Roundup: Murtha x2, Altmire, CBO/#hcr, McConnell re-exam December 23 2009
…including a triple-shot from Brian Faughnan at TheConservatives.com
(1) Murtha says Al-Qaeda is not a big deal (Via Faughnan):
U.S. Rep. John Murtha told reporters Tuesday that he isn’t convinced al-Qaida is still a threat to national security…
“I don’t agree there is a threat to national security,” Murtha said, while not ruling out the possibility that he could be wrong about al-Qaida’s influence. “They keep saying they’ve defeated al-Qaida…”
(2) Shock of all shocks, Murtha has some sketchy donors. You don’t say! (From that same Faughnan write-up, also Lilik)
(3) Altmire thinks the Senate health bill is just jim-dandy, and a lot of Blue Dogs will be on board (Faughnan, for the hat-trick):
Rep. Jason Altmire (D-Pa.), a Blue Dog who voted against the House’s healthcare bill in November, said that he and many other centrist Democrats would flip their votes to support the Senate bill if it came up for a vote in the House.
“I think the Senate bill is stronger and I think there’s a chance that when the Senate bill comes over to the House, if we can keep some of those provisions for cost containment in the bill, bringing down the deficit, and bringing down healthcare costs, there’s a good chance a lot of conservative Democrats who voted against it in the House will support the Senate bill as it comes out of conference,” Altmire said during an appearance Tuesday evening on the Fox Business Network.
Just fantastic.
(4) It seems the CBO has double counted the savings from the proposed Medicare cuts. Yeah, really.
(5) Are people being too hard on Mitch McConnell? First, he’s going to be objecting the the House-Senate conference, delaying the whole thing a bit longer and forcing the “ping pong” scenario. Second, he may have actually gotten substantive concessions from Harry Reid for agreeing to bug out before Christmas eve.
Possibly Related...
Comments, compliments or complaints?