This @jimtankersley article from Thursday is the one that seems to have really set off the most alarms among Democrats and allies, because of this paragraph nytimes.com/2021/04/22/bus…
BTW, when reading all of these stories (including mine!) and listening to what different parties to these debates say, allow for the fact that communication among officials & staff is sometimes a game of telephone. ...
... i.e, sometimes people are reacting because of real disagreements. Sometimes people are reacting because they misheard or misinterpreted statements.
And that's to say nothing of all the deliberate posturing that might be going on.
Anyway, I'll be surprised if Biden doesn't end up pushing to do something big on health care -- because it's what he and his advisers and his allies all think is the right thing to do.
But of course I've been wrong before. Could be again!
The linchpin in many ways is enacting prescription drug reforms, like those in HR3. to lower prices. That reduces government spending, freeing up money that can go to other purposes.
@JHWeissmann ...although I really think it depends on the issue. With a lot of these, you can dial it down, one way or another, and still get serious benefits.
@JHWeissmann And then you build on later. Make paid leave longer, expand child care to more kids or make it more generous, add dental now and visual later, etc.
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.)
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.
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.