Igor Volsky at ThinkProgress focused on how the House’s health care reform bill should help the GLBT community. While health reform does not directly address many GLBT issues, it does try to fix many of the problems with our current system that do strongly disadvantage the community. For example, the House bill ends the unfair [...]

The Washington Post is running a story that Harry Reid is looking into possibly raising the Medicare payroll tax for those making above $250,000 a year: These officials said one of the options Reid has had under review would raise the payroll tax that goes to Medicare, but only on income above $250,000 a year. [...]

Per K-Tum, Harry Reid says he has a wonderful relationship with the albatross hanging around his neck: In addition to all these public battles, Reid is waging private ones as well, according to sources on and off Capitol Hill. He has complained to colleagues that the White House has pressured him to lean on the [...]

Carper has a super new very awful public option “alternative”, which is a basically a trigger for a co-op. Jane clearly lays out the progressive block strategy and why reform must have a public option to pass. If you care about the progressive block strategy, you need to read this. The left will not be fooled [...]

Throughout this health care reform legislative process, I have been very critical of the part Sen. Kent Conrad has played in health care reform. I’ve been especially critical of his co-ops idea and his opposition to the public option. But since the House agreed to decouple the public option from Medicare rates, Conrad has expressed [...]

It is time to fact check the fact checkers. PolitiFact incorrectly labeled Rep. Nita Lowey statement on the Stupak Amendment as “false.” Lowey said the amendment “puts new restrictions on women’s access to abortion coverage in the private health insurance market even when they would pay premiums with their own money.” We believe that Lowey’s [...]

Ben Nelson and Joe Lieberman are running around saying that they’ll kill any bill that has a public option. Quite predictably. And everyone in the media (and on the Hill) are kowtowing to them, saying that this means that it will have to go. Their calculus is that progressives in the House will want health care passed so badly that they’ll eventually cave and vote for a bill that doesn’t have one.

Now, maybe this is true. But as someone who counts votes like other people count sheep, I’m not getting it. Someone is going to have to explain the math.

First Read is speculating that the Reid will “try” to publicly push for a public option on the Senate floor, and when that fails, he will accept some worthless fig leaf like the Snowe’s trigger or Carper’s Plan B. Two strategies for Reid: Here’s something to ponder: What’s the better strategy for Reid — calling [...]

Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE) is at it again. Not happy with all his previous terrible “alternatives” to the public option that he helped create, Carper is now crafting a top-secret new “Plan B,” according to the CongressDaily. Just how bad is Carper’s Plan B?Well, from what is being reported, it could be his worst idea [...]

The public option — to the extent it was saved (and that’s yet to be determined) — was saved by taking a sober look at the legislative playing field, identifying where the cracks in the dam would appear, and building the best bulwark against it that an ad hoc network of advocates could build, working it, grooming it, and maintaining it. Vote pledges were sought early on, lined up and reinforced in advance of the committee markups, with a special emphasis on seeing those pledges through all the way through conference.