While Dems are taking a public "breather" on healthcare reform, behind the scenes discussions are apparently moving forward.
Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Chairman Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) said a reconciliation package is under development by staff — apparently despite the opposition of moderate Senate Democrats....
Harkin said Democratic leaders have reassessed the prospects for a health care bill and are getting ready to resume the effort.
“It just rested for about a week. But it’s not dead,” Harkin said Thursday, adding that he hopes to see the outlines of a bill before the Senate adjourns for the Presidents Day recess on Feb. 12 and to approve a final package soon after the chamber reconvenes later this month....
[S]ome Democrats monitoring health care developments in the Senate argued that the majority remains on track to reach a deal with the House and clear a final health care package.
These Democrats say there is a difference between moving health care out of the public spotlight and killing it. The effort to move a jobs bill through the Senate has been positioned front and center — much as health care legislation was treated last year. But work on a health care bill is continuing behind the scenes.
“It’s off the radar,” Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) said. “It’s just we’re not doing it right now. It’s a different dynamic right now.”
Jon Cohn notes that taking some of the pressure off might be working in terms of public opinion, but with the caveat "The more time members of Congress spend away from health care, the less enthusiastic they will be about taking it up again." Members of Congress are notoriously risk-averse and as we've seen for the past year, would far rather put off difficult decisions than take them, as if showing themselves incapable of acting was going to make them any more popular than doing something people might not like.
That also just gives more time for state legislatures to act. Yesterday the Democratic-controlled Virginia Senate passed bills "that would make it illegal to require individuals to purchase health insurance." It's one state, Virginia, where Democratic politicians are freaking out about the loss of the governor's chair. Nonetheless, numerous states are considering the same kinds of action. (Though the federal law would trump the states, should it actually pass.) If this drags out too much longer, expect the usual suspects in Congress (Blue Dogs and ConservaDems) who've already dragged this process out to within an inch of its life to get even more scared.