Tonight's the Night

"I, out of an effort to give Congress the ability to do their thing and not step on their toes, probably left too much ambiguity out there, which allowed then opponents of reform to come in and to fill up the airwaves with a lot of nonsense," Obama told ABC's Robin Roberts on "Good Morning America." - Barack Obama

Max Baucus says he's moving on, with or without the GOP.

Meanwhile, because Baucus is a two-face, Gibbs calls Max a dick, in so many words and wonders whether he's moving on without his special interests and their checkbooks

"[W]e’ve seen what we’ve read in the paper, but I do not believe that we’ve seen paper on the plan... I was told that — that K Street had a copy of the Baucus plan, meaning, not surprisingly, the special interests have gotten a copy of the plan that I understand was given to committee members today." - Robert Gibbs

But the plan Baucus floated has no public option and penalties for not buying in. In essence, no competition to bring down prices but a mandate to buy it anyway.

Just as auto coverage is now mandatory, so would a requirement that all Americans get health insurance. Penalties for failing to get insurance would start at $750 a year for individuals and $1,500 for families. Households making more than three times the federal poverty level — about $66,000 for a family of four — would face the maximum fines. For families, it would be $3,800, and for individuals, $950. - AP

BTW - Baucus' plan was authored by Liz Fowler, current Baucus staffer and former VP for Public Policy and External Affairs at private insurance giant Wellpoint, parent company of Blue Cross. While she was at Wellpoint, she was intimately involved in recission, cancelling policies because people got sick. Oh, it was also a violation of state law.