Word: reformers
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Throughout much of the yearlong health care reform debate, political posturing and partisan vitriol often seemed to eclipse any serious discussion of policy. Who could consider the merits or dangers of the excise tax or sweeping new insurance regulations while Republicans and Democrats were slugging one another daily on cable news, shouting about government takeovers and the Party of No? But in fact there were genuine debates about which ideas and tools are best for reining in health care costs or expanding access. Those days, however, are long gone...
...host on Thursday - and in the reaction to the compromise plan he put out to start the week. For better or worse, there now seems to be room only for partisan posturing, jockeying, optics and framing. If Democrats win this game, they may still be able to pass health reform. If Republicans prevail, they will hand Obama a stunning defeat that could set the tone for the 2010 midterm elections. (See pictures of the health care debate...
...After months of criticism that he wasn't personally involved in shaping the health reform conversation, Obama on Monday finally released his own plan for legislation. Posted on a series of glitzy new Web pages, it was heralded by the White House as "the President's proposal." The plan, however, can more accurately be described as the Senate's reform bill with a series of adjustments meant to placate more liberal Democrats in the House. Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell said the Obama plan was "yet another partisan, backroom bill that slashes Medicare for our seniors." While the Administration...
...convinced that the Thursday meeting will be pure political theater, have been trying to frame it as that ever since the event was announced. First, House Republican leaders John Boehner and Eric Cantor sent the White House an open letter calling on the President to scrap the existing Democratic reform bills and "start over." This idea gained no traction, and Republicans realized they could not skip the meeting - it's hard politically to turn down an invitation to be bipartisan. Boehner then sent a follow-up open letter deriding congressional Democrats for "plotting legislative trickery" to pass health reform...
...well with the world's pro-democracy campaigners. Sudan has not had a meaningful election since 1986 - elections in 2000 were boycotted by the vast majority of the country, according to the U.N. Commission of Human Rights - and so holding one is seen as a rare sign of reform from Bashir's military regime. That's until you remember that an election is meant to be about freedom and not endorsing the rule of an autocrat whom the International Criminal Court (ICC) has charged with seven counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity. But democracy's champions - particularly...