Via Yahoo/AP, Conservative House Dems rebel on health care bill, the Blue Dogs are threatening to delay health care reform beyond August and are:
...rebelling against their party leaders... The fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition plans to present a letter to House Democratic leaders Thursday raising concerns about costs and other issues and asking for more time, members of the group tell The Associated Press.
Democratic Rep. Mike Ross of Arkansas says that if the Democrats' liberal legislative plan came to the floor as proposed, an "overwhelming majority" of his group would oppose it. The Blue Dogs claim 52 members so that could endanger the bill.
There's no word yet on how many of those 52 signed this letter or plan to support it. Even if all of the BD Caucus hung tough against the PO, it would be close but we'd still win it.
I doubt Ross is gonna be able to hold even half of those 52 to this. And our Progressive Coalition is 3 times the number of Blue Dogs. I sense some political horse-trading coming up. Let's see if they have the horse sense.
Do these BDs want primary challengers? Do they want campaign support from the party and from President Obama? Do they want to keep their public health care?
It's up to us.
**UPDATE**
JekellnHyde, please post an appropriate editorial cartoon. Pretty please.
**UPDATE II**
The AP headline now reads "Health Care overhaul bill suffers another setback." The story has been expanded and revised without any inconsistencies from the earlier reports. The original link was to a 6 minute old, 3 paragraph update to a version of the story from earlier this afternoon. This is the third revision.
In the newly revised version,
10 mins ago
...a pivotal group of House Democrats rebelled against leadership-backed legislation taking shape and sought additional time to make changes.
"We need to slow down and do it right," Rep. Mike Ross, D-Ark... "It needs to do a much better job of cost containment" within the health care system, he added.
...
Ross said the group was drafting a letter to the Democratic leadership asking [that] no vote [on health care] should take place until the fall — well after [Pelosi's mid-summer deadline promised the president].
...
leadership hopes to unveil [their White House-endorsed health care bill] Friday and push it through committee next week.
...
[Meanwhile], in the Senate.
Majority Leader Harry Reid and others went out of their way to emphasize their interest in gaining Republican support for legislation.
...
Baucus and Republican supporters argued [taxing health benefits] would also have tended to reduce the cost of health care overall, as well as offset the cost of the bill. But the Democratic leadership stepped in forcefully, citing poor public polling, opposition of organized labor and concerns about taxing middle-income workers.