jim cooper

House Democrats, who’d hoped to build momentum for health reform by passing a bill before the August vacation, hit a wall in the form of conservative-leaning Democrats who’ve protested the overall costs, low payments to rural health care providers, and the inclusion of a public option.
Yet Yale University political scientist Jacob Hacker makes a good [...]

We wrote recently that Democrats could have a tough time passing their big-ticket priorities next year because some freshman members — many of whom represent moderate districts — will likely join the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition in opposing deficit spending.
Scrap that.