Word: pass
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Blue Dogs tend to come from conservative areas of the country, where voters see them as a nonthreatening alternative to Republicans. They frequently provide the only bridge in an increasingly partisan political climate and are highly courted by other Democrats who need their votes to pass bills. Blue Dogs voted in favor of a number of Bush-era proposals, including the war in Iraq and warrantless wiretapping. They forced Obama to institute a pay-as-you-go budget plan for his $787 billion stimulus bill, recently delayed the Waxman-Markey climate-change energy bill and blocked legislation that would benefit...
Since he took office in January, President Barack Obama has made clear that he views this year as the best opportunity in decades to overhaul the nation's ailing health-care system; more recently, he has stressed that he wants the House and Senate to pass their respective bills before their monthlong August recess. That, to say the least, is not going according to plan. The Senate said on July 23 it would not make the deadline, and the House is also looking increasingly unlikely to produce a bill by then. This slows the momentum behind the President...
...Olympia Snowe of Maine) - are weeks behind schedule and are rushing to finish a bill before recess. But even if they're successful, the leadership would still need time to marry the HELP and finance bills together plus at least two weeks of floor debate before they could pass a final version - a process now bumped until September at the earliest. (Read "Obama's Health Push: Too Few Details, Too Many Questions...
...Still, Democrats have said they won't pass anything that isn't fully paid for, and finding the money to plug an estimated $200 billion-to-$320 billion shortfall has been particularly tough. Obama's original proposal to raise the tax deduction for charitable giving by the nation's highest earners seemed dead on arrival, while the House idea of taxing the rich directly has run into resistance from conservative Democrats known as Blue Dogs. One proposal that has gained traction in the past week is to tax pricey, so-called Cadillac health-insurance plans, either directly or by taxing...
...Public Perception The double blow of both the House and Senate being unlikely to pass legislation before his deadline is the worst setback Obama has seen in his six months in office. The monthlong break will give critics ample time to hone their messages of "too much, too soon" and stir up grass-roots opposition, and members of Congress will go home to hear what constituents have to say. As President Lyndon Johnson, the great master of the Senate, warned his staff after his 1964 landslide, "every day while I'm in office, I'm gonna lose votes." Some...