The health care debate returns to Washington
From today’s paper:
Rep. Brad Miller had come home for the congressional recess last month hoping to work on rewriting the nation’s financial services laws, a topic he’s been involved with since his election seven years ago.
But just as lawmakers were heading home to their districts, the national debate over reforming the health care system heated up, complete with raucous town hall meetings, talk radio chatter and a steady stream of charges and countercharges over the bill.
“There’s no oxygen for anything else right now except health care,” Miller said last week in Greensboro. The Raleigh Democrat had just finished a meeting with local leaders and a Treasury Department official over financial services regulations.
Health care is getting ready to suck up more of the congressional oxygen as lawmakers return to work today. On Wednesday, President Barack Obama is scheduled to address Congress. The speech is seen as a sign that Obama will keep the health care discussion front-and-center when Congress returns.
A couple other resources:
- in the print version of the paper we ran a breakdown of the current bills authored by one of our wire services. Click here for that PDF.
- McClatchy's Barbara Barrete's rundown of what's on lawmaker's minds regarding health care is also worth a read. Click here for that story.
- And the Associated Press has a couple of stories out that will catch you up on the latest: here and here.