Archive for September, 2009

The Senate Finance Committee rejected two amendments that would have added a public option to the committee’s health reform bill. This is a significant setback, but the fight is by no means over. Four out of the five health bills to make it out of committee included a public option and Sen. Tom Harkin says he has the votes to pass bill with a public option. Now the focus shifts to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to force him to include a public option in the final Senate bill. Find out more here…

James Boyce posted a new blog regarding clean energy and the Waxman-Markey Climate Bill.  Read it at the Huffington Post.

The Senate Finance Committee is meeting right now to debate amendments that would add a public option to the committee’s health reform bill. Read more here from today’s Pulse…

This week’s Audit focuses on inequalities both at home and abroad, and how the global recession is exacerbating problems for those at the bottom of the economic ladder. Read more here…

The Senate Finance Committee meets tomorrow to discuss the public option. Now that Democrats have given up on a bipartisan bill, prospects for the public option have improved dramatically. Read more of today’s Pulse here…

Today the Pulse brings you an exclusive video interview with former DNC Chair and presidential candidate Howard Dean. We caught up with him in New York where he is promoting his new book on health reform. The conventional wisdom has it that Democrats need to get 60 votes in the Senate because the alternative, passing the bill through budget reconciliation, is too messy and divisive. Dean disagrees. He says he thinks it’s likely that Democrats will go the reconciliation route and ultimately end up with a better bill. Check out more below…

This week’s Mulch rounds up the latest news about the Climate Week in New York City, President Obama’s speech to the UN General Assembly on climate change and a number of green documentaries to help spur global action. Find out more here…

As the immigration debate grows increasingly tense and intertwined with economic worries, cultural anxiety, and deep-seated racism and xenophobia, it is important to be clear about what’s at stake. This debate is about our humanity; about our most fundamental legal precepts concerning a human rights; about refusing to exploit the weak. Read more of this week’s Immigration Wire here…

The Republicans are determined to run out the clock on healthcare reform. They’re using every trick in the book. Chuck “Death Panels” Grassley had the sheer chutzpah to propose yet another bipartisan team to negotiate the Senate bill. Pat Roberts argued that lobbyists need more time to review the bill. Read more of this week’s Pulse here…