Here are the FDL Action health care highlights for Thursday, October 15, put together by yours truly [note: as I believe I already mentioned, I'm working with FDL Action on health care reform]. 1. Jane Hamsher asserts that "[t[he ability to count past 10 without taking off your shoes should be in the skill set of a member of Congress." Unfortunately, according to Jane, it isn't: "There are 40 Republicans in the Senate. It takes 41 to filibuster. As Markos noted, there is no 'Republican' filibuster possible." Exactly, so why do certain people keep acting like it is?
2. Jon Walker discusses a report in The Hill that "[Nancy] Pelosi now believes she has the vote for a modified version of the robust public option favored by progressives." Walker adds that "By passing this more robust version of the public option in the House, it should increase the likelihood that a final compromise with the Senate would include the weaker (but still national and available on 'day one') 'level playing field' public option favored by some blue dogs." Reconciling the Senate and House health care bills certainly is going to be a fascinating experience.
3. Jon Walker snarkily "apologizes" to Lincoln Chafee for opposing his reelection in 2006. Walker explains, "[a]t the time, I was operating under the misguided notion that if Democrats won elections, they would be in power. I thought that once in power, Democrats would try to fulfill their campaign promises. I confess I was pretty foolish in my youth." Ha.
4. Jon Walker reports that Democratic leadership is tying an insurance mandate to the need for a public option, "for better or worse." Walker adds, "This is a theme I have heard a lot from the left side of this debate. If there is no public option, an individual mandate is completely unacceptable. If Democrats pass a law forcing people to buy expensive insurance from private companies, it could quickly turn into a political disaster." In other words, what's the opposite of a "win-win?"
5. Jon Walker points out that "a very important milestone in health care reform was reached with little fanfare and only a small amount of media coverage" today. That's right, "October 15th was the first day Democrats could use reconciliation to pass health care reform according to the budget they adopted earlier this year. With reconciliation, health care reform could pass with only a simple majority in the Senate." But of course it couldn't possibly be that easy, now could it? God forbid...
6. Eve (nyceve) Gittelson reports on a blogger conference call with Sen. Arlen Specter earlier today. According to nyceve, "in a recent gathering of the Senate Democratic caucus, [Specter] suggested his colleagues pledge to stick with the party on a cloture vote when the merged health care reform bill came to the floor." Amazingly, Specter's screamingly obvious "idea was not embraced by his fellow Dems." Even more bizarre, "Majority Leader Harry Reid approached Specter after the meeting (again, according to Specter), and thanked him for stressing a point that Reid, himself, admitted he was 'reluctant to make.'" Now THAT is leadership for you! (snark)
7. Last but not least, Jon Walker says that it's "time to play health care Jenga." The problem is, "the Democrats have seriously constrained themselves on what they can do," and "the many restrictions make it nearly impossible to add new, meaningful reforms." According to Walker: "the only option left for concessions is the removing of things that one group or another find most objectionable. The result is a destructive downward spiral that best can be called health care Jenga: Different groups keep trying to remove building blocks while trying not to knock over the whole towering health care reform bill." Hmmmm...after reading that analysis, I'm thinking forget the Jenga, how about a nice game of chess? :)