File this under "sun will rise tomorrow morning."
Roll Call is reporting that the Republican leadership is pressuring the Republican negotiators on the Senate Finance Committee not to reach agreement on health care reform, so Harry Reid is calling them out.
From Roll Call:
Enzi and Grassley appear to have been spooked by news reports that a bipartisan agreement was nearly complete. Enzi told reporters Wednesday that he spent much of his morning fielding calls from concerned GOP colleagues.
and . . .
Several GOP sources said Finance ranking member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) came across the Capitol to meet with Minority Whip Eric Cantor (Va.) and several other House Republicans in Cantor’s office to dispel rumors that a bipartisan compromise was about to be released.
And Harry Reid is calling them out:
Speaking to reporters, Reid said the GOP Senators who have been negotiating for almost two months with Senate Finance Committee Democrats to craft a bipartisan bill are coming under increasing pressure from their own leadership to either reject any deal or delay its unveiling.
“No one is harming the process of moving forward on a bill other than the Republican leadership,” Reid said.
He added that Finance ranking member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) “have been under great pressure” from their leaders.
As we've reapeatedly said here, the Baucus "coalition of the willing" is composed of the adamantly unwilling and politically "not allowed to."
Max Baucus' recent tactical leaks of tentative agreements weren't real agreements but instead Baucus' way to cover for his Committee's continuing failure to produce a "bipartisan" proposal. He didn't like the pressure, so he spun the media, but then the Republicans punked him.
In fact, the draft measure Baucus submitted to the Congressional Budget Office contained many elements to which Republicans have not yet agreed, said one Senate Democratic source.
In full damage-control mode, Enzi and Grassley crossed the Capitol on Thursday to assure House Republicans that no deal was imminent. Enzi said afterward that the Finance bill was a “train wreck” and was “not ready for prime time.”
“I don’t know any way how it could be ready today or next week,” Enzi said.
The Republicans are now fully exposed. There can be no doubt they will not allow their own negotiators to agree on any serious reform bill, and the Senate Finance effort is a fraud on the public and their colleagues.
Who could have predicted that the Republican game plan is, and always has been, to torpedo any meaningful health care reform, while pretending to negotiate in good faith? Only a Democratic leadership frightened by a Jim DeMint would continue talking to these people.
It's time to start calling out the Liebermans, Conrads, Lincolns and Nelsons and ask them why they're shielding bad-faith Republicans and standing in the way of reform. Let's put a good bill out there and make the anti-reform crowd explain why they voted against it.
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