I wish i'm wrong here , but all the signs seems to suggest that senate democrats + the White House are ready to throw in the towel and give up because of to much partisanship and special interest groups pulling in different direction.
The NYT had a an article printed a few day ago , suggesting that the White House is quietly pushing Health Care reform as we know it , in the back while taking on the economy and the deficit.
I personally blame house democrats for this because they failed to understand that while we had a 60 vote majority , this 60 votes were not of the same minds...meaning it was really a soft 60 votes with conservative/moderate senators from conservative states..
House democrats also failed to understand that while the senate version had its flaws , it was preferable to nothing....They needed to show something had been done for all this time they spent on this issue
The senate passed its version of health care reform in late December...Meaning they had about a month to come to an agreement before the Massachusetts election and quickly throw it to the white house for Obama's signature.
Instead , House Democrats decided to play hard ball by demanding that many things changed in the senate version...Again , not understanding that the 60 vote was fragile and it was either the senate bill with few changes or nothing.
Then Scott Brown won and defeated a liberal candidate in the most liberal state in the country...60 vote majority is gone...Democrats never saw that coming and it really demoralized many senate democrats to continue on health care , believing that the electorate wants them to focus on jobs.
What makes it so hard is the fact that Scot Brown campaigned against the health care bill in a liberal state...but still managed to win by 7 , which is very bad.
Health Care is not polling well , therefore , the belief is that wasting any more time on it is risky.
The closer we get to the mid term , the less likely senate democrats + none-liberal house members would want to take on the issue.
Even now , many house democrats refuses to accept the senate version....Thanks to them , we wont get nothing not only now , but for the next 10 years.
The Democrats will lose in a landslide because nothing is getting done...
If the senate version had passed , they would at least have a fighting chance by telling the voters that we got things done.