In case you missed it, the Senate Finance Committee approved a "shell" of a "healthcare reform bill" yesterday afternoon, with only one Republican backing it. Sen. Olympia Snowe crossed party line, in what not a surprise move to back the bill.
Democrats will boast that the bill does not have a public option and the Republican ideas were included. However, now the bill moves behind closed doors. When the bill reemerges, it will have the public option and the Republican ideas will be missing. The Republicans' chief concern, tort reform, never made it into the bill. Max Baucus defended the abscence of tort reform by indicating that it was best left to the states. One could argue oftort reform is best left to the states why isn't the rest of healthcare reform best left to the states?
When the bill reemerges, expect it to come fast, without being availble publicly, and without sufficient time for Congress to read the bill. Oh, and it expect to come in the form of an ammendment of H.R. 1586.
So much for the administration of transparency. Watch how murky the picture becomes.
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