In the ADG this morning Mark Pryor said, "Everybody needs to calm down and take a big breath." He added, "It's important for us not to do anything unusual on health care right now."

Blanche Lincoln is all for calming down too. "We have to slow down and figure out what we want to do."

They both seemed to have learned something from Scott Brown's upset victory, but not enough. They are still following the Obama agenda in lockstep.

AP: The Democrats with Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor in the lead have agreed to jettison the public option. People 55 to 64 would be able to buy into Medicare. But the public option is still not entirely gone.

The problem with shifting more people to Medicare is that many doctors refuse to treat Medicare patients because Medicare pays too little. I've encountered this problem myself. 

See the NYT story. Olympia Snowe is not happy. See the votes here.

AP Report: In a recent vote, the Senate rejected an effort to restore $120 billion in cuts to Medicare Advantage.
ARKANSAS
Lincoln (D), No; Pryor (D), No.

Thanks to both of you. See you in 2010, Blanche.

Power Line comments on the recent cut in Medicare funds passed by the Senate. Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor both voted in favor of the cut.

Yesterday, the Senate defeated an amendment proposed by John McCain that would have stripped the Democrats' health care legislation of cuts to Medicare (more than $400 billion of them). Sen. McCain's amendment was defeated by a vote of 58-42. Ben Nelson and Jim Webb were the only Democrats who voted to prevent the cuts to Medicare.
This leaves a large number of Democrats who will have to explain to their constituents why they voted to slash Medicare so drastically. Some of these Dems will be facing substantial challenges in 2010.
The honest explanation is that the health care legislation cannot reasonably be funded without these cuts, except by running up too much debt for some Democrats to swallow. But this explanation isn't very helpful because the underlying health care legislation lacks broad popular support.
As something of a senior citizen myself, I can't say I'm pleased with potential cuts to Medicare. However, I take solace from the fact that the Dems will, at last, rid Medicare of waste, fraud, and inefficiency.

 LOL

Where are Arkansas' senators?

Today's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette has an editorial that asks, Where are our senators? Why are Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor not holding town hall meetings the way other members of Congress are? Lincoln says she held her meeting months ago, and Pryor plans a meeting via the telephone, lol.