What About Wyden?

One oddity of this panel is that there hasn't been any real mention of the main proposals put forward by actual politicians -- John McCain's plan, Barack Obama's plan, or the Wyden-Bennett bipartisan bill. Then along came a woman who I slowly realized with Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA) who took advantage of the Q&A period to ask the panelists to give their views on Wyden-Bennett. It was an interesting moment, but perhaps not the optimal method for America's members of congress to be getting their information. Chris Jennings and Mark Ganz both made basically favorable noises, though both are skeptical that such a frontal assault on employer-based insurance is feasible.

Orszag said "it’s not my job to say whether something is good or bad, but Senator Wyden and Senator Bennett worked very hard to make their proposal budget neutral.” Budget neutral is, I believe, the highest praise a CBO director is allowed to give to proposed legislation.

Comments

Are you trying to say the woman was Jane Harman?

Or she was with Jane Harman?

I don't mind the minor typos, but this is ridiculous.

Posted by John DE | July 2, 2008 12:22 PM

"Then along came a woman who I slowly realized with Rep. Jane Harman"

I think it is a coy Dalton-Harvard way of saying he had a 3-way with this woman and Jane Harman.

Posted by Njorl | July 2, 2008 12:29 PM

Matt,

Jane Harman has a healthcare staffer. She isn't "just" getting her information on Wyden from Aspen. Rather, she probably likes the plan and wanted them to respond in order to raise other people's awareness of the plan--as well as hear what other people think about it. Makes sense to me.

Posted by David | July 2, 2008 1:06 PM

"Then along came a woman who I slowly realized with Rep. Jane Harman" I think it is a coy Dalton-Harvard way of saying he had a 3-way with this woman and Jane Harman.

I admire Jane Harman. I voted for her for Governor of California. She can be too conservative on some issues, but she's also really smart and capable of moving public policy in all sorts of good directions (which is what she seems to have been doing in Aspen).

But please, do not make me lose my lunch by suggesting the possibility of Jane Harman in a 3 way ever again!

Posted by Dilan Esper | July 2, 2008 1:40 PM