"Here's one thing I know and I just want to make sure that this is off the table. The Senate certainly shouldn't try to jam anything through until Scott Brown is seated," Obama said. "People in Massachusetts spoke. He's got to be part of that process."
And nothing about the House passing the Senate bill. It's probably too late now, but the silence from the President was long. Instead, this salvage operation:
"I would advise that we try to move quickly to coalesce around those elements of the package that people agree on. We know that we need insurance reform, that the health insurance companies are taking advantage of people. We know that we have to have some form of cost containment ... Those are the core, some of the core elements of, to this bill," Obama said.This had to have been gamed out before the election yesterday. I must confess I am dumbfounded.
My personal fantasy is that in his strangely long talks with Olympia Snowe, Obama roughed out a Plan B with her should the Democrats' bills run aground. She gets some pound of flesh; the Democrats get a bill he can live with. But it's just that, a fantasy. Perhaps in November, the deal could have included a party switch for Snowe. But now?
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