Budget Battles
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Dems Back Away From Paid Leave, Billionaire Tax
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Dems’ Mad Dash to Finish Tax and Spending Plan
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Democrats Close In on a Deal
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Dems Zero In on a Rapidly Shrinking Agenda
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No New Tax Hikes? Sinema Sends Dems Scrambling
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Biden, Dems Take an Axe to Their Spending Plan
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Biden Pushes Democrats on Spending Deal
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Make or Break Time for Biden’s Agenda
This is it. This is the week Democrats finally agree on a framework for their nearly $2 trillion package of social spending programs and tax changes, allowing them to also move ahead on a bipartisan...
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5 Questions That Will Determine the Fate of Biden’s Agenda
By Michael RaineyWhat will it take for Democrats to enact their plan to invest trillions of dollars over 10 years in a wide variety of social programs, ranging from universal preschool and free community college to...
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Democrats Battle Over Cuts to Biden’s Agenda
With just over two weeks to go before a self-imposed October 31 deadline, the White House and congressional Democrats are reportedly agonizing over the overall size and specific details of their...
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Drug Price Negotiation Is Americans’ Top Priority From Democratic Plan: Poll
By Michael RaineyWhat do Americans want most from the array of new policies laid out in Democrats’ sprawling infrastructure bills? According to a new Politico-Harvard poll , it’s help with health care costs. When...
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A Make-or-Break Week for Biden’s Agenda
President Joe Biden and Democratic leaders have three days and counting to unite their party and ensure that their economic agenda doesn’t collapse into chaos. Pelosi sets a deadline: Speaker Nancy...
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Democrats Set Up a Shutdown and Debt Limit Showdown With GOP
Congress is back, and it’s going to be busy. House lawmakers returned today, meaning that both chambers of Congress are in session for the first time since July. They have a thicket of interconnected...
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CDC to Spend $2.1 Billion on Effort to Cut Hospital Infections
The Biden administration on Friday announced a plan to spend $2.1 billion to improve infection prevention and control across the U.S. health care system, the largest such investment in the country’s...
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House Ways and Means Committee Approves Medicare Expansion
The House Ways and Means Committee voted on Friday to advance a measure expanding Medicare coverage to include vision, hearing and dental care. Under the plan, vision benefits would begin in 2022 and...
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Biden Defiant as Republicans Blast New Vaccine Rules
By Michael RaineySome Republican leaders are making it crystal clear that they do not support the vaccine requirements affecting thousands of businesses and millions of workers announced by President Joe Biden on...
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Biden Administration Backs Medicare Negotiations in Plan to Lower Drug Prices
The Biden administration on Thursday called for allowing Medicare to negotiate prices directly with drugmakers as part of a new plan to lower prescription drug prices. The 29-page plan , issued by...
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Biden Outlines New Plan to Combat Covid-19
By Michael RaineyFaced with a late-summer surge in Covid-19 infections, hospitalizations and deaths, President Joe Biden announced on Thursday a new plan to combat the virus. Among other initiatives, the six-point...
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Democrats Plot Biggest Health Care Expansion Since Obamacare
As Democrats get down to negotiating and writing their budget reconciliation bill, The Washington Post’s Rachel Roubein notes that the legislation is poised to be the biggest health expansion since...
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Biden Calls for Mandates as FDA Approves Pfizer’s COVID-19 Vaccine
By Michael RaineyThe Food and Drug Administration on Monday gave full approval to the Covid-19 vaccine manufactured by Pfizer and BioNTech, which until now had been used under emergency authorization. The vaccine has...
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Biden Presses Congress to Lower 'Outrageously' High Drug Prices
President Biden on Thursday called on Congress to lower prescription drug prices by enacting a number of reforms, including allowing Medicare to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies. “There aren’t...
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US Health Care System Worst Among Wealthy Nations: Report
By Michael RaineyThe U.S. spends more on health care relative to the size of its economy than any other nation, but its health care system ranks dead last among a group of its peers, according to a new analysis from...