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Jonathan Cohn Profile picture
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18 Mar, 5 tweets, 4 min read
Via @danpfeiffer newsletter, a reminder about politics of 2009 and role conservative Democrats played in setting political boundaries (1) messagebox.substack.com/p/what-really-…
It's such a huge difference.

Per this chart I made this week, of Senate seats that changed parties 2009 to 2021, Dems had more than a dozen in R-states. Survival strategy for most was to create distance from party & liberal-sounding policies. (2) citizencohn.substack.com/p/one-reason-2…
Here's what Phil Schiliro, who was director of legislative strategy at the White House under Obama, told me for @HuffPost article on this. (Similar quotes in my book on the ACA.)

huffpost.com/entry/biden-co…

(3)
To be clear, whether Obama administration could/should have opened w/a higher bid on stimulus is a separate question. For that, I defer to @MikeGrunwald & @noamscheiber & their excellent books, which are worth revisiting now. (4)

bookshop.org/books/the-new-…

simonandschuster.com/books/The-Esca…
And more from @MikeGrunwald at @POLITICOMag today. Note the importance of Democratic unity, not just on votes but also on messaging.

Bottom line: Dems may get more done with this Senate majority even though it's smaller.

(5) politico.com/news/magazine/…

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More from @CitizenCohn

Jonathan Cohn Profile picture
18 Mar
Latest from @adamcancryn on the internal Biden administration debate over an FDA commissioner, and concerns that Janet Woodcock is too close/sympathetic to pharmaceutical industry.

This passage, about Rep. Eshoo, caught my eye (1) politico.com/news/2021/03/1…
In 2009, when E&C Committee was writing its version of what became the the Affordable Care Act, Eshoo pushed to give biologics a longer "exclusivity" period.

Chairman Henry Waxman, who thought it was a giveaway to industry, opposed that strongly. Eshoo prevailed. (2)
As legislation moved through Congress, Waxman kept fighting to reduce that period. So did Obama, who agreed w/Waxman and was really worked up about it.

But industry was too powerful, ultimately got its way. I cover this in my book. (3) read.macmillan.com/lp/ten-year-wa…

(3)
Read 5 tweets
Jonathan Cohn Profile picture
16 Mar
Agree with this. The political environment was in 2009 was very different.

Nobody was talking about ending the filibuster, a bunch of conservative Ds were firm no's on using reconciliation.

It was a 60-vote world and that was a huge constraint on both the stimulus & ACA.
And yes, that's a very big theme of my new book

latimes.com/business/story…
More here: huffpost.com/entry/biden-co…
Read 4 tweets
Jonathan Cohn Profile picture
1 Feb
Now @ASlavitt explaining why such a big difference between vaccines distributed and vaccines administered....
1. Initial delay created a backlog of 2nd doses, waiting at states. Three weeks for Prizer, four weeks for Moderna.
2. As people come back for second shots, @ASlavitt says efficiency should continue to improve.
Read 5 tweets
Jonathan Cohn Profile picture
30 Jan
According to the article, the situation on the ground is a "mess."

Some expectation setting here, I'm sure. But every problem the article mentions is consistent w/what reporters (including me) have been hearing.

E.g., lots of doses tied up in chain pharmacy LTC program.
To see the impact of the LTC program on the data, let's look at Michigan, a state I've followed closely. (Thread to follow)

Total doses distributed = 1.48 Million
Total doses administered = 909K

So that's 65%. But...
Note asterisk on the distribution number. 430K are set aside for the federal LTC program. Of those, just 100K have been administered.

State isn't directly controlling that supply, at least according to Michigan officials. It's in the hands of CVS/Walgreens, they say.
Read 7 tweets
Jonathan Cohn Profile picture
29 Jan
At White House COVID briefing, Fauci calls results from Janssen/J&J "very encouraging"

Says the most important finding is the efficacy against severe disease and death. "We have now a value-added additional vaccine candidate."
But Fauci also warning that we're seeing some vaccines less effective against some variants.

"This is a wake up call to all of us," he says -- we need to vaccinate quickly, and be prepared to modify existing vaccines to adapt.
Now @ASlavitt talking, gives a shout-out to seven states that have already vaccinated more than 10% of population:

Alaska, West Virginia, New Mexico, Connecticut, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota
Read 9 tweets
Jonathan Cohn Profile picture
27 Jan
If you want to know more about how the administration is approaching the pandemic, I highly recommend the new @ezraklein podcast (now at @nytimes). First guest: @vivek_murthy nytimes.com/2021/01/26/opi…
This exchange in particular deserves emphasis -- i.e., how the difficulty isn't any one thing.

So it's not supply or distribution. It's supply *and* distribution. With a different situation in every community. And conditions that will change with time. Image
Biden's strategy reflects this. It's got many small parts, no single one of which is a game-changer. But together they add up.

Or, at least, we hope they add up. The test will be execution.

One thing to put these ideas on a piece of paper. Another to put them into action.
Read 4 tweets

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