Yesterday, Jay Rockefeller and Chuck Schumer said they planned to push the public option during today's Finance Committee health care markup session -- but today, Max Baucus says there simply isn't enough time. It'll have to wait:
Citing time restraints, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) just announced that the controversial public option amendments being offered by Sens. John Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) and Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) will be pushed to next Tuesday, when lawmakers return to Washington after a long weekend.
Maybe Baucus really is just out of time. It's true that he's only had like eighteen kajillion months to work on his "bipartisan" bill (which doesn't have any Republican support). He could be running short on the clock.
Or maybe he's just not quite sure how to handle Rockefeller and Schumer. After all, he's spent most of his time recently with Kent Conrad, Mike Enzi, Chuck Grassley, and Olympia Snowe. He might've forgotten what it's like to deal with Democrats -- you know, the guys who actually won the last election.