A Farewell to Ted: The Policy & Practice Podcast

From phone interviews and teleconferences.
A touch of somberness was added to the normally very quiet final week of August in Washington, as the nation and the nation’s capital absorbed the news that Ted Kennedy, the second-longest serving Senator, had died after a year-long battle with brain cancer.  The Democratic and fiercely liberal champion of civil [...]

HELP Mark-Up: Who’s Missing From This Picture?

From the Senate HELP Committee mark-up of its health reform bill, Senate Caucus Room, Russell building
The Senate HELP Committee (also popularly called the Health Committee) wrapped up 60 hours of tinkering with its health reform plan today, capping it off with a 13-10 party line vote approving the plan.  (For more coverage, see here, here, [...]

Coburn: If It’s Good for the Goose…

From the Senate HELP Committee health reform mark-up, Senate Caucus Room, Russell bldg.
Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Oklahoma) got me to thinking about a 1985 tune (“What’s Good for the Goose Is Good for the Gander, Too”) by Bobby Rush.  Sen. Coburn offered up an amendment to require every member of Congress to get his or her health insurance [...]

While You Were Watching The MJ Memorial

From the Senate HELP Committee mark-up of the Affordable Health Choices Act, Russell Caucus Room.
There were plenty of TV cameras and famous and not-so-famous people, but nary a gold casket in sight at the Senate’s Caucus Room earlier today, when the HELP Committee resumed the heavy lifting of whittling its Democratically agreed upon health reform [...]