Bunions Might Not Be Covered

From The New York Times:

WASHINGTON — Congress has yet to settle its first budget fight of the year but is already about to move on to an even more consequential fiscal clash.

Even as the two parties struggled over the weekend to reach a deal on federal spending for the next six months and avert a government shutdown at the end of the week, House Republicans were completing a budget proposal for next year and beyond. It is likely to spur an ideological showdown over the size of government and the role of entitlement programs like Medicaid and Medicare.

The plan, which is scheduled to be unveiled Tuesday, will be the most ambitious Republican effort since the November elections to put a conservative stamp on economic and domestic policy.

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Book ’em, Danno!

Hey, kids,it seems that these days, everyone is getting a book deal.   I thought we’d take a look back at some books of the recent past.  There’s been a lot of talk lately about WikiLeaks, but where was all the Rethuglican hanky-wringing when Scooter Libby outed Valerie Plame, a covert CIA agent? They want to string up Julian Assange, but they seemed to be just fine when Chimpy commuted Scooterpie’s sentence, because Scootie has “suffered enough“…
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They even help insurance execs across the street!

From Ryan Grim at THE HUFFINGTON POST:

Republicans took to the floor of Congress, the Internet and the Wall Street Journal op-ed page Tuesday in a rush to defend a health insurance company that used taxpayer-subsidized communication to terrify seniors with the prospect that health care reform will cut their Medicare benefits.

Republican leaders in both houses of Congress ripped Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) for urging the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to put a stop to the insurer’s efforts, decrying what they called a “gag order” and reading the First Amendment on the floor of the Senate.

And I always thought the Second Amendment was their favorite!

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Can we get a death panel to work on her Facebook account?

From FIRST READ at MSNBC:

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was invited to testify before the New York state Senate Aging Committee by its Chairman, Rev. Ruben Diaz. Instead of testifying, Palin has submitted written testimony, and publicizes it via her latest Facebook “Note.”

In it, she defends her contention that there are, in fact, “death panels” in health-care legislation being considered in Congress — despite independent fact-checkers repeatedly debunking the notion.

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You make us upchuck when you make shit up, Chuck!

From Joan Walsh at Salon:

I’ve said this before: It’s getting past time for President Obama to spell out specifics about which healthcare reform plan he supports, given the five House and Senate bills and umpteen other proposals circling Washington. And unfortunately for Obama’s dreams of bipartisanism, it’s way past time for him to give up his hopes that he can bring “sensible” Republicans on board with a smart, fair bill.

I’ve suspected that was true for a while, but today is the day to, well, pull the plug on that project. Unbelievably, one GOP senator who’s been held up as a paragon of reason and bipartisan comity, Iowa’s Chuck Grassley — one of three Republicans negotiating with three Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee — trashed Obama’s plan today in terms that went beyond Sarah Palin’s ignorant rant.

…snip…

“There is some fear because in the House bill, there is counseling for end-of-life,” Grassley told a town hall crowd. “And from that standpoint, you have every right to fear. You shouldn’t have counseling at the end of life. You ought to have counseling 20 years before you’re going to die. You ought to plan these things out. And I don’t have any problem with things like living wills. But they ought to be done within the family. We should not have a government program that determines if you’re going to pull the plug on grandma.”

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Why worry about death panels, when she’s gonna kill us all with stupidity?

From Joan Walsh at Salon:

I’ve been writing about “town hells” and anti-health care reform hysterics, as well as the crazy Birthers, for a few weeks. Every few days, I think: Maybe we’re giving these fringe folks the oxygen they need; maybe we should ignore them. But it all got even loonier today, and it can’t be ignored.

Alex Koppelman wrote about it immediately: Sarah Palin (or her handlers) posted a message on Facebook decrying the “death panels” she says – wrongly, bizarrely, viciously — Obama’s health care reform will establish. She also claimed such panels might well have ended the life of her son Trig, born with Down’s Syndrome.

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It’s Exhausting

From the Los Angeles Times:

WASHINGTON — Escalating a fight with Democrats on Capitol Hill, the White House on Friday invoked executive privilege in refusing to turn over documents to a congressional committee investigating the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to deny California permission to implement its own vehicle emission standards.

The Bush administration asserted executive privilege hours before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee was to vote on whether to bring contempt-of-Congress proceedings against EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson and Susan Dudley, administrator of regulatory affairs in the White House Office of Management and Budget, for refusing to turn over subpoenaed documents.

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