JUST A LITTLE ONE-SENTENCE REMINDER ABOUT THE FUNDAMENTAL PROBLEM FACING AMERICA FOREVER: We award nine million “succinctness points” to beloved CBO director Doug Elmendorf: “The country faces a fundamental disconnect between the services the people expect the government to provide, particularly in the form of benefits for older Americans, and the tax revenues that people are willing to send to the government to finance those services.” Blah blah blah, whatever, Elfinwhore. [Ezra Klein]
Holy baloney it’s 10:00 a.m.! The Senate Finance Committee will now meet for perhaps (hopefully!) the last time, ever. First, a lil’ testimony, a lil’ CBO Director Doug Elmendorf action. Fap? He could say anything! Then: Chuck Grassley fires a rocket out of his ass. Oh boy. Then some other shit. THEN: the big vote, to finally get this bill out of committee, where it has been since the Fillmore administration. WHAT WILL OLYMPIA SNOWE DO? Oh my god. Oh my god. Here’s the live feed, for nerds. No liveblogging just now, but maybe later? (Don’t hold your breath.) [MSNBC]
You may have noticed by now that your editor has a serious obsession with old dingbat Chuck Grassley and finds everything he does hilarious; sorry if you do not feel the same way. But just look at this guy! What IS it? Something to do with the fact that this barking, illiterate curmudgeon, who sleeps in an oversized cornhusk behind a maintenance door in the Third Street Tunnel, is STILL a leading negotiator on Health Care Reform. Take a guess what he was wheezing about during today’s crucial Finance Committee markup. Just take a guess. Now watch the clip. Oh, that’s right, blah blah blah, some Mexican or another might still get medical attention under the current legislation, harumph, and what about those Indians, harumph harumph harumph… IN OTHER NEWS: Max Baucus got into a fight with CBO Director Doug Elmendorf, you guys! MORE »
(YOUR CO-OPS ARE LAME): Hey Doug Elmendorf of the CBO, how are those proposed co-ops — the non-profit alternative to Pubic Options — in the Baucus Bill going to work? Oh you just want to tell us in a parenthetical aside within your official scoring report? “(The proposed co-ops had very little effect on the estimates of total enrollment in the exchanges or federal costs because, as they are described in the specifications, they seem unlikely to establish a significant market presence in many areas of the country or to noticeably affect federal subsidy payments.)” In all seriousness, it’s pretty great that both Democrats and Republicans are pooping on this bill (these few shitsacks aside.) [Ben Smith]
Ouch times a billion! The heroic Congressional Budget Office has gone through the sexy new health care bills from the House and Senate and, because he is racist against Obama, has determined that neither comes close to doing what they need to do: Bending The Cost Curve down, in the long run, to save the federal government from debt default and apocalypse, in the medium run. This is potentially terrible news for Democrats, many of whom were already scared as the dickens of voting for party-line $1 trillion overhaul that they won’t bother justifying to their constituents. So: will the leadership pussy out and just give poor people a few bucks to buy some Advil, or will they get tough and make it work? MORE »
Ouch times a billion! The heroic Congressional Budget Office has gone through the sexy new health care bills from the House and Senate and, because he is racist against Obama, has determined that neither 