Pricetag
AP- FACT CHECK: Premiums would rise under Obama plan
Buyers, beware: President Barack Obama says his health care overhaul will lower premiums by double digits, but check the fine print.
Premiums are likely to keep going up even if the health care bill passes, experts say. If cost controls work as advertised, annual increases would level off with time. But don't look for a rollback. Instead, the main reason premiums would be more affordable is that new government tax credits would help cover the cost for millions of people.
Listening to Obama pitch his plan, you might not realize that's how it works.
Washington Post- House Democrats scramble to ensure adequate deficit reduction in health bill
AmSpec, quoting Congressional Quarterly - Dems Still Don’t Have the CBO Score They Want
House Democratic leaders are still struggling to produce a final health care overhaul bill at an acceptable official cost estimate, but Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer said Tuesday they continue to plan a final vote this week. House leaders were to huddle late Tuesday afternoon, following a noon session of the full Democratic Caucus. There were reports they are having trouble drafting a bill that meets their budgetary targets….
Rank-and-file Democrats did not talk about the details, but said that the CBO scores had come up short. “They were less than expected” in terms of deficit reduction, said Rep. Gene Green, D-Texas, who plans to vote for the bill.
Opposition and whip counts
CNN- Health care foes 11 votes shy of defeating bill
Five more House Democrats said Tuesday that they will vote against Senate health care legislation, which puts opponents of reform just 11 votes shy of the 216 needed to prevent President Obama from scoring a major victory on his top domestic priority.
An ongoing CNN analysis shows that opposition in the House to the Senate health care plan has reached 205 members.
ABC News' The Note- Do Pelosi and the Democrats Have the Health Care Votes? Here's the Math
Slaughter Solution
ABC News- Hoyer, Eric Cantor Spar Over Health Care Vote Count, Parliamentary Tactics
"We're going to have a clean up or down vote on the Senate bill, that will be on the rule," Hoyer, D-Md., said on "Good Morning America" today. "This is not an unusual procedure. We're going to vote on a rule."
The controversial procedure would allow House members to vote on health care changes without ever voting directly on the Senate bill. In this case, the House would vote on a "fix it" measure that would make changes to the Senate health care bill and then automatically, in the process, pass the bill without actually having to vote on it.
The procedure has been used 20 times over the last 30 years by both Democrats and Republicans, often on technical or unpopular measures like raising the debt limit, but never on one as big as health care reform.
NYT- Democrats Consider New Moves for Health Bill
As lawmakers clashed fiercely over major health care legislation on the House floor, Democrats struggled Tuesday to defend procedural shortcuts they might use to win approval for their proposals in the next few days.
Misc Items
Barack Obama threatens to withdraw support from wavering Democrats
Barack Obama has said he will not campaign for any Democratic congressmen who fails to support health care reform.
The Politico- House Democrats feeling the heat over health care
Others in the House said the lobbying can be much less friendly. Aides to conservative Democratic lawmakers describe intense pressure tactics, including one who said his office has received calls from donors. Those calls are taken as a thinly veiled threat to withhold future financial support if the member doesn’t vote as the donor wishes.
“We’re having donors, even donors outside of our district, that are being called and asked to urge support” for the bill, said a senior aide to one conservative Democrat, who indicated the tactics could backfire on the health care bill. “If you want to play Chicago-style politics, and that’s what this is, then we will come out firmly against it.”
Last but definitely not least....
WSJ/NBC News Poll: Throw ‘Em All Out
Happy reading everyone.
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