Baucus Not Even Talking To Rockefeller

This seems very strange to me and shows the depth of ill will there must be on the Senate Finance Committee these days. Baucus publicly screwed over Wyden on his free choice amendment a few days ago, but Baucus's slight of Rockefeller was longer and maybe more serious.

Rockefeller chairs the Senate Finance Committee subcommittee on health care. Not only did Baucus skip over the Rockefeller's subcommittee, but he selected two lower ranking Democratic senators (Conrad and Bingaman) with less health care experience to be part of his “gang of six.”

Rockefeller has been very public with the fact that he is both unhappy with both the shape of the Baucus bill and the secretive way it was written. Baucus now needs Rockefeller to help vote the bill out of committee, but seems to have left the job of twisting Rockefeller's arm completely up to the White House.

Baucus himself keeps saying Rockefeller will vote for the bill, but hasn’t talked with him. Obama has urged him to, both in person and on the phone, and now the West Virginian’s colleagues seem to be giving him space to let the president’s words sink in.

Rockefeller said Tuesday that “nobody” has approached him. “Has Baucus talked directly to me? No.”

The fact that Baucus has not personally asked Rockefeller for his vote just seems like bad politics--and like an incredibly dick move. This is behavior you would expect at a middle school semi-formal, not from the "world's most deliberative body."

Death By Hissy Fits Continues

A month ago I wrote about how Grassley and the rest of the Republican party were trying to kill reform one childish hissy fit at a time. It has proven surprisingly successful, since Chairman Baucus has been rewarding them with surrender each time.

The pattern has continued with Rep. Wilson's rude outburst being rewarded with a provision to bar illegal immigrants from buying health insurance even if they are willing to fully pay for it. This policy is just not cruel and expensive (we all end up paying for illegal immigrants going to emergency rooms because we don't allow them to pay for their own care by buying health insurance), but it is also terrible political optics. Working class Americans will be forced to buy insurance or pay huge fines but illegal immigrants will not.

With a Finance Committee bill expected tomorrow, Senator Grassley and Enzi have moved the goal post again. The New York Time is reporting that Grassley is now opposing an individual mandate that he has previously supported for months,

The committee documents show that Mr. Grassley has reservations about this approach. He believes that “the individual responsibility to have health coverage should be reconsidered and replaced with a reinsurance policy to ensure that affordable health coverage is available to everyone in a voluntary system, with a lower overall cost for the package,” one document says.

Hoping to capitalize on Obama's and Baucus' willingness to give in on anything in order to pass something labeled “health care reform,” the AHIP is going for the double jackpot. No sooner than did prominent Democrats signal they might forgo their only idea which could rein in health insurance company profits (a strong public option), the AHIP switched to fighting to protect their favorite cash cow, Medicare Advantage. Our current Medicare Advantage program may have the dubious distinction of being the biggest and most wasteful form of corporate welfare in the country.

Even with all but maybe two Republican senators likely to oppose Baucus' bill, he has decided to still include all the terrible compromises he made to win their support. Grassley has proven himself to be maybe the greatest negotiator in Senate history. He convinced Democrats to waste valuable months and adopt many ill-conceived compromises, without needing to risk voting for the final product.

What is at stake here is even more important than health care reform. If Obama and the Democrats allow themselves to be rolled, they will never be feared or respected by congressional Republicans or the special interest groups. Obama should demand that 48 hours after the Baucus' bill is released that a majority of Senate Republicans publicly endorse it, or it will be revamped to reflect his original uncompromised proposal.

Negotiation requires both carrots and sticks. If Democrats pass a bill containing all the awful Republican demands with almost zero Republican support, they will doom any hope of future good faith dealing and real political discourse. The Republicans and special interests will know that if they throw a loud enough hissy fit Democrats will accept their demands without Republicans needing to risk anything by voting for compromise. Giving in now assures “death panels” and “you lie” will become the modis operandi of the Republicans party. If Obama does not stand up to declare a willingness to pass a good, Democrat-only bill, it is going to be dark, loud, shrill, and depressing next three years.

Bipartisanship Is Dead - Updated

Every indication is that bi-partisan reform is dead. Baucus' Gang of Six is blowing up in his face.

Last week Grassley accused Democrats of having a secret plan to kill grandmothers. Now Grassley has set a new impossible standard for bipartisanship. He will vote against a bill he personally thinks is great unless it wins a dozen other Republicans' votes.

Previously Enzi demanded that Obama and Pelosi abandon our entire system of government. He refuses to support any deal unless he is promised that his deal will remain unchanged. He wants the entire House of Representatives to have no say in health care reform.

Now Enzi doesn't even want to see real reform at all. He wants to break reform into smaller pieces that get passed one at a time.

We do need to get it right. We need take the time to do it. I think the only way it will happen is we need to break it down into smaller parts than we have now and put it through one at a time.

PS. The RNC is not going after the co-ops proposal, could anyone have seen that coming.

Update- It appears Senator Kyl just declared that Grassley will not be able to found Republicans votes for any bill he comes up with.