The Washington Independent

Posts Tagged kent conrad

GOP Sponsors of Spending Task Force Didn’t Know It Allowed for Tax Hikes? Not Likely

By | 01.28.10 | 12:30 pm

The official line coming from the six GOP senators who sponsored, then voted against, the failed proposal to create a deficit commission was that they didn’t realize it would allow the panel to suggest tax hikes as a step toward balancing the federal budget.

A spokesman More…

‘That Dumb Cowboy Bush’

By | 12.14.09 | 10:33 am

Matthew Yglesias, making another version of his argument that the multiple veto points in the legislative branch overly empower the minority and make America “ungovernable,” drew a quip from Glenn “Instapundit” Reynolds: “Funny, that dumb cowboy Bush seemed to get a lot done with fewer votes in Congress.” Yglesias More…

Protecting Coal, but at What Cost?

By | 11.16.09 | 3:10 pm

The push is on to dilute the climate change bills moving through Congress, and it’s not coming only from conservatives. Mother Jones’ Kate Sheppard reports today that 14 Senate Democrats are urging their leadership to amend the proposal to grant more free polluting permits to the coal-burning utilities More…

Abortion Showdown Looming in Senate

By | 11.16.09 | 1:30 pm

The abortion debate in the Senate is looking more and more like that in the House every day.

Last week, it was liberal Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) predicting that anti-abortion lawmakers in the upper chamber wouldn’t be able to rally the 60 votes needed to pass More…

Senate Public Option Scoreboard — On the Fence

By | 11.12.09 | 4:24 pm

On the Fence Likely Supporters Likely Opponents
17 38 45
More…

Moderate Dems Blast Medicare Doc Fix Bill

By | 10.16.09 | 9:50 am

It’s not looking good for Senate Democratic leaders hoping next week to pass a $245 billion proposal to give Medicare doctors pay raises over the next decade. That’s because there are a number of Democratic moderates lining up to oppose the proposal because it’s not paid for. The New York More…

Senate Finance Committee Kills Schumer Public Option Amendment

By | 09.29.09 | 3:58 pm

The Senate Finance Committee just voted down the second and last public option amendment expected to be offered during the panel’s markup of health reform legislation. The proposal, sponsored by Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), would have created a public plan to compete with private insurers on a newly formed marketplace, More…

GOP Ruling Out Health Care Co-Op Compromise

By | 08.19.09 | 12:01 am

Smelling blood in the water as Democrats made contradictory statements about what a Senate health care reform bill might contain, Republicans spent Tuesday pushing back against a possible compromise–non-profit health insurance cooperatives, an idea that Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) had pushed for months before the debate centered on a Medicare-style More…

The Drawbacks of the Co-op Insurance Model

By | 08.18.09 | 11:05 am

The New York Times today does a nice job pointing out some of the limitations of the co-op coverage model being pushed by “Gang of Six” member Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) as an alternative to the government-backed option preferred by the White House and Democratic leaders. More…

How Can a ‘Gang of Six’ Member Have No Opinion of the Public Option?

By | 08.17.09 | 4:17 pm

Tough to say if this is good news or bad news for public plan fans. Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) apparently “doesn’t have an opinion on the public option, because he believes the issue is ‘moot,’” according to TPMDC, citing Conrad’s office.

This revelation might be unremarkable, except that More…