Good Cop, Bad Cop? Baucus Says All Options Still On The Table
By Brian Beutler - July 9, 2009, 9:49AM
After telling Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) to put a public option in his health care bill, and strip it of a financing provision that would tax employer-provided health care benefits, Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid tried to assure Republicans that he wasn't abandoning bipartisanship. Now, Baucus is saying much the same.
"Everything's on the table," was Baucus' mantra yesterday. "By far the better approach is a bipartisan approach to get this moving."
These are palliative words, but they don't seem to have changed momentum on the Hill. Most indications suggest two key provisions that were recently expected to be included in the Senate Finance Committee's health care bill--health care co-operatives and the benefits tax--are on life support. That pleases reformers, but also makes them nervous. They abhor the co-op model--preferring a public insurance plan instead--and though their feelings about taxing benefits are mixed, they see no reason to ignite controversy when there are plenty of other, more-popular ways to finance reform. But at the same time, Finance is now way, way behind schedule, and there are precious few days left for them to complete work on a bill, merge it with the HELP Committee's bill, debate the final product on the floor, and bring it to a vote.
It seems that Reid really can't control his Senators and Baucus is hard headed and won't listen to anyone. Not Reid, Obama, or his constituents. How can a Committee Chairman think he has more power to do what he wants over the President and the Senate Majority Leader and a majority of the Democratic Senators?
UPDATE:
Report: Reid Promises Bipartisanship To Senate GOP
The Hill reports that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) met with a group of Republican Senators yesterday, assuring them that he was still committed to a bipartisan process on health care reform despite the new Democratic supermajority. Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) said that Reid "understands the enormity of this issue and the challenges it presents and that it's most important to be able to build a bipartisan consensus. If that requires more time, it requires more time."
1 comment:
I'm not surprised at all. I expected him to stick with his support of his insurance masters and I also expected Reid to capitulate as he has done every time afaik.
I'd rather they come out in the open now giving us more time to mount our rage against the insurance machine, because it's getting bigger every day.
I've decided I'm refusing to be insane anymore by expecting these guys to ever do anything different. They will keep repeating until they retire, are voted out or go over the rainbow. You can take that to the bank. Er, bad example, put it in a shoebox and bury it in the backyard to be safe. ;-)
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