Ezra Delivers An Elbow From The Sky

Ezra Klein's takedown of David Brooks entire column is a beauty to behold. I'll just leave you with the last two lines.

Brooks isn't wrong in the sense that "I disagree with him." He's wrong in the sense that the column requires a correction.

US Senate Candidate Congressman Kendrick Meek Endorses PTDB Through Reconcilliation!

From the Palm Beach Post

U.S. Senate candidate Kendrick Meek on Friday called for a simple majority vote and reconciliation process to approve President Obama's health care reforms.

"We Floridians deserve an up-and-down vote on health care," the Democratic candidate said at a campaign rally here. "There can be no 'let's start all over again.' We can't move the goal post further and further away. We need health care and we need it to be affordable."

Meek, who addressed 50 supporters at the St. John's Missionary Baptist Church, said he's less than 10,000 signatures shy of obtaining the 112,476 he needs to become the first statewide candidate ever to earn a spot on a ballot by petition. The petition must be filed by March 29.

Widely considered the front-runner for the Democratic nomination, Meek has flown under the radar while Republican candidates Marco Rubio and Charlie Crist have been engaged in a high-profile primary battle.

Meek said his petition drive makes him the candidate of the people.

"It's a grass roots movement, and so many people are taking part in this historic movement," Meek said. "It shows that we are organized, believe it or not, as Democrats. Independents and Republicans will also play a role in that effort, and I'm excited about it."

This is a true progressive candidate that people need to get behind!

Byrd Still Has Some Bite

Check out this excerpt from a letter to the editor sent by Democratic Senator Robert Byrd, he of 90+ years of age.

With all due respect, the Daily Mail's hyperbole about "imposing government control," acts of "disrespect to the American people" and "corruption" of Senate procedures resembles more the barkings from the nether regions of Glennbeckistan than the "sober and second thought" of one of West Virginia's oldest and most respected daily newspapers.

If only some of his younger collegues showed such chutzpah!

An Unlikely Source

Chuck Todd is one of the most egregious purveyors of conventional wisdom on the cable networks today. He regularly contradicts himself in his criticisms of the Obama administration, one minute complaining about not enough transparency, the next complaining about over exposure. But he made a point last night that I think most Americans have missed when it comes to reconcilliation. Its not the whole health care reform bill that will be passed via reconcilliation but just the few fixes to bridge the gap between the Senate and House versions. Please pass this clip on to everyone you know who hasn't been following the health care debate very closely.

Quit Crying And Do Some Push Ups Or Something

Harry Reid sounding a lot like Bernie Mac today:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told reporters Tuesday that Republicans "should stop crying" about the possible use of the parliamentary procedure known as budget reconciliation to pass a health care reform bill.

Reid said reconciliation had been used 21 times since 1981, mostly by Republicans when they were in control of the Senate for the passage of items like the Bush tax cuts. (Here's a handy chart of when the procedure has been used.)

Under reconciliation, Democrats would need a simple majority in the Senate to pass legislation, as opposed to the 60 votes needed to break a filibuster.

"They should stop crying about reconciliation as if it's never been done before," Reid said.

Following Senate Democrats' weekly luncheon, Reid said "nothing is off the table" but that "realistically, they should stop crying about this. It's been done 21 times before."

"The question is: Is reconciliation the only way we can do health-care reform?" he said. "The answer to that is no. But I've been told that my Republican friends are lamenting reconciliation, but I would recommend for them to go back and look at history."

"It's done almost every Congress, and they're the ones that used it more than anyone else," he added.

Its taking him longer than any of us wanted or expected, but it seems he is FINALLY starting to sound like a real Majority Leader.

He Sees The Train Coming And Hes Getting Off The Tracks

A curious thing happened last week. Kathleen Sebelius went on The Rachel Maddow show, something most Obama administration officials have been loathe to do, and said this:

Maddow: "The private insurance company writ large hasn't done a great job. That's why we want a public option to compete with them. These 18 Democratic senators want to bring that back into the fold. If that happened, would the administration fight for it?"

Sebelius: "Well, I think if it's...Certainly. If it's part of the decision of the Senate leadership to move forward, absolutely."
.

At the time I said this in the comment section over at The Plum Line:

If Harry Reid is smart he will put the public option up for a vote via reconcilliation and let whatever is going to happen, happen. What Sebelius effectively did last night was lay him down right in front of the bus. Now if the public option doesn’t at least get an up and down vote via reconcilliation the only person who can and will be found at fault will be Harry Reid and that bus is going to run over him and back up a few times. Of course he should do it any way because its the right thing but he has signed his retirement papers now as a Senator if he doesn’t unless the White House walks back Sebelius words and I don’t see that happening.

Now comes this from The Hill:

Democrats will finish their health reform efforts within the next two months by using a majority-vote maneuver in the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said.

Reid said that congressional Democrats would likely opt for a procedural tactic in the Senate allowing the upper chamber to make final changes to its healthcare bill with only a simple majority of senators, instead of the 60 it takes to normally end a filibuster.

"I've had many conversations this week with the president, his chief of staff, and Speaker Pelosi," Reid said during an appearance Friday evening on "Face to Face with Jon Ralston" in Nevada. "And we're really trying to move forward on this."

The majority leader said that while Democrats have a number of options, they would likely use the budget reconciliation process to pass a series of fixes to the first healthcare bill passed by the Senate in November. These changes are needed to secure votes for passage of that original Senate bill in the House.

"We'll do a relatively small bill to take care of what we've already done," Reid said, affirming that Democrats would use the reconciliation process. "We're going to have that done in the next 60 days."

The move would allow Democrats to essentially go it alone on health reform, especially after losing their filibuter-proof majority in the Senate after Sen. Scott Brown's (R) special election victory in Massachusetts.

Now to be sure this doesn't mean that the public option will be in the bill that the Senate passes via reconcilliation. But for quite some time now the health care reform bill has been held up simply because the House could pass the Senate bill as is and have it on the President's desk almost immediately, but they wanted assurances that the Senate would pass some fixes ie compromises via reconcilliation to get around the fact that they no longer held a supermajority which meant if the bill changed in conference it would have to be passed in both Houses of Congress once again. Harry Reid had been reluctant to make that kind of promise about using reconcilliation to pass the fixes up until now. So you have to ask yourself, what exactly has changed his mind?

Well I can't say for sure, but Harry Reid is nobody's fool. He didn't get elected over and over again to the Senate by not seeing the writing on the wall. He could tell that if this bill didn't get passed he would end up as the scapegoat. And with horrible polling numbers already in Nevada I don't think he was going to let that happen.

Of course saying it will get passed in 60 days and passing it in 60 days are two different things. But I for one feel a lot more hopeful now about it getting passed than I have since the process started.

Stay tuned!

This Is GREAT News....If True

WASHINGTON — President Obama will put forward comprehensive health care legislation intended to bridge differences between Senate and House Democrats ahead of a summit meeting with Republicans next week, senior administration officials and Congressional aides said Thursday.

Democratic officials said the president’s proposal was being written so that it could be attached to a budget bill as a way of averting a Republican filibuster in the Senate. The procedure, known as budget reconciliation, would let Democrats advance the bill with a simple majority rather than a 60-vote supermajority.

New York Times

You will notice I haven't posted on health care reform in quite awhile. Like I said I was taking a break from the day to day grind on it until the clouds started to open up and there was some daylight breaking through. If the Obama administration really is pushing reconcilliation then that is a wonderful thing and really the RIGHT thing to do at this point. In addition to this report in the New York Times, Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathl Sebelius was also on the Rachel Maddow Show last night and said the administration would support a public option if Harry Reid put it up for a vote through reconcilliation.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Now this could all be political posturing, setting Harry Reid up to take the fall if it doesn't work out. But if not then I have to say things are finally moving in the right direction. We will see in a week or so what's what.

Not Sure If This Is Good News

The Hill

The Massachusetts Senate on Tuesday approved a bill that would allow Gov. Deval Patrick (D) to fill his state's vacant U.S. Senate seat by interim appointment.

The measure, passed 24-16, now heads back to both chambers for a routine procedural vote. If approved a second time, it would then head to the governor, whom lawmakers expect to sign the bill quickly.

The idea to revise state law and return Senate appointment power to the governor was first pitched by the late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) in the weeks before his death.

I certainly hope that since President Obama and the White House pushed so hard for Massachusetts to change their law so that Governor Patrick can name Senator Kennedy's successor that they are reasonably assured that no Senate Democrats are going to support a Republican filibuster of health care reform. If not, this may go down as one of the worst political moves in the history of this country. With that seat open the Democrats would have had cover to pass health care reform through the Senate with reconciliation. Not only that, but reconciliation would have forced an even stronger public option and guaranteed that the bill was truly deficit neutral.

Now with the Democrats once again having 60 seats in the Senate they pretty much have to push the bill through with normal procedures and all 60 Senate Democrats banding together to overcome a Republican filibuster. If not then Republicans will use it as proof that the Democrats are pushing something on the American people that not even all of our own members can support. On the flip side just to get all 60 Democrats to stay together there may have to be so much watering down of the bill that its not even reform anymore.

I am going to keep my fingers crossed that the White House is going to be able to herd cats in the Senate but I am more than just a little bit nervous about this development.

The Effect Ted Kennedy's Passing May Have On Health Care Reform

I refrained from offering an opinion about the political reprecussions Senator Edward "Teddy" Kennedy's passing would have on health care reform for most of the day out of deference to his memory. Now I will offer up how I see it probably playing out in a best case scenario type of deal.

I get that a lot of people are hoping that Massachusetts changes their rules to allow Governor Deval Patrick to quickly name a place holder for Senator Kennedy's seat in case they need that 60th vote for cloture. But honestly I think that the truth is having that seat open helps the cause of health care reform.

The truth is I am not at all confident that even if we have 60 bodies in the Senate that claim to be Democrats that all of them will vote for cloture on the kind of a health care reform bill than any self respecting liberal or progressive would find acceptable. And its a pipe dream to believe that some how because Senator Kennedy passed that a few Republicans will find their honor and sanity. So THE avenue for getting a health care reform bill through Congress this year that actually represents change and reform is going to have to come through the reconcilliation process in the Senate.

Now the one thing that the media has been really terrible at is being realistic and honest about the Democrats' so called "Super Majority" in the Senate anyway. With Senator Kennedy having terminal cancer and Senator Robert Byrd being very old and, of late, sickly, it was always a Super Majority only on paper. For that reason we would have always needed at least one or two Republicans to vote for cloture and that's not even taking into account needing to do the humongous job of cat herding every single one of the Democrats to do the same. In short it never looked good for that.

However now the prospect of a Super Majority is gone and the realization is that cloture might as well be 10 votes away as it is one with the understanding that that one vote will have to come from a Republican bucking their whole party. In essence even if we could buy off one or two Republicans to vote for cloture on a health care bill it would probably be at such a high cost for our side that the bill would suck and such a high cost for them personally that they would HAVE to change parties. I don't see that happening.

But what I can see now is Chuck Schumer and Dick Durbin being able to make a much stronger case to the Democratic caucus for why we should and must use reconciliation to get this done. And at this point I would say that the media is at a point where they would also be inclined to keep making the case that reconcilliation is the way to go since there is no 60th vote for cloture. Bigger than that if Republicans continue to be obstinant about not even attempting to work with Democrats on the bill I think this is a moment in time where the media will finally call them out in the wake of Ted Kennedy's passing.

Now understand that I grieve the loss of Senator Kennedy as I know most of you do too. But what I am talking about right now is a political reality that is out there for us to take advantage of. I am pretty sure that should we were to use Senator Kennedy's death as a lever to help push through health care reform which covers almost all Americans that he himself will be up in Heaven smiling down on our efforts. I, as much as anyone else, wish he could have lived long enough to see health care reform come to fruition during his lifetime, but for him to pass and health care reform to fail I think should not and will not be acceptable.

Its time to strike while the iron is hot and use all means available to get it done. And as it stands right now reconcilliation is the way to go. No one will remember the process years from now when everyone has health care, all they will remember is the result.