Among all the Finance Committee Democrats who have significant concerns about Baucus's bill and the bipartisan process that birthed it, Kerry has maintained the most diplomatic and optimistic tone. Like other liberals, Kerry supports the public option, thinks the subsidies are too meager and believes employers should be required to provide health insurance. But when he's raised major issues such as these during the markup, he's withdrawn his amendments and spared Baucus the discomfort of voting no.

Oh, how considerate of Kerry - wouldn't want poor Max to suffer any discomfort, now, would we?  Or is this really about not wanting to embarrass Obama, and make Obama uncomfortable?  Meanwhile, I guess the millions of Americans who are struggling can rest easy knowing that the members of the committee are looking out for each other's feelings.  As my father used to say, Jesus Christ on a crutch.

And I love the whole idea that Senators from the smallest and poorest states will be instrumental in deciding what comes out of the committee:

Baucus has solid support from Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), who helped conceive the bill that emerged from the ultimately fruitless bipartisan "Gang of Six" negotiations. Fellow Gang member Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) also seems to be behind his chairman, while Democratic Sens. Blanche Lincoln (Ark.) and Tom Carper (Del.) have made mostly positive noises about the bill.

I mean, we all know that making sure the committee members have their chairman's back is the best way to guarantee legislation that will best serve the people, right?

Keyword: believe.  

The National Assn. of Insurance Commissioners currently writes model laws and regulations that individual states are free to accept or discard. Under the bill by Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), it would craft a model rule governing "health insurance rating, issuance and marketing requirements" that would become "the new federal minimum standard without any further congressional action." States would be permitted to deviate from the standards only by appealing to the Department of Health and Human Services.

In effect, the bill would allow the group to write many of the new rules on issuing and marketing insurance to millions of uninsured Americans who would be required to purchase policies.

"The NAIC is clearly an organization that is dominated by the insurance industry," said California Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, a former state insurance commissioner. link

Household income declined across all groups, but at sharper percentage levels for middle-income and poor Americans. Median income fell last year from $52,163 to $50,303, wiping out a decade's worth of gains to hit the lowest level since 1997.

How much more pressure can the average family endure? Incomes have fallen, housing value have tanked, while cost of living continues to rise. In spite of all of this, Congress wants to force American's across the country (with the threat of jail) to chose between health care and groceries.

Thus making it even HARDER for those (uninsured) people to pay for their own health care costs.

Kerry will do precisely what Obama tells him to do.

Wyden actually does not care about the public option - he thinks his exchanges are the magic bullet (think of him as Ezra Klein in the Senate.)

Carper may be an outright No vote on the pubic option.

(For those who aren't aware, Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation Chief of Staff Tom Barthold testified that a taxpayer who fails to purchase health insurance under the proposed bill would have the IRS come after them for collections [up to the $1900 currently proposed].  He later followed up in a handwritten note to Sen. Ensign (who asked the question in the hearing)and said that violators could be charged with a misdemeanor and could face up to a year in jail or a $25,000 penalty.)