The argument for passing the terrible Senate bill is that 30 million more Americans would gain “insurance coverage.” It is a strong argument, but it leaves out a lot of very big caveats (the “coverage” will be junk insurance, people are forced to buy, that it will not stop medical bankruptcy, it will still price [...]

One the the greatest myths you will hear from senators is that reconciliation will not work for health care reform. This myth is pure nonsense, just like the myth that they need 60 votes (something that could be changed any time by 50 senators and the vice president, but that is another story). The argument [...]

It’s pretty laughable that people think Lieberman is “killing” health care when he’s delivering up the Senate Finance Committee bill the White House negotiated. Russ Feingold concurs: Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.), among the most vocal supporters of the public option, said it would be unfair to blame Lieberman for its apparent demise. Feingold said that [...]

Mika Brzezinski I won’t name names, but I heard it from several people in the Administration: Howard Dean, very not pleased, with Dr. Dean speaking out about health care reform and this plan.

Savannah Guthrie: Yeah, very irritated. Yes, isn’t it fascinating they don’t seem to be too angry at Lieberman, they’re reserving their fervor for Howard Dean, but actually, one senior official who I talked to this morning paid the highest insult which was to call him irrelevant to the entire health care debate.

Last night, we witnessed the sad defeat of Dorgan’s drug re-importation amendment, which would have saved American consumers billions on their prescription drugs. Allowing Americans to buy cheaper drugs from Canada or Europe was one of Obama’s campaign promise on health care. Allowing drug re-importation was instrumental to a variety of campaign promise made by [...]

Without a public option, the individual mandate in the Senate bill is wrong for moral, political, and policy reasons. The Senate bill’s excise tax is going to make most Americans’ health insurance considerably worse–pretty much by designed. The Dorgan amendment got 51 aye’s. . . which, in the Senate, is a majority, which, in the Senate, means [...]

Dorgan had the votes to pass his drug reimportation amendment, which would have saved the public over $100 billion and the government $19 billion.

But Joe Lieberman says it can’t be part of LieberCare, so I’m afraid the cost curve will have to be bent by making your health insurance worse.

Next up: the sham Lautenberg amendment, which inserts a poison pill into reimportation by pretending that drugs from CVS warehouses in Canada are really packed with rat poison in Chinese sweat shops.

Will Joe allow that to be part of LieberCare? Stay tuned!

Ben Nelson has a message for Democrats: “don’t forget about Ben Nelson.” While everyone has been fretting about Joe Lieberman, Ben Nelson has remained an equally big hurdle to get 60 votes for cloture. Now that Joe Lieberman has taken a big bite out of reform, it is now time for Senator Nelson to get [...]

It’s Liebercare now.

If I wanted Joe Lieberman writing a health care bill, I would’ve voted for John McCain.

Howard Dean is right. Kill the Senate bill.