Speaking of Larison, he asks a good question: One wonders where Republican hawks can possibly go from here. They have almost three more years of an Obama Presidency to endure, and already they have gone mad with alarmism, hysterics and overreaction to fairly ho-hum policy decisions. Obama needs a credible, sane opposition to keep him in …
Absence of empathy
Ezra Klein edges ever closer to being Froomkined: For Robert Samuelson, the fact that the Affordable Care Act is fully paid for and in fact reduces the deficit isn’t good enough. “If the administration has $1 trillion or so of spending cuts and tax increases over a decade, all these monies should first cover existing …
Like We Said
Reconciliation will finish not with a bang but a whimper. Republicans know that they already lost the fight. They just want the whole process to be over.
Let’s Get Their Back
This morning Barack Obama will sign the Senate version of health care reform into law. The Senate will immediately take up the reconciliation fixes and unless something very unlikely happens that too will become law within a week. We did not get everything we asked for, but when has that ever happened? The Democrats got …
Meet the latest Kaplan employee
I would say this bums me out but Ezra Klein continues to do good work inside the belly of the test prep beast (Michael Calderone via Weigel): David Weigel, who’s been covering the right for the Washington Independent, will soon be heading to the Washington Post. Weigel joins the Post on April 5, and will …
Whipline
For those of you biting your nails or popping popcorn, here’s the Daily Whipline [pdf], the House Majority Whip’s report on what’s going to happen on the House Floor today. Summary: House convenes at 1 PM with the usual bullshit (prayers and some spouting off.) An hour of debate, and then a vote, on the …
Great News
Via twitter, more than 50 Senators have signed a letter promising to vote for the reconciliation fixes immediately. This could very well encourage a couple of House Dems to support Pelosi’s present strategy (vote for the Senate bill as a separate item) and move into the ‘yes’ column. A couple is all we need. ***Update*** …