Historic legislation to expand U.S. health care and control costs won its first Republican supporter Tuesday and cleared a key Senate hurdle, a double-barreled triumph that propelled President Barack Obama’s signature issue toward votes this fall in both houses of Congress.

"When history calls, history calls," said Maine Republican Olympia Snowe, whose declaration of support ended weeks of suspense and provided the only drama of a 14-9 vote in the Senate Finance Committee. ...

That's the front page of the Bangor Daily News today.

If you read down a ways, you'll find some discussion about what is actually in the damn bill, all couched in the politics.

I pray the progressives wake up soon and come out of their collective slumber before we help the Democrats pass a health insurance bail out. The reforms championed two years ago, that rested largely on providing Americans with a Medicare-like plan, open to all takers, has morphed into Romney Care. While the centerpiece progressives envisioned on health care reform rested largely on federal intervention via program, the Democrats have cleary gone the less contentious route of a federal roll via regulation. The idea seems to be create a federal role, and hopefully tighten regulations later down the road, which is laughable.

Jonathan Cohn, writing at TNR, [via Matt Yglesias]:

Instead of a politically daunting $1.5 trillion, the CBO figures the price tag will be closer to $1 trillion, at least under certain parameters.

Monday, April 6, is the fifth and final White House Health DReform Forum, this time in Los Angeles, CA.

From Healthcare-NOW!

Los Angeles, California - April 6th

The forum will be held at The California Endowment located at 1000 N. Alameda Street. The event will start at 10:30am and doors open at 9:00am. Attendees must be seated by 10:00am. Folks should starting arriving no later than 8:30 a.m.