The Public Option Through Reconciliation

The list is growing. There are now 16 Senators who have signed on to ask Majority Leader Harry Reid to pass the public health insurance option through "reconciliation." Sen. Michael Bennet from Colorado is circulating a letter to Majority Leader Reid, calling for this strategy.

There are four fundamental reasons why we support this approach – its potential for billions of dollars in cost savings; the growing need to increase competition and lower costs for the consumer; the history of using reconciliation for significant pieces of health care legislation; and the continued public support for a public option.

The following Democratic Senators have signed the letter to Sen Reid supporting reconciliation to pass a public option.

Sen. Michael Bennet, CO
Sen. Barbara Boxer, CA
Sen. Sherrod Brown, OH
Sen. Roland Burris, IL
Sen. Diane Feinstein, CA
Sen. Al Franken, MO
Sen. Kristin Gillibrand, NY
Sen. John Kerry, MA
Sen. Frank Lautenberg, NJ
Sen. Patrick Leahy, VT
Sen.. Jeff Merkley OR
Sen. Barbara Mikulski, MD
Sen. Jack Reed, RI
Sen. Bernie Sanders, VT
Sen. Tom Udall, MN
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, RI

Has your Senator taken a stand? Click Here to see if your Senator needs to be called to support the public health insurance option through reconciliation.

A Taxing Issue

Politico sent an email to all Senate press offices requesting personal tax information from each Senator. The information they collect, including info on who does not respond, will be part of a database that they will construct.

How are the Senators dealing with this request?

An FBDC source says "the e-mail has created a raging controversy among the Senate press offices over whether to respond or not. Many staffers believe it is meant to intimidate each office into complying."

It will be interesting to see the results. Here is the email that was sent.

From: FBDC DELETED NAME

Sent: Thursday, February 05, 2009 10:12 AM
To:

Subject: Tax Story

Hey XXX,

We're doing a story about how all 100 senators prepare their taxes, and we're putting together a chart of how everyone responded and whether people didn't respond. My editors want to start posting answers this weekend, so we'd like answers by end of the day Friday, if possible.

You may recall that we did something similar last year in asking all 100 senators about their mortgages. Here's just one story from that series.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0608/11353.html

Thanks for your help, I appreciate it. Feel free to contact me with any questions.

Here are the questions:

1. Do you prepare your own taxes?

2. If not, who does?

3. Have you or the IRS ever discovered an error on a tax return you've filed?

4. Have you ever paid back taxes?

5. If the answer to either 3 or 4 is yes, please explain.

NAME DELETED BY FBDC

Politico