From MSNBC:
HHS Secretary Tom Price testified yesterday before the Senate Finance Committee on his department’s budget, and not surprisingly, there was a fair amount of discussion of the Republican plans on health care policy. Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) asked the committee’s chairman, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), whether the panel would hold any hearings on the GOP’s proposal.
The Utah Republican, apparently unsure how to respond, had an aide whisper a talking point in his ear.
From Andrew Schenkel at mother nature network:
Thursday morning in Washington began with what has become a yearly ritual. The executives from the big five oil companies got to answer questions about their government subsidies in the wake of huge quarterly profits.
Senate Finance Committee Chariman Max Baucus wanted to know exactly why the “Big Five” felt they should continue to get $4 billion in taxpayer subsidies while enjoying profits of $31 billion during the first quarter of 2011 alone.
…snip…
While many reports will make note of the hearing’s circus atmosphere that included Sen. Orrin Hatch’s unveiling of a picture of a dog sitting on a pony after saying he didn’t want the hearing to be about cheap political stunts, there was some actual tension in the room that didn’t require any stunts to feel.
From TALKING POINTS MEMO:
Democrats are pushing hard on ending tax breaks for oil companies, linking the issue to the deficit and high gas prices, which have boosted profits in the industry to new heights.
In a floor speech on Tuesday, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said the Senate would target $4 billion in benefits for oil companies with the intention of using the savings to help address the nation’s growing debt.
“If we’re serious about reducing the deficit, this is an easy place to start,” Reid said. “It’s a no-brainer. Let’s use the savings from these taxpayer giveaways to drive down the deficit, not drive up oil company profits.”
Filed under Congress, Democrats, Harry Reid, humor, John Boehner, movies, parody, politics, Republicans, Senate, Senate Finance Committee, snark, Wordpress Political Blogs
From mlive.com:
When Republicans won everything in Michigan last year, they were supposed to put an end to tax increases forever.
Well, that lasted until Gov. Rick Snyder came up with his budget that taxes pensions (sorry, Grandma), eliminates the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) for low-income working folks and freezes the income tax at 4.25 percent instead of gradually rolling it back to 3.9 percent.
From POLITICO:
Senate Democrats spent Thursday night hammering away at Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) for single-handedly holding up action in the upper chamber – but he blurted out a message to one of them on the Senate floor: “Tough s—t.”
In an unusual display in the normally sleepy chamber, Bunning – without the support of GOP leadership – has blocked efforts to quickly approve a series of extensions to measures that would otherwise expire Sunday, including unemployment insurance and the Cobra program that allows people who lose their health benefits to continue getting coverage.
From Yasha Levine at truthdig:
Michele Bachmann has become well known for her anti-government tea-bagger antics, protesting health care reform and every other government “handout” as socialism. What her followers probably don’t know is that Rep. Bachmann is, to use that anti-government slur, something of a welfare queen. That’s right, the anti-government insurrectionist has taken more than a quarter-million dollars in government handouts thanks to corrupt farming subsidies she has been collecting for at least a decade.
And she’s not the only one who has been padding her bank account with taxpayer money.
From E.J. Dionne at The Washington Post:
Take yourself back to the endless wrangling in Sen. Max Baucus’ Finance Committee – or, more particularly, among his select “gang of six,” including three Republicans, two of whom clearly never had any intention of voting for health-care reform. They negotiated and negotiated and negotiated and negotiated — and got nowhere. Baucus failed to produce a draft bill before the August recess. The Democrats’ summer of discontent and the tea party madness followed.
This, it turns out, was a crucial moment. It set back the schedule for a health-care bill by at least a month, maybe two. There was no urgency in the Baucus process. Now there is urgency. And that gave Joe Lieberman his near dictatorial powers to kill a Medicare buy-in proposal that he had supported as recently as three months ago.
Uh-oh, looks like Tom Coburn is taking some time off from being John Ensign’s marriage counselor and is doing some senatorin’.
WASHINGTON, Dec 1 (Reuters) – The U.S. Senate made little progress on a broad healthcare overhaul on Tuesday, as members battled over cuts in coverage for the elderly and failed to vote on two pending amendments.
In a sign of the long, slow path ahead, senators could not agree on a schedule for their first votes. That left plenty of time for mutual accusations of hypocrisy and scare tactics.
Republicans condemned more than $400 billion in cuts in Medicare, the health program for the elderly, and said they would eventually mean fewer services.
“What it’s going to do to our seniors, I have a message for you: You’re going to die sooner,” Republican Senator Tom Coburn said.
(top shelf: Chuck Yer-Ass-Is Grassley, Mitch No-Chin McConnell middle shelf: Heady Lamar Alexander, Captain Underpants bottom shelf: James I’m-As-Dumb-As-Coburn Inhofe)
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