Allowing younger people to buy into Medicare sounds like a good idea. Medicare is a well-run and cost-effective program. The problem is that the latest reports indicate this “Medicare buy-in” idea might not really be Medicare at all, it might in fact be fake Medicare: Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Max Baucus (D-Mont.) said efforts [...]

Ask Sherrod Brown to save us from PhRMA and the Eshoo/Hagan/ lobbyist-written biologics legislation HERE.

Well, we now know that 42 bipartisan members of the House were willing to act act as PhRMA’s fax machines. I guess it shouldn’t have been a surprise — 80 House Dems signed a letter to Henry Waxman, telling him to substitute the White House PhRMA deal for his own much stronger language.

The question is, what are the Senate Democrats going to do about it?

Several weeks ago Sen. Mary Landrieu claimed to be against the public option, which she described as “government-run, taxpayer subsidized.” Of course there is no truth behind her claim. The public option, as it has been proposed for months, would be funded through premiums, and would not get any special government funds beyond a startup [...]

Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) told Poltico that he felt Harry Reid (D-NV) and the White House were leaning toward a national public option with an opt-out: Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) briefed Nelson and other Democratic centrists on Thursday morning. “I keep hearing there is a lot of leaning toward some sort of national [...]

Senator Ron Wyden’s annoying insistence that Democrats not lie to the American people about health care reform is causing trouble for the party leadership again. His office was not happy with a new talking point sent out by the leadership, falsely claiming that if you don’t like your current health insurance you would be offered [...]

On Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s website, under health care reform, there is a debunking common myths section. The very first myth debunked is that:  Myth: The Public Plan Is No Longer An Option Senator Reid supports the creation of a public option that would keep the insurance companies honest and provide care that puts [...]

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 [...]

So there are now enough votes to pass a public option in the Senate. It may not be a great public option, but the notion that we “don’t have enough votes” just exploded. On the other hand, not one single member of the Democratic caucus who said they oppose a public option says that their vote will change with the “opt-out sell-out.”

Somebody explain to me again why we’re even discussing this again?

Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has announced a new plan to improve the individual mandate. Instead of being a tax or fine paid directly to the government, the money will be taken from the individual and put into a trust. This individual trust fund could be used to purchase health insurance in the future. Americans could [...]

So Stevens is now calling Chuck Schumer names. How John McCain-on-a-campaign-bus-with-his-wife of him! (Take a look at how uncomfortable Gov. Palin of Alaska looks next to him when he goes off on his personal-attack diatribe).

It should come as no surprise that these two guys (Sens. McCain and Stevens), while also both being older than Methuselah, have also been the leaders of the pack in the “Hottest Temper” category in a yearly