Analysis – With Veterans’ Day on Wednesday, the Senate will have a shorter than normal workweek – Monday and Tuesday. Senators will spend the remainder of the week back home honoring veterans and, presumably, hearing from constituents about health care. The timeline for Senate action on the Reid-Obama health care bill is ever changing, which suggests substantial problems exist. A score from the Congressional Budget Office could come as early as next week. Major Floor Action – On Monday, the Senate will vote on the nomination of Andre Davis to …
Throughout the health care debate, President Barack Obama repeatedly promised the American people that his health care plan “will help bring our deficits under control in the long term.” The problem is that the White House could not get the Congressional Budget Office to cooperate. Throughout the summer the CBO issued report after report showing that the versions of Obamacare working their way through Congress all added to the deficit. First, CBO found that the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) bill would increase the deficit by …
Live from the Senate Finance Committee Mark-up During the Senate Finance Committee mark up of the Baucus health bill today Senator Bunning of Kentucky put forth an innovative amendment. This amendment stipulated that before voting on the measure in Committee, legislative language would have to be accessible to the public for 72 hours and that the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) would need to publish an official tally of how much this bill will cost the American people and what the real impact will be on health costs. There are …
With the President and Congress’s plan to pass comprehensive health care reform reaching increasingly high levels of unpopularity, and reconciliation becoming an impediment, the leadership of the Senate is rumored to be preparing a new secret plan to railroad the bill through the Senate in record time by using a seldom used parliamentary procedure. Their plan is to proceed to a House passed non-health care bill to provide a shell of legislation to give Obamacare a ride to the House then to the President’s desk. Sound confusing? We lay out …
