Ezra Klein today reported that Harry Reid was very close to including a national public option into the healthcare reform bill that would be voted on in the Senate. Until...
...Max Baucus held a meeting.
Here, stories begin to diverge. Depending on who you talk to, Baucus either held a routine, informational meeting telling the Senate moderates and members of the Senate Finance Committee what's going on, as he's been doing fairly regularly, or he held a meeting in which he tried to rally Senate moderates to change Reid's mind. Or maybe there's no difference between the two. The first to really speak out after the meeting was Sen. Ben Nelson, and, as one staffer pointed out, Nelson didn't need Baucus to remind him that he was opposed to a national public option. Soon enough, Olympia Snowe was also making firm statements against the public option, and threatening a filibuster.
Sort of astounding for a Senator who claims to support the public option. In fact, right now, we have to assume that Max Baucus is actively working against the public option.
This week, George Ochenski wrote a pretty d*mning op-ed in the Missoula Independent, accusing state Democrats of lining up to praise Baucus' efforts on healthcare and his bill because of money. Campaign money. Oodles and oodles of cash. And you know what? He's got a point.
But money isn't everything. Votes matter, too. And I guarantee they can't have both Baucus' money and widespread support among voters, especially those of the Democratic base. Because this bill, without a robust, widely-available public option, is going to affect a majority of Montanans' not one single bit, except to raise their premiums. Many, if not most, voters will wake up the day the bill goes into effect, and still find rejected claims due to preexisting conditions in their mailbox along with a stiff little premium hike to cover those the insurers will be forced to cover. (You know how they'll frame it, too. Those "shiftless""irresponsible" ones, the "parasites" who don't take care of their health.) And a lucky few union families will find a nice fat tax hike in their pay stub, too.
The bill without a robust public option is a kind of welfare program for the poor. Which is fine. But it's been framed as healthcare "reform." And when people hear "reform," and want "reform," and you give them something else that's definitely not "reform," you know what their reaction will be.
It will destroy the Democratic party.
So. Montana Democrats. You either stick with Baucus and drive off a political cliff, or you ditch him and find another way to raise money. H*ll, if you come out strong and hard against Baucus and for the public option, raising money probably won't be an issue.
And, frankly, Baucus isn't the only one who appears to be against us. Also from Klein's piece:
On Thursday night, Reid went over to the White House for a talk with the president. The conversation centered on Reid's desire to put Schumer's national opt-out plan into the base bill. White House officials were not necessarily pleased, and they made that known. Everyone agrees that they didn't embrace Reid's new strategy. Everyone agrees that the White House wants Snowe on the bill, feels the trigger offers a safer endgame, and isn't convinced by Reid's math. But whether officials expressed a clear preference for the trigger, or were just worried about the potential for 60 votes, is less clear. One staffer briefed on the conversation says "the White House basically told us, 'We hope you guys know what you're doing.'"
Frankly, I hope the White House knows what it's doing. Because from here, it looks like they're pushing for the clusterf*ck. |
