The Senate will not vote on health care legislation before leaving for its summer recess on Aug. 8, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, said on Thursday, finally acknowledging publicly the inescapable political reality that has been clear for several days.
Mr. Reid, speaking at a weekly news conference, said he expected a bipartisan deal on health care legislation to emerge from the Senate Finance Committee before the summer recess begins, and that he would spend the break merging that bill with legislation previously approved by the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. [...]
But at the news conference on Thursday, Mr. Reid shrugged at a question about the timetable and told reporters that it should come as no surprise to anyone that the health care legislation would not be ready, though he also tried to put the blame for the delay on Republicans – saying that they had asked for time.
“Working with the Republicans, one of the things that they asked for was to have more time,” Mr. Reid said. “A decision was made to give them more time for the Finance Committee.” He added: “I don’t think it’s unreasonable. This is a complex, difficult issue.”
Republicans may be saying "go slow", but they really mean "no go". If we can't get health care passed this year, I don't know if we ever will. Reid really needs to crack that whip and stop ConservaDems like Max Baucus (D?-Montana) and Kent Conrad (D?-North Dakota) from giving away the whole shop to the GOP as they keep delaying this and delaying this to the never approachable future.
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