Senate Democrats attempting to pass a much-needed $26.1 billion state aid bill — a fully paid-for provision including funds for teachers’ jobs and for Medicaid — are looking to Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) to cross the aisle and give the bill 60 votes to overcome a presumed Republican filibuster.
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On a call with reporters this afternoon, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Gov. Ed Rendell (D-Pa.) and Gov. Bill Ritter (D-Colo.) urged their Republican colleagues to vote for a $26.1 billion state-aid package.
This week, the Senate is preparing to rob Peter to pay Paul. They will take from one program helping the neediest of Americans in order to give to another. The lucky recipient is a whittled-down state-aid bill with $16 billion to help sustain Medicaid and $10 billion to keep teachers More…
This evening, Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) attached an amendment with funding to preserve teachers’ jobs and to provide much-needed Medicaid funding to states to a Federal Aviation Administration bill. The amendment is fully paid-for, and the FAA bill is just a vehicle. Reid filed cloture, meaning the More…
After two months of wrangling, Congress passed an extension of unemployment benefits earlier this month. But a number of other of vital safety-net programs remain in limbo.
It’s a nonsensical element of Medicaid’s funding formula that during economic downturns, when state budgets are most squeezed, states are also asked to bear much higher health costs as the Medicaid rolls swell. The result, inevitably, is the erosion of health coverage for the country’s most vulnerable populations. More…
One of the central elements of the Democrats’ plans to cover the tens of millions of uninsured Americans is a sweeping expansion of Medicaid, the state-federal partnership to cover the lowest-income folks. But the success of that strategy is in doubt for a couple of reasons.
First, Medicaid pays providers More…
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