Despite the panic, last week’s news contained nearly no mention of the Senate Finance Committee, the committee in the Senate that is holding up the legislation process because they have yet to complete their health care bill, but not for a lack of trying; Chairman Max Baucus (D-Montana) and a group of five other Senators (which, including Baucus, divides into 3 Democrats and 3 Republicans) on the Committee had locked themselves in Baucus’ office, chatting health care reform behind closed doors while reporters eagerly waited just outside, cameras and notepads readied in case this was the time that the Senators revealed to the public what exactly was going on.  The progressive members of the Committee, completely excluded from the talks, have complained along with several prominent bloggers about these back door discussions.  Eventually, Baucus let reporters in for several minutes before kicking them back out.

This week began with the breaking of the floodgates: Senator Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) finally gave the public some details of what exactly is being worked out in the antechamber.  Not much has changed since we last reported on the Committee’s bill: it still has a health care co-op scheme in place of a real public plan option, and creates a “free rider” initiative requiring employers to pay for those receiving Medicare or government subsidies in place of a employer mandate.  These substitutions just won’t cut it: the co-op initiative was tried during the Great Depression and failed, and the “free rider” initiative could discourage employers from hiring single workers or workers from low-income families.  Nate Sloan from Fivethirtyeight declared that “the math on this bill is so bad I doubt it will survive intact.”

So much for holding our breath for what will come out of the Senate Finance committee.  We’ll be best off if the HELP bill’s public option and employer mandate components win out when these bills are combined before the floor vote- which is now delayed until September, at the earliest.

In the House, the full week of negotiations within the final House committee yet to complete their version of the health care bill, the Energy and Commerce Committee, has finally resulted in compromise between the Blue Dogs and liberal Democrats.  Every change is relatively minor; but it makes the Blue Dogs look more interested in ideological politics instead of the cost-saving they’ve declared themselves the champions of.  It appears as if the real compromise was to simply delay the floor vote until after the August recess, along with a weakened public option and employer mandate which tend to favor the current system (and industry profits) instead of affordability for us.

Luckily, in the face of this push to water-down health care reform, progressives have threatened their own revolt if the public option isn’t included in the final bill.  Senate Democrats, in a veiled threat directed at Senator Baucus, Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, have suggested a biannual secret-ballot vote able to strip a Chairman of his gavel; progressives have circulated a letter with 57 signatures expressing discontent for the Blue Dog deal and refusing to vote for a bill containing the compromises.    House Democrats held a two hour meeting early in the week dedicated to the gritty details of health-care reform.  Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman postponed amendments Wednesday to address progressive concerns, working into the wee hours of the morning to fight Conservative amendments aiming to strip out the public option all together and to add in anti-abortion regulations.

Today, the last day of Congressional session until September, the Energy and Commerce Committee hope to finish their markups and pass their bill out of committee, which would move us forward for an entire House vote when they return from recess. But for now, Congress members are heading home for a month-long vacation- August recess; Let’s not let them enjoy their break too much, especially with the window for conservative and lobbyist obstruction wide open. Now is the time for you to make yourselves heard and fight for progress.  We’ve got some creative ideas and resources for you to take action in August – Click here to get ideas and fight back!