Top Items:
Paul Krugman / New York Times:
A Dangerous Dysfunction — Unless some legislator pulls off a last-minute double-cross, health care reform will pass the Senate this week. Count me among those who consider this an awesome achievement. It's a seriously flawed bill, we'll spend years if not decades fixing it, but it's nonetheless a huge step forward.
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New York Times:
Health Bill Passes Key Test in the Senate With 60 Votes — WASHINGTON — After a long day of acid, partisan debate, Democrats held ranks early Monday in a dead-of-night procedural vote that proved they had locked in the decisive margin needed to pass a far-reaching overhaul of the nation's health care system.
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, The Caucus, Taylor Marsh, Riehl World View, Indecision Forever, Video Cafe's feed and Wonkette
Robert Pear / New York Times:
Deep in Health Bill, Very Specific Beneficiaries — WASHINGTON — Buried in the deal-clinching health care package that Senate Democrats unveiled over the weekend is an inconspicuous proposal expanding Medicare to cover certain victims of “environmental health hazards.”
Dana Milbank / Washington Post:
An ugly finale for health-care reform — Going into Monday morning's crucial Senate vote on health-care legislation, Republican chances for defeating the bill had come down to a last, macabre hope. They needed one Democratic senator to die — or at least become incapacitated.
The Huffington Post:
Feingold: Obama Responsible For Loss Of Public Option — WHAT'S YOUR REACTION? — Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.) formally announced on Sunday that he would support the Senate's final version of health care reform. But in doing so he cast blame for the loss of a public option …
Washington Post:
Health-care bill clears crucial vote in Senate, 60 to 40 — Senate Democrats won a milestone victory early Monday in the health-care debate, approving a procedural motion to move the reform legislation to final passage later this week, and without a single vote to spare.
Kevin Bogardus / The Hill:
Cloture vote foreshadows conference tussle over final healthcare bill — As the Senate prepares for the dead-of-night cloture vote on its healthcare reform bill, lawmakers in both chambers have already begun jockeying over what the final bill should look like.
Discussion:
The Politico, Commentary, Liberal Values, The Confluence and And So it Goes in Shreveport
Jeffrey Young / The Hill:Senate Democrats unite for landmark healthcare vote
Discussion:
The Politico
Jacob S. Hacker / The New Republic:Why I Still Believe in This Bill
Discussion:
The Daily Dish, The Huffington Post, TalkLeft, Raw Story, The Politico and Jack & Jill Politics
Michael O'Brien / The Hill:
CBO pegs Nelson's Nebraska Medicaid deal cost at $100 million — Nebraska will receive $100 million in assistance for its state Medicaid program under provisions negotiated by Sen. Ben Nelson (D) in the Senate's healthcare reform bill. — The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) …
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Wall Street Journal:
Change Nobody Believes In — A bill so reckless that it has to be rammed through on a partisan vote on Christmas eve. — Printer — Friendly — And tidings of comfort and joy from Harry Reid too. The Senate Majority Leader has decided that the last few days before Christmas …
Washington Post:
Fed's approach to regulation left banks exposed to crisis — Foreclosures already pocked Chicago's poorer neighborhoods but the downtown still was booming as the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago convened its annual conference in May 2007. — The keynote speaker, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke …
Paul Krugman:
The WYSIWYG president — There's a lot of dismay/rage on the left over Obama, a number of cries that he isn't the man progressives thought they were voting for. — But that says more about the complainers than it does about Obama himself. If you actually paid attention to the substance …
Discussion:
Bob Cesca's Awesome Blog!
BBC:
Auschwitz theft suspects detained — Hundreds of thousands of people passed under the sign to their deaths — The “Arbeit macht frei” sign stolen from Auschwitz in southern Poland has been found in the north and five men are being questioned by police. — The five suspects …
Kpicket / The washington times Blogs:
Sen. Whitehouse: foes of health care bill are birthers, right-wing militias, aryan groups — ****Updated with video link and more transcript — Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) today took shots at those who are not supporting the health care legislation.
Discussion:
RedState, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, American Spectator, AmSpecBlog, Seattle Times, The Other McCain, YID With LID and Pajamas Media
The Note:
A Whodunit: The $100 million mystery hospital — ABC News' Z. Byron Wolf reports: — The health reform Christmas gifts for Sens. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Ben Nelson of Nebraska are well known . But somewhere out there is another good little legislator who got funding for a hospital in their state.
SEK / Lawyers, Guns and Money:
Intentions be damned, Avatar is racist (as is praying for and/or to “JaMarcus Manning"). — Annalee Newitz writes that “[w]hether Avatar is racist is a matter of debate,” but it isn't: the film is racist. Its fundamental narrative logic is racist: it transposes the cultural politics of Westerns …
Douglas Elmendorf / Director's Blog:
Correction Regarding the Longer-Term Effects of the Manager's Amendment to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act — CBO has discovered an error in the cost estimate released yesterday related to the longer-term budgetary effects of the manager's amendment to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
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