ROBERT BOROSAGE Senators to Prez: Make Fed Accountable Senators Webb and Sanders have signed letter urging President Obama to fill empty seats on Federal Reserve Board with nominees who will help balance the Institution. Notably they urge the president to find nominees who would break up the big banks, ban usurious interest rates, enforce consumer protections, allow an audit of the fed's bailout operations, put a lid on executive compenstaion. A sensible idea after the crash which has cost Americans trillions. ISAIAH J. POOLE Broken Government: Conservatives Keep Up Record Pace Of Obstruction A Center for American Progress report this week chronicles just how obstructionist conservatives in the Senate continue to be as they use the filibuster to block reform efforts in the Senate. Scott Lilly elaborates on a trend that we began chronicling more than two years ago as conservatives announced that routine use of the filibuster would become their political strategy. They would flip-flop from being the party that insisted on "the up-or-down vote" to the party sometimes willing to block votes at all costs. DAVE JOHNSON When Conservatives Are Right... Pat Buchanan has a column today on manufacturing, "The Disemboweling of America," that hits the nail on the head. In fact, if I fairly excerpt enough of the column and send you over to read it, my work here is done. For today. BILL SCHER Two Fox News Contributors Claim They're Still Democrats To Kill Health Care The Washington Post today published an op-ed by Pat Caddell and Doug Schoen, who defined themselves as "pollsters to the past two Democratic presidents, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton" who are heroically telling the current President that the polls say "Comprehensive health care has been lost," so they should give up on it. For political advice to President Obama, this is about as sincere and honest as what he's getting from Sen. Mitch McConnell. ROBERT BOROSAGE Miller Harkin Act to Save Direct Lending With word that Six Senators were expressing opposition to putting direct lending in the budget bill reconciliation — which only requires sixty votes to pass the Senate — Rep George Miller, Chair of the House Education and Labor Committee, and Tom Harkin, Chair of the Senate Education Committe, got to work. Miller pointed out that adding direct lending in the bill made reconciliation more, not less likely to pass in the House — where every vote is needed to get the health care fix done. SAM PIZZIGATI Census Time for Billionaires The world's super-duper rich, in the new Forbes magazine count, total just over 1,000 — and hold more wealth than half of humanity. more from our bloggers >>

House timeline could lead to March 18 vote. CQ: "Congressional Budget Office scores of the final bill were expected Friday ... According to plans under discussion Thursday, the Budget Committee would act first, on March 15 ... The Rules Committee would then follow on March 17 ... with a rule for debate on both the reconciliation bill and the Senate health care bill. The full House could then take up the measures together, as soon as the next day..."

LAT reports congressional leaders not committing to that timeframe: "...senior Democrats acknowledged that they were not ready to move forward, and could miss a tentative deadline for a first vote next week."

W. Post's Ezra Klein sums up Reid roundhouse letter to McConnell: "Reconcile this." "...one might conclude that Republicans believe a majority vote is sufficient to increase the deficit and benefit the super-rich, but not to reduce the deficit and benefit the middle class. Alternatively, perhaps Republicans believe a majority vote is appropriate only when Republicans are in the majority. Either way, we disagree."

Reports from GOPers that Senate Parliamentarian would not allow reconciliation votes until Senate bill signed into law appear to be false. CQ: "The parliamentarian ... later reportedly clarified his position to Senate aides, saying that the reconciliation bill could be written in a way that would not require Obama to sign the Senate bill into law before the reconciliation bill is voted on."

GOP strategy involves sowing House distrust of senators. Bloomberg: "To assure House members the Senate will pass reconciliation, Senator Jay Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat, said he’d be willing to sign a letter with 50 other senators pledging to do so ... Republicans say rank-and-file Democrats shouldn’t trust their leaders. 'What the president is doing is asking House Democrats to hold hands, jump off a cliff, and hope Harry Reid catches them,' Senator Lamar Alexander..."

House may move without any changes to Senate abortion language reports HuffPost.

Rep. Waxman says talks with Stupak continue notes TPMDC

Four more anti-abortion House Dems -- Reps. Steve Driehaus, Marcy Kaptur, James Oberstar and Charlie Wilson -- open to voting for Senate language reports CQ.

Stupak’s Abortion Gang Falling Apart As Pro-Life Members Admit Senate Bill Won’t Fund Abortions says Wonk Room.

FireDogLake's Jane Hamsher and DailyKos' mcjoan rip Sen. Durbin for pressuring public option supporters to vote against it in reconciliation.

TPMDC suggests public option supporters don't have a firm 41 senators in hand: "...a closer look suggests some of the latest additions are senators who only conditionally support a public option being passed through reconciliation. "

Sen. Sanders planning to force up-or-down vote on public option reports The Plum Line.

Rep. Alan Grayson now has 50 cosponsors for his Medicare buy-in bill. OpenLeft's Chris Bowers: "Every indication has always been that there is overwhelming support for a Medicare buy-in among Congressional Democrats. This could very well pass as a stand alone bill, especially in 2011 once filibuster reform has taken place. This is definitely one of the ways that progressives can viably continue the fight for real health reform no matter what happens to the current bill."

NYT's Paul Krugman pushes back on claims that President's proposal does not cut costs: "The [Medicare] actuary’s assessment of the Senate bill, for example, finds that it would raise total health care spending by less than 1 percent, while extending coverage to 34 million Americans ... That’s a large expansion in coverage at an essentially trivial cost. [Plus,] the Congressional Budget Office has just concluded, in a new report, that the arithmetic of reform will look better in its second decade ... [And] health reform is likely to do much better at controlling costs than any of the official projections suggest."

James Parks at the AFL-CIO observes that rising health insurance premiums seem to be related to a rise in support for reform: "A survey from Economist/YouGov released this week, shows 53 percent of respondents support changes proposed by the Obama administration. ... Meanwhile, a study by Health Care for America Now (HCAN) shows jaw-dropping insurance premium hikes-up 97 percent for families and 90 percent for individuals between 2000 and 2008."

If Members of Congress can't seem to listen to the public, perhaps they will take the time to listen to 11-year-old Marcelas Owens talk about the death of his mother HuffPost quotes: "I am here because of my mom. My mom was diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension in 2006. She missed so much work she lost her job. And when my mom lost her job, she lost her health care. And losing her health care ended up costing her her life."

Dodd Moves Without GOP On Financial Reform. (But What's In His Bill?)

Consumer advocates still concerned Dodd will propose watered-down reforms. HuffPost: "... while [the Independent Community Bankers Association] supports strengthening consumer protection, it doesn't want an independent consumer-focused agency targeting community banks ... Dodd was reportedly willing to negotiate on these key points -- to the detriment of consumers, consumer groups and reformers argue."

Dodd trying to not repeat Baucus health care debacle. Politico: "...Corker said it is clear Dodd is under pressure from the White House and other Democrats to get a bill out of the Senate Banking Committee before reconciliation distracts the chamber from other business ... 'God bless Bob Corker. We appreciate all the help he gave us, but at some point we just can’t wait,' Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said when asked about Corker’s assertion concerning reconciliation. 'Sen. Baucus spent 61 different meetings with Republicans trying to get something on health care. There reaches a point where you have to accept the inevitable.'"

MyDD's Charles Lemos hopes Dodd didn't wait too long: " It has long been clear that the Republicans are not interested in governing. With their interminable delays, they have sought, and frankly largely succeeded, in derailing the agenda of the Obama Administration. While it may not be too late to actually achieved wide-ranging reforms, that window of opportunity is now measured in just months."

Corker still looks to shape legislation. W. Post: "...Corker said he would continue to work toward agreement on the remaining issues. 'What Chairman Dodd is going to do, probably, is introduce a bill on Monday that is a little to the left of where we were, to try to ensure that he can do as much as he can in the way of getting Democratic support on the committee,' Corker said. 'And then I think he will move to the right.'"

Reuters' Felix Salmon says bipartisanship will still be necessary to get a bill passed: "[The American Prospect's Tim] Fernholz points out that Democrats, too, want decent Republican support, saying that 'moderate Democrats on the committee are leery of portions of the bill and would prefer to have Republican cover': his datapoint here is that of the 13 Democrats on the committee, only 7 have gone on the record saying they’d support an independent CFPA. So Dodd’s going to design his bill to have the best possible chance of getting Republican support once it comes out of markup, while still being acceptable to the left wing of the Democratic party."

Yellin May Be Next Fed Vice-Chair

Former Fed governor Janet Yellin reportedly to become Fed vice-chair. Bloomberg: "Yellen ... said last month that the U.S. economy 'still needs the support of extraordinarily low' interest rates ... The Obama administration is also working to fill two other vacancies on the seven-member Fed board. Among the candidates is Sarah Bloom Raskin, 48, Maryland’s commissioner of financial regulation ... Peter Diamond, an economics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is also under consideration ..."

Calcuated Risk gives Yellin a thumbs up: "She was way ahead of most other Fed members in recognizing the housing bubble ... She is also very focused on unemployment (something we need right now)."

Momentum Returns To Pass Student Loan Reform With Simple Majority

Student loan reform now likely to be included in health care reconciliation bill. W. Post: "Key Senate Democrats initially balked at combining the health-reform bill with a measure that overhauls the nation's student-loan program, but on Thursday they had warmed to the idea ... Conrad said the Senate parliamentarian suggested in a preliminary ruling that combining the bills could work, provided that the right balance on cost was found. "

CQ has more on what cost adjustments might be needed: "...the Congressional Budget Office released an estimate last week that lowered the measure’s potential savings from $87 billion to $67 billion, raising questions about whether it would be deficit neutral. Provisions in the House bill to expand early education programs and increase access to higher education, including increasing the availability of Pell grants, are based on the earlier, $87 billion estimate. If the student loan bill were included in a reconciliation package, negotiators would need to adjust the measure accordingly."

Pairing student loan reform with health care now seen as necessary to meet reconciliation requirements. Politico: "The Senate parliamentarian notified Democratic leaders that, in order to meet the reconciliation requirements, both the Senate health and finance committees would need to produce $1 billion in deficit savings each over the next 10 years, [Sen. Kent] Conrad said ... [The health cmte] would not be able to show the items within its jurisdiction save at least $1 billion. By inserting the education package, the committee would satisfy the reconciliation instructions, Conrad said."

Some congresspeople arguing that adding student loan reform will attract more health care votes than it loses. CQ: "'It helps in the House,' [Rep. George Miller] said. 'It’s very important in the House.'"