Hold Fast

Paul Krugman has been steadfast in his commitment to calling out the Republican plan to destroy Medicare in the Ryan budget for what it is: a plan to destroy Medicare and replace it with vouchers. The GOP has been pitching quite a hissy-fit since Krugman and many Democrats have started to correctly label their Vouchercare [...]

[Read more →]

Greg Sargent quotes Nancy Pelosi: “It is a flag we’ve planted that we will protect and defend. We have a plan. It’s called Medicare.” I agree with Atrios, “the only one who understands how this game is played is Nancy Pelosi.”

[Read more →]

The literati at the DNC weigh into the Gingrich/Ryan kerfuffle and simultaneously make both Newt and every GOPer who thinks Gingrich was insufficiently obsequious to Ryan look nuts. Obviously this video is obviously a falsehood. As Dan Pfieffer said on Twitter, “ending Medicare as we know it is the new GOP litmus test.” Originally posted [...]

[Read more →]

What Digby said: The plan is vulnerable on a number of fronts (not the least of which is the funding for the Medicaid expansion) and all we heard for months was “don’t worry, once you pass an ‘entitlement’ they’ll never be able to take it away.” And that was nonsense. With the plan taking years [...]

[Read more →]

Former Bush speechwriter David Frum: No illusions please: This bill will not be repealed. Even if Republicans scored a 1994 style landslide in November, how many votes could we muster to re-open the “doughnut hole” and charge seniors more for prescription drugs? How many votes to re-allow insurers to rescind policies when they discover a [...]

[Read more →]

This post by Chris Bowers is really worth a read, especially as the wheels of “Rahm was right to shit on progressives” get going in the Beltway. The main point by Bowers: It is factually untrue that progressives won no concessions in this bill. People are free to debate over whether the concessions are enough [...]

[Read more →]

This is an absolutely brilliant and powerful animated video from OFA.  It’s great stuff. Top notch. Wish we had it 9 or 12 months ago. What makes it effective is that it is a top-level message about the need for reform, without addressing any specifics. No mention of the public option. No mention of individual [...]

[Read more →]

President Obama’s calculus ”that by listening carefully and appealing to reason he can bring people together to get results” fundamentally fails to understand that Republicans will not do anything that they see politically benefiting Democrats.  The GOP is not a good faith partner. They do not want to pass comprehensive health care reform. Bringing them along for [...]

[Read more →]

Duncan Black is 100% right. The White House has lead on health care reform to the place where they want to see the legislation being. That place does not include a public health insurance option because the White House does not want there to be one. They are not currently trying to get one and [...]

[Read more →]

Earlier this morning, I tweeted: “Someone needs to tell Obama that he’s allowed to break McCain’s campaign promises.” John McCain proposed an excise tax on health care benefits as a means of paying for health care reform legislation. Obama campaigned against this. And yet, the current health care legislation in the Senate and the version [...]

[Read more →]