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Alexander Will Resume Bipartisan Health Care Talks

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“With the collapse of the GOP’s last-ditch effort to repeal Obamacare, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) said Tuesday he is restarting bipartisan talks to stabilize health insurance markets and bring down premiums,” the Tennessean reports.

Alexander said he will consult with Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) and other Republicans and Democrats “to see if senators can find consensus on a limited bipartisan plan that could be enacted into law to help lower premiums and make insurance available to the 18 million Americans in the individual market in 2018 and 2019.”

David Nather: “There’s still no guarantee that they can get a deal — Alexander wants to give states more freedom from ACA rules than Murray does. But the fact that Alexander is willing to restart the talks, after walking away from them last week during the Graham-Cassidy effort, could be a sign that the repeal bill’s failure is reviving the prospects for ‘fixing’ the ACA.”

What Will Patty Murray Do?

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Sen. Patty Murray’s (D-WA) two decades in office “have been marked by her knack for turning her vanilla-ness into an asset to pass big bills and accrue power. Lawmakers in both parties say she has a high trustworthiness quotient… Now, in a measure of Murray’s prominence and influence, she’s managed to roil the Senate Democratic Caucus just by remaining silent about her ambitions,” Politico reports.

“Murray refused to rule out the possibility of running against Democratic Whip Dick Durbin, currently No. 2 in her party’s Senate leadership, who’s been busy lining up support to keep his job.”

About Political Wire

goddard-bw-snapshotTaegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.

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