The Republic of Dogs

It’s a rare day when I have something positive to say about the World’s Worst Deliberative Body, but this seems like genuinely good news:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Tuesday ordered Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) to drop a proposal to tax health benefits and stop chasing Republican votes on a massive health care reform bill.

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According to Democratic sources, Reid told Baucus that taxing health benefits and failing to include a strong government-run insurance option of some sort in his bill would cost 10 to 15 Democratic votes; Reid told Baucus it wasn’t worth securing the support of Grassley and at best a few additional Republicans.

Just to be clear, I don’t think this is some arbitrary change of heart on Reid’s part.  Like Yglesias, I think this is what the Senate looks like when a real Progressive Bloc stands firm and threatens to walk away if core principles are compromised.

And here’s Sen. Sanders and Howard Dean taking on Rahm Emanuel’s stupid “trigger” blather:

Two major progressive voices in the health care debate took White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel to task on Tuesday for suggesting that a public option with triggers could be a potential compromise on reform.

One of those voices, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) went so far as to insist that some Senate Democrats would vote against any proposal that didn’t include a strong government-run option. Even the bill being crafted by Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee, Sanders noted, might not get the caucus’ full support because it could stray too far away from an effective overhaul of the health care system.

"I think that it is fair to say that there are a number of us who would not be voting for anything resembling a Baucus-type plan as we understand it right now," the senator told the Huffington Post, referring to Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus’ effort at constructing a reform bill.

In separate interviews, Sanders and his fellow Vermonter, former DNC Chair Howard Dean, both took umbrage with comments Emanuel made in an interview with the Wall Street Journal that was published Monday evening. The White House chief of staff did not deviate fully from the administration’s line, suggesting that all prospects for reform remained on the table. But Emanuel added something that health care operatives said they hadn’t heard from the White House to date: a statement of support for a health care insurance compromise based on a public option with triggers.

The president would, hours later, issue a statement reiterating his support for a "public option that will force the insurance companies to compete and keep them honest." Progressives, fearing in part that the frame of the health care debate would be irrevocably shifted, pushed back.

"I think that a public plan with triggers is not a real public plan and it is going to be a trillion dollar failure," Dean said. "Anyone who thinks a trigger is going to lead us to a good place five years from now is wrong… It is not a sensible policy compromise."

Later in the day, Sanders offered a similarly critical reaction.

"Emanuel is dead wrong," Sanders said. "The triggers are meaningless. The American people have shown in poll after poll their contempt for private health insurance companies. They don’t trust them and for good reason.

And here’s Rep. Lynn Woolsey ripping Rahm a new one and drawing a line in the sand:

Progressive Caucus Co-Chairwoman Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.) warned Emanuel that he would lose the caucus’ votes if the White House compromised on the issue and included a “trigger” that could delay a public insurance plan indefinitely. The trigger idea is backed by conservative Democrats but is anathema to liberals.

“We have compromised enough, and we are not going to compromise on any kind of trigger game,” Woolsey said she told Emanuel. “People clapped all over the place. We mean it, and not just progressives.”

Did the Democrats start taking vitamins or something?  I don’t know what’s going on, but…more of this, please!