If you watch cable news this weekend (which, if you a normal and well-adjusted person, you probably won’t), you’ll likely hear a lot of discussion about the so-called Slaughter Solution, a procedural manuever that House Democrats are considering in hopes of making it easier to pass health care reform. NRO’s Daniel Foster and Slate’s John Dickerson have posted detailed explanations, but the gist is this: Rather than vote up or down on the Senate bill (which many House Democrats don’t like), the House would instead vote to pass a reconciliation bill that amends the Senate bill. Attached to the reconciliation bill would be a rule that says that once it’s passed, the original Senate bill is automatically considered passed too.
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The Slaughter Solution, And Other Tactics For Passing Health Reform
Non-stop bad news won’t stop Nancy Pelosi! Here’s an overview of the last day or so of developments in her never-ending quest to drum up enough votes to pass a health reform bill in the House. Multiple reports indicate that the Senate parliamentarian confirmed that the Senate cannot vote on a reconciliation “fix” bill until the House actually passes the Senate bill
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For Nancy Pelosi, There Is No Such Thing As Bad News
Peter Orszag, the cutest , coolest , cowboy-boot wearin’est budgeting badass ever to wrangle spreadsheets for a U.S. administration, is standing up to those not-so-cool critics who continue to insist that the health reform package President Obama and Congressional Democrats have put together is not, in fact, deficit neutral.
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The White House Kindly Requests You Do Not Refer to Its Health Care Budget Gimmicks as “Gimmicks”
Freedom Works’ Dick Armey and Matt Kibbe, who have been heavily involved in the Tea Party movement, issued a funny little rejoinder today to David Brooks’ contention last week that Tea Partyistas are a mirror version of New Left radicals of the ’60s. Here’s most of it: [T]his decentralized grass-roots network has little in common with the New Left. It is rooted in the American traditions of individual freedom and constitutional limits on government power, and looks “anti-establishment” only because the political establishment ignores these principles.
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Mr. Brooks, Meet Mr. Smith
Nancy Pelosi is now claiming that if the vote were taken today, she’d have enough support from House Democrats to pass health reform. But according to The Daily Caller’s Jon Ward , that’s news to Rep. George Miller, a close Pelosi ally who responded “I don’t know, I don’t know” when asked to verify her statement
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Nancy Pelosi Says She Has The Votes to Pass Health Reform Today. Conveniently, There Won’t Be a Vote On Health Reform Today.
Over the last few weeks, the White House and its supporters have been pushing hard on the idea that health care reform really is fiscally responsible, mostly in hopes of winning over wavering moderate Democrats in the House. I think their budgeting claims are somewhat suspect, but, using an illustration about a debt-ridden, Starbucks-addicted vacationer (just read it ), Harvard econ professor Greg Mankiw makes a really good point about how even if one accepts that they’ll successfully follow through on all the cuts they propose, the bill would still make the long-term fiscal situation worse : Even if you believe that the spending cuts and tax increases in the bill make it deficit-neutral, the legislation will still make solving the problem of the fiscal imbalance harder, because it will use up some of the easier ways to close the shortfall. The remaining options will be less attractive, making the eventual fiscal adjustment more painful.
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It’s Time To Kick Our National Spending Habit (And Pick Up a New One)
Former Reason magazine Editor in Chief Virginia Postrel has seen the strengths and the shortcomings of the American health care system both as a kidney donor and a breast cancer survivor. She argues that individuals should be free to sell their organs, and that encouraging organ markets may be the best way to save the lives of the more than 100,000 Americans currently awaiting transplants. A 2009 article Postrel wrote for the Atlantic Monthly highlights her experience with the ultra-expensive wonder drug, Herceptin, and the perils of centrally controlling health care costs
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Reason.tv: Virginia Postrel on Health Care Reform & The Role of Glamour in Politics
Like a Tupperware container full of smelly mystery meat, Nancy Pelosi says that the only way we can find out exactly what’s in the health care bill is to try it : You’ve heard about the controversies within the bill, the process about the bill, one or the other. But I don’t know if you have heard that it is legislation for the future, not just about health care for America, but about a healthier America, where preventive care is not something that you have to pay a deductible for or out of pocket. Prevention, prevention, prevention—it’s about diet, not diabetes. It’s going to be very, very exciting. But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it, away from the fog of the controversy. [emphasis added] The slightly better version of this argument, which is that voters will like ObamaCare better once it’s passed and they get used to it, isn’t very convincing either
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Nancy Pelosi on Health Care: “We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it.”
Since he first presented his vision of health care reform, President Obama has addressed the issue of how his plan would affect people’s current coverage with varying degrees of accuracy and honesty.
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If You Like Obama’s Lies About Your Health Care Plan, He Can Keep Lying About Your Health Care Plan
Sarah Palin haters and health-care refrom advocates have been having a field day with this quote made by Sarah Palin at a speech in Canada: My first five years of life we spent in Skagway, Alaska, right there by Whitehorse. Believe it or not — this was in the ’60s — we used to hustle on over the border for health care that we would receive in Whitehorse.
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About That “Sarah Palin Going To Canada For Health Care” Story…
