senate

In the wake of Saturday’s Senate vote to take up the chamber’s health reform legislation, the focus of the debate has shifted back to the public option, over which no fewer than four Democratic caucus members — Sens. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.), Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) — have threatened to [...]

In a statement released Sunday afternoon, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) became the latest Democrat to try to divorce the party’s health reform bills from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, which issued controversial new guidelines last week for breast cancer screening.
Let’s be clear: the task force’s recommendation will have absolutely no impact on the [...]

During this morning’s American Spectator breakfast with journalists, Carly Fiorina, who is running for a U.S. Senate seat in California, fielded a friendly question about whether Sarah Palin would back her over her 2010 GOP primary opponent Chuck DeVore.
“I have no idea,” said Fiorina. “You’ll have to ask Sarah Palin. She’s on a mega book [...]

Rand Paul, who has surprised a lot of people by becoming a real contender for a U.S. Senate seat in Kentucky, bows to political reality — he’s blasting the Obama administration’s policy on terror trials and proposing to “try, convict, and lock up terrorists in Guantanamo.”
Paul’s father, Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), is one of the [...]

Rasmussen Reports finds Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) clinging to a two-point lead over a possible challenger, former Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-Ariz.). Chris Simcox, the leader of the anti-illegal immigration Minuteman Project who’s already in the race, scores 4 percent. All of this puts McCain, who has never been seriously challenged since he came to the [...]

Aiming to prevent a 21-percent reduction in Medicare doctor payments next year, the House today passed legislation scrapping the flawed formula that has dictated similar cuts for most of the decade.
The count was 243 to 183, with 11 Democrats voting against the measure, and just one Republican — Rep. Michael Burgess, a Texas physician — [...]

Markos Moulitsas leaks (on Twitter) the results of the latest Daily Kos/Research 2000 poll, which has Marco Rubio surging against Gov. Charlie Crist (R-Fla.) in the 2010 GOP Senate primary. The trendlines:
Charlie Crist – 47 percent (-10)
Marco Rubio – 37 percent (+26)
Likely Democratic candidate Rep. Kendrick Meek (D-Fla.), according to Kos, is a non-factor in [...]

Nothing shocking here. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) took to the chamber floor this morning to decry the Democrats’ $848 billion health reform bill, unveiled about 15 hours earlier.
After six weeks of drafting a bill behind closed doors, the Majority has produced a bill that increases premiums, raises taxes, and slashes Medicare by half [...]

Now that the veil has been lifted, here are a few of the important numbers surrounding the Senate’s health reform bill, courtesy of the Congressional Budget Office.

$848 billion: Ten-year cost of the proposal, all of it offset by revenue increases and budget cuts elsewhere.
$130 billion: Amount the bill would reduce budget deficits over 10 years.
[...]

After weeks of number crunching, the Congressional Budget Office announced this afternoon that the Senate’s health reform bill will cost $849 billion over 10 years, cover 94 percent of the country’s population, and reduce the deficit by $127 billion, Fox News reports:
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid released the bill and its price tag to his colleagues [...]