Here is a small Christmas gift for you: The Real West Wing Tour Guide (circa 2007).
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Archive | 2009
My foggy legislative crystal ball
17 December 2009 
14 Comments
I tried to update my projections for health care legislation but found I was making wild guesses. This is too much of an inside game for me to predict what will happen over the next ten days. My crystal ball is foggy. I can, however, offer some questions and observations for you to consider. I hope you find them useful.
Read moreUpdated health care reform projections
17 December 2009 8 Comments
Updated projections I am lowering from 50% to 35% my prediction for the success of comprehensive health care reform. I now think the most likely outcome is a much more limited bill becomes law. Pass a partisan comprehensive bill through the House and through the regular Senate process with 60, leading to a law; (was […]
Read more Legislative hostage taking
12 December 2009 5 Comments
Chairman Conrad may get his commission, although I doubt it he will get it now. He may get his vote, although I doubt as an amendment to a clean debt limit bill. If he confronts Leader Reid over the debt limit, either in private or on the Senate floor, Reid has all the leverage. He can force Conrad to back down.
Read more How would the Reid bill affect the middle class?
10 December 2009 14 Comments
There has been confused public discussion about the effects of the Reid bill on low- and middle-income taxpayers. Senator Grassley and his Finance Committee staff have worked with the Joint Tax Committee staff to disentangle the strands a present and clearer picture of the actual financial effects of the Reid bill on different middle class populations.
Read more The President's new economic proposal
9 December 2009 4 Comments
Here is the President’s new economic proposal, which he is not calling a stimulus.
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The President's 2010 challenges: jobs, deficits, and taxes
3 December 2009 4 Comments
By the end of February we will either have a health care law or the bill will have died. Jobs, deficits, and taxes will dominate the rest of the 2010 American domestic policy debate.
Read moreSenate floor #011: The “hidden tax” of the uninsured
2 December 2009 6 Comments
If you’re advocating a policy to subsidize coverage for people who are now uninsured, I hope you’ll argue that the benefits to those uninsured are worth the higher costs to others. Don’t argue that we’ll save money overall, or that it will financially benefit those who are now insured. This one isn’t a free lunch.
Read moreSenate floor #010: Minority party rights and tactics
2 December 2009 3 Comments
Yesterday Senate Budget Committee Ranking Republican Judd Gregg sent Senate Republicans a reminder of all the procedural tools available to Senators “to insist on a full, complete, and fully informed debate on all measures and issues coming before the Senate.” When you’re in the majority, you often refer to these as stalling tactics and obstructionism. […]
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