Last week in the Nashville City Paper, U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Nashville) published an op-ed entitled "The problem with the status quo." Here's the concluding paragraph:Keeping today’s sickness care non-system is not a viable option. It not only needs to be changed, it is collapsing on its own weight. Congress is having some difficulty agreeing on the most necessary improvements, but...
If you've been following the Blue America PAC at all, you may already be aware that we've decided that we won't be endorsing any candidates for the House in 2010 unless they are genuinely enthusiastic about passing John Larson's Fair Elections Now Act ( HR 1826 ). We're not asking for some unenforceable pledge; we want nothing less than heartfelt enthusiasm. Right now Larson has 117 co-sponsors from...
Thank you to the 183 Republicans and Democrats who voted against H.R. 3961, the so-called “Doc Fix” legislation. As many of you know, we had grave concerns with this legislation. Our concerns did not necessarily stem from the underlying policy, but rather the partisan political tactic being played. H.R. 3961 was an underhanded attempt to deceive taxpayers and artificially deflate the cost...
Daily Intelligencer - New York Magazine (Free subscription) | 11/20/2009
As expected, layoffs came down yesterday at Business Week , and the numbers were huge. Bloomberg's Norm Pearlstine, who will soon assume his role of chairman at the magazine, cut 130 staffers — or roughly a third of the entire workforce. It was assumed that when the title was bought by Bloomberg there would be changes, but it looks like the cuts mean that the newswire giant plans to entirely...
July 30, 1965, LBJ signs Medicare bill, Truman looks on, Republicans start plotting how to kill the program Yesterday the House voted 243-183 , only one Republican, Michael Burgess (R-TX) joining the Democrats, to pass John Dingell's Medicare Physician Payment Reform Act of 2009 (H.R. 3961). The bill will "revise the Medicare sustainable growth rate (SGR) payment system for determining the annual...
The "Blue Dog" Democrats, 44 'fiscally conservative' congresspersons, did not acquit themselves well in this year, says the Heritage Foundation, via Stephen Moore : On three votes that would massively expand the size of government -- the stimulus plan, cap and trade, and health care reform -- Blue Dogs mostly were AWOL. "Of the 52 House Blue Dogs, only four voted against all three,"...
Update From the Treasurer's Desk Dear Jim Cooper , OK, I didn't win a Nobel Prize in my first 9 months as your State Treasurer, but I have been trying to do my part to help President Obama achieve global peace and prosperity in my little corner of Olympia. Here's an update: On my third day in office we had a small bank fail. When it reopened the next week $15 million in public funds were "missing"...
Congress gets ready to face down swine fluThe TennesseanHe said the office will remain open even if an outbreak occurs because people can work from home. Democratic Rep. Jim Cooper's spokesman, Peter Boogaard, …and more »
There was a lot of talk at the Senate hearing about the U.S. nearing a fiscal tipping point that could lead to catastrophe. Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Tenn., among others, warned that the loss of international confidence in U.S. creditworthiness “could even make the current financial recession look like a sideshow.” The Impact Of Trillion-Dollar Deficits
Quote of the Day "It's really not like (Nancy Pelosi's) ever done anything for me. If I've gotten anything, it's the back of her hand." -- Rep. Jim Cooper (DINO-TN) That's my Congressman, a real team player, still hard at work on the project of getting a primary opponent. If Nancy Pelosi is mistreating the conservadem, how come he is still shooting his mouth off? Cooper opines to the Tennessean...
Greg Johnson, the lapdog for right-wing hillbillies at the Knox News Sentinel, has a post excoriating Rep. Jim Cooper as a "lapdog" for Nancy Pelosi because he voted to move a bill out of the House that he wasn't a huge fan of: Cooper voted "aye" for PelosiCare with the dreamy caveat that "it will get better in the Senate." The one-time fiscal conservative (he can't say...
So what did the House Blue Dogs do on the health care vote last Saturday? They were more supportive than one might think: Of the fifty-two-member coalition, twenty-eight voted yea and twenty-four nay. Jim Cooper of Tennessee, the Blue Dog whom I identified in my piece in The New York Review as being among the most knowledgeable legislators in the House on the issue, told The Washington Post's Ezra...
Capitol Hill staffers to talk politics, health care at Lipscomb forum Nashville Business Journal Four Capitol Hill staffers will talk health care, bipartisanship and other key issues at a free forum on Monday, Nov. 16. As part of Lipscomb University’s Pizza and Politics series, four veteran Congressional staffers will discuss policy making in Washington. The panel includes: Tom Ingram , former...
Tennessee’s own Jim Cooper – who so many are quick to point out is a “moderate” or “blue dog” – is every bit the treasury looter that the rest of his brothers and sisters are on the left side of the aisle. He proved it with his gutless vote on Pelosi’s H.R. Communist Healthcare [...]
Yesterday, via linking to a post by Goldni, I asked Congressman Jim Cooper (D-TN, the Fightin’ 5th!) to explain his vote for the Stupak Amendment. Last night, I received his answer: “Health reform would simply not have passed without the Stupak Amendment. The Speaker of the House made this deal, and she is one of the [...]
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