Top Items:
The Politico:
GOP plots Senate health roadblock — Democrats might like to think that health care reform is all but a done deal if it clears the House, but the Senate is where Republicans have been plotting for months to sentence it to a painful procedural death. — Republican aides have been mining …
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The Moderate Voice, The Note, Don Surber, Washington Post, Taylor Marsh, USA Today, Roll Call, iOwnTheWorld.com, Townhall.com, Riehl World View, Seattle Times and The Page
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Carrie Budoff Brown / The Politico:
CBO numbers — House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) just released the first set of Congressional Budget Office numbers to reporters this morning. — The bill would cost $940 billion, and reduce the deficit by $130 billion over the first 10 years and $1.2 trillion in the second 10 years.
Ezra Klein:
CBO: Health-care reform bill cuts deficit by $1.3 trillion over 20 years, covers 95% — Washington has spent the past week or so waiting for the Congressional Budget Office to release its preliminary estimate of the Senate bill with the reconciliation fixes.
Discussion:
Hotline On Call, PERRspectives, The Plum Line, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Newsweek Blogs, Cato Institute and Daily Kos
Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:
Breaking: CBO releases the actual report; Update: Almost all $940 billion incurred in just six years; Update: Preliminary — It's much as advertised. Thanks to its spending provisions mainly starting in 2014, the reconciliation bill combined with the Senate version has a total cost of $940 billion …
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Fox News, AmSpecBlog, The Corner on National …, The New Editor, Gateway Pundit, IMAO, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and Confederate Yankee
Ezra Klein:
Democrats get the bill, and the score, they needed — The question people generally ask about the final health-care reform vote is, “Won't it be politically difficult for many House Democrats to vote yes?” But with the release of the CBO report (pdf), I'd flip that question a bit …
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, The Moderate Voice, The Corner on National …, TigerHawk, The Plum Line and Matthew Yglesias
Glenn Thrush / The Politico:
Obama's pitch: Fate of presidency on the line — President Barack Obama had exhausted most of his health care reform arguments with members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus during a White House meeting last Thursday when he made a more personal pitch that resonated with many skeptics in the room.
Jeffrey M. Jones / Gallup:
Obama's Approval Rating Lowest Yet, Congress' Declines — Slightly more disapprove than approve of Obama — PRINCETON, NJ — President Barack Obama's job approval is the worst of his presidency to date, with 46% of Americans approving and 48% disapproving of the job he is doing as president …
Jonathan Cohn / The New Republic:
BREAKING: Health Care Reform's Finished Draft
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Firedoglake
Matthew Continetti / Weekly Standard:
Preliminary CBO Numbers Are In (BUMPED & UPDATED, 11:30 a.m.)
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Confederate Yankee
Erin McPike / Hotline On Call:
Rules Panel Dem To Vote Against Bill — A key House Dem has begun informing party leaders he plans to vote against health care legislation both on the House floor and in the rules committee, on which he sits. — Rep. Michael Arcuri (D-NY), a sophomore Dem who had a tougher …
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Glenn Thrush / Glenn Thrush's Blog:
Lynch mobbed — Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.) is a firm “no” on health care reform — in large measure because he opposes the idea of any kind of excise tax on Cadillac plans, even one that's delayed for years and years. — That's put Lynch a former ironworkers union official in Boston …
David Dayen / Firedoglake:
New Health Care Whip Count: 192 Yes, 208 No (205-210 with Leaners) — We're getting to an end game here, and so the counts will come fast and furious at this point. I think that it's good to look at the count right when the CBO numbers have been released as a good baseline for the future.
Domenico Montanaro / msnbc.com:
FIRST THOUGHTS: START THE CLOCK — The CBO score is in... Do the numbers influence House Dems who voted against last year's House bill and also against the Stupak amendment?... NBC/WSJ poll finds that a third of the country knows “a lot” about the filibuster procedure... Jobs bill sent to Obama's desk …
Michelle Malkin:
The House vote on the Slaughter Solution: Update: Constitution-butchers prevail, 222-203; Roll call vote added; Calling out Dems Altmire, Lynch — Photoshop credit: Big Fur Hat at iowntheworld.com and Applecross Media — You'll recall that House Republicans unveiled a resolution two days ago …
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Boston Herald, Washington Post, Hot Air, QandO, Ace of Spades HQ, The Other McCain and Sense of Events
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Emily Pierce / Roll Call:
Conrad Predicts Senate Changes to Reconciliation Bill
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Weekly Standard
The Hill:
Stupak: Health fight has been ‘living hell’ — Leading a revolt against President Barack Obama's healthcare legislation over abortion has been a “living hell” for Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.). — The telephone lines in his Washington and district offices have been “jammed” …
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Boston Globe, DownWithTyranny!, The New Republic, Townhall.com, Politics Daily, Weekly Standard, Moonbattery, Newsweek Blogs, Maggie's Notebook, Left Coast Rebel, Hullabaloo, Another Black Conservative, AMERICAblog News, The Politico, QandO, Pundit & Pundette, Washington Monthly, Washington Post and TBogg
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Jodi Jacobson / RHRealityCheck.org:
Bart Stupak: I Don't Listen To Nuns
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The Speakers Lobby, Taylor Marsh, Think Progress, Democratic Strategist, ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES and Hullabaloo
Andy Towle / Towleroad News #gay:
Video, Photos, Report: Lt. Dan Choi and Cpt. Jim Pietrangelo Arrested After Chaining Themselves to White House Fence in ‘DADT’ Protest — Developing...refresh for updates below... (images via twitter) — UPDATE: Late breaking statement from HRC below.
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Las Vegas Now:
I-Team: DOJ Serves Subpoenas in Senator Ensign Investigation — LAS VEGAS — Nevada Senator John Ensign is in the crosshairs of a Department of Justice criminal investigation. — The criminal probe stems from a romantic affair Ensign had with the wife of his key staffer and close friend …
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Firedoglake, Talking Points Memo, Associated Press, Washington Monthly, TPMMuckraker, Main Justice, CNN, The Hill and Raw Story
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Michiko Kakutani / New York Times:
Texts Without Context — In his deliberately provocative — and deeply nihilistic — new book, “Reality Hunger,” the onetime novelist David Shields asserts that fiction “has never seemed less central to the culture's sense of itself.” He says he's “bored by out-and-out fabrication …
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The Huffington Post
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Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:
Mashed Up — Michico Kakutani has a somewhat curious piece … 10 minutes ago
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Eschaton
Nitya Venkataraman / ABCNEWS:
Christiane Amanpour Is ‘This Week’ Anchor — Christiane Amanpour Starts as ‘This Week’ Anchor in August — Christiane Amanpour has been named the new anchor of “This Week,” ABC News President David Westin announced today. — “I am delighted to announce that Christiane Amanpour …
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Faiz Shakir / Think Progress:15 minutes ago
‘Holder-in-Chief’ Coburn issues far-fetched threat against Democrats who switch votes in favor of health reform. — During a GOP press conference today, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) issued a far-fetched threat against those Democrats who are considering switching their votes to support health reform.
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Alan Colmes' Liberaland
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Glenn Greenwald / Salon:
Has Rahm's assumption about progressives been vindicated? — President Barack Obama, Paul Krugman, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, and Markos Moulitsas Zuniga — Politico's Ben Smith yesterday suggested that one important aspect of Rahm Emanuel's health care strategy …
Discussion:
Daily Kos, Ben Smith's Blog, Pollster.com All Content, FiveThirtyEight, TalkLeft, Open Left and The Huffington Post
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Jeremy W. Peters / New York Times:
Steve Levy Plans Switch to G.O.P., Stirring Governor's Race — ALBANY — A governor's race that seemed all but settled is about to be upended again, by a popular Democrat from Long Island who is set to announce that he is switching parties. The move is certain to excite Republican leaders pessimistic …
Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:
Canceling the trip — The cancellation of President Obama's trip to Asia marks the full reversal of the strategy his presidency began with: Flooding the zone with policy, keeping the President out of the weeds. — The decision to cancel his trip may look like a sign of urgency but it's also …
The Note:
GOP Doc Asks Pelosi: ‘Are you so arrogant ... ignorant ... incompetent?’ — ABC's Z. Byron Wolf reports: Democrats might have themselves a health reform bill, but Republicans have doctors - way more doctors in Congress, anyway, than Democrats. And they're steamed.
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ABCNEWS
