The Democratic Caucus meets with the President at The White House today. It's time for a "Maalox moment" brought to you by The Brody File.
The Democratic Party better figure something soon on this healthcare reform bill or they're going to be in trouble.
We keep hearing from The White House that this is all about "choice and competition", "choice and competition", "choice and competition", "choice and competition", "choice and competition". The last thing I hear before I go to bed at night is Robert Gibbs at the White House briefing saying, "choice and competition".
(I'm in therapy for this. Don't worry)
Folks, here's the isssue. The full fledged CHOICE of a government run option is gone. Now it looks like the Medicare buy-in option CHOICE is gone too. Where has all the choice gone? The administration may getting something passed on healthcare reform but there is MAJOR doubt at this point as to what will satisfy the "choice and competition" component. Democrats can agree on about 80 percent of what's in the bill (80% too much for many Republicans) but if this bill passes without the "choice and competition" that President Obama has talked about all along then is it really substantial healthcare reform? ( I sound like a liberal blogger. I'm in therapy for that too)
Maybe they should retitle the bill. Instead of calling it "America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009" it could be called instead the, "Watered-Down We Tried to get 60 on the Government Run Option but Failed Health Choices Act of 2010". I know it's long but it kind of works. Having said that, don't count this White House out quite yet. This ain't the JV team at work here.
On a related note, can we stop talking about how 60 is the 'magic number" in the Senate? OK, yes you technically need 60 to avoid a filibuster but we are clearly finding out that to get anything done in the senate you need about 70 so you have a cushion. If Harry Reid had 70, he could tell Ben Nelson and Joe Lieberman to take a hike.
And speaking of Joe Lieberman, if you're a loyal Democrat how much do you just want to strangle this guy? Have a look below at what some would like to do to him.
