Top Items:
The Politico:
GOP plots Senate health roadblock — Democrats might like to think that health care reform is all but a done deal if it clears the House, but the Senate is where Republicans have been plotting for months to sentence it to a painful procedural death. — Republican aides have been mining …
Discussion:
The Note, Washington Post, USA Today, Roll Call, Taylor Marsh, Riehl World View, iOwnTheWorld.com, Townhall.com, Seattle Times and The Page
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Carrie Budoff Brown / The Politico:
CBO numbers — House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) just released the first set of Congressional Budget Office numbers to reporters this morning. — The bill would cost $940 billion, and reduce the deficit by $130 billion over the first 10 years and $1.2 trillion in the second 10 years.
Michelle Malkin:
The House vote on the Slaughter Solution: Update: Constitution-butchers prevail, 222-203; Roll call vote added; Calling out Dems Altmire, Lynch — Photoshop credit: Big Fur Hat at iowntheworld.com and Applecross Media — You'll recall that House Republicans unveiled a resolution two days ago …
Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:
Breaking: CBO releases the actual report; Update: Almost all $940 billion incurred in just six years; Update: Preliminary — It's much as advertised. Thanks to its spending provisions mainly starting in 2014, the reconciliation bill combined with the Senate version has a total cost of $940 billion …
Discussion:
AmSpecBlog, The Corner on National …, Gateway Pundit, The New Editor, IMAO and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion
Ezra Klein:
CBO: Health-care reform bill cuts deficit by $1.3 trillion over 20 years, covers 95% — Washington has spent the past week or so waiting for the Congressional Budget Office to release its preliminary estimate of the Senate bill with the reconciliation fixes.
Discussion:
PERRspectives, Hotline On Call, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, The Plum Line, Cato Institute, Newsweek Blogs and Daily Kos
Glenn Thrush / The Politico:
Obama's pitch: Fate of presidency on the line — President Barack Obama had exhausted most of his health care reform arguments with members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus during a White House meeting last Thursday when he made a more personal pitch that resonated with many skeptics in the room.
Ezra Klein:
Democrats get the bill, and the score, they needed — The question people generally ask about the final health-care reform vote is, “Won't it be politically difficult for many House Democrats to vote yes?” But with the release of the CBO report (pdf), I'd flip that question a bit …
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, The Moderate Voice, The Corner on National …, TigerHawk, Matthew Yglesias and The Plum Line
The Hill:
CBO: Health package costs $940 billion; Hoyer says vote will come on Sunday — Democrats are lauding a CBO report that found their healthcare package will cut the deficit by $130 billion. — House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer hailed the figures from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office during …
Matthew Continetti / Weekly Standard:
Preliminary CBO Numbers Are In (BUMPED & UPDATED, 11:30 a.m.)
The Hill:
Stupak: Health fight has been ‘living hell’ — Leading a revolt against President Barack Obama's healthcare legislation over abortion has been a “living hell” for Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.). — The telephone lines in his Washington and district offices have been “jammed” …
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Domenico Montanaro / msnbc.com:
FIRST THOUGHTS: START THE CLOCK — The CBO score is in... Do the numbers influence House Dems who voted against last year's House bill and also against the Stupak amendment?... NBC/WSJ poll finds that a third of the country knows “a lot” about the filibuster procedure... Jobs bill sent to Obama's desk …
Discussion:
The Page
Erin McPike / Hotline On Call:
Rules Panel Dem To Vote Against Bill — A key House Dem has begun informing party leaders he plans to vote against health care legislation both on the House floor and in the rules committee, on which he sits. — Rep. Michael Arcuri (D-NY), a sophomore Dem who had a tougher …
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Glenn Thrush / Glenn Thrush's Blog:
Lynch mobbed — Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.) is a firm “no” on health care reform — in large measure because he opposes the idea of any kind of excise tax on Cadillac plans, even one that's delayed for years and years. — That's put Lynch a former ironworkers union official in Boston …
David Dayen / Firedoglake:
New Health Care Whip Count: 192 Yes, 208 No (205-210 with Leaners) — We're getting to an end game here, and so the counts will come fast and furious at this point. I think that it's good to look at the count right when the CBO numbers have been released as a good baseline for the future.
Advocate:
Breaking: Choi Arrested at White House Gates — UPDATE: Both Lt. Dan Choi and Jim Pietrangelo have been arrested after they handcuffed themselves to the White House gates on Thursday afternoon to protest “don't ask, don't tell.” — Story developing... In what appears to be an unscripted act …
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Andy Towle / Towleroad News #gay:
Video, Photos, Report: Lt. Dan Choi and Cpt. …
Video, Photos, Report: Lt. Dan Choi and Cpt. …
Discussion:
AMERICAblog Gay, Ben Smith's Blog, Political Punch, The Stranger …, Good As You, Wonkette and Shakesville
Las Vegas Now:
I-Team: DOJ Serves Subpoenas in Senator Ensign Investigation — LAS VEGAS — Nevada Senator John Ensign is in the crosshairs of a Department of Justice criminal investigation. — The criminal probe stems from a romantic affair Ensign had with the wife of his key staffer and close friend …
Discussion:
Firedoglake, Washington Monthly, Associated Press, Main Justice, TPMMuckraker, CNN, The Hill and Raw Story
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Glenn Greenwald / Salon:
Has Rahm's assumption about progressives been vindicated? — Politico's Ben Smith yesterday suggested that one important aspect of Rahm Emanuel's health care strategy — to ignore the demands of progressives on the ground that they would fall into line at the end no matter what — has been vindicated.
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Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:
Canceling the trip — The cancellation of President Obama's trip to Asia marks the full reversal of the strategy his presidency began with: Flooding the zone with policy, keeping the President out of the weeds. — The decision to cancel his trip may look like a sign of urgency but it's also …
Discussion:
The Daily Dish
Jeremy W. Peters / New York Times:
Steve Levy Plans Switch to G.O.P., Stirring Governor's Race — ALBANY — A governor's race that seemed all but settled is about to be upended again, by a popular Democrat from Long Island who is set to announce that he is switching parties. The move is certain to excite Republican leaders pessimistic …
The Note:
GOP Doc Asks Pelosi: ‘Are you so arrogant ... ignorant ... incompetent?’ — ABC's Z. Byron Wolf reports: Democrats might have themselves a health reform bill, but Republicans have doctors - way more doctors in Congress, anyway, than Democrats. And they're steamed.
Discussion:
ABCNEWS
Jennifer Rubin / Commentary:
Don't Be Morose! Get Even! — David Brooks says he's out on the ledge, morose, and about to have a “Howard Beale” moment. Just last week he was telling us that Obama was a misunderstood moderate. Now he confesses that Obama is aiding and abetting unlawfulness of the worst kind. He explains:
Emily Pierce / Roll Call:
Conrad Predicts Senate Changes to Reconciliation Bill — Senate Budget Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) said Thursday that it is unlikely the Senate will be able to pass a health care reconciliation bill unchanged from what the House passes. — Conrad said the Senate Parliamentarian has declined …
Discussion:
Weekly Standard
Natasha Chart / Open Left:
He Took My Lunch Money, Or, Why Women Need Full Health Care — Once more, with feeling ... I'm not the only woman in the country who once had a partner who took my paychecks and deposited them in an account that I had no access to; not by debit card, not by checkbook.
Discussion:
Firedoglake
Michiko Kakutani / New York Times:
Texts Without Context — In his deliberately provocative — and deeply nihilistic — new book, “Reality Hunger,” the onetime novelist David Shields asserts that fiction “has never seemed less central to the culture's sense of itself.” He says he's “bored by out-and-out fabrication …
Discussion:
The Huffington Post
Jonathan Tilove / New Orleans Times-Picayune:
Health care overhaul to get fresh look from Rep. Anh ‘Joseph’ Cao, at request of President Barack Obama — President Barack Obama on Wednesday asked Rep. Anh “Joseph” Cao, R-New Orleans, to take a fresh look at the language on abortion in the Senate health care bill to see whether he could …
Alex Seitz-Wald / Think Progress:
Rep. Steve King and Glenn Beck agree: Voting for health reform on Sunday is ‘an affront to God.’ — With this morning's release of the Congressional Budget Office's reconciliation package score, the House appears ready to vote on health care reform this Sunday.
Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:
“Libertarians,” Sprawl, and Land Use — Randal O'Toole has a baffling and bafflingly long post dedicated to trying to rebut my very simple view of the relationship between “sprawl” and land-use regulations. So I'll just restate my argument in briefer form and ask O'Toole to say what, if anything, in it he disagrees with:
Seth Leibsohn / The Corner on National Review Online:
Bret Baier — By: Seth Leibsohn — Bret Baier just concluded the single best interview of President Obama in a year, by any reporter. He was resilient in the face of the president's obvious attempts to run down the clock by stonewalling; Bret continually hammered a series of questions …
Nicholas D. Kristof / New York Times:
Access, Access, Access — First, a question: When in American history did life expectancy improve the most? — Was it the late 1800s, when anesthesia made surgery easier and far more common? Was it the 1930s, when antibacterial medicines became available? Or recent decades, when CAT scans and heart bypasses proliferated?
Dave / Breitbart.tv:
PUZZLING STATEMENT: OBAMA SAYS ‘LOUISIANA PURCHASE’ WILL HELP WITH THE EARTHQUAKE IN HAWAII — Gateway Pundit: What earthquake in Hawaii? In 1868 there was a major earthquake in Hawaii that killed 77 people. In 1975 an earthquake in Hawaii killed 2 people.
Jose Antonio Vargas / The Huffington Post:
Chris Hughes's Act III — Creating Jumo.com, A Social Platform For Global Volunteerism — In a way, Chris Hughes has been looking for his Act III. — Act I was co-founding Facebook at Harvard while sharing a room with Mark Zuckerberg. Act II was taking a leave from the social networking behemoth …