I still don’t know if they can pass this monstrosity of a bill. But if progressives stand down and do nothing while corporate America runs roughshod our institutions and our representatives, no member of Congress will ever have the political courage to stand up against corporate power again.

Marion Berry (D-AR) is unlikely vote for the Senate health care bill in the House, but he has recently submitted is own, less comprehensive health care bill (PDF). Primarily, what it does is fix the problems with the Medicare Part D program created by former Republican Rep. Billy Tauzin, which Democrats have been promising to [...]

Now we see one of the reasons the Senate is including student loans in reconciliation — they don’t want to tax rich people (as the House does) so they’re stealing the money from community colleges. The Senate HELP Committee is currently writing the student loan reconciliation bill that the House has to pass (the House [...]

One thing that has been eating away at me throughout this whole health care debate is the incredible hypocrisy and role reversal of both political parties compared to the Medicare Part D debate. The basic, highly corrupt design of the Senate health care bill is the same as the highly corrupt design as the Medicare [...]

I went to dinner Saturday night at a popular DC political watering hole. I’d never been there before. The atmosphere was so heavy and the mood of the room so strange it was hard to concentrate. “It’s Paths of Glory, and these are the trenches,” said my dinner companion. I had no idea what that [...]

So, does the language in the Senate bill negotiated to make Ben Nelson happy “restrict a woman’s right to choose any further than current law?” The answer is an unqualified “yes.” Let’s review:

• It allows states to opt out of allowing plans to cover abortion in the insurance exchanges, a clear violation of Roe v. Wade
• It prohibits insurance companies by law from taking into account cost savings when estimating the costs of abortion care, which raises premiums, thus limiting access
• It includes “conscience clause” language that protecting both individuals and entities that refuse to provide, pay for, provide coverage for, or refer for abortion.

Choice is already in grave danger with the current radical Supreme Court majority, and every time Congress tinkers with this, it just creates another opportunity for the Supremes to whittle away or reverse Roe v. Wade.

The bottom line: the Senate bill would deal a bigger blow to abortion rights in this country than anything George Bush ever signed into law.

Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) sent out memo Friday, effectively saying the House will vote on the Senate health care bill in one week–on March 19th or 20th. The House Democrats will pass the Senate bill and then pass a reconciliation measure containing some “fixes,” which will then go to the Senate. The hope is that [...]

People don’t really care about the reconciliation fixes to the health care reform bill. They are a confusing mix of minor changes to taxes, subsidy levels, and scrubbing a few state-specific deals. I doubt one in one hundred Americans understand them. Obama has already made it clear he prefers the excise tax unchanged. While members [...]

Count me with Tim Ranzetta — student loan reform was D-E-A-D dead earlier this week, as both Congress and the White House were nervous about losing on the health care bill if student lending was included in reconciliation. But last night, Conrad backtracked from the position he’d expressed only that morning. And today, it was [...]

As a pure matter of principle, after almost a year of blaming its exclusion on lack of votes in the Senate, there is no way it should die in the House.

Call progressive members of Congress who pledged to vote against any health care bill that doesn’t have a public option, and tell them to insist on its inclusion in the House bill. Then let us know what they say.

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