Legal Commentary

The Way Forward On The Health Bill

By Big Tent Democrat

It has sunk in - the House will not pass the Stand Alone Senate bill. That is a political fact. Proponents of the Senate health bill seem to have accepted this reality - here is Ezra Klein:

Obama, who isn't particularly connected to this deal, can demand the Senate pass a reconciliation bill stripping [the Nelson deal] from the legislation. That's actually a pretty good narrative for the reconciliation rider. And the neat thing about a reconciliation bill is that Nelson can even vote against it -- as can eight of his closest Democratic friends. [. . .] The other thing that reconciliation rider will have to handle is the excise tax. [. . .] The unions might want to think about negotiating a raised limit for everybody [. . .] instead of letting themselves become the next villain in this process.

I doubt the unions are much concerned about being the GOP "villains." The excise tax itself will more likely be the "villain" anyway. The best result would be eliminating it.

Speaking for me only

Full post as published by TalkLeft on January 25, 2010 (boomark / email).