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   Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Gnter Grass still thinks reunification was a bad idea.
 Forty years of writing from Taylor Branch, James Fallows, Katherine Boo, Marjorie Williams, Joshua Micah Marshall, and more.
 With help from Washington, the for-profit college industry is loading up millions of low-income students with debt they'll never pay off.
 The best recent memoir from republican Washington is a hoax. That should tell you something.
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May 28, 2009
REASON FOR OPTIMISM.... Plenty of things can still go wrong, but the health care debate seems to be moving in an encouraging direction.
Both of these are encouraging developments. Baucus, of course, is taking a leading role in shaping the Senate version of the bill, and if he's prepared to fight "tooth and nail" for a public option, it's a lot more likely to happen. As for Nelson, just a few weeks ago, the Nebraskan said a public option in the reform package would be a "deal breaker," because it would simply be too attractive to and popular with American consumers. What's more, he vowed to put together a "coalition of like-minded centrists opposed to the creation of a public plan," to help ensure that the final bill relies exclusively on private insurers. Today, however, meeting with representatives of SEIU, AARP, the American Cancer Society, the reform coalition Healthcare for America NOW, and the Center for Rural Affairs, Nelson reportedly sang a very different tune. Maybe the heat Nelson was taking as a result of his position led him to reconsider his obstinacy. It's hardly a lock, of course. Nelson apparently told these groups that he's "open" to the idea, which is better than the line he took a few weeks ago. But the larger truth is that the reform is effort is clearly on track -- and with a reconciliation process in place, the final bill needs just 50 votes. —Steve Benen 2:45 PM Permalink | Trackbacks | Comments (7)Comments
Maybe the heat Nelson was taking as a result of his position led him to reconsider his obstinacy. Or maybe since reconciliation rules apply (51 majority), he also realizes he doesn't have the votes to kill it. Now the devil is in the details, and I hope the "option" allows anyone to pass on private insurance, as opposed to just low income people. That way insurance companies will actually have to compete. Posted by: Danp on May 28, 2009 at 2:55 PM | PERMALINKNelson's a weasel. He just wanted to break early for lunch, so he told these people what they wanted to hear. He'll be back to his old ways in a few weeks, particularly if he thinks it will get some attention from the media. Posted by: jonas on May 28, 2009 at 3:02 PM | PERMALINKSlight correction, Danp. Since the full Senate is short one member, currently a vote of 50-49 should suffice. When Franken is finally certified and seated, that would change. Posted by: Michael W on May 28, 2009 at 3:04 PM | PERMALINKAnd let's please not cut Baucus any slack here. He is going to go forward with a plan that will cause the least amount of discomfort to the insurance industry. I bet a paycheck that the final plan will force coverage (not a bad thing) but insurers will be intact and there will NOT be a public system (like the one Baucus has relied on for 30 years). Period. He'll talk a good line and have his staff leak comforting pablum like this for the home folks but he didn't get to where he is being clean. Back in Montana he covered for WR Grace's asbestos mine for decades and when a federal judge let Grace off the hook 2 weeks ago Baucus swoops in with promises of tax payer health care for miners who needed the help back in the '70s. An industry shill with good sound bites. Public pressure is what you are attributing this change of heart to... but there is no doubt that private insurance is putting as much pressure as they can to keep them in the game to insure their profiteering continues...spending millions in contributions and lobbyists to keep a public option out along with single payer. So either Baucus and Nelson are just faking it or this team has found a way to corrupt a public option and single payer plan to mask their private plan. I find it hard to swallow that these senators are listening to the people over the corporations. "Public Option" can be portrayed in a number of ways so until I see how these senators define it I will remain skeptical and paranoid about getting a not for profit plan. While pressure on behalf of a public option is good, it won't come anywhere near solving the biggest problem. Atal Gawande's article in this week's New Yorker talks about it. It's pretty depressing. Posted by: Lex on May 29, 2009 at 1:33 PM | PERMALINK
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