Preliminary Analysis of the Senate Finance Committee Chairman's Mark As Amended  —  CBO and the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) have just issued a preliminary analysis of the Senate Finance Committee Chairman's mark for the America's Healthy Future Act of 2009 …

THERE IS NO BAUCUS BILL  —  The internet is alive with the sound of people analyzing the CBO's “scoring” of the Max Baucus aka Senate Finance Committee Health Care Bill.  Before everyone gets too deeply into their thoughts, please keep in mind the following (get ready, all CAPS, bold, indented signifies a really important concept):

Meet the New Health-Care System, Not That Different From the Old Health-Care System  —  You probably can't see that table particularly well.  Click on it, and it'll enlarge.  It comes from one of the final pages of the Congressional Budget Office's score (pdf) of the Senate Finance Committee's bill …

Dems Discussing Public Option With Opt-Out Clause: The Silver Bullet?  —  WHAT'S YOUR REACTION?  —  Senate Democrats have begun discussions on a compromise approach to health care reform that would establish a robust, national public option for insurance coverage but give individual states the right to opt out of the program.

Senate GOP Folding Over Health Care Reform [updated]  —  I am told quite reliably that in a meeting today on Capitol Hill, Republican Senators began to rapidly move toward concessions on health care because they are afraid they cannot hold their members.  Some Republicans are now thinking of supporting a government program.

Corzine Attempting “Juvenile Schoolyard Taunts” Strategy  —  Um, really? … On the one hand, this seems like it couldn't possibly work.  Who's going to be anything but repulsed from Corzine by these tactics?  On the other, it does often seem that prejudice against the overweight …