You knew this was coming:
The Senate Finance Committee was supposed to convene for a vote on its controversial health care bill tomorrow. Now, that's looking doubtful.
Early in the amendment process, the panel agreed not to hold a vote until a preliminary analysis on the legislation's cost-saving potential was available, and it appears as if the CBO will not complete its work until later in the week. That would touch off yet another delay--one that's likely to frustrate Democrats and liberal activists, who've grown impatient over the glacial pace of reform efforts.
It's not a slam-dunk at this point that the bill will indeed pass.
Although Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) said he has the votes to pass the 10-year, $900 billion bill out of the committee, Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.) remained undecided Sunday. If all 10 Republicans on the panel vote no, two Democratic defections would be enough to send Baucus and the Obama White House scrambling to regroup.
"More needs to be done to hold insurance companies accountable, to hold premiums down for the American people," Wyden said in an interview Sunday. "I want to continue these discussions."
Committee defeat of the bill is an unlikely scenario, but one that highlights the power every Senate Democrat -- and perhaps a few Republicans -- holds going forward in a process that could stretch beyond Thanksgiving.
Wyden, like many other Democrats, has begun intensive talks with administration officials and with Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.), who must blend the Finance bill and a version approved by the health committee for the full Senate to consider.
Dem Maria Cantwell vowed last month to join Rockefeller in voting against any bill coming out of SFC that did not have a strong public option. Since her state-based basic health plan amendment was adopted, that pledge might have gone by the wayside, despite the fact that her amendment--while good--isn't a public option. There's also, of course, Snowe, who Baucus and the White House have continued to court. She hasn't yet committed to voting for the SFC bill, even after all the concessions made.
It's more likely than not that the bill will pass out of Senate Finance, eventually. But hopefully Wyden and Rockefeller will get some concessions out of Reid and the White House to make that happen, so for now, they should continue to hold out.