Healthcare – Stalled

Blue Dog Democrats did their best to slow down the administration’s effort to ram healthcare reform through Congress.  Now that a deal has been tentatively reached, liberals are returning the favor.  It looks like Democrats will be their own worst enemy on this issue.

Arkansas Congressman Mike Ross was the point person for the Blue Dogs on healthcare.  Ross recently reached several compromises with liberal House Energy and Commerce committee Chairman Henry Waxman.  One of the most prominent deals reached included an insurance co-op plan that can be offered in lieu of the controversial public option.  The small business exception has also been expanded and the total cost of the bill is now expected to come in under $900 billion – down from $ 1 trillion.

These cuts, which even the Center for American Progress considered “minor,” are enough to set off the far-left in Congress.  Over 80 members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus are on record pledging that they would refuse to vote for any healthcare legislation that didn’t contain a robust public-option.  These progressives consider the agreements reached by Ross and Waxman to be too great.  Nancy Pelosi, desperate to bring her party back together, has decided that demonizing the insurance industry as a boogey man would provide an adequate distraction.

And the show goes on…