New York Times — 3 Democrats Could Block Health Bill in Senate

Harry Reid is like the producer of some over-budget, long-delayed summer movie. He’s hoping for Spider Man, but it might be Waterworld when his health bill finally emerges from the budget back and forth with the CBO.

The first hurdle the Senate Majority Leader will face is the 60 votes to get the bill on the floor for debate, which should be a much-easier task than finding 60 to end debate and move to a vote.

Writer Carl Hulse points out that even so, there are three Democratic members who are willing to spike Reid’s bill even before it gets to the floor if it’s too much like the Pelosi plan in the House.

Whenever it emerges, Reid’s bill is likely headed to the floor, but the fact that Reid is horse trading with the likes of Sens. Ben Nelson, Mary Landrieu, and Blanche Lincoln just to start debate means things may get pretty dire for Reid and his White House partners.

“Senators Landrieu, Lincoln and Nelson have all said they cannot commit to backing the preliminary step until they see the final legislation, which is being written by Mr. Reid and his lieutenants and could be unveiled as early as Wednesday.

‘I’m anxious to see the bill,’ Mr. Nelson said.

The three lawmakers have all been skeptical of a public health insurance option, and Mr. Reid’s proposal includes a public plan, though it would give states the opportunity to opt out of it.”

The Hill — Health timetable slipping
 

You need a flow chart and a sextant to even try to guess what will become of the Democrats’ Christmas pledge on health-care legislation. And after that, every day closer to election day 2010 is another day farther from passage.

Writer Jeffrey Young does an admirable job of explaining how things are stacking up in the Senate, especially since the party is eager to look busy on jobs. You can also put out of your mind any idea of a 72-hour cram session like the one in the House.

“But Congress is scheduled to be out all next week for the Thanksgiving holiday, and even keeping the Senate in session throughout the weekend might not provide enough time.

Complicating matters, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) is considering using a procedural tactic to make Senate clerks read the entire bill aloud as a way to draw attention to his opposition to the legislation. The bill is expected to come in around 2,000 pages.”

Washington Post — Mammograms and politics: Task force stirs up a tempest


While Democrats have argued that expanding government control of health care will improve results for Americans, several recent incidents illustrate the complications when government is coordinating health services on a large scale: first there was the swine flu vaccine delay then there was the proposal about barring insurers that provide abortion coverage from the new health care utility system.

Now the matter is when federal health experts recommend and, by extension, when the government will pay for, mammograms.

Many members of Congress have made early detection of disease a central argument for a health care overhaul. But if the Democratic plan was in place, early detection of breast cancer would take a backseat to the avoidance of radiation, biopsies, and costs once a federal panel on screening made it’s judgment.

Writers Dan Eggen and Dan Stein point out that the issue is now out of the hands of medical bureaucrats and in the hands of members of Congress who are unlikely to oppose more testing for a much-hated disease.

Just imagine what will happen when the government is running the whole shebang. Lobbying by interest groups, pressure from drugmakers for prescription-heavy courses of treatment, etc.

Instead of a technocratic system of impartial rationing, we’ll have Congress up to it’s ears in making decisions on care.

“Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.) announced Tuesday that his House health subcommittee will hold hearings on the mammogram issue next month.

Other lawmakers from both parties suggested that the task force had been swayed by insurance companies that stand to save money if fewer screenings are performed.

‘We can’t allow the insurance industry to continue to drive health-care decisions,’ said Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), who said earlier this year that she had undergone treatment for breast cancer.”

New York Times — Pakistani Successes May Sway U.S. Troop Decision


The Pakistani government is looking for an attaboy for efforts to strike at the Taliban in the western part of the country, but the Obama administration keeps sending to-do lists.

One of the problems is that rather than the Pakistani army clearing and holding the places used as Talibani bases, the enemy instead seems to have just scampered off to mountain redoubts for the winter.

As the president settles into a strategy for the region, the administration is hoping for a beefed up Pakistan to help act as a counterweight to a reedy government in Afghanistan, but writers Sabrina Tavernise and Eric Schmitt say that the Pakistani army made the right moves, the real fight is still ahead.

“American analysts expressed surprise at the relatively light fighting and light Pakistani Army casualties — seven soldiers in five days in Sararogha — supporting their suspicions that the Taliban fighters from the local Mehsud tribe and the foreign fighters who are their allies, including a large contingent of Uzbeks, have headed north or deeper into the mountains. In comparison, 51 Americans were killed in eight days of fighting in Falluja, Iraq, in 2004.

‘That’s what bothers me,’ an American intelligence officer said. ‘Where are they?’”

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