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Ben Smith / The Politico:
Stupak aims to sink ‘unacceptable’ abortion compromise — An aide to Rep. Bart Stupak (D. Mich.) coordinated opposition to the Senate health bill's abortion compromise this morning with the Republican Senate leadership according to a chain of frantic emails obtained this morning by POLITICO.
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Shailagh Murray / Washington Post:
Sen. Ben Nelson to announce support for health-care bill — Sen. Ben Nelson (Neb.), the final Democratic holdout on health care, was prepared to announce to his caucus Saturday morning that he would support the Senate reform bill, clearing the way for final passage by Christmas.
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Michael O'Brien / The Hill:
National Organization for Women opposes Senate health bill — A leading women's group called on senators on Saturday to defeat its healthcare reform bill. — The leader of the National Organization for Women (NOW) excoriated the language in the health bill curtailing federal support …
Douglas Elmendorf / Director's Blog:
Manager's Amendment to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act — CBO and the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) have released an analysis of the budgetary effects of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), Senate Amendment 2786 in the nature of a substitute to H.R. 3590 …
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Big Government, Politics Daily, TPMDC, Swampland, Donklephant, Daily Kos and Political Punch
Chris Frates / The Politico:
Ben Nelson's Medicaid deal — Sen. Mary Landrieu got the “Louisiana Purchase.” Sen. Ben Nelson got the federal government to pick up most his state's future Medicaid tab — forever. — As part of the deal to win Nelson's support, the federal government will pay for Nebraska's new Medicaid recipients.
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The Hill, DISSENTING JUSTICE, NO QUARTER, Betsy's Page, NewsBusters.org and The Other McCain
New York Times:
Democrats Clinch Deal for Deciding Vote on Health Bill — WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats said Saturday that they had clinched an agreement on a far-reaching overhaul of the nation's health care system and forged ahead with efforts to approve the legislation by Christmas over Republican opposition.
Michael O'Brien / The Hill:
Senate healthcare bill steepens payroll tax for high-earners in 2013 — The Senate's final healthcare bill steepens the payroll tax rates high-income Americans will face. — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) released a manager's amendment to the healthcare bill finalizing …
Michael O'Brien / The Hill:
CBO: Senate health bill costs $871 billion — The Senate's healthcare bill would cost $871 billion and cover 31 million more people, according to the Congressional Budget Office's analysis of the bill. — The CBO said that the final legislation, unveiled Saturday by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid …
Brian Beutler / TPMDC:
One Premium, Two Checks: How Abortion Will Be Paid For Under The Nelson Compromise — In the House health care bill, consumers who receive federal premium subsidies would be forbidden from buying any insurance policy that covers abortion. That provision—the so-called Stupak amendment—threatened to blow up health care reform.
Kevin Bogardus / The Hill:Coburn: Nelson agreement with leaders ‘threw unborn babies under the bus’
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Video Cafe's feed
Igor / Wonk Room:Nelson's Nebraska To Receive Extra Medicaid Funds Under Senate Bill
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Think Progress, Support Your Local Gunfighter, Matthew Yglesias, AmSpecBlog, Ezra Klein and The Politico
Peter Suderman / Hit & Run:Ben Nelson Gets a Basket of Goodies, Senate Democrats Get 60 Votes …
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Scared Monkeys
Jonathan Cohn / The New Republic:BREAKING: Nelson Says Yes; That Makes 60
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The Moderate Voice, The Hill, Jules Crittenden, Weekly Standard, The Corner on National …, NO QUARTER and Townhall.com
The Huffington Post:John Kerry Breaks Out Oppo, Takes On Howard Dean For ‘Kill The Bill’ Comments
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Firedoglake
Prescriptions:Updated: Senate Democrats Clinch a Deal on Health Bill
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FiveThirtyEight, TPMDC, The Politico, Taegan Goddard's …, Jezebel, The Moderate Voice and Commentary
Joe Conason / Salon:“It's unfair” — Howard Dean on why he doesn't support …
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Crooks and Liars
William Kristol / Weekly Standard:
A Pyrrhic Victory? — Special editorial, December 19, 2009. — When a fellow conservative tried to cheer me up this morning by assuring me that the Senate Democrats' victory on health care was going to be a Pyrrhic one, I realized I didn't remember much about Pyrrhus. — I went of course to Wikipedia.
William Kristol / Weekly Standard:
Kristol: Ten Words To Remember — There are lots of embarrassing little things to mock in the Senate bill (e.g., the special provision for Nebraska), and lots of bad provisions to attack (the tax hikes and federal funding for abortion, to mention two). But Republicans shouldn't lose sight …
Ezra Klein:
Still time to think small — This is a good bill. Not a great bill, but a good bill. Imagine telling a Democrat in the days after the 2004 election that the 2006 election would end Republican control of Congress, the 2008 election would return a Democrat to the White House …
Discussion:
A plain blog about politics
ShanghaiDaily.com:
Harder to buy US Treasuries — IT is getting harder for governments to buy United States Treasuries because the US's shrinking current-account gap is reducing supply of dollars overseas, a Chinese central bank official said yesterday. — The comments by Zhu Min, deputy governor …
Discussion:
Riehl World View
Ezra Klein:
The abortion compromise — The basic compromise is that states can impose the Stupak rules on their own exchanges, but the rules will not be imposed by the federal legislation. I've been assured that at least one plan in each state will cover abortion, but I'm still trying to get clarification …
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Peter Baker / New York Times:
F.B.I. Accused of Abuse of Power in Clinton Case — WASHINGTON — A former director of the Secret Service said Friday that the F.B.I. had engaged in an “abuse of power” by trying to pressure him to “give us the president” during the investigation of President Bill Clinton's interactions with Monica Lewinsky a decade ago.
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