Silver: Don't Forget Wyden's Health Plan

Hey, Jane Hamsher: A better bill is not coming along, and this ain't bad

(NEWSER) - Ezra Klein isn’t “sure there's much in the way of productive dialogue to be had” with liberal firebrand Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake concerning her call yesterday to kill the Senate health care reform bill, but he’ll try anyway. Hamsher’s list is “misleading,” her “facts are off,” and she “obscures the affected population," Klein writes in the Washington Post in his own 10-point rebuttal. But worst, she implies that the bill is worse than the world in which we kill the bill. More»

Measure that should have saved money will cost an arm and a leg

(NEWSER) - The Senate health reform bill is all fire and brimstone for the folks over at Firedoglake . The “con job” legislation “isn’t a ‘starter home,’ it’s a sink hole,” Jane Hamsher writes, and “it needs to die so something else can take its place.” Why, you ask? Ten reasons:

• $$$: "Forces you to pay up to 8% of your income to private insurance corporations."
• More $$$: "Penalties of up to 2% of your annual income" if you don't buy insurance.

Health bill error may leave lawmakers, aides without coverage

(NEWSER) - If you know exactly how the health care reform bill will impact your coverage, you may be a step ahead of your member of Congress, according to the New York Times . A report from the Congressional Research Service found that—because of imprecise language and a possible drafting error in the bill—senators, representatives, and their staffers may end up having their coverage pulled with no ready replacement. More»

Reconciliation measure now goes back to the House

(AP) - Democrats muscled legislation through the Senate today reshaping parts of the new health care overhaul law, sending it back to the House for what is expected to be final congressional approval this evening. With Joe Biden presiding in case his vote was needed to break a tie, the Senate approved the measure by 56-43. All voting Republicans opposed the measure, as did three Democrats: Arkansas Sens. Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor, and Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson. More»

It will hold a standard vote on the Senate bill tomorrow

(NEWSER) - "Deem and pass" is heading back into legislative obscurity. House leaders today decided not to use the controversial procedure on health care reform. Instead, the chamber will hold a standard vote on the Senate health bill and another on a package of amendments, reports the Washington Post . The final vote is still on track for tomorrow, and Nancy Pelosi says she's confident she'll have the numbers to push it through. More»