Senate Health Reform Bill Unveiling

Later today, Senate Democrats are expected to unveil their health reform bill for debate, which could start as early as this week (pending a procedural vote). Democrats are meeting at 5:00 today to get the results of the Congressional Budget Office's scoring of the bill.

We'll see now if Harry Reid is a master legislator or a legislative masturbator. What kind of public option will there be? How universal the coverage? Other cost savings? Does he have the votes for whatever he's putting forward, at least to get debate started? One strong proponent of the public option, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA), isn't so sure there won't be more watering down of the public option to satisfy conservaDems.

UPDATE: At first blush, it looks like "master legislator" is closer to the mark for ol' Harry, though more finessing and reconciliation with the House bill remains. (The bill has a public option with "opt out", would reduce the deficit by $127 billion over 10 years, and cover 94% of the public.) Now if the Dems can just stick to their guns...

65% Support Public Option

In spite of the clownhalls, deathers, and constant drumbeat of doom from Congressional Rethugs ("You lie!"), a public option as part of health care reform is favored by 65% of the American people, according to the most recent NY Times/CBS poll. Can Dems read the polls, or are their heads too far up the insurance industry's ass to see?

And speaking of polls, the Villager media is fond of pushing the meme that the Democrats polling numbers, and contributions, are down. (You'd have to plumb the depths of the WaPo article to find that Dems are still ahead of Rethugs in national committee, and House and Senate campaign war chests; but noting that would undermine the meme, right?). Crooks and Liars asks, will they ever report how abysmal Rethug numbers are? Here's the "scoop" they choose to ignore:

Favorability

Congressional Dems: 38%
Congressional Rethugs: 17%(!)

Democratic Party: 40%
Republican Party: 22%(!!)

Health Care Wednesday

We have two items for your consideration today - HuffPo's Jason Linkins on the anonymous White House aides dissing progressives about the public option. Now, to these craven asshats, we're the "left of the left," which in the real world makes them... Rethugs. These geniuses were shocked! shocked I tells ya' to find out the public option is more than Obamas's "sliver" in the overall reform package. To paraphrase Barney Frank (below), what planet were these people living on for the past 6 months?

In another take, the Onion reveals the direction our "leaders" are taking us (h/t to Germantown correspondent Brian - your check is in the mail!).

Quote of the Week

"Ultimately, if the President decides he's going to go with a reform effort that doesn't include a public option, what he will have done is spent a ton of political capital, riled up an incredibly angry right-wing base that's been told this is a plot to kill Grandma, and he will have achieved something that doesn't change health care very much and that doesn't save us very much and won't do much for the American people. It's just not a very good thing to spend a lot of political capital on." MSNBC's Rachel Maddow on Meet the Press yesterday, responding to reports that the White House might be willing to sign a health reform bill that didn't include a public option. Oh, and one more "downside:" it will let the Rethugs and everyone in the world know that this is a President who can be easily rolled.