Health Care

Collins: No Public Option, No Triggers.

Brian Beutler | September 14, 2009, 11:54AM

The word for the last week or two has been that the White House is hoping that, by moving toward a "triggered" public option, Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) will be the 60th vote for health care reform. In the background, many have wondered whether Snowe's almost-as-moderate colleague, Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), would join in as vote number 61.

The answer to that appears to be "no."

"The problem with the trigger is that it just delays the public option, because the people who are going to be making the determination about whether the market is competitive enough want the public option. So I think the trigger is just a delay."

That's not 100 percent iron clad, but there's certainly not much reason to think she'll help break a health care filibuster.

Barack Obama

TPMDC Sunday Roundup

Eric Kleefeld | September 13, 2009, 12:45PM

Joe Wilson: "I Am Not Going To Apologize Again"
Appearing on Fox News Sunday, Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) said he would not apologize again for his "You lie!" outburst during President Obama's speech to Congress, setting up a likely censure vote in the House. "This is playing politics," Wilson said. "This is exactly what the American people do not want to see, do not want to hear." He also defended the substance of the original incident: "I believe in the truth. What I heard was not true."

Obama: "One This Bill Passes, I Own It"
In an interview set to air on 60 Minutes, President Obama said:"I have no interest in having a bill get passed that fails. That doesn't work. You know, I intend to be president for a while and once this bill passes, I own it. And if people look and say, 'You know what? This hasn't reduced my costs. My premiums are still going up 25 percent, insurance companies are still jerking me around, I'm the one who's going to be held responsible. So I have every incentive to get this right."

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Health Care

Key Reform Group Launches Ad Campaign in Maine Targeting Sen. Snowe

Brian Beutler | September 8, 2009, 2:15PM

In a telling sign that the battle over health care reform may be decided by Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME), the nation's largest reform campaign Health Care for America Now--in conjunction with Communications Workers of America and the Main Street Alliance--has launched a week-long television, radio, and print ad buy urging Snowe to stand up to insurance companies, and asking supporters to sign this petition.

One TV ad is aimed exclusively at Snowe:

While the other targets both Snowe and Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME):

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Health Care

GOP Delay On Sotomayor Could Complicate Health Care

Brian Beutler | July 22, 2009, 2:12PM

Yesterday, the Senate Judiciary Committee delayed by one week a scheduled vote on the nomination of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor. Prompted by committee Republicans, the delay is a procedural tactic, and a common one--other Judiciary Committee nominees, including Attorney General Eric Holder, and OLC chief-designate Dawn Johnsen, suffered similar obstacles, as have myriad Obama nominees in other committees.

But in a coincidence that will no doubt please health care reform opponents, the delay will almost certainly push a floor debate over Sotomayor's confirmation into August. And if leaders don't postpone recess, that will further imperil Democratic hopes of finishing a bill in the Senate before adjournment.

"We expected that," said Jim Manley, spokesman for Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid. "This is not going to impact our schedule at all."

Planned or not, though, the delay highlights the time crunch Senate Democrats have faced for weeks now. Judiciary Committee ranking member Jeff Sessions (R-AL) is reportedly seeking four days of debate over Sotomayor on the Senate floor. President Bush's Supreme Court nominees John Roberts and Samuel Alito faced similar timeframes.

Senate Democrats are currently debating the 2010 Defense Authorization act, while the Finance Committee continues drafting a health care bill. If the Senate finishes work on the defense legislation before health care legislation has been finalized, and before Sotomayor has been reported out of committee, precious days will slip away as progress is made on neither.

Sonia Sotomayor

Sotomayor Vote Delayed Until July 28

Rachel Slajda | July 21, 2009, 11:45AM

The Senate Judiciary Committee will vote on Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation to the Supreme Court on July 28, a week from today. The vote was originally scheduled for today, but Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) granted a delay request made by Republicans.

Leahy reportedly said he was disappointed in the stall, but still expects her to be on the bench for the Supreme Court's fall session. Sen. Jeff Sessions, the committee's ranking Republican, said he expects Sotomayor to be confirmed by early August.

In other news, Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine has announced she will vote for Sotomayor's confirmation. She is the fourth Republican to do so, after Olympia Snowe, Richard Lugar and Mel Martinez.

Ben Nelson

Citing CBO-Director's Statements, Senate Centrists Urge Slower Pace For Health Care Reform

Brian Beutler | July 17, 2009, 12:44PM

Six key Senate Centrists--Ben Nelson (D-NE), Joe Lieberman (I-CT), Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), Susan Collins (R-ME), and Ron Wyden (D-OR)--are asking Democratic and Republican leaders to slow down the pace of health care reform efforts.

"[I]n the view of [CBO Director Doug Elmendorf's] statement, there is much heavy lifting ahead," reads a letter the group signed today. "We look forward to working with you to develop legislation that is vital to the well-being of the American people and urge you to resist timelines which prevent us from achieving the best results."

According to Huffington Post's Ryan Grim, who first obtained the letter, "The organized effort to slow down the process is a blow to the reform effort." And, indeed, there letter exemplifies a growing sense among centrists and health reform skeptics that the pace of reform should be slowed down. But it's also a restatement of very publicly held views. Earlier today, Nelson himself appeared on CNN and suggested congressional health care leaders should not to move too quickly.

Sonia Sotomayor

Committee for Justice: Sotomayor, Like Bill Ayers, Is An Unrepentant Terrorist

Brian Beutler | July 15, 2009, 9:16AM

This hearkens back to some news we brought you as the anti-Sotomayor campaigns were just warming up on the right. Do you remember Curt Levey and the Committee for Justice? Levey's the guy who went on TV and offered up race- and gender-based attacks on Sotomayor, then turned around and expressed shock that other conservatives had gone so far as to call her a racist.

Now his group is running this ad:

In the spot, Sotomayor is compared to conservative bogeyman Bill Ayers, and is alleged to have "led a group supporting violent, Puerto Rican terrorists." Sotomayor was a Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund board member, and from there, I suppose, it's only a hop, skip, and a jump to leading a support group for terrorists. Early last month, Levey said he "underestimated the degree to which a few conservatives would say a few extreme things, and that would be characterized as what all conservatives think." Then his group made this ad.

Sonia Sotomayor

One Time Sotomayor Opponents Also Opposed Filibustering Judicial Nominees

Brian Beutler | May 26, 2009, 11:49AM

Earlier today, Eric Kleefeld reported that several still-serving Republicans had cast votes more than 10 years ago on Sotomayor's nomination to the appellate court. In 1998, 23 Republicans voted for confirmation. Eight of them (including now-Democrat Arlen Specter) still serve in the Senate today. At the same time, 29 Republicans voted against her, 11 of whom are still in office.

Among those 11 are several who, in addition to opposing Sotomayor also are on record opposing the idea that judicial nominations should be filibustered.

"Since the founding of the Republic, we have understood that there was a two-thirds supermajority for ratification and advice and consent on treaties and a majority vote for judges," said Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), in a floor speech on May 23, 2005. "That is what we have done. That is what we have always done. But there was a conscious decision on behalf of the leadership, unfortunately, of the Democratic Party in the last Congress to systematically filibuster some of the best nominees ever submitted to the Senate. It has been very painful." Sessions is now the Judiciary Committee's ranking member.

And there's more.

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Arlen Specter

In Limbo: Dawn Johnsen's Nomination Stalls Thanks to Democrats

Brian Beutler | May 15, 2009, 11:44AM

For several weeks--while torture revelations have dominated headlines and with the scandal still very much alive--Dawn Johnsen has been waiting. She's Obama's pick to head the Office of Legal Counsel--the same Justice Department shop that famously blessed Bush-era interrogation policies--and her strong stance on that issue has united Republicans against her. But that's not her biggest problem. Her biggest problem is that Harry Reid has not been able to muster enough Democrats to overcome a filibuster threat.

Here are the numbers as they stand right now:

Votes Against Johnsen: 37 Republicans

Votes for Johnsen: 57 Democrats plus Indiana Republican Richard Lugar

Undecideds: Republicans Olypmia Snowe and Susan Collins and Democrats Arlen Specter and Ben Nelson

Reid frames the issue by saying he needs a couple Republicans to cross the line before he has the 60 votes necessary to overcome a filibuster. But as the numbers show, it's just as much an issue of Reid not being able to muster the entire Democratic caucus in support of Johnsen.

The nomination isn't dead yet, but with Reid trying to put the onus on the White House to shore up support for the beleaguered nominee and the White House staying mum about what it role in all this is, or should be, Johnsen's nomination isnt going anywhere fast.

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Arlen Specter

Do the 'Gang of 14' Think Johnsen and Koh Should Be Subject to Filibuster?

Brian Beutler | April 6, 2009, 1:19PM

As regular readers know, we've been following the nomination of Dawn Johnsen--Obama's chief-designate of the Office of Legal Counsel--ever since reports emerged that Republicans were contemplating filibustering the appointment.

Publicly, Republicans contend that one of their key objections to Johnsen's appointment is that she's a former NARAL employee and a staunch advocate of reproductive rights. But she's also unusually qualified for the position, having served at the OLC for five years during the Clinton administration, and her nomination comes against a backdrop of Republican anger over the possibility that the Department of Justice will declassify and release yet more damning torture memoranda. Johnsen was an outspoken critic of Bush administration policies and legal opinions used to justify them.

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Senate

Did Collins Shrug at Home Heating Aid For Her State?

Elana Schor | February 12, 2009, 12:39PM

Hmmm, Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) is lucky that her tough re-election battle came last year and not in 2010. Collins had pushed for $1 billion in stimulus money for LIHEAP, the government's program to provide home heating money for low-income residents -- and a major Maine priority, given the state's chilly winters.

But LIHEAP looks zeroed out, according to the summary of the final stimulus deal that we've received (read here). Did Collins lose a battle over heating money, or just not pursue one?

Late Update: N.B. Until legislative language is formally filed on the bill today, there's always the possibility that these numbers could change. What we're bringing you are the freshest details.

Stimulus

Senate Stimulus Compromise Deals a Blow to Cash-Strapped States

Elana Schor | February 9, 2009, 1:37PM

Washington has a way of blurring the human impact of a major policy debate -- such as the one going on right now over the stimulus -- by using vague and dense terminology to describe certain programs. Take, for instance, this talk of "state stabilization funds" that were cut back by $40 billion this weekend in the deal cut by Senate centrists.

The term sounds bone-dry, but the stabilization funds are a crucial bulwark against budget deficits that are already forcing layoffs, cutbacks, and higher taxes and fees in 39 states, 21 of which have at least one GOP senator. You heard right: Senate Republicans are insisting on cutting federal aid to their own states in the name of fiscal responsibility -- while some of these state governments are actually pulling back on tax breaks in response.

"If you take a combination of the [budget] gaps for the rest of the current fiscal year, the gaps for the next fiscal year, and the gaps for 2011, [when] unemployment is still going to be high ... we estimate that the [total state budget] gap is $350 billion to $370 billion," Nick Johnson, director of the state fiscal project at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), told me.

Compare that two-year deficit to the $79 billion in state stabilization funding that was included in both the House and Senate's original stimulus bills; then consider that the Senate's compromise left states with only $39 billion to close their budget gaps. Better yet, consider the plights of Maine and Arizona ...

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Barack Obama

The Stimulus Debate Goes Goldilocks

Elana Schor | February 6, 2009, 10:09AM

Despite a rousing, psych-you-up speech from President Obama last night, the Senate is still facing the same core dilemma on the economic recovery bill.

Call it the Goldilocks problem. The 15 centrist senators still in talks on slicing about $100 billion from the bill have yet to hit on a package of spending cuts that's not too hot, not too cold, but just right to get the stimulus to 60 votes.

If they don't figure it out by day's end, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) will do what I suspected he'd ultimately have to -- move to cut off debate on the bill entirely, setting up a Sunday vote that will test all this talk of resistance from centrists on both sides.

One thing that bears repeating throughout today's Senate drama: This debate over trimming the stimulus is spending little time on what it means to cut as much as $13 billion in state education aid and $5.5 billion in surface transportation funding. The process is just moving too fast.

"It's very hard to get your case made in a fully substantive way," Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND), one of the dozen-plus negotiators, admitted last night. (He had just finished asserting that "substance matters here, what's in the package matters a lot.")

So by all means, call your senator and holler if you saw something on the list of potential cuts that concerns you.