Rockefeller: 'No Way' I'll Vote for Baucus Health Bill

Baucus, Dodd the only senators with secure seats at negotiating table

(NEWSER) - Every senator worth their salt is salivating for a seat at the table when Harry Reid merges the Senate’s two competing health care bills—but the vast majority will instead have their noses pressed to the glass. Reid hopes to speed things up by keeping the group small, Politico reports, with one Senate leadership source saying that it may come down to three men in a room: Reid, Max Baucus, and Chris Dodd. More»

Ball's in Reid's court

(NEWSER) - The Senate Finance Committee voted down both proposed versions of the public option this afternoon, setting up a showdown between conservative Democrats—who sided with Republicans in opposing the creation of a government plan to compete with private insurers—and their liberal colleagues. Jay Rockefeller's amendment failed, 15-8, shortly before Chuck Schumer's reputedly more palatable proposal managed to sway two Democrats but went down to a 13-10 defeat. More»

As interminable mark-up on health bill continues, chair moves on from bipartisan dream

(NEWSER) - With his health care reform bill finally in committee, finance chair Max Baucus appears to have given up on a truly bipartisan bill. On day one yesterday, "he seemed to be moving back to the left again," writes Mike Madden in Salon. He agreed to a host of modifications suggested by Democrats to make reform easier on lower-income Americans, and his aides didn't seem to mind the ensuing criticism from the right. More»

(NEWSER) - Max Baucus took to the Wall Street Journal opinion page today to make the case for the health care reform bill he’s unveiling this morning. “Our plan would lower costs and would not add to the federal deficit,” he declares in the first of many statements about what he repeatedly calls “our plan,” and at one point calls the Senate Finance Committee plan. There’s just one problem: There seems to be no one beside Baucus behind the bill. More»

(NEWSER) - Harry Reid yesterday pulled the plug on painstaking efforts to win bipartisan support for health care reform, telling Max Baucus to drop a proposal, aimed at wooing Republicans, that would tax health benefits and leave out a public insurance option. The Senate majority leader told Baucus, the Finance Committee chairman who's been pushing negotiations, that the effort wasn't worth the few votes it might win, as it would cost the bill 10 to 15 Democratic votes. More»