Reform

The Minnesota Independent’s Andy Birkey reports that Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) has thrown her support behind a Nov. 9 fundraiser in St. Paul for the Citizens’ Council on Health Care, which bills itself as “a free-market resource for designing the future of health care.” The fundraiser’s top-billed speaker, Maria Anne ‘Hansi’ Hirschmann, is known for [...]

The smart take among liberal and Democratic strategists is that Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) is making an empty threat to filibuster his party’s health care bill. But there are short-term consequences for what Lieberman is doing. The National Republican Senatorial Committee is using Lieberman to push Democrats in red and purple states to back away [...]

Following up on Daphne’s piece about the hold-up on Dawn Johnsen’s nomination to head the Office of Legal Counsel, this Roll Call story by Jessica Brady got published on Saturday, so it hasn’t received much attention. It should. Regina Benjamin, the president’s nominee for surgeon general, is being kept out of her job because of [...]

Here’s a quick wrap-up of today’s health care news.
Senate Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) today presented his long-awaited proposal to overhaul health care. While Baucus calls his $856 billion plan (though in a letter to Baucus, the Congressional Budget Office estimated the bill would cost a total of $774 billion) a “good” and [...]

At a breakfast sponsored by the American Spectator, I asked Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.), the House Republican Conference chairman what I thought would be a yes or no question: Would all Republican members of the House vote against the eventual, Democratic-sponsored health care bill? Pence spent nine minutes talking about Republican ideas.
“I think you will [...]

Led by chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), the Senate Finance Committee has just released its highly anticipated “Gang of Six” compromise health care reform bill. The full text is available here (PDF). More on this to come.

At last night’s reception for the Federation for American Immigration Reform’s “Hold Their Feet to the Fire” campaign, Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) gave a spirited tribute to Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.). Wilson, said King, was an “officer and a gentleman,” and if “amnesty” is stripped from the health care bill, it’ll be because of him. [...]

As the health care debate twists and turns through the Senate, the prospects for a public option remain murky. This scoreboard, updated daily, can serve as your one-stop shop for senators’ stances on a public plan — in their own words. See our methodology here. Last updated: Nov. 4, 3:20 p.m.

On the [...]

Unlike the Republicans, who adopted the strong conservative position of resisting almost every Democratic reform proposal from the start, Democratic leaders ruled out the liberal single-payer proposal early in the debate.

There was a minor hue and cry on the conservative blogs about 10 days ago, when the Pollster.com average showed President Obama’s approval rating dropping into the negative zone for the first time. Today, he’s back up to 53.5 percent approval and 43.7 percent disapproval. On the graph, this registers as a steady upward bounce.