Top Items:
Wall Street Journal:
Senate on Verge of Health Bill — Measure With Stiffer Penalties on Employers and Public Plan Could Come This Week — WASHINGTON — Top Senate Democrats are close to finalizing their health bill and could unveil a measure as soon as early this week that would include stiffer penalties …
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Dan Pfeiffer / White House.gov Blog Feed:
The Public Option: Rumor Check — A rumor is making the rounds that the White House and Senator Reid are pursuing different strategies on the public option. Those rumors are absolutely false. — In his September 9th address to Congress, President Obama made clear that he supports …
Paul Krugman / New York Times:
After Reform Passes — So, how well will health reform work after it passes? — There's a part of me that can't believe I'm asking that question. After all, serious health reform has long seemed like an impossible dream. And it could yet go all wrong.
Discussion:
The Atlantic Politics Channel, DailyHowler.com, Greg's Opinion, The Mahablog, Ezra Klein and Prairie Weather
Jonathan Cohn / The New Republic:
Senate Dems to Obama: Um, a Little Help Here? — After a weekend of furious activity, Democratic leaders in the Senate think they are close to getting the votes they need in order to pass an “opt-out” version of the public option. — But they feel like President Obama could be doing more to help them …
Discussion:
TPMDC, Firedoglake, Booman Tribune, Talking Points Memo, The Anonymous Liberal, Politics Daily, AMERICAblog News, Roll Call, MoJo Blog Posts, MoJo Blog Posts, Reno and Its Discontents, TalkLeft, Another Black Conservative, The Huffington Post, Bob Cesca's Awesome Blog!, Open Left, Comments from Left Field and Mediaite
Newsweek:
Obama's pointless bipartisanship. — From the magazine issue dated Nov 2, 2009 — “There she is, the Party of One!” cried Sen. Barbara Mikulski when she saw Sen. Olympia Snowe outside the Senate chamber last week. Mikulski, in a wheel-chair because of a broken ankle, rolled closer to the object of her praise.
Alec MacGillis / Washington Post:
If you build a coverage mandate, will they come?
If you build a coverage mandate, will they come?
Discussion:
Matthew Yglesias
Lydia Saad / Gallup:
Conservatives Maintain Edge as Top Ideological Group — Compared with 2008, more Americans “conservative” in general, and on issues — PRINCETON, NJ — Conservatives continue to outnumber moderates and liberals in the American populace in 2009, confirming a finding that Gallup first noted in June.
Washington Post:
U.S. tested 2 Afghan scenarios in war game — Obama and advisers evaluating exercise that used different troop levels — The Pentagon's top military officer oversaw a secret war game this month to evaluate the two primary military options that have been put forward by the Pentagon …
Discussion:
Politics Daily, Guardian, Fox News, ATTACKERMAN, DownWithTyranny!, BLACKFIVE, The Washington Independent and National Review Online
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Club for Growth:
CFG Poll: Hoffman Leading in NY-23 — Hoffman Surges Into Lead in NY-23 — New CFG Poll shows Hoffman 31.3%, Owens 27.0%, Scozzafava 19.7% — Washington - A poll released today by the Club for Growth shows Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman surging into the lead in the special election …
Robert J. Samuelson / Washington Post:
Samuelson on the fake debate on the public health plan — In the health-care debate, the “public plan” is all things to all people. For supporters, it would discipline greedy private insurers and make health-care coverage affordable. For detractors, it's a way station on the path …
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Fred Hiatt / Washington Post:
Hiatt on the public option — Talk cloaks political inaction — The “public option” is dangerous not for what it might do but for what it allows the politicians not to do. — From the start, the Obama administration has said that health-care reform has to make health care both more accessible and less costly .
Jon Meacham / Newsweek:
The Great American Ideological Crackup — From the magazine issue dated Nov 2, 2009 — Shortly after the 2004 presidential election, I was chatting with a senior figure in the Democratic Party when, inevitably, the talk turned to why John Kerry had lost.
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Stephen Labaton / New York Times:
U.S. Considers Reining In ‘Too Big to Fail’ Institutions — WASHINGTON — Congress and the Obama administration are about to take up one of the most fundamental issues stemming from the near collapse of the financial system last year — how to deal with institutions that are so big …
Discussion:
The Huffington Post, American Power, Politics Daily, Wall Street Journal, The Caucus, The Hill, DailyFinance and The Page
Noel Sheppard / NewsBusters.org:
‘60 Minutes’: Medicare Fraud Raises 'Troubling Questions About Our Government's Ability to Manage a Medical Bureaucracy' — “60 Minutes” did a fabulous exposé Sunday on Medicare fraud that should be required viewing for all people who support a government run healthcare program in this country.
Discussion:
The Corner on National …
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New York Times:
The Cover-Up Continues — The Obama administration has clung for so long to the Bush administration's expansive claims of national security and executive power that it is in danger of turning President George W. Bush's cover-up of abuses committed in the name of fighting terrorism into President Barack Obama's cover-up.
Patrick Gavin / The Politico:
PRESIDENT OBAMA TIES GEORGE W. BUSH ON GOLF — President Barack Obama has only been in office for just over nine months, but he's already hit the links as much as President Bush did in over two years. — CBS' Mark Knoller — an unofficial documentarian and statistician of all things White House-related …
Patricia Murphy / Politics Daily:
Newt Gingrich Considering Run for President in 2012 — Newt Gingrich, the former House Speaker and perennial big thinker in the Republican party, said this morning that he will likely run for president in 2012 if he and his wife, Callista, assess the field of candidates in 2011 and feel “a requirement as citizens that we run.”
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Maggie Fox / Reuters:
Healthcare system wastes up to $800 billion a year — WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. healthcare system is just as wasteful as President Barack Obama says it is, and proposed reforms could be paid for by fixing some of the most obvious inefficiencies, preventing mistakes and fighting fraud …