Massachusetts: Kennedy

The Congressional Budget Office is the agency that congress uses for modeling the costs of legislation (along with a slew of other functions).  Right now, the health care reform wagon is rolling along, but the CBO isn't modeling the particular proposed legislation providing a single payer system (John Conyers' H.R.676).  There have been a lot of calls for transparency in government lately.  One way to hide from transparency is to limit which programs get cost modeled, possibly ensuring that nobody ever has to get embarrassed by the clear illustration of opportunities rejected.  If people want to vote against single payer, then fine.

Here's a nice excerpt from British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's speech to Congress today, courtesy of the C-SPAN video library.  Our heartiest congratulations to the newest (honorary) member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.  (And yes, to you Anglophiles out there, I know that, because Senator Kennedy is not a British subject, he cannot technically use the title "Sir."  But P.M. Brown did it, and it makes such a nice title for a blog post.)

Senator Edward M. Kennedy, battling brain cancer, returned to Washington this week for key votes on the stimulus package. But he is going back to Florida, where he has been resting after suffering a seizure on Inauguration Day, CNN is...

By Lisa Wangsness, Globe Staff WASHINGTON -- Senator Edward M. Kennedy is returning to Washington to vote on the economic stimulus package, a close colleague said this evening. Senator Max Baucus, who has been working closely with Kennedy on a...