The Whole Delivery

Thanks to our sad media culture, Republicans like former Bush budget director Rob Portman continue to get away with uttering tort reform as a good idea After advocating for more tax cuts for the affluent and more deregulation, the third most absurd domestic policy request Republicans and conservatives love to make is their continued belief (or just their blatant interest for just the rich) that tort reform would be the chief problem solver for America's miserable health care system. Both Rob Portman and Linda McMahon in their respective debates for the Senate last night unsurprising went to the same sad GOP playbook again. Even more depressing, however, was the fact that no one decided to fact check them about the continued ineffectiveness of that ridiculous idea. To reiterate for another time, "tort reform" would do not a single thing except protect the powerful from their punishable mistakes . In fact, "tort reform" has always been a serious attack on the ...

Wendell Potter, the former CIGNA employee turned moral whistleblower on our insane health insurance companies, was back on Countdown with Keith Olbermann last night to discuss the latest deleterious trick of his former industry to retain their inhumane profits. As reports indicate , those heartless robots at the top of our dysfunctional embarrassment for health providing in this country are looking at a way to stop offering child only plans as immediate parts of " Patient Protection And Affordable Care Act " come into effect on Thursday. Potter has been a wonderful blessing in the emotion driven fight for a true health system for the people over the last year and a half. But his restraint in not labeling his former colleagues in the field "monsters" and just saying their continued actions to deny children coverage is just "part of the system" exonerates them from their crimes. Visit msnbc.com for breaking news , world news , and news about the econo...

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God…” Romans 12:2 Many Christians I know vote based on a single issue, usually abortion. Now I don’t want to get into the pro-choice, anti-abortion debate. I understand that if you see the point of conception as the beginning of life, you can’t be pro-choice. But I believe that the question for a Christian-motivated voter is not as simple as a candidate’s stance on abortion. The question should be: How Christ-like is my candidate? What is Christ’s ministry all about? Christ spoke often about lifting people up, helping them, loving them. ( Luke 10:30-37 ) He admonished materialism. ( Luke 16:13 ) Jesus asks us to not only help those who cannot help themselves but tells parables about helping those who are CHOOSING to do unfit things. We are to LOVE people, first and foremost. How can a political candidate love people? Well, if you are in the anti-ab...

It heads back to the House for some technical changes , but in terms of health reform, it's official over for this point. But it never should end until the right system is placed in. Update : Just to let everyone know, besides the usual two of Nelson & Lincoln, Mark Pryror didn't vote for the reconciliation bill either.

And also.....

Matty Y : Now that it’s done, Barack Obama will go down in history as one of America’s finest presidents. It’s always possible of course that, like LBJ, he’ll get involved in some unrelated fiasco that mars his reputation. But fundamentally, he’s reshaped the policy landscape in a way that no progressive politician has done in decades. The current President who has already said a number of times that he is a centrist, and basically will sign Mitt Romney's health care bill, has done something that no "progressive politician" has done in decades? When judgement on the bill's true effects hasn't been cast yet? In the process, Yglesias has somehow gone away at times from the usually rational person that he is. From the whole "monsters" thing to this, I don't know what to expect from him next. But it (and this post from Ezra Klein about special interests power possibly waning) really does highlight how there is a shift in the Rational Online Commun...

219-212 was the final total for the Hose to pass the Senate bill. 34 Democrats joined all the Republicans. And just a few minutes ago, the reconciliation bill recommendations, "the deem bill", will now pass to the Senate. HR 3590, the Senate bill, will now be signed by President Obama before the Senate votes for the fix. Lots to report right now in the next thread, including who yelled out "Baby Killer" at Bart Stupak . Update 2 : The Reconciliation deem bill has been passed now, with it being 220-211 as the final total. Full roll is here .

And press time, and everyone having any right to know about how crazy and nutty his personal life and thinking is. That's all he and those teammate looney tunes joining him in the back got. Words and press time. It's the only thing that matters to them.

After yesterday's ugliness, this says it all . Can someone at least, you know, rally around Nancy Pelosi in this process at least. Her work and spirit has been invaluable.

Somehow, Norah O'Donnell had to ask this question to Senator Tester this morning: Visit msnbc.com for breaking news , world news , and news about the economy Yup, she asked him if the Senate bill has federal funding for abortion. Now most casual followers of the media already know we are going to get stupidity, poor journalism, or dishonest storytelling to continue a narrative instead of getting the truth from the likes of say, Greta van Susteren : But there are a lot of well known reporters and anchors on MSNBC who are really just as bad in their portrail of journalism in America. Once again, if O'Donnell acted like a good journalist instead of a poor one, she would have just researched this or watched the highest rated show on her network to get the answer she seeked from Tester this morning: Once again, so O'Donnell (or Savannah Guthrie or Chuck Todd ) won't have to speculate like the mediocre at best journalist that she is on political issues (unless the...

The CBO score for the soon to be amended Senate bill is out, and it cuts the deficit. Something that everyone should have known would be the end result, though a public option would have been easier to score. Pure comedy : You got to love how nutty these people are. K-Lo still stands out : House GOP sources are not too surprised. Some raise this question though: Why is the whole report not being released? As I understand it, we're only seeing selected points from the scoring, not the whole report. So there appears to be some confusion about what exactly is being counted. The only confusion that this nut is having is how reality once again just doesn't go along with her crazy agenda.

The line "You just can't make this up about these ignoramuses" just cannot be uttered enough. Minutes after Kucinich's speech, David Shuster interviewed Baby Prop user and intelligence challenged Republican John Shadegg. Instead of regurgitating the usual government takeover and "kill the bill" line of his party that we have gone accustom to, Shadegg provided an even more entertaining and gregarious moment for the day. Shadegg supports Single Payer! Though the whole interview is comedy platinum (because gold is an understatement), the standout moment came at the 3:14 mark when Shadegg somehow tries to say that his party is against the for-profit health insurance companies. Watch the fun unfold: The laughter just can't be contained for how foolish Shadegg looks. I just wish Shuster would have been able to then ask him if would sign to be a co-sponsor for Alan Grayson's Medicare Expansion Act ? That would have furthered certified how epic t...

Now everyone won't rush to primary him after all. And yeah, everyone can say, "But we put pressure on him to vote this way, that's why he did." But he voted that way in the end, meaning that we all shouldn't rush to conclusions until the final vote is casted. With that all said, can we now make sure Stupakfyingly Stupid does not get a press conference please?

The moment from Obama's speech in Cleveland that will have everyone on the online community and rational community be atop of the headlines : Regardless of whether you defend Kucinich here or not, Obama clearly put the pressure on Kucinich here. But to be completely fair to Kucinich, he should be judged by everypne on only his final vote instead of what he has said thus far.

In the read between the lines common sense culture that political journalism ensures, we are able to decode the simplest of cryptic messages. But with how no one yet on the Democratic side wants to be the upfront person and say "The public option is dead once and for all", then any phrase parsing that could indicate a Democratic figure saying that vaunted message is very silly in my mind. We have already heard Jay Rockegeller and Robert Gibbs outright say or indicate that "The Public option doesn't have the votes in the Senate" the last few weeks in the midst of the public option revival. Yet, the public option is still being talked about. Yet, most sites , and even great ones I respect like TPM , have rushed to proclaim what Nancy Pelosi said in the press conference as her saying "The Public Option is dead." That is not fair at all to the Speaker, and brings any claims of "Nancy Pelosi has killed the public option" are real possible f...

Now let's see if Senator Durbin , who signed the Benett letter in its earlier days, will tell Bernie Sanders later today to not do this . Senator Bernie Sanders, in a brief interview in the Capitol just now, confirmed to me that he’s willing to commit to introducing an amendment that would add the public option to the Senate bill’s reconciliation fix. Anybody still uttering the sentence of "The public option is dead" is someone that really really is an idiot or hasn't been playing attention to the growing momentum for it in the last four weeks This is important, because as far fetched as this seems, if this amendment is introduced, a vote on it would be very hard for the Senate Dem leadership to block. The only thing that could stop it from happening, according to Senate expert Robert Dove, is for the parliamentarian to rule that it’s not germane to the Senate bill somehow — something that seems unlikely. “I think somebody should do that, and I’d certainly ...

From The Nation's Chris Hayes, who I didn't know could go hard like this : Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. Maybe more worth "Tweet of the year award" than even news about this one .

If you have been paying attention of late, nothing at all came as a surprise from what President Obama said at the White House for health insurance reform, because that's the actually technical term for it now (and look at Robert Gibbs Twitter page to see just that). Reconciliation, through he didn't just simply say the word, is what will happen no matter what. Of course that is spurred on by how hilarious the nutcase party is for voting against their own ideas in the bill. Of course, the continuing focus on how mentally disabled the right wing isle was the main strategy in this speech. But addressing anything about the public option was completely taboo in this speech. So basically, you didn't miss anything at all of you have been paying attention.

For some reason, it just won't. And that's a good thing : The White House’s declaration last week that the public option can’t pass Congress has dumped a vat of cold water on the possibility of a vote on the public option via reconciliation, but this is still an interesting development: Senators Dick Durbin, Patty Murray and Jeff Bingaman have now all gone on record saying that if such a vote is staged, they will vote Yes. That brings the total who have signed the letter pushing for this vote or who support the idea in principle to 30 — more than half the Dem caucus for the first time. Keep the total going .

Now enter the Summit bowl. And everyone should know what this summit is all about. It's all about Republicans looking stupid and having no good ideas at all. Enjoy, as the snark will be prevalent: JOIN THE LIVE CHAT VISIT WHITEHOUSE.GOV Anthony Weiner, not invited, makes a terrific point as he LIVE blogs about it at the Kos . Some things to watch out for this morning at the health care summit: Will anyone actually explain the status of the public option? We know the President supports it. We know that the Democrats at the table overwhelmingly support it. We know that the American people support it. And we know that the House of Representatives already voted for it. So what's the problem? At least in the game of Clue we find out who did the crime at the end. Before we write the obituary on the public option, I hope somebody explains. Well, the public option did get mentioned in that first three hour period, as Steny Hoyer of all people brought it up as ...