Tainted Saints

“…Senate leaders and the White House will now merge the Finance Committee measure with another version of the legislation approved this summer by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. The merged bill could be ready for debate before the full Senate later this month.

The Finance Committee measure, which the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates would reduce the federal deficit $81 billion over the next 10 years, differs in one major way from the health committee bill: It lacks a government-run health insurance plan, or “public option” alternative to private insurance, which President Barack Obama and Democratic congressional leaders want.

Three committees in the House of Representatives have approved legislation that includes a public option. Those bills are being combined into one, and the full House is expected to debate the legislation later this month. Prospects for approval there look good.

“We don’t intend to go to the floor without a public option in our bill,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has vowed…”

“The pivotal Senate Finance Committee was poised to approve sweeping legislation Tuesday requiring nearly all Americans to purchase insurance and ushering in a host of other changes to the nation’s $2.5 trillion medical system.

Much work would lie ahead before a bill could arrive on Obama’s desk, but action by the Finance Committee would mark a significant advance, capping numerous delays as Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., held marathon negotiating sessions — ultimately unsuccessful — aimed at producing a bipartisan bill.

Four other congressional committees acted before August to pass health legislation, so for months all eyes have been on the Finance Committee, the remaining one. It’s also the panel whose moderate makeup most closely resembles the Senate as a whole. And the committee’s centrist legislation is seen as the best building block for a compromise plan that could find favor on the Senate floor.”

The full Finance committee is scheduled to vote on the bill next Tuesday, which is backed by Republican Senator Olympia Snowe. In addition to scorning the public option, the bill also doesn’t “…allow Medicare to use its bargaining power to negotiate lower drug prices, or adequately subsidize millions of middle-class families who will be required to buy health insurance that will be hard for them to afford. In short, it’s a great deal for private insurers and Big Pharma but not such a great deal for middle-class Americans.”

http://washingtonindependent.com/61990/senate-finance-panel-grants-states-flexibility-to-drop-medicaid-patients

Rockefeller’s:  http://campaignsilo.firedoglake.com/2009/09/29/rockefellers-robust-public-option-amendment-fails-8-15/

Schumer’s:  http://campaignsilo.firedoglake.com/2009/09/29/schumers-level-playing-field-public-option-amendment-fails-10-13/