Health reform on life support

Former President Bill Clinton hit up the weekly caucus lunch of Senate Democrats on Tuesday, imploring them to shelve enough differences to pass healthcare reform. "We're winning," he told them, which couldn't be further from the truth. 

As I listed in my column this week, obstacles to passage of healthcare reform continue to mount. Getting to 60 votes in the Senate appears not implausible but impossible at this point — yes, it can happen, but nobody knows how. 

Should everything magically come together on the Senate side, the abortion fight on the House side is threatening passage of any final compromise. Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.), a Blue Dog who voted for the bill last weekend, said reform is still on life support, according to an interview he gave the Nashville Tennessean.

 What will it say about the Democratic Party if — after promising healthcare reform for decades — the effort collapses over abortion?

 
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