Enzi found himself under attack at the town hall simply for sitting in the same room as the three Finance Committee Democrats. Republicans in the crowd called for him to exit the talks. He assured conservatives that his presence was delaying health care reform.
"If I hadn't been involved in this process as long as I have and to the depth as I have, you would already have national health care," he said.
It is good to know that we have decided to trade national health care for an occasional conversation with Mike Enzi.
We still have several areas where we haven't been able to come to a consensus. No deal is at hand and substantive issues, big and small, remain under discussion and need to be resolved. We need to keep working together.
I will need to see complete language and a final estimate from the Congressional Budget Office before I can agree to any health care reform bill.
I also need commitments from Senator Reid and Speaker Pelosi, as well as the Administration, that the bipartisan agreements reached in the Finance Committee will survive in a final bill that goes to the President.
With this arrogant and laughably absurd statement (we will only consider exactly what I agree to and no more), Mike Enzi has finally made clear what a lot of us have been saying to Max Baucus all along: the Republicans are never going to deal in good faith, and this idea of a bipartisan bill is not going to happen. Democrats should move quickly now to pass a bill out of committee, and then go to the floor with a Democratic bill, and bone-crunching party discipline should be applied to get us past a filibuster attempt. It is time to move forward with a bill, end of story.
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