Leading

I'm not sure how this helps get a health care reform bill closer to passage, but it is an interesting development.

During a news conference last week, Mr. Obama said he envisioned posting a merged House-Senate bill that would address his goals of controlling costs and expanding coverage. “Now, we have a package, as we work through the differences between the House and the Senate, and we’ll put it up on a Web site for all to see over a long period of time, that meets those criteria, meets those goals,’’ the president said.

But Mr. Obama may be running out of time. His press secretary, Robert Gibbs, was asked Monday if the president would simply post his own bill if the House and the Senate cannot come to terms.

“Stay tuned,’’ Mr. Gibbs said. He declined to elaborate.

Meanwhile, a few Senators seem to understand what's at stake here, calling for reconciliation and adding a public option during the process.

Progressive senators are calling on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to use reconciliation to end the health care reform deadlock. In a letter co-signed by Sens. Mike Bennet (D-CO), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), and Jeff Merkley (D-OR) today, the group calls on Reid to use reconciliation to pass health care reform with a public option attached.

I am heartened that Gillibrand, facing a potential challenge from "centrist" Harold Ford, is now aligning herself with progressives.

First, they say a public option will be more fiscally responsible than the bill that was passed out of the Senate. "Put simply, including a strong public option is one of the best, most fiscally responsible ways to reform our health insurance system," they write.

Other reasons include increasing competition in the health care marketplace and the "strong public support for a public option, across party lines."

On the subject of reconciliation, the senators write that the process has been used in the past to pass health care programs in a partisan environment.

"The Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), Medicare Advantage, and the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 (COBRA), which actually contains the term 'reconciliation' in its title, were all enacted under reconciliation," they write.

Exactly. Pass the fucking bill.