I haven’t been writing about health care reform since the Martha Coakley fiasco for three reasons. Number one is that our wonderful new son is taking both real and psychic energy away that I ordinarily use to write. I have no problem with that since the tradeoff is well worth it, but it does make it harder to produce blog product. The second reason is basic demoralization and frustration. I do my worst blogging when I’m really despondent or pissed off. The third reason is that I can’t get a read on what is going on. And without a read, I don’t have anything interesting to say.
Tom Harkin says that the House and Senate reached a deal two days before Coakley lost, and Kevin Drum is right that this should give us cause for optimism about the prospects for reconciliation. Buttressing that hope, Robert Gibbs told CNN today that we’re still on the five-yard line:
“We’re one vote in the House of Representatives from making health care reform a reality,” the White House press secretary said, positing a scenario where the House passed the version of the bill already passed by the Senate which President Obama would then sign into law.
But none of that squares up with some of the messaging coming from Rahm Emanuel.
With Mr. Obama’s health care overhaul stalled on Capitol Hill, Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, said in an interview that Democrats would try to act first on job creation, reducing the deficit and imposing tighter regulation on banks before returning to the health measure, the president’s top priority from last year.
So, I don’t know what to believe.
My first instinct, based on past history, is that any delay will be fatal to the health care bill as its prospects get worse every day closer we draw to election day. Yet, history isn’t always prologue, and there is something to be said for letting passions calm for a short time. Telling people that we’re moving on without giving up allows us to finally talk about something else. If negotiations go on feverishly behind the scenes, this outward calm could facilitate better progress. Are we really one vote away in the House? Are we really putting the whole thing on the back burner? I don’t know. I am not going to tell you that I do.
