Bill Nelson apparently had a few things to say about health care while flying down on Air Force One to Florida with the President for a night of fundraising. Responding to reports that Harry Reid will, moments from now, include the public option “opt-out” compromise in the Senate bill, Nelson said: Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) [...]

Bloomberg reports what we mostly know, that Harry Reid will call for a public option, probably Chuck Schumer’s “level playing field” version, with a state opt-out, and that Mary Landrieu has signaled an openness to the compromise (UPDATE: this is open to interpretation, of course). I think at this point we can pretty much focus [...]

As I noted, Harry Reid will unveil the merged Senate health care bill today at 3:15pm ET. This is pretty much on the expected schedule. Here are the key questions I’d like to see answered about the bill: • The public option. Most reports say that Reid will include a national public option with a [...]

The Wall Street Journal reports tonight that Harry Reid is going along with the opt-out: WASHINGTON — Top Senate Democrats are close to finalizing their health bill and could unveil a measure as soon as early this week that would include stiffer penalties on employers who fail to provide health coverage. Senate leaders plan to [...]

And the yo-yo moves back up. TPM gets multiple sources confirming earlier reporting, which was denied at one point, that the President prefers the trigger option that would keep Olympia Snowe (R-ME) in the fold on an overall health care bill to a public option with an opt-out mechanism for the states, a version Harry [...]

OK, there’s been a spate of reports about health care and the public option in the last 24 hours, so I wanted to put together a rundown. Exactly who is saying exactly what about what will come out of each chamber of Congress? The House Nancy Pelosi reportedly has the votes to pass a robust, [...]

You can barely keep all the various reports straight, so here’s a try: • Nancy Pelosi’s whip operation to find the final eight votes needed to pass a House health care bill with a robust public option continues. Raul Grijalva set the marker by saying publicly that 210 votes within the caucus were secured. Open [...]

Creigh Deeds is, by most measures, fading in the Virginia governor’s race. Two polls show him trailing Republican Bob McDonnell by double digits with two weeks to go. So Deeds is pulling out his trump card. He’s released an ad with Barack Obama, touting Deeds at a campaign event earlier this year. The ad directly [...]

Ezra Klein writes today that the blending of the two health care bills into one for the Senate floor will be a true blend – those issues where both the HELP Committee and the Finance Committee weighed in will result in one compromise or other, and other issues where only one committee addressed them will [...]