Report: Baucus to Release Health Care Plan as Early as Tomorrow

Now, there you go again, using facts.

Right, because the Senate Finance Committee only has six members.

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Oh, wait. That's bullshit. Baucus is intentionally freezing out almost the whole committee.

Mindless invocation of seniority to select who gets chairmanships. Gingrich rid the Republicans of this incubus and was much more effective for Republican priorities as a result.

Obama by contrast isn't even using the bully pulpit until Wednesday.

I think this misses the point. The committee makeup isn't in the hands of the White House, but those in control of the finance committee weren't trustworthy, and the WH should not have given them the latitude they did. It's not about process power, it's political power.

Consider; If Baucus does indeed finally release a bill now that Obama is writing his own; that would likely indicate strongly that the White House would have forced Baucus' hand in the matter much sooner had they applied such pressure. Hence, the WH can effect what the finance committee does even without authority over it.

Hell, the very fact that the White House is trying to write a bill shows that they themselves are repudiating their own strategy to let congress sweat the details. Hence, the WH now knows they should have been doing more.

Unless Baucus is still not releasing a bill, or unless the White House isn't writing a bill, I don't see why anyone would dispute either of those conclusions.

There is no evidence that the Gang of Six (originally a Gang of Seven) was "appointed by Senate Leadership". They are an ad-hoc group hand selected by Baucus which includes three members who are not even on the Health Sub-Committee. Moreover the Chairman of that Sub-Committee, Rockefeller was excluded.

The Press keeps repeating the lie that this is all just part of Regular Order. It isn't. Under Regular Order the HELP Committee was tasked with drafting the parts of the Bill dealing with the Health Insurance Exchange and the Public Option, Finance was supposed to write the tax portion of the bill. Instead Baucus unilaterally announced that the Kennedy-Dodd HELP bill was DOA and that he and Conrad would huddle with four Republican (Grassley, Hatch, Enzi, and Snowe) plus one centrist Democrat (Bingaman) and hammer out a bill that in Baucus and Baucus's own judgement could get 60+ votes in the Senate.

Reid did not have to allow this unilateral decision to bypass the Finance Health Sub-Committee and block the entire center to progressive wing of Finance from discussion, he certainly didn't have to endorse an unofficial rump committee that before Hatch dropped out actually had a Republican majority. And Obama could have made it clear that he would not accept a bill drafted by the Minority as the starting point for discussions.

The idea that everyone's hands were tied is just bogus. Reid could invoke Senate Rule 14 and simply bypass Finance altogether. Obama and Reid let this happen. Why is unclear but the basic fact is not.