Healthcare Update/Open Thread

So now the Dems are planning to go it alone, as they should have been doing all along, but of course they wouldn't be the Democrats if they didn't waste every last precious bit of momentum and progressive goodwill before half-assedly attempting to do the right thing.

51 Vote Rules May Force a Public Option Too Liberal for Some Dems:

As Senate leaders begin work on a Democrat-only health care bill, they're finding themselves confronted with an unexpected irony: Though the caucus has reached an uneasy consensus around a public option that's modeled in many ways after a private insurer, it may be necessary to make the public option more liberal, and thus, more politically radioactive, if it's to overcome a number of unique procedural hurdles.

This is the needle Democrats may have to thread if they want a public option, and at the same time, want to bypass a Republican filibuster. And the key for them will be keeping conservative Democrats on board.

Other recommended reading:

GOP readies wave of objections to stall healthcare bill in Senate: "Sen. Judd Gregg has hundreds of procedural objections ready for a healthcare plan Democrats want to speed through the Senate. Gregg (N.H.), the senior Republican on the Budget Committee, told The Hill in a recent interview that Republicans will wage a vicious fight if Democrats try to circumvent Senate rules and use a budget maneuver to pass a trillion-dollar healthcare plan with a simple majority."

(That's the guy Obama wanted to be in his cabinet! Wheeeeeeeeeeee!)

WaPo/Norm Ornstein: Obama's Health-Care Realism

WaPo/Ezra Klein: Has Obama Played Health Care Exactly Right? Does It Even Matter?

CBS: Poll: Two-Thirds Confused by Health Reform

Steve Benen: The "Goverment-Is-Bad Paradigm" Lingers

Discuss.