With the Baucus bill dying, that leaves…?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_health_care_taxes

More Democrats complained today that the Baucus bill imposes taxes that will hurt middle-class families. Why did Baucus and Conrad even insert such an obvious non-starter? The liberal Democrats are forced to block the Blue Dogs from taxing American families??

The Baucus plan is doomed. A key House Democrat called it “dead on arrival”. The GOP is publicly pressuring Snowe to reject the Baucus plan (or indeed any other plan). Howard Dean panned the Baucus bill. The Booman guys predict that Kerry, Wyden and Menendez will follow Rocky’s lead in opposing the Baucus bill, which would kill the bill in committee --and if Baucus changes course and moves left, he loses Conrad, Lincoln and Carper. Either way, dead bill.

And that leaves the public option. Bill O’Reilly, of all people, endorsed it, and Senator Cantwell (a Finance Committee member) says she won’t vote for a bill without it. Pelosi, who recently was hedging her bets on the public option, stiffened up today: "I fully support the public option. The public option will be in the bill that passes the House".

Sherrod Brown pounded the message home “We have an overwhelming majority of Democratic Senators, as we have an overwhelming majority of House members who support the public option, and more importantly, as you know Dr. Nancy, a recent survey showed that 70 percent of physicians in this country support a public option, and a comparable percent of the public supports a public option. So it's the right way to go. It's simply a choice that will make the insurance companies more honest and help us, because of competition, bring prices down.”