The co-chairs of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility have come up with a list of proposals of possible cuts in order to help offset the looming national deficit. Balancing the budget by 2015 will require finding ways to save $200 billion. So far, no decisions have been made on what programs should be cut, and lawmakers have to agree on where to begin.

So, we're doing the job for them - at least hypothetically. All this week, we're picking one program a day to cut and looking at what the ripple effect would be of doing so.

Last night the House voted, 219-212, to approve the Senate's version of health care reform, clearing the way for legislation to proceed to the president's desk. The House also approved a set of "fixes" to the Senate bill; Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has assured the House leadership that more than 51 Senators will pass the same fixes using the Senate's reconciliation rules.

President Obama released a proposal for health care reform Monday that hewed close to the bill passed last year by the Senate. After watching months of rancorous debate in Congress, the White House is laying out the key points of the proposal in plain language. But will it be enough to get reform unstuck?

Trudy Lieberman, contributing editor to the Columbia Journalism Review, and Carrie Budoff Brown, health reporter for Politico, join us to talk about the next steps for the Democrats' top legislative priority: reconciliation with the House bill and keeping their fractious caucus together.

In the moments as the Senate passes their version of health care reform, we check in with Jeff Young, reporter for The Hill, along with Trudy Lieberman, contributing editor to the Columbia Journalism Review.

Late in the evening Saturday, 219 Democrats and one Republican voted to pass the House version of health care reform, squeaking the historic bill past and sending the debate on to the Senate. For a look at the wrangling necessary to get the contentious legislation passed, we talk with Trudy Lieberman, contributing editor at the Columbia Journalism Review and healthcare blogger for CJR.org, along with our correspondent in Washington, Todd Zwillich.

Democratic Senator Max Baucus finally unveiled his plan for health care yesterday. No Republicans have endorsed the bill in its current form, but that doesn't mean they won't. We'll look at what's in a proposal that has been a year in the making and what may or may not be altered to win over moderate Republicans. We speak to Trudy Lieberman, Contributing Editor for the Columbia Journalism Review and healthcare blogger for CJR.org; and Dean Rosen, health care advisor to former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist.

The brave, curious, or wanna-be-health-care-wonks can read the full text of the Finance Committee bill (1.2Mb PDF).

Want to hear what Sen. Baucus thinks of his bill? Watch the video below:

To sift through the rumors, hearsay, and falsehoods being spoken and shouted in the debate over health care reform, The Takeaway talks to Trudy Lieberman, director of the Health and Medicine Reporting Program at CUNY's Graduate School of Journalism and a longtime contributing editor to the Columbia Journalism Review.

President Obama hoped to have his health care reform plan passed before Congress goes on recess in August, but now that seems unlikely. Over the weekend, the Congressional Budget Office reported that they saw no way that health care spending would decrease, forcing the president to spend the rest of the weekend defending the plan. Joining The Takeway is Trudy Lieberman, Director of the Health and Medicine Reporting Program at CUNY’s Graduate School of Journalism.

At President Obama’s urging, Democratic congressional leaders made considerable progress this week in reworking the nation’s health care system. On Tuesday, the House unveiled its health care reform bill and yesterday the Senate got its plan through committee. Both plans guarantee insurance for most Americans. They would raise taxes on high-income people while providing subsidies to Americans at moderate to low income levels. Both plans would also penalize employers who do not provide health benefits to their workers.

We turn to Trudy Lieberman for her take on what we could actually end up with. She is the director of the health and medicine reporting program at CUNY's Graduate School of Journalism and she is a longtime contributing editor to the Columbia Journalism Review. We'll also hear from medical leaders Dr. Herbert Pardes, President and CEO of the New York-Presbyterian Hospital,and Dr. Michael Pramenko. Dr. Pramenko is a family physician. He also serves on the Colorado Medical Society’s Congress for Health Care Reform. We also hear from Michael Fredrich. He is the president of MCM Composites LLCs, who as a small business owner has struggled to provide health care to his employees.

As President Obama and Congress work to reform health care, The Takeaway has been looking at possible models, at home and abroad, that could inform the debate. One possibility is the Massachusetts model for universal care. In April 2006, the Massachusetts legislature approved a bill that required all residents to purchase health insurance or face legal penalties, which made it the first state to tackle the problem of incomplete medical coverage by treating patients the same way it does car owners. Joining us to explain how this plan works, and how it would fare nationwide, is Trudy Lieberman. She directs the health and medicine reporting program at the City University of New York. She is also a longtime contributing editor to the Columbia Journalism Review, and has been following Massachusetts closely since 2006 when the sweeping reform was enacted.

For more of Trudy Lieberman's reporting on health care reform, check out her archive at Columbia Journalism Review.