All Life Is Problem Solving

A few weeks back I did a diary called “Mis-directed Fury.” It focused on the reaction to the State opt-out idea on health care reform at FDL, and basically made the point that there are a lot more important things to get furious about than the State opt-out proposal. Today we have another explosion of […]

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In my last post, I railed against the 60 vote frame and outlined the “nuclear option” procedure which allows escape from that requirement for passing reform and also makes clear that the frame that 60 votes are necessary is at best a half-truth, and at worst a lie. Of course, I didn’t expect that post […]

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A number of diaries at Firedog Lake today, frame the coming phase of the legislative process in terms of the need for 60 votes to get cloture and pass the PO. For example here’s a quote from one of today’s diaries by David Dayen: “Left out of this story is the fact that any amendment […]

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He’ll deserve the credit, he’ll deserve the blame, and Harry Mason Reid, not Nikolai Ivanovitch Lubachevski, is his name. And don’t let him try to tell you any differently, because it’s just not so. Here’s the way things can play out now. Harry Reid, under cover of merging the Senate HELP and Finance Committee bills, […]

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ralphbon asks: ”In the days and weeks following 9/11 did any legislator insist that we bring the perpetrators of that slaughter to justice, but only if we do it in a deficit-neutral fashion?” I thought this was a great question and merited creating lots of variations and also some statements about “deficit neutrality.” So, here […]

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Olympia Snowe, our modern-day Hamlet, decided to vote in favor of getting the Baucus bill out of committee. This insignificant action in itself (if she had voted against the bill it still would have passed in committee 13-10), was celebrated by the MSM all day long today, as the coming of at least a bit […]

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How many times do they have to prove it? These health insurance companies are just no good. You can’t negotiate with them. They have to get everything they want, or they’ll take their marbles and go home. After all, they’re the princes of the earth. They’re entitled! Today, the health insurance companies, through AHIP, released […]

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The Federal Government has three independent and theoretically co-equal branches. But presently it is unbalanced, and the chief source of the imbalance is the US Congress. Congress is either a very weak, or a very strong institution, depending on one’s perspective. If you’re opposed to the status quo, and interested in blocking legislation changing things, […]

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Hi Bill, Thanks for your kind words, your support of my post, and your help in calling Jason’s attention to it. It’s great to be writing in a community where people support one another even when they disagree. I take your point that the presidency should be less powerful than it is, and I generally […]

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The strategy I outlined in my last post may not work out. There may be no HCR bill resulting from it. In that case, progressives ought to introduce a back-up plan offered just yesterday by Scarecrow at Firedog Lake, based in part on an analysis of Dean Baker’s. Scarecrow’s proposal has the following steps. First, […]

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