How are Democrats Going to Bridge the Gap Between the House and Senate?

All right, the house passed a totally different bill that has tax increases for the rich, a public option, a health care mandate, and a host of regulations most congressman will not bother to read. The Senate bill (if it passes) contains the tax on employee benefits, a mandate, and also a host of regulations no one will bother to read. These aren't minor details to be worked out over the conference committee. They are fundamental differences and key issues to very powerful constituencies withing the Democratic party. I would not be surprised if Unions begin calling for the defeat of this bill based on the tax alone. As for the left, they are apoplectic that their nemesis Lieberman, the first true scalp they took, has come came back effectively put a stake in their cherished dreams.

Democrats’ Consensus

“The general consensus was that we shouldn’t make the perfect the enemy of the good,” Bayh told reporters after Senate Democrats met yesterday. He said party members agreed the worst outcome would be failing to pass a bill at all.

Democrats need all of the 60 votes controlled by their party in the Senate to pass the legislation if Republicans remain united in opposition to it. By dropping the public option and the proposed Medicare buy-in, Democratic leaders may be able to reel in Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats and is critical of both ideas.

“Put me down tonight as encouraged at the direction” of negotiations, Lieberman told reporters after the meeting yesterday. “I think we are in reach of a very significant accomplishment” that “will change the lives of millions of people in our country for the better,” he said.

Democrats may also win over Maine Senator Olympia Snowe, the only Republican in the chamber to vote for any health-care plan so far. She is opposed to the public option and supported legislation in the Senate Finance Committee that omitted it.

No Details

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, refused to give any details about what will end up in the final bill when he spoke to reporters after yesterday’s meeting. He and fellow Democratic leaders expressed confidence that they would round up the votes needed to pass legislation soon. It then would have to be reconciled with a version approved by the House last month.

The chances that the progressive caucus might actualy bolt and vote down the bill are slim to say the least. Most of them are smart enough to recognize the longer this debate continues the deeper the hole the dems are digging, but the very fact that we have reached a point that leftists are actually calling for the killing of the bill testifies to how disastrous a year this has been for the Demorats.

P.S.

The abortion land mine hasn't even gone off yet.