house of reps

The news that Democrats in the House and Senate will likely marry their health reform bills in closed-door sessions — not in a formal conference committee — strays a long way from President Obama’s campaign-trail claim that the entire process would be televised for the world to see. And the discrepancy hasn’t been lost on [...]

It’s a nonsensical element of Medicaid’s funding formula that during economic downturns, when state budgets are most squeezed, states are also asked to bear much higher health costs as the Medicaid rolls swell. The result, inevitably, is the erosion of health coverage for the country’s most vulnerable populations.
The $787 billion economic stimulus bill addressed the [...]

House Democratic leaders might have thought they dodged a bullet on Saturday when they agreed to appease moderate Dems with an amendment to restrict abortion coverage — a provision that allowed the bill to pass by a very slim 220 to 215 margin. One day later, however, liberal Democrats vowed to sink the bill if [...]