Last night, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) filed a motion to proceed to a package of tax cuts commonly called the "extenders" for the third time this year. Senate Republicans have blocked consideration of the proposal twice before, insisting that the Senate continue to debate an energy market speculation bill until lawmakers add something dealing with gas prices. While it isn't clear if the Senate will reach the 60 votes necessary to begin debating the bill (the vote is this afternoon), it is certain that time is running out.

OMB released the FY 2009 Mid Session Review (MSR) today, and the headlines are blaring that the document revises the White House's projected

Responding to skyrocketing energy prices, Senate Republicans voted Saturday to deny increased assistance for heating and cooling bills for low-income families. Instead, they would prefer to deliver help 10 years from now, the soonest ANWR or outer continental shelf oil could possibly be delivered to the market.

The law that created the Medicare drug benefit, or Medicare Part D, mandates that Medicaid beneficiaries who were also eligible for Medicare ("dual eligibles") receive their drug coverage from the Medicare drug program rather than Medicaid. So, rather than be allowed dual eligibles to choose between two programs, when the new Medicare law went into effect, it shifted Medicare-eligible Medicaid beneficiaries into the new program. As it turns out, drug manufacturers benefited handsomely from the switch.