Stories

Instead of asking conservatives to call home-state senators with pleas for votes against health care reform, the Republican National Committee is asking its membership to contact the offices of two Democratic senators deemed “critically important” to squashing any up-or-down vote on the reform bill.

The Register’s Kathie Obradovich reports that U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin will not make it to the Iowa Democratic Party’s Jefferson-Jackson dinner in person tomorrow night because he’ll be busy trying to pass health care reform in Washington, D.C. In his absence, the party will play a video greeting from him during the event.
Perhaps more notably, [...]

Not only is U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin confident that the Senate Democratic Caucus will be able to block filibuster attempts on a health care reform bill, but he is looking forward to the jockeying that will come from both political parties once the bill is signed.

Harkin said he “can only hope” that Republicans who have opposed reform efforts will make the legislation a theme in their speeches on the campaign trail.

“I hope it is an issue next year,” he said.

Now that Democratic leaders in the Senate have unveiled their health care reform plan, Democrats have “rounded third [base] and we’re heading to home,” U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Cumming, said Wednesday night.
During an interview with MSNBC host Rachel Maddow, Harkin said no one in the Democratic caucus wants to be the person who derails health [...]

A little more than half of Americans believe health care reform would do more harm than good, according to a University of Iowa Hawkeye Poll released Wednesday.
The national phone survey of 772 adults, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percent, found that 52 percent believe government action would do more harm [...]

According to health department officials, deaths in Iowa have mirrored the state population, with age groups and all major racial and ethnic groups being impacted. Nearly half of the deaths have occurred in adults between the ages of 25 and 49. Five of the deaths were among adults from age 50 to 64, while three deaths were in the 18 to 24 age group. In Iowa, there has only been one child death and one death for persons over the age of 64.

The Des Moines Register showered more poll numbers on readers today, and the news is better for Democrats than it was over the weekend.
Though each Iowan seems to have his or her own ideas for how money should be cut from the budget, few blame the Democrats for overspending on their key priorities over the [...]

Not only will the Senate be working weekends through December on health care reform legislation, but it could also spend the upcoming weekend in session, Sen. Tom Harkin told D.C.-based newspaper The Hill.

Despite strict laws banning the possession and use of marijuana, some Iowa patients are turning to the drug to ease their symptoms.

The vast majority of Democratic opposition to the final health reform bill in the U.S. House came from members whose districts are more rural than the nation as a whole.