House passes historic health care reform

With the last-minute support of anti-abortion colleagues, House Democrats on Sunday passed historic legislation to extend health coverage to tens of millions of uninsured Americans, protect patients from the most flagrant abuses of insurance companies, and curb runaway health care costs. All told, the $940 billion reforms represent the most sweeping overhaul of the nation’s health care system since the creation of Medicare more than four decades ago.

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Driver’s licenses for all — off the table for now

Despite an audience sprinkled with supporters, a bill that would have made it possible for undocumented immigrants to receive driver’s licenses was tabled in the state House Thursday.


Bachmann missed four times more committee votes than Ellison, Paulsen

Rep. Michele Bachmann has missed about four times more votes than her colleagues Rep. Keith Ellison, a Democrat, and Rep. Erik Paulsen, a Republican, on the House Financial Services Committee, her only committee assignment. Three quarters of votes at which Bachmann wasn’t present happened on days she had national cable news appearances.


White House shifts away from ‘War on Drugs’ rhetoric

Quietly, free of headlines and fanfare, the Obama White House is toning down the bellicose “war on drugs” position that’s defined the country’s narcotics policy for the last 25 years. Instead, the focus is on tackling addiction as an illness to be treated.


Ellison considers resolution in support of Mumia Abu-Jamal

At an event in Minneapolis last month, Rep. Keith Ellison went toe-to-toe with former Black Panther Dhoruba Bin Wahad, eventually promising the crowd he’d consider a congressional resolution questioning the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal — who was convicted of murdering a Philadelphia policeman in 1982, although supporters say he didn’t receive a fair trial.


Nervous tea partiers see possible Democratic win on health care

Tea party protests on Capitol Hill are getting smaller and more pessimistic as activists realize the U.S. House of Representatives may well pass the health care reform bill.


Nine years in, sick nuke workers still fighting for benefits

Legislation to reform the program designed to provide assistance to nuclear workers suffering illnesses related to exposure to radiation and toxic substances continues to languish in the U.S. Senate.


At ‘Kill the Bill’ rally, Bachmann compares Obama to Chavez

Before a crowd holding signs that read “Damn this federal government to hell” and “The citizens must declare war on their immoral, corrupt, Marxist government,” Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann addressed around 1,000 people Saturday at a “Kill the Bill” rally against Democrats’ health care reform measures at the State Capitol.


Panelists search for answers to farmer drain

Expressing “deep concern” that the number of young farmers is dwindling, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack asked a panelists of farmers at Friday’s DOJ/USDA antitrust workshop to tell him what else needs to be done to ensure the future of rural America.


Family-farm advocates call for U.S. to ‘bust up big ag’

An often rambunctious town hall event outside Des Moines last night gave small and family farmers an opportunity — largely unavailable at a joint U.S. Department of Justice and USDA antitrust workshop on Friday — to express their opinions on the agricultural industry. And it had one overarching message: “Bust up big ag.”


‘Death rights’ bills for same-sex couples pass House committee

Three bills that would assist same-sex couples in the event of one partner’s death were passed by the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday. Legislators recalled stories of couples who underwent hardships because of inequality in the law, while Tom Prichard of the Minnesota Family Council called the bills “discriminatory” and said they are “unfair to married couples.”


Capitol Hill Democrats represent deficit roadblock

On issues as diverse as health care and student lending, provisions designed to rein in deficit spending have all run smack into the ubiquitous inclination of lawmakers to protect their home turf from the scalpel of budget cuts. Their message is familiar: Congress must do something to get its fiscal house in order, just don’t do it in my back yard. And party affiliation is largely irrelevant.


Pelowski pushes for government data reforms

When a stubborn government official refuses to release public information as required under Minnesota law, a costly and lengthy lawsuit is often a citizen’s only recourse. But state Rep. Gene Pelowski, DFL-Winona, has authored a bill that will simplify, cheapen and shorten the process used by citizens and the media to gain access to public government information.


Anti-porn bill would reduce sexual assault, advocates say

Five Minnesota lawmakers — four Democrats and a Republican — are proposing legislation they hope will reduce sexual assault in Minnesota. The bill, introduced Feb. 25, would give preference when planning taxpayer-funded events to hotels and meeting facilities that do not show violent or exploitative pornography.


Sen. Moua: Same-sex marriage foes ‘fixated on sex-making’

State Sen. Mee Moua said some who testified at a Mar. 2 hearing on gay marriage were so “fixated on the sex-making aspects” that they missed the spirit of the bill. But here’s another aspect of recent hearings on the topic that hasn’t been examined: Tuesday’s statement by Janet Boynes was nearly identical to one by Barb Davis White. One difference: Boynes didn’t repeat White’s claim that “Rosa Parks didn’t move to the front of the bus to support sodomy.”


Blog: The Monitor

Barney Frank blasts Bachmann on Tea Party anti-gay slurs

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank

On two days over the weekend, Tea Party Patriots hurled anti-gay epithets at Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., the openly gay chair of the House Financial Services Committee. The insults came as several black members of Congress had racial slurs shouted at them as they headed into the Capitol and one Tea Partier spit on Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo. Frank said that Republicans should distance themselves from the Tea Party activists and he laid much of the blame with Rep. Michele Bachmann.
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‘Amarica’s Congress Woman’: Rep. Michele Bachmann

bachmannamaricaHuffington Post’s Jason Linkins discovered something strange when he put “Michele Bachmann” into Yahoo’s search engine on Saturday: Rep. Michele Bachmann’s campaign website says she is “Amarica’s Congress Woman.”
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Video: Americans United for Change hits Bachmann on health vote

Picture 7As we reported Sunday night, Americans United for Change will be airing a commercial criticizing Rep. Michele Bachmann for her no vote on health care reform Sunday night. The spot, which airs Tuesday in the Twin Cities media market with a media buy of more than $100,000, targets the Sixth District Republican for voting “against giving you the same insurance choices she gets.”


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Minnesotans react to passage of health care reform

Photo: WDCpix

Photo: WDCpix

Many politicians and special interest groups responded to the passing of health care reform in Congress Sunday night. Reactions fell along party and ideological lines.
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Behind Stupak, House shoots down Stupak abortion amendment

Rep. Bart Stupak. Photo: WDCpix

Rep. Bart Stupak. Photo: WDCpix

The Republicans tonight had one last chance to put a wrench in the Democrats’ plans to tweak the Senate health bill via reconciliation. It came in the form of something called a motion to recommit, which effectively represented the one GOP amendment allowed under the rules set for the health care vote. And they chose a doozy: Their amendment was the same abortion language found in the original House-passed bill — language that was inserted upon the insistence of Michigan Rep. Bart Stupak, the anti-abortion Democrat who vowed to oppose the bill otherwise.


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Health care reform bill passes, Minnesota delegation splits vote

Updated: At 10:45 p.m. Eastern time Sunday, the U. S. House of Representatives voted 219 to 212 to pass a historic bill reforming health care in America. Thirty-four Democrats joined Republicans in opposing the bill.
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Liberal group to air ad targeting Bachmann’s health care vote

Bachmann called the reform bill "dangerous" on Sunday

Bachmann called the reform bill "dangerous" on Sunday

Updated: One of the first ads capitalizing on Sunday night’s vote on health care reform will run in Minnesota. Americans United for Change will be running ads in the Sixth Congressional District targeting Michele Bachmann this week. The New York Times’ Jeff Zeleny says that while Bachmann isn’t seen as particularly vulnerable, the commercial’s intent seems to be to provoke Bachmann into responding — thereby sending the ad viral.
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Minnesota makes WaPo list of states likely to see party change in guv’s office

Minnesota makes Chris Cillizza’s list of the 15 states most likely to see a party change in the governor’s mansion. With Wyoming and Kansas at the top slots, Minnesota’s 12th-place ranking — down from 11th — in the Washington Post pundit’s list relies on a ” low-profile field” of Republican candidates and a strong group of Democrats.


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Stupak to vote yes, White House releases executive order on abortion

The White House just issued an executive order reiterating the 34-year old prohibition on the federal funding of abortion. The move was required to rally Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) and a handful of other anti-abortion Democrats behind the Senate-passed health reform bill that the House is hoping to pass this evening. Stupak has indicated he’ll now vote in favor of the health care bill.
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Bachmann: Democrats are going to ‘profane the Sabbath’

Photo: The UpTake

Photo: The UpTake

In an interview with radio host Michael Savage on Thursday — where Savage insinuated that Obama is a Muslim and Michele Obama is fat — Rep. Michele Bachmann said that if the health care reform vote happens on Sunday Democrats will “profane the Sabbath.” She also incorrectly states that health reform would force taxpayers to pay for abortions.
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