New and Improved ObamaCare - The Teeny-Tiny Waterloo or a Slightly Less Stinky Pile of Poo, You Decide

Put on your neck braces  and prepare for the release of ObamaCare version 3.976574.  It's the teeny-tiny version, or if you prefer, the version that stinks slightly less than the others.  Still, it is expected to be, "'big enough' to put the country on a 'path' toward health care reform."  That may make it big enough to still do plenty of damage if there is, in fact, a new teenie-tiny version in the works.  

The New Republic's Jonathan Cohn seems to have a report contradicting news a smaller version will be introduced:

I checked with Pelosi's office, though, and that interpretation seems to be wrong. Via e-mail, spokesperson Brendan Daly says

The Speaker was referring to the compromise between the House and the Senate that the President unveiled last week--not a new smaller bill. As she has said repeatedly, she is committed to passing comprehensive health insurance reform.

This is consistent with the message Pelosi and her lieutenants sent over the weekend in a series of television interviews.

If somebody is going to back away from comprehensive reform, it won't be Pelosi.

Well, shame on us for interpreting Pelosi's statement to mean a new smaller version would be released.  I suppose Major Garrett at Fox News got this statement all wrong then:

"In a matter of days, we will have a proposal," Pelosi said, pointing to Obama's forthcoming bill. "It will be a much smaller proposal than we had in the House bill, because that's where we can gain consensus. But it will be big enough to put us on a path of affordable, quality health care for all Americans that holds insurance companies accountable."

Cutting through the semantics and political doublespeak, it seems we are about to see a version of ObamaCare that incorporates two ideas presented by Republicans at the health care summit on Thursday.   The plan is likely to include some versions of medical malpractice reform and an allowance for insurers to sell across state lines.    This isn't likely to make for a smaller bill, but in Nancy Pelosi's world this will make it bipartisan even if it fails to win a single Republican vote.  Allahpundit sums this up perfectly:

And if it has Republican ideas, why shouldn’t it be rammed through with reconciliation, right? Voila — Plan C, the first “bipartisan” bill in history aimed at a party-line vote.

Perhaps they cut 50 pages somewhere and this constitutes "smaller" in Democratic spin.

CNN Summarizes Health Care Summit in 2 Minutes - What Could Go Wrong?

CNN must be fearful that Barack Obama didn't fare very well in the health care summit last week. They put together a summary for those who missed the 7 hour summit condensing it into a two minute recap of the entire event. Surely they must realize when they are picking and choosing specific soundbites from an event of that length they are editorializing. If they realize they are editorializing you might think a news agency would make that point clearly. Don't strain yourself watching for such an admission, however.  It's missing along with the other 6 hours and 58 minutes they cut to make this summary.

You won't see a single word Paul Ryan uttered proclaiming the health care reform a fiscal train wreck. You won't see Obama cutting off Republicans as they are making clear arguments against the current proposed health care reform and offer reasoned and thoughtful alternatives. Nor will you see Democrats suffering from "annectdotitis" relating stories from constituents who wear their dead sister's teeth when dental coverage is not at issue.

What we do see is a montage of soundbites from Republicans suggesting they start over along with a few snarky responses from Obama on the use of the 2400 page bill as a prop. Worse still, is a montage of seemingly sincere Democrats suggesting there are many areas of agreement between the two sides followed by another montage of Republicans pointing to significant differences. The segment is concluded with Obama's final ultimatum. Having watched nearly all of the 7 hour summit, I would have summarized the event entirely differently. My summary would have been equally biased, perhaps even more so.   Then again I freely admit my bias, maybe it is time for CNN to do the same.



Related at Hot Air "CNN: We need a radical procedure to save the ObamaCare patient"
Cross posted at Potluck