I have carved out a carefully crafted position on the HC bill that I'm sure will please nobody

[bluestateguy]

It's not soundbit-able, or bumper sticker-able, but here it is:

1) Roll over the DLCers and pass as much as you can through reconciliation, including a public option and/or Medicare buy-in, and do the insurance reforms (no pre-existing condition denials, etc.) in a separate stand alone bill; it will get 60.

2) Having said that, if reconciliation either fails, or if Harry Reid is too cowardly to push it, then we should try to improve the bill as much as possible in conference committee.

3) That said, I favor passing the bill if that fails too.

So there it is. That will make no one happy, and my justifications for this would require a long and complicated, nuanced explanation, which I am really just not up for doing right now.

[MineralMan]

1. It's actually quite important to make nobody happy.

It is then when you know you're right.

[Cleita]

2. It doesn't sound that bad to me especially chopping this bill up into

separate bills, like one for fixing Medicare and another one for making the insurance companies behave. The third one should be about getting people who are uninsured and underinsured into existing government programs and those who would like to chuck their private insurance and buy into Medicare or other program administered by the government.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

3. So you're suggesting we... turn lemons... into lemonade?!

How dare you, sir. You're worse than Hitler and Obama put together.

[NYC_SKP]

4. Well I hate to screw with your low expectations, bluestateguy...

...but I'm not pissed off with your idea.

I like it.

:patriot:

[rwheeler31]

5. Thank you for planning instead of bitching.

[TheKentuckian]

6. I suggest a rope a dope followed immediately by reconciliation

but I think its so messed up that it still won't really work unless the gumption is there to just offer Medicare to everyone but the thing is the exchanges are closed and I'm not sure if the transition could be put in.

This bill is just the Baucus monstrosity but possibly even worse. I figure it does more harm than good at this stage.