So much for the bipartisan negotiations by Harry Reid and the rest of the Democrats in the wake of trillion dollar cost estimates in their version to force Americans into government run health care. Sensing the impending loss of the so-called “public option” the Senate Majority leader ordered Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus to ditch taxing health care benefits in an effort to save the “public option”.
According to Talking Points Memo via Roll Call:
“According to Roll Call Reid “ordered” Senate Finance Committee chair Max Baucus (D-MT) to “drop a proposal to tax health benefits and stop chasing Republican votes on a massive health care reform bill.
That tax provision–more regressive than other financing proposals–is how many expected the committee to pay for their forthcoming health care bill. This jibes well with an earlier report that Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND)–an influential member of the panel–was walking away from the idea.
According to Roll Call “Reid told Baucus that taxing health benefits and failing to include a strong government-run insurance option of some sort in his bill would cost 10 to 15 Democratic votes.”
The legislation that Baucus was crafting in the Senate Finance Committee was one that would hold moderate Democrats and win over enough moderate Republicans to make the deal appear bipartisan. As it is, Senate Republicans, moderate and conservative, have held strong against government backed Obamacare legislation. One key Republican who has helped shape the Baucus legislation is Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley who, while bothering fellow Republicans with his chummy relationship with the Democrat, Baucus, is the ranking Minority member on the Senate Finance Committee and has stood firm in his opposition to socialized government run health care. Recently, he voiced concerns over a possible merger of the Finance committee legislation with that of the more strict Obamacare line coming out of the the Ted Kennedy chaired Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.
“Absolutely it is true that I could get what I consider a very good bill out of Finance and that bipartisan compromise could be undercut with the merger with the [Health, Education, Labor and Pensions] Committee. I could jump ship at that point,” said Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Finance Committee. “We could go to conference and go to the House, and it would be so bad, I jump ship.”
Should Max Baucus get the “message” that Harry Reid, that could spell out, he will continue to alienate moderates of all stripes in the Senate. Will he still have the votes? It depends. With all the wrangling on both sides of the aisle over a government run option, the Senate Finance Committee has yet to complete their legislation.
Tags: Add new tag, Chuck Grassley, Harry Reid, Max Baucus, Obamacare, Senate Finance Committee, Ted Kennedy
