
Jon Runyan, the former pro football player and now Republican candidate for the House against freshman Rep. John Adler (D-NJ), had a fun exchange at a debate Tuesday night. He says members of Congress should read all the bills they pass; he wants to fully repeal the health care reform bill; and, it turns out, he hasn't read the health care bill.
Litigants in one of the most high-profile health care reform lawsuits in the country today presented their arguments to Virginia district court judge Henry Hudson, who later this year will rule on the constitutionality of the law's individual insurance mandate.
The wheels of justice are turning in several cases challenging the constitutionality of health care reform, and it can be difficult to keep track of them all. Here are the basics.
In a candid interview with the Center for American Progress this afternoon, former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle acknowledged that the public option didn't survive the health care debate because of a "understanding" the White House had reached with health care industry stakeholders, particularly hospital and insurance company trade associations. But the White House has long denied this suggestion -- until now based mostly on speculation -- and within hours of the report's initial publication, Daschle, a close White House ally, retracted his statement entirely.
HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius sounds a political note, decrying shadowy spending against health care. Will she run for president? 'No time soon.'
When Republicans attack health care reform, Democrats like to counter by accusing Republicans of wanting to repeal a law that requires insurance companies to cover people with pre-existing conditions. According to Republican Presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee, that's exactly right. People with pre-existing conditions, he explains are like houses that have already burned down.
Don't underestimate Republicans' desire to stymie or unwind the health care law. But not all of them are as committed to its demise as is, say, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who yesterday issued an executive order forbidding his state's officials from applying for grant money from the new law.
Poll: 13% Oppose Law Because It Is Not Liberal Enough...
Voters in the Show Me State overwhelmingly voted yesterday to change Missouri statutes so the mandate for insurance coverage wouldn't apply -- a symbolic gesture that everyone acknowledges is highly unlikely to have any effect on the federal health care reform law (absent major and unexpected changes to established legal precedent). But don't tell RNC Chairman Michael Steele, House Minority Leader John Boehner or former Alaska governor Sarah Palin that.

