Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) made some pretty interesting remarks at the Building the New Economy conference today. While the topic was manufacturing and industrial policy, Brown opened by talking about the current obsession in Washington, health care and the public option. He praised the “inside/outside” strategy of activism that eventually convinced Harry Reid to add [...]

    Corporate serf masters: same tactics, no matter what the century.         The governors of Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama are pushing the U.S. Defense Department to award in 2010 a $35 billion to $40 billion tanker contract to European-owned EADS/Airbus rather than U.S.-based Boeing Corp. In doing so, Republican Govs. Haley [...]

There was much celebration on Capitol Hill today with the announcement of the new House health care bill. For myself, as a three-time breast cancer survivor, there was tremendous sadness and disappointment in the Speaker. Nancy Pelosi made a choice with regard to the lifesaving biologic drugs I took when I was in chemotherapy-drugs that [...]

Yesterday Jane followed up on her televised dare to Blanche Lincoln to filibuster the public option, when she warned that if Blanche filibustered, “she’d draw a primary challenger so fast it’d make your head spin.” Jane wrote here:

But there are other things that can make a race attractive to a primary challenger — or, conversely, make Lincoln think twice about joining a Republican filibuster. Like hiring organizers in Arkansas to start knocking on doors and set up phone banks into Arkansas, and compiling the names of voters in the state who would support a primary challenge against her.

We need $30,000 to put this into action. It may well be the most effective $30,000 we spend on health care this year. Or EFCA, for that matter.

We’re already halfway there – in just 24 hours, the FDL community has raised more than $15,000 from more than 400 people. Can you help push us over the top? Click here to donate now to fund organizers in Arkansas.

Bush also preferred to go bed early, but apparently, could never get his ass out of bed early enough to honor the soldiers he so recklessly sent off to die.

The next time any of the phony fiscal deficit scolds lectures us about how public health programs cost too much, they should get a pie in the face.

Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers Christina Romer made this statement on the GDP increase of 3.5% in the third quarter: “Data released today by the Commerce Department show that real GDP grew at an annual rate of 3.5 percent in the third quarter of the year. This is in stark contrast to the [...]

Today, Nancy Pelosi unveiled the House’s health care reform bill. The bill will cost $894 billion over the next ten years, but will be fully paid for. It will expand coverage to an additional 36 million Americans and eventually close the Medicare Part D doughnut hole. Thanks to the successful efforts by the Blue Dog [...]

In a huge victory for the health insurance industry, hospitals, and PhRMA, the Blue Dogs managed to stop the robust public option tied to modified Medicare rates. The Blue Dog Coalition, who must call themselves “fiscal conservatives” purely as part of some elaborate ironic joke, fought tooth and nail to kill the robust public option, [...]

He’s with us on everything but the war health care Democratic Party: “Among Hill & Knowlton’s clients when Mrs. Lieberman signed on with the firm last year was GlaxoSmithKline, the huge British-based drug company that makes vaccines along with many other drugs. As I noted in July, Sen. Lieberman introduced a bill in April 2005 [...]