Strong Deficit Reduction Smooths Path To Sunday Health Care Vote
House leaders post the health care bill online 72 hours before expected Sunday vote. W. Post: "House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) announced the weekend debate schedule, with a 72-hour march culminating at 1 p.m. Sunday. Democrats expect a final vote sometime Sunday evening, Sunday night or possibly early Monday morning."
W. Post Ezra Klein's praises Democrats for their legislative skills: "Pairing the largest coverage increase since the Great Society with the most aggressive cost-control effort isn't easy. And since the cost controls are complicated, while the coverage increase is straightforward, many people don't believe that the Democrats have done it. But to a degree unmatched in recent legislative history, they have."
TNR's Jonathan Cohn herald commitment to fiscal responsibility: "The Democrats could have argued they didn't need to meet [the CBO] requirement and they would have had a pretty legitimate case ... But the Democrats didn't do that. Instead, they constructed a bill that, even in the worst-case scenario, CBO thinks would not raise the defict. It's not an ironclad guarantee, but it's as close as you can come. And if that's not fiscal responsibility, I don't know what is."
Wonk Room's Igor Volsky says reconciliation has improved the Senate bill: "...the package improves the affordability measures in the Senate bill, increases the excise tax thresholds and completely closes the donut hole in Medicare Part D. Lawmakers had a hard time making this package work: they had to achieve significant deficit reductions all the while spending more money on affordability credits and losing revenue in the excise tax provisions. The bill does this in several ways..."
Positive reaction from several right-leaning Dems. LAT: "Party leaders are closing in on the 216 votes they will need Sunday and appeared to pick up more support from conservative Democrats on Thursday, thanks to the CBO cost estimates."
"House Democrats officially gained two and lost two on Thursday," reports Roll Call before House leaders show confidence. "Rules Chairwoman Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) dismissed the threat of minimal defections. 'We’ve got a surplus. We’ve got some spares,' she said."
Congressional Hispanic Caucus on board, reports The Hill: "Ultimately, the lawmakers determined the fight for the immigration language was not worth killing the broader package. And at least one said his vote came after President Barack Obama this week assured him that he would push for a broad immigration overhaul."
But not there yet. TPMDC: "...though many members are coming around, very few of them are in the elusive pool from which Pelosi needs to draw: Members who voted against reform in round one. And she's running out of easy pick-ups."
House Dems from McCain districts are the final undecideds. The Hill: "25 of the 46 were prepared to vote against the president, while just seven were on his side ... Those members, especially the 14 who have offered little indication of where they stand, will decide the future of the healthcare bill. "
TPMDC reports Kucinich is now furiously whipping: "Astonished colleagues pointed to Kucinich (D-OH) darting from member to member on the House floor yesterday, saying privately they'd never seen him get so involved in whipping a vote. It's not just progressives he's targeting to keep in the fold, it's everyone, a top Democratic aide told me ... 'It's a totally new dynamic. People are realizing he's doing it for history,' the aide said."
AFL-CIO Blog's Mike Hall writes that 60 years is long enough to wait for health care reform: "Nearly every president since Harry Truman has sought health care reform. But powerful opposition from the insurance industry and others has scuttled each attempt. In a video message to working families, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka says: 'We can't miss this opportunity. We've been fighting for health care for 60 years. When I look at the years we have put into fighting for health care and what it means to working families to start down the path of comprehensive reform, I know the time to step forward is now.'"
W. Post edit board makes the right-leaning Washington establishment case for reform: "...moving ahead with health reform is fraught with risk. The question is whether the measure carves out enough of a toehold on cost containment to justify that risk. We think it does ... The measure contains important seeds of reform."
Digby says that by going all in for health care reform, Rep. Kucinich has robbed moderate Democrats of an easy scapegoat if reform fails: "I'm sure this is very frustrating to the villagers, who want more than anything to blame the liberals for the failure to pass the plan. Kucinich is making that impossible."
NYT's Paul Krugman stresses the end of discrimination based on pre-existing conditions: "In every other advanced nation, insurance coverage is available to everyone regardless of medical history. Our system is unique in its cruelty."
NYT's Timothy Egan praises liberal lawmakers for pragmatism, slaps conservatives for purity: "Ah, to be among the true believers, breathing only the clean air of sanctimony. Nothing is ever done, no lives improved, no laws passed ... The public hates you — every poll shows that voters want both sides to legislate with a mix of ideas. But, oh, how good it must feel to be right all the time."
Conservatives viciously attacking 11-year old health care activist Marcelas Owens, whose mom died without insurance. McClatchy: "Conservative talk show hosts and columnists have ridiculed an 11-year-old Washington state boy's account of his mother's death as a 'sob story' exploited by the White House and congressional Democrats like a 'kiddie shield' to defend their health care legislation ... 'My mother always taught me they can have their own opinion but that doesn't mean they are right,' Owens, who lives in Seattle, said in an interview."
W. Post's Eugene Robinson on the insincerity of conservative arguments: "...the Republicans portray even this fairly modest set of fixes -- cautious, incremental, fiscally responsible -- as socialism run rampant. They portray the health-reform package as a government 'takeover,' although the idea of any kind of limited, restricted, tightly constrained little government-run health plan has long been abandoned."
Movin' Meat shreds the "government takeover" talking point: "$94 Billion a year is a lot, but it is a drop in the bucket compared to the overall cost of US health care. It's hardly a 'takeover' and laughably not 'one-sixth of the economy' that will be affected."
Senate reconciliation process could begin Tuesday. The Hill: "How long the process takes depends on how many procedural objections GOP senators raise. It also depends on the number of amendments they offer ... Even senior Democrats acknowledge it’s likely Republicans will be able to derail certain provisions, requiring another House vote on a revised package before it becomes law ... Durbin noted that amendments must have a score from the Congressional Budget Office to be considered germane ... Democrats are confident the parliamentarian will rule Republican efforts to slow the process with a storm of amendments as dilatory and out of order [because of] lack of germane amendments..."
Student Loan Reform In Health Care BillEnd of subsidies to private student lenders in House health care bill, but Pell Grant increases scaled back to meet deficit reduction targets. NYT: "The maximum annual Pell grant would rise to $5,975 by 2017, from $5,350 this year. The new Pell initiative includes $13.5 billion to cover a shortfall caused by the sharp increase in the number of Americans enrolling in college during the recession ... the amount going to education spending and aid for college students is far less than the Obama administration had hoped, largely because the savings from the switch to direct federal lending is now estimated to be $61 billion, rather than $87 billion."
More Pell grant funding may come later. CNN: "Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, pledged that Congress would continue working on how to plug Pell grants shortfalls"
Higher ed groups supporting student loan reform. W. Post: "...several higher-education groups have moved from neutral on the lending issue to supportive of Obama's proposal. Federal grants reduce somewhat the pressure on colleges and universities to provide aid."
Sen. Kent Conrad drops support of student loan subsidy exemption for state-owned Bank of North Dakota, to avoid right-wing attacks: "It has not engaged in the abuses that have required the reform legislation that is before us ... But often, facts are the first victim in an overly heated partisan environment."
Glenn Beck rails against the bank bailout, but is vociferously defending taxpayer subsidies for bank to prop up their student lending scheme. Media Matters: "According to Beck, Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act ... would amount to the government 'taking over' education, meaning '[y]ou are not going to get any private dollars for education.' ... In reality, the bill eliminates the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program, which currently allows banks and other lending institutions to issue student loans that are insured by the federal government ... The SAFRA bill simply cuts the middle man..."
Republicans Embrace Bankers Before Dodd Bill Vote
Republicans threaten to withhold votes on Dodd bill in committee. W. Post: "Two key Republican senators said Thursday that the bill introduced this week by Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) to overhaul financial regulation is headed for a strict party-line vote in the Senate banking committee unless the measure undergoes significant amendments during debate next week ... 'I won't be terribly disappointed if we don't resolve it completely in committee," [Dodd] said. 'You've got to start someplace before you get to a compromise.'"
House Minority Leader Boehner literally leads an army of bankers to storm Congress and quash financial reform. W. Post: "'You're all going to be lobbyists today,' House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), told the crowd. 'I know that's a dirty word, but that's what you're doing.' He told the bankers not to be afraid to stand up to members of Congress or 'these little punk staffers,' as he called them. 'Don't be bashful about who you are,' he said. 'Stand up for yourselves, for goodness sakes.' The bankers soon headed to Capitol Hill, talking points in hand..."
"[Larry] Summers Slams Boehner’s ‘Punk Staffers’ Comment." NYT quotes: "And at a time when industry has hired – has spent $1 million on lobbyists per member of Congress, at a moment when there are four lobbyists per member of the House and Senate working on this issue, we in the administration do not believe that the prominent issue is allowing bankers to stand up for themselves."
NYT edit board likes Obama's expected picks for the Fed: "Early word indicates he is on the right track ... Mr. Obama appears to be seeking board members with broad economic and legal expertise, including a keen sense of how policies affect what the Fed would call 'the household sector.' This is a welcome shift from decades in which the Fed has focused increasingly on financial markets as a proxy for the economy — mistaking asset bubbles for growth and debt-driven gains for prosperity."
President Signals Support For Bipartisan Immigration Proposal
Bipartisan duo Schumer and Graham outline immigration reform proposal in advance of Sunday's March For America. W. Post on the key provisions: "... a to-be-determined system to regulate the future flow of temporary workers ... permanent residency to immigrants who receive advanced degrees from a U.S. university in science, technology, engineering or math. An improved tamper-proof Social Security card ... legal status to illegal immigrants who have not committed felonies, and who admit they broke the law by entering the country illegally, then agree to perform community service, pay fines and back taxes, pass background checks and learn English."
NYT on need for additional GOP support: "To advance the legislation, Mr. Schumer and Mr. Graham have said they need help from Mr. Obama to round up at least one more Republican sponsor ... Representative Luis V. Gutierrez ... said he had decided to support the Democrats’ health care legislation after assurances from Mr. Obama that the White House would continue to press for the immigration overhaul."
How Different Is Kerry-Lieberman-Graham?
Wonk Room's Brad Johnson comprehensively compares Kerry-Graham-Lieberman to Waxman-Markey: "...it appears that the Kerry-Graham-Lieberman draft is consistent with President Obama’s principles and similar in its policy aims to the Waxman-Markey ACES Act. Further information will be required to determine if the legislative package will allow the United States to join an international solution to global warming."
TNR's Brad Plumer on what's different from the House cap-and-trade bill: "The most obvious difference from the House bill is that utilities and manufacturers and refiners would all get regulated separately, rather than placed together under one big cap-and-trade system. From an economic standpoint, that's less efficient, but this patchwork approach appears to have been crafted in the hopes of placating oil companies. We'll see whether it sells politically."
OurFuture.org's Natasha Chart urges inclusion of loans for green manufacturing in climate bill: "I implore, ask your Senators to support the inclusion of Sen. Sherrod Brown's IMPACT Act in the Clean Energy legislation. It would be a win-win-win for the environment, the economy and American workers. If that's all the extra good we get out of this bill, it'd be better than nothing."
Enviros meet with Kerry, say little afterwards reports Mother Jones. Though what little was said was positive according to the Hill.
Enviros questioning whether GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski is gettable for a climate bill, reports Mother Jones' Kate Sheppard: "For a long time, environmental groups had been reluctant to criticize Murkowski publicly, hoping that she might yet be won over. But with her bid to insert ANWR drilling in the climate bill, their patience has expired."
