Mad Rush to Modify Baucus Health BIll

The closest thing Obama has to bill is the Baucus plan. Yes I know he never officially took a stand on what bill he wanted, but this is it. Now we have a mad rush to peg amendments to the bill as politicans scramble to cover their base and push their pet projects:

Senators have offered 564 amendments, all posted on the committee Web site, and the Republican proposals generally reveal seemingly irreconcilable differences. While they would gut the bill, one Republican, Senator Olympia J. Snowe of Maine, wants important changes but appears ready to get behind it, provided Mr. Baucus can keep his fellow Democrats in line.

For Mr. Baucus, the challenge will be to stop his fellow Democrats — they outnumber Republicans 13 to 10 — from shifting the bill so hard to the left that they chase away Ms. Snowe, who could provide the crucial 60th vote needed to get the measure through the Senate.

Consider Ms. Snowe’s most important amendment: to trigger the creation of a government-sponsored insurance plan in any state that fails to provide affordable insurance to 95 percent of residents. Mr. Baucus will have to fend off powerful Democrats, including Senators John D. Rockefeller IV of West Virginia and Charles E. Schumer of New York, who want to create the public plan from the outset.

The proceedings promise to be a wild ride for other reasons. Senator John Ensign, Republican of Nevada, wants to delete the word “fee” everywhere it appears in the bill and replace it with the word “tax,” a signal that Republicans intend to oppose the bill by framing it as a huge tax increase.

Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, who along with Ms. Snowe engaged in months of intense negotiations with Mr. Baucus, would do away with a core component of the proposal — a requirement that virtually all Americans obtain health insurance or pay a penalty if they fail to do so.And Mr. Grassley would eliminate proposed fees on the health industry, including insurers, drug companies and device manufacturers. Instead, he would pay for a large chunk of the bill with economic stimulus money that has not yet been spent.

The trigger is nonsense, as for replacing fee with tax, its reasonable but symbolic. As for the mandate, none of these "reform" proposals makes sense without one, unless you are from the "left" and believe all care should be free. Most importantely, Rockefeller is trying to strike out the co-op model to leave the public option as the only option.Snowe on the other hand appears ready to stay in the deal, offering 21 ammendemnets to the proposed legislation.