Who says bipartisan good feeling is dead? The big question hanging over health care reform right now is whether House Speaker Nancy Pelosi can get enough Democrats to vote for the Senate bill and an accompanying set of amendments that would move through the budget reconciliation process. Rather than make Pelosi and her lieutenants go to the trouble of counting all those votes, Republican House Whip Eric Cantor has generously done the work for her.
When Senators like Bernie Sanders or Sherrod Brown say Democrats need to finalize health care reform through the budget reconciliation process because of Republican obstructionism, that doesn't mean much.
When Senators Evan Bayh, Mary Landrieu, and Ben Nelson say their more liberal colleagues may be right, that means a lot.
Via Politico's Carrie Budoff Brown, here's Bayh:
Billy Tauzin announced on Thursday that he is stepping down as leader of PhRMA, the drug industry trade group. And if you're a fan of health care reform, like I am, you're probably not sure whether that's good news or bad news.
Believe it or not, it may be neither--at least based on some very preliminary reporting Thursday evening.
Politico's Carrie Budoff Brown is reporting that the White House is encouraging Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to cut a deal with Joe Lieberman.
The White House is denying the report, in fairly strong terms: "The White House is not pushing Senator Reid in any direction," spokesman Dan Pfeiffer says. "We are working hand in hand with the Senate Leadership to work through the various issues and pass health reform as soon as possible."
But one of TNR's Capitol Hill sources is saying the same thing that Politico's is. According to the source, the message came directly from Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel: Lose the Medicare buy-in, reach an accommodation with Lieberman, and pass legislation as soon as possible.
According to Politico, Reid, frustrated with Lieberman's antics, is inclined to wait at least until the Congressional Budget Office delivers its formal cost estimate, most likely in the next two days.
What's really going on here? Who knows.
Readers may have noticed that the "Daily Treatment" isn't really daily. Instead, it's daily when I have time to write it, which isn't as often as I would like. And that's unfortunate.
It means I don't get to chance to highlight many worthy articles--or, more important, to thank, implicitly, the writers and thinkers whose work influences me. So today I'm bringing the Daily Treatment back, but offering an extended holiday version--one in which I can give thanks to...
Julie Appleby, Mary Agnes Carey, Philip Galewitz, and Jordan Rau for asking, and answering, the questions most Americans actually care about
Carrie Budoff Brown for her relentless, indispensable coverage
Brian Beutler for being impervious to spin (and nearly impervious to bullets)
Michael Cannon for keeping me honest
Kevin Drum for staying healthy
A few days ago in Politico, Carrie Budoff Brown and Chris Frates wrote an article on "Health reform's hidden land mines." It was, in effect, a list of all the ways in which health reform is likely to disappoint the public and/or violate pledges that reform advocates have made over the past two years. Premiums for the majority of Americans might not come down appreciably.
Thursday was as crazy a day as I've seen in Washington. The flurry of legislative activity over the public insurance option--and the flurry of media coverage it generated--made it difficult to keep up and, at times, to separate truth from rumor or hyperbole.
But over the course of the day, one thing became increasingly clear. At least for the moment, the debate isn't over whether to include a public option. It's over what kind.
Brian Beutler and Carrie Budoff Brown have the essentials on the Senate situation. In a nutshell, Harry Reid thinks he has the votes to sustain a bill that includes some sort of public option compromise, whether it's a trigger or an opt-out. Max Baucus is not happy about this and, perhaps to a lesser extent, neither is Olympia Snowe. But other centrists, most notably Ben Nelson, are making pretty clear they can find a way to live with at least some versions of the public insurance compromise. That's news.
Over in the House, according to several sources, the drama began in the morning when Speaker Nancy Pelosi addressed a meeting of the Democratic caucus and laid out two main possibilities. One was the "Medicare-plus-five" version--that is, a government-run plan that would pay physicians at roughly Medicare rates with an extra five percent on top. (It'd pay hospitals standard Medicare rates without the additional five percent.) The other possibility was a "negotiated" version--that is, a government-run plan that bargained with doctors and hospitals over rates.
Multiple outlets are reporting that when Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus introduces his health reform bill tomorrow, it will not have any Republican endorsements. (Update: it's out, and here's my initial reaction.) That means no support from Mike Enzi or Charles Grassley, which isn't surprising. It also means no support from Olympia Snowe, which is a little bit surprising. Snowe is the Republican most serious about reform and working with Democrats.
On the evening of January 22, a few hours after his administration's debut news conference, Barack Obama made a surprise visit to the cramped quarters of the White House press corps. It was meant to be a friendly event, and Obama glad-handed his way through reporters and cameramen, exchanging light banter as he went.
