Carry On My Wayward Son

The bad news, is that the discussion on merging the various Obamacare bills in the Senate is being done behind closed doors.

Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) sits at the head of a wooden table at his office as he and Sens. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) and Max Baucus (D-Mont.) work to merge two competing versions of health-care legislation into one bill. The three men will be joined by top aides as well as by members of President Obama's health-care team, led by White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. The sessions started on Wednesday and could be completed this week.

The group will make such key decisions as whether to include a government-run insurance plan designed to compete with private insurance companies. The bill passed in July by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which Dodd led while Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) was ailing, included such a provision, but the legislation passed last week by Baucus's Finance Committee did not.

Max Baucus has finally gotten the message that a centrist compromise will never happen. Dodd is firmly on the side of the people. Harry Reid has been talking like he has a spine lately...but the key here is still Emanuel. Both Reid and the President have basically said they'll jettison the public option if they have to.

What comes out of the Senate conference here will determine the final bill. Keep an eye on what Harry Reid says...but keep a more careful eye on what Rahm Emanuel does.

The bills also differ on how much Americans who do not buy insurance should be fined as the government seeks to get everyone covered.

In the sessions, Dodd in effect represents advocates of the government-insurance option and Baucus represents those less committed to that proposal. The tie-breaking votes are likely to be Reid and, on Obama's behalf, Emanuel. Obama and Reid have said they personally back the government-insurance option but have not ruled out supporting a bill that lacks such a provision.

The key to this is Rahm Emanuel at the table...he doesn't represent America on this, he represents GOP Sen. Olympia Snowe and the other Sensible Centrists. Rahm's job is to get a bill on the President's desk. Whether or not the bill is a good bill or represents something the American people actually want doesn't matter to him. He just needs to get a bill signed so he can say Democrats got a bill passed when Republicans couldn't.