The status of Obamacare

I don’t have time to write a coherent piece this evening on the current status of the healthcare legislation winding its way through the Senate, but I did want to pass along a few links that I think you might find of interest.

First, there’s a good piece in the Washington Post about the fracturing alliance between Senate Democrats… Here’s a clip:

Democrats had little time to savor their weekend Senate health-care victory, as two of the lawmakers who voted to move the debate forward Saturday night indicated Sunday that they will not vote to pass the package if it includes a government-run insurance program.

Despite the success in the test vote, the fragile consensus in the Democratic caucus will face its greatest test yet as the health-care debate moves to the Senate floor and Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.) struggles to stave off internal schisms. The cracks in the 60-member caucus are most obvious over the public insurance option.

One member of the Democratic caucus, independentSen. Joseph I. Lieberman (Conn.), reiterated Sunday that he will oppose any bill that contains a public option. Appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” he called such a government-run plan “radical”…

Then, second, there’s this piece in the Huffington Post about how this fight over the so-called public option is playing out… Here’s a clip:

…While conservative members of the Democratic caucus threaten to block passage of health care reform if it includes a public health insurance option, a growing chorus of liberal lawmakers are making similar threats if the bill doesn’t have one.

Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont who caucuses with Democrats, said in a statement on Sunday that the bill must have a strong public option to win his vote.

“I strongly suspect that there are a number of senators, including myself, who would not support final passage without a strong public option,” he said. Not supporting final passage, however, is different than vowing to filibuster it and prevent it from even getting to a vote on final passage, as independent Joe Lieberman of Connecticut is now doing, hoping to strip the public option…

All that seems certain at this point is that Republicans are determined to stall as long as they can, for fear that passing healthcare legislation – any healthcare legislation – could be seen as a Democratic victory. According to recent reports, they’re now saying they need six weeks to consider the legislation before it can come to a vote, even though it’s highly unlikely that any from their side of the aisle would vote to support it… So it looks like we might have a long time to debate that public option.