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U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln said today she expects health care reform to remain a hot topic through the 2010 election cycle, but she believes as Arkansans learn more about the reform bill she voted for last week, they will see it is good for Arkansas. “I think the more people do understand about the health care bill, the more comfort they feel with it,” she said. “There’s been a lot of misinformation out there.”

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) announced Wednesday that North Arkansas Regional Medical Center in Harrison and seven other Arkansas hospitals will be protected under an amendment she secured in the revised Senate health plan. Her proposal prevents scheduled Medicare payment cuts proposed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) that put 250 hospitals throughout the United States at a disadvantage, including hospitals in Mountain Home, Forrest City, Blytheville, Helena, Jonesboro, Batesville, Paragould and Harrison. The move is expected to spare North Arkansas Regional Medical Center $1,078,857 in Medicare cuts.

It’s hard to believe that just 11 short months ago, the Republican Party was all but declared a non-entity for the next 50 years in American politics. Now it seems by all poll indications, the Republicans are back and they may make the 1994 off-year elections look tame compared to what may be in store in 2010. The early scent of a future landslide defeat usually begins with the party’s own starting to withdraw as candidates. Early reports show Reps. Dennis Moore of Kansas, John Tanner and Bart Gordon of Tennessee, Brian Baird of Washington and Neil Abercrombie of Hawaii...

(CNSNews.com) - Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) told CNSNews.com that Congress has the authority to force individual Americans to buy health insurance because the U.S. Constitution “charges Congress with the health and well-being of the people.”

Politics: If the Democrats' stitched-together Frankenstein monster of health care reform gets the 60 votes to get through the Senate, it will have been done through an assortment of bribes and brass knuckles. (snip) Sen. Ben Nelson, a Nebraska Democrat, has also been critical of the buy-in and public option, but he has an additional issue about whatever comes out of the Senate not involving public funding of abortion in any way. Michael Goldfarb on the Weekly Standard blog quotes a Senate aide as saying the White House is now threatening to put Nebraska's Offutt Air Force Base on the...

Even before she became the swing vote that forced consideration of Obamacare onto the Senate floor, two-term Arkansas senator Blanche Lambert Lincoln had a dubious distinction: "For 2010, she may be the most endangered Democratic senator in the country," says Public Policy Polling head Dean Debnam. Political handicappers began to note her vulnerability last summer when, in the face of the tea-party movement, Lincoln refused to hold town hall meetings with her constituents. In a conference call with Arkansas reporters, she called tea-party confrontations with politicians "un-American," and ever since, even though she relented and held a few town halls...

"With Republicans seeking a big Senate seat win in Arkansas, one man - a former Green Beret who served in Afghanistan - has put his hat in the ring as an Independent candidate for senator, demonstrating why democracy still matters. Arkansas offers an interesting litmus test in modern American democracy. The battle for one Senate seat has implications for long-term American domestic and foreign policy, and for these reasons Republicans are eager to win in Arkansas. Trevor Drown, a former Green Beret who served in Afghanistan, has his own perspectives on the Arkansas contest. Mr. Drown put together an...

Senate Democrats will offer an amendment this weekend to curb the pay of executives at health insurance companies that benefit from federal subsidies, fueling the growing feud with the powerful industry. Sens. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.), Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) and Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) have sponsored an amendment that would prohibit health insurance companies from deducting more than $400,000 in executive compensation per individual. The cap would apply to companies that earned 25 percent or more of their income from Americans who buy insurance from government-created exchanges.

Liberal democrat Blanche Lincoln now trails four Republicans in her home state after voting to open debate on Obamacare. During the debate to open Obamacare Lincoln said government is too big to fail then went ahead to vote to make it bigger anyway. Ony 18% of Arkansas voters strongly favor Obamacare while 56% strongly oppose it. Rasmussen reported: Senator Blanche Lambert Lincoln has found herself right in the middle of the national debate over health care, and that’s a tough spot as she prepares to face Arkansas voters in 2010. As she did in September, Lincoln trails four possible Republican...

Here is video of Fox News' Brit Hume today talking about "cracks" in the Democratic coalition necessary to pass ObamaCare in the U.S. Senate. Hume said Sen. Blanche Lincoln is the senator to watch because ObamaCare is "wildly unpopular" in her home state of Arkansas. Hume believes it is possible the Democrats could persuade Lincoln, Nelson, and Landrieu to vote for cloture to move to a final vote, but lose Joe Lieberman. That would leave it in the hands of a liberal Republican like Olympia Snowe. Hume also said Obama's speech tomorrow night at West Point will bear watching to...

For Sen. Blanche Lincoln, the moderate Arkansas Democrat, the nation’s health-care woes may lead to more headaches than any medicine could alleviate. Lincoln is a pivotal vote on the motion to begin debate on Senate majority leader Harry Reid’s health-care legislation; if the motion passes, she could be the swing vote on the eventual motion to close debate. Her decision isn’t simply a calculation about winning the right number of concessions, as perhaps President Obama and the Democratic leadership hope; it’s about her political survival. The pressure in Washington may be significant — Lincoln has had sit-down meetings with Obama...

Staffers on Capitol Hill were calling it the Louisiana Purchase. On the eve of Saturday's showdown in the Senate over health-care reform, Democratic leaders still hadn't secured the support of Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), one of the 60 votes needed to keep the legislation alive. The wavering lawmaker was offered a sweetener: at least $100 million in extra federal money for her home state. And so it came to pass that Landrieu walked onto the Senate floor midafternoon Saturday to announce her aye vote -- and to trumpet the financial "fix" she had arranged for Louisiana. "I am not going...

It is up to you Arkansas. You make your voices heard now! Blanch Lincoln has got to go in the next election! Ni nice anymore. Same goes for you in Louisianna!

In response to Senator Lincoln's decision to vote in favor of cloture, Governor Palin tweets the following: Not sure I can convince Sen. Lincoln to vote no - but will do everything in my pwr to convince my friends in Arkansas to vote against her.,/u>,/b> Senator Lincoln is up for re-election in Arkansas in 2010. Only 29% of Arkansans support Obama's healthcare plan.

Democrats on Saturday clinched the votes needed to advance the Senate's version of President Obama's health care overhaul to the floor for a historic debate scheduled to begin shortly after 8 p.m..

Dems snare 60 votes to move ahead on health careBy ERICA WERNER, Associated Press Writer – 4 mins ago WASHINGTON – Democratic leaders secured the last two votes to move ahead on historic health care legislation, clearing the way for a Saturday night showdown on President Barack Obama's top domestic initiative. In long-awaited speeches, centrist Sens. Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas and Mary Landrieu of Louisiana said they would stand with their party and vote "yes" on the crucial test vote despite deep reservations with elements of the 2,074-page bill to remake the nation's health care system. "The truth is this...

Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) said she’d deliver the deciding vote to push forward with a sweeping health reform plan in the Senate Saturday, ending days of speculation over whether President Barack Obama’s signature priority would proceed to the floor or suffer a debilitating blow. As with several centrists before her, Lincoln’s yes vote to start debate came wrapped in series of serious concerns about the current bill – and she said it would require major revisions before she could cast a similar vote in favor of final passage. "I'm prepared to vote against moving to the next stage of consideration...

Here is video of Democrat Sen. Blanche Lincoln announcing that she will vote for Cloture today on the Senate Health Care Bill. Lincoln claims her vote does not mean she will vote "Yes" on a future cloture vote that will be needed to proceed to a final vote on the bill. In fact, in her remarks, Lincoln said she will vote "No" on the next 60-vote Cloture vote if the Reid bill remains in its current form. Whether she will hold true to those words is a matter of great uncertainty. . . . (VIDEO)

it's done folks...

Senator Ben Nelson, Democrat of Nebraska, says he is not sure he is ready to help a Democratic health care proposal clear even the most preliminary hurdle: gaining the 60 votes his party’s leaders need to open debate on the measure later this week. Two of his fellow Democrats, Senators Mary L. Landrieu of Louisiana and Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, are proving tough sells as well, raising the prospect that one or perhaps all three of them could scuttle the bill before the fight over it even begins on the Senate floor. “I think what is most important for me...