There’s a major push by House leaders today to judge the health care bill a fait accompli and ensure everyone that the deal put together by both chambers of Congress and the White House, which could be topped off in the next few days, will have no problem passing the House. Expect to see a [...]

The AP reports a tentative deal between labor and the Obama Administration on the excise tax on high-end insurance plans. It has not been eliminated, but it appears to have been exempted, perhaps drastically, into a tax that could only impact people with incomes above $250,000 a year. But clearly, the deal would bring in [...]

Ben Nelson is not going quietly. In an interview with KLIN radio in Nebraska, Nelson rejected the latest compromise language on abortion services funding in the Senate bill, and basically said he would still join a filibuster if this bill were voted on today. Furthermore, he maintained that the abortion language was not his only [...]

President Obama just made a statement, proclaiming himself “cautiously optimistic” that the Senate will pass their health care bill. While maintaining that there are still disagreements to be worked out, he said that the bill meets “all of my criteria” that he laid out in a joint session to Congress in September – that it [...]

Today at 3pm ET, the Senate will begin debate on their health care bill. Over the next month, hours of speeches will be made, dozens of amendments will be offered, all kinds of votes will be taken. Vice President Biden kicked off the debate with a video showing doctors and nurses arguing for reform. Ultimately, [...]

I was on a conference call with White House budget director Peter Orszag and Office of Health Reform chief Nancy-Ann DeParle today, and both of them were adamant that the health care reform moving through Congress would cut costs over the long term and “move us into the future of health care,” as Orszag put [...]

Over the weekend, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Studies, an independent technical advisor to the federal government, released a white paper about H.R. 3962, the health care bill passed by the House on November 7. Conservatives have seized upon some of its findings, particularly the claim that the House bill would raise total national [...]