All Blog Posts from Political Hotsheet

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said he agrees with Vice President Joe Biden that taxing employer-based health insurance is not a good remedy for the health care crisis.

"Max Baucus has a tough assignment," Durbin said of the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, who is proposing such a option.

As for voting for a plan which includes a tax on existing benefits, Durbin said, "It would not be easy for me to do."

When asked by Face The Nation host Bob Schieffer about the perils of proposing taxes, Durbin said, "Keep in mind that everyone today faces a hidden tax" in health insurance premiums which Americans absorb to cover the uninsured.

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Sen. Dick Durbin suggested to his fellow Illinois Sen. Roland Burris today that he would resign from the chamber if he was in Burris' shoes.

But in a meeting today, Burris said he would not resign, according to Durbin.

Durbin's comments were made after the two Democrats met privately as Burris faces calls to step down following his admission that he had more involvement with former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich than initially he let on while being considered for an appointment to President Obama’s former Senate seat.

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"If you don't pay close attention, the plot changes," Illinois senator Dick Durbin said of the drama surrounding the appointment of Roland Burris to fill Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat on CBS News' Face The Nation this morning.

Admitting that Democrats in the Senate had initially opposed seating Burris, owing to what was perceived as a possible taint from his selection by indicted Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, Durbin said, "As time has gone on and we've looked closely, we want to be fair to Roland Burris."

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This morning, the Associated Press reported that Roland Burris, the man appointed to Barack Obama's Senate seat by embattled Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, will be allowed to take the seat.

In a late morning press conference, however, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin said that no decision had yet been made.

Reid said that three steps need to be taken before Burris can, potentially, be seated. The first involves that fact that the Illinois secretary of state, Jesse White, did not sign the certificate that would have allowed Burris to enter the Senate.

Burris showed up in Washington for yesterday's Senate swearing-in session, but Senate Democrats refused to seat him, citing the lack of signature.

"We have a situation here, that we've had a rule in effect since 1884 in the Senate, that for a person to be appointed by a governor, you have to have the signature of the governor and the secretary of state," Reid said.

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