The health care bill will require $849 billion over 10 years in new spending, to be paid for with cuts to Medicare, while reducing the deficit by $127 billion.

A notice obtained by CNN went out to Senate Democrats saying, ‘All Senators should be aware that former President Clinton will be making a presentation on Health Care at tomorrow’s caucus lunch. Senator Reid has requested that all Democratic Senators attend.’

We need a bill on the president’s desk by Christmas, at the very latest, New Years Eve.

The Senate Democratic leader indicated Tuesday that lawmakers may not complete health care legislation this year, missing President Barack Obama’s deadline on his signature issue and pushing debate into a congressional election year.

With just eight weeks left, the Senate is running out of time to finish a comprehensive bill to extend coverage to millions of Americans and control rising medical costs. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., emerged from a closed-door meeting of rank-and-file Democrats signaling that delay was likely.

Asked if he could pass health care this year, Reid said: ‘We’re not going to be bound by any timelines. We need to do the best job we can for the American people. We want quality legislation, and we’re going to do that.’

Look, if health care reform doesn’t pass this year, it isn’t going to pass. The entire reason we’re this late on it is because Reid allowed Baucus to dick us around this summer. Harry Reid is a majority leader who acts weaker than a minority leader. He bends at the slightest sign of resistance. He talks big, then retreats.

If he doesn’t get a health care vote this year, Harry Reid should either step down or be removed from his leadership role.

UPDATE: And now, backpedaling. Message control in the Reid office is not a virtue.

“Our goals remain unchanged. We want to get health insurance reform done this year, and we have unprecedented momentum to achieve that,” Reid spokesman Jim Manley emailed. “There is no reason why we can’t have a transparent and thorough debate in the Senate and still send a bill to the President by Christmas.”

Harry Reid is “leaning” to support the public option in the health care bill. Of course its far past time for he and the president to quit “leaning” towards things and crap if they’re gonna crap.

The clock is ticking.

A week ago, Reid called a compromise idea to delay the public option decision for several years a ‘pretty doggone good idea.’ By midweek, his top lieutenants adamantly pushed for the public option approved earlier by the health committee, forcing the leader to backtrack. ‘We are going to have a public option before this bill goes to the president’s desk,’ Reid said in a conference call Thursday.

By late Thursday evening, his office released a statement proclaiming that the majority leader would guarantee only to ‘include a mechanism to keep insurers honest, create competition and keep costs down.’

I hope for the best, but I know Harry Reid’s track record.

Heck of a job on the waste of time and money, Max.

For the moment, at least, Max Baucus has come up short.

Mr. Baucus, the Montana Democrat and chairman of the Senate Finance Committee who has led a months-long effort to develop bipartisan legislation to overhaul the nation’s health care system, is expected to unveil his plan Wednesday morning with Republicans not yet on board.

The senate Dems, and to a slightly lesser degree, the White House seems to have locked themselves in to the idea that the Republican party has any interest whatsoever in reforming the health care system in America. News alert: They could give a crap.

The GOP has no interest in reform. At best they’d like to scrap the status quo by killing medicare and social security.

Its like we’re in Die Hard and John McClain keeps giving the terrorists one last chance and keeps delaying what he should be doing: Yippie kay yay mother…

Q: How will U.S. Sen. (Edward) Kennedy’s death affect things?

A: I think it’s going to help us. He hasn’t been around for some time. We’re going to have a new chairman of that committee, it’ll be, I don’t know for sure, but I think Sen. (Chris) Dodd (D-Conn.). He has a right to take it. Either him or (U.S. Sen. Tom) Harkin, (D-Iowa), whichever one wants it can have it. I think he (Kennedy) will be a help. He’s an inspiration for us. That was the issue of his life and he didn’t get it done.

In a perverse way, I sort of want Reid to lose his seat next year. That seems to be the only way to get him out of the senate leadership, his replacement would be from a true-blue state (my preference: Schumer or Durbin), and it would teach Dems that milquetoast leadership leads to milquetoast results (though its arguable they will never learn that lesson, since they replaced a weak leader in Daschle with Reid).

Again I ask, why bother with a majority if this is what we get?

Clearly President Obama has dropped a bit in the approval polls, but I don’t see it as anything to worry about. I frankly lay more of the blame for this at the feet of Sen. Reid and Sen. Baucus whose dithering has caused the delay in passage of health care reform. If there’s any fault by the President its in not pushing on congress hard enough (they seem to have taken too much of a lesson from President Clinton’s fight with this), though at the end of the day I think we will have a bill (though not a great one) that will be signed.

I think the poll of polls is a bit skewed because it includes wonky numbers from Rasmussen and Zogby, but yes its down to about 52%… more than double Bush’s approval, so while Obama’s numbers are down we are legions away from a presidency that appealed to only zealots.

Here’s what I said before:

My guess is that President Obama will average out somewhere from 55-60%, though I of course hope for the highest possible rating.

I do hope the president sends a thank you card to Reid for making life difficult.

At least then we can elect a new majority leader.

After weeks of secretive talks, a bipartisan group in the Senate edged closer Monday to a health care compromise that omits a requirement for businesses to offer coverage to their workers and lacks a government insurance option that President Barack Obama favors, according to numerous officials.

Like bills drafted by Democrats, the proposal under discussion by six members on the Senate Finance Committee would bar insurance companies from denying coverage to any applicant. Nor could insurers charge higher premiums on the basis of pre-existing medical conditions.

But it jettisons other core Democratic provisions in a reach for bipartisanship on an issue that has so far produced little.

Heck of a job as usual Harry Reid. Heck of a job.

‘What concerns me about what’s happened in the Senate Finance Committee is that they’ve had a whole lot of time to work these things out, and just don’t seem to be able to break the impasse,’ Van Hollen said in an interview on the liberal Bill Press Radio Show. ‘It doesn’t seem to be as much about a disagreement over policy issues, and it seems more to be just the lack of the political will on behalf of some to get it done.’

Van Hollen blamed the committee’s slow work on Republicans, who he asserted were unwilling to make the needed ‘tough decisions’ to craft a healthcare bill.

‘At some point that’s going to have to happen, and the question is when do you reach that breaking point,’ the Maryland Democrat said when asked if Senate Democrats should end negotiations. ‘At some point they’re going to have to pull the plug on that process, and when they do that is something they’re in a better position to know.’

Why Harry Reid keeps getting himself led around by the nose by the GOP and obstructionist conservative Dems, I’ll never know. It’s like Reid wants to fail at this.

It would be nice.

More here.

“‘The Republicans have asked for more time, and I don’t think it’s unreasonable,’ Reid said at a noon press conference.”

Hitler just wants Austria. That’s all. He’s promised not to do any more than that.

Democratic divisions in Congress stalled President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul Thursday, with Majority Leader Harry Reid now saying that the Senate will not pass a reform bill before the August recess.

Reid told reporters Thursday the Finance Committee will act on its portion of the bill before Congress’ monthlong break. Then Reid will merge that bill with separate legislation already passed by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

Reid said the decision to delay a vote was made Wednesday night in the hopes of getting a final bipartisan bill.

When Reid goes home at the break (covered by his congressional health care) he should just stay in Nevada. He does just as much good to the country sitting there as he does in Washington.

You know, if you weren’t busy doing anything (like voting to increase the spread of guns).