And the Senate moves too

Meanwhile, in a foreign land known as the North Side of the Capitol, the United States Senate, wracked with obsessive ideas of a "wise Latina" showed it may be doing something far more important. Crafting a bill.

Today, on a party line vote, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) approved their version of health reform. Jon Cohn writes his summary of what happened, as does Ezra Klein. Klein helpfully points out that while the vote is party line, it did incorporate some Republican ideas (does anyone remember the individual mandate as a conservative idea as I do). Furthermore, they even accepted an amendment requiring Members of Congress and their staffs to join onto the public option. I would have been fine with that, and enjoyed having a weird stake in my own insurance back when I worked on the Hill.

As New American points out, the momentum builds. All eyes turn to the Senate Committee on Finance, where the tax provisions and the Medicare and Medicaid matters all arise. Indeed, if the bill even had one sentence on tax, under Senate rules it would go there. HELP produced an incomplete bill.

But, with the House pushing its bill over the next week in markups, Senate Finance has pressure now. I have not had something so hopeful in a while.