Politics Update

-The latest projection is that the Democrats will control 55 seats in the Senate after the November election.

-As the Democrats get ready to use reconciliation to push through their final health care bill, Harry Reid sent this letter to Mitch McConnell, most notably including this section:

“As you know, the vast majority of bills developed through reconciliation were passed by Republican Congresses and signed into law by Republican Presidents – including President Bush’s massive, budget-busting tax breaks for multi-millionaires.  Given this history, one might conclude that Republicans believe a majority vote is sufficient to increase the deficit and benefit the super-rich, but not to reduce the deficit and benefit the middle class.  Alternatively, perhaps Republicans believe a majority vote is appropriate only when Republicans are in the majority.  Either way, we disagree.”

-Don't understand what's going on with health care?  Here's a handy road map.

-David Brooks argues that both the left and the right misunderstand Obama and the current political climate, largely due to "the information cocoons that partisans live in these days".  While Brooks doesn't like a lot of Obama's political positions, he writes that "he is still the most realistic and reasonable major player in Washington."  And that

"Liberals are wrong to call him weak and indecisive. He’s just not always pursuing their aims. Conservatives are wrong to call him a big-government liberal. That’s just not a fair reading of his agenda."


-House GOP members have agreed to refrain from all earmark spending this year in hopes that they can campaign on a platform of fiscal responsibility.  The problem, of course, is that earmarks help the people who vote for a particular congressperson and hurt the rest of the country (i.e. everybody who doesn't have a vote in that particular race)

-Here's the dope on Jim Bunning's last stand.  Except, wait, he's at it again . . .

-Last, but certainly no least, here's Slate's guess as to what Obama's facebook feed might look like