to strongly drive down prices and dramatically save the government money. Regardless of [...]

Most of the political media, many of the people in Congress, even Harry Reid himself may not have realized it yet, but Monday, Reid crossed the Rubicon. Like Julius Caesar stepped across the point with his progressive base. Reid can’t back down and expect to be cheered for trying his best. To fail now would [...]

There are many things that can make a race attractive to a primary challenger — or, conversely, make Lincoln think twice about joining a Republican filibuster. Like hiring organizers in Arkansas to start knocking on doors and set up phone banks into Arkansas, and compiling the names of voters in the state who would support a primary challenge against her.

We need $30,000 to put this into action. It may well be the most effective $30,000 we spend on health care this year. Or EFCA, for that matter.

Can you help dare Blanche, too?