Based on his conversations with House progressives, Brown says the mood right now is fairly dour."They're very unhappy," Brown admits. "Their viewpoint is it can't be just the Senate version because, first of all, it's not what they want in terms of the substance, and second it really writes them out of having any impact."
Let me get this straight. House Progressives would rather write some dismembered, scaled down piece of crap that will cover maybe 1/3 of the uninsured and leave the dysfunctional rules by which health insurers now play more or less intact than sacrifice a bit of impact and pass a bill that overlaps 90% with the one they wrote?
Regardless of how much they can or can't be promised in advance of a reconciliation bill, these progressives, if they pass the bill, will have until 2014 to strengthen subsidies, amend taxes designed to pay for those subsidies, and make any other changes that can be related to the budget. Or they can let the Senate bill die and see how much "impact" they have -- either when their sorry butts are voted out of office or they're flailing in the minority or with a radically diminished majority.
Meanwhile, Brown claims that Obama continues to hold off from engaging with the House and trying to set a course -- while supporters of Obamacare yearn to have him gather the House children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wing and tell them to pass the Senate bill. It seems that he "would not." Supporters can only hope that this is some kind of tough love/shock therapy and that the House will somehow be nudged to do the right thing.
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