If this is true, and where Harry Reid is concerned, take it with a grain of salt, but Reid may have been listening after all. Via Roll Call (sub.):
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Tuesday ordered Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) to drop a proposal to tax health benefits and stop chasing Republican votes on a massive health care reform bill.
Reid, whose leadership is considered crucial if President Barack Obama is to deliver on his promise of enacting health care reform this year, offered the directive to Baucus through an intermediary after consulting with Senate Democratic leaders during Tuesday morning’s regularly scheduled leadership meeting. Baucus was meeting with Finance ranking member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) Tuesday afternoon to relay the information.
According to Democratic sources, Reid told Baucus that taxing health benefits and failing to include a strong government-run insurance option of some sort in his bill would cost 10 to 15 Democratic votes; Reid told Baucus it wasn’t worth securing the support of Grassley and at best a few additional Republicans.
Good for those 10 to 15 Democrats in the caucus for holding a firm line. While the Senate progressives, outside of Sens. Sanders and Schumer, haven't been as public as the House progressives in drawing a line in the sand over health care reform, they seem to now be shaping the debate.
Getting Grassley and his Republicans on board with any kind of meaningful reform has been a fool's errand from the get-go. That this much time has been wasted trying to appease them has jeopardized the effort to get this bill done by August recess and to the President in October.