I see how this is going to happen now:

[berni_mccoy]

Fineman lays out part of the strategy here in his blog:http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/thegaggle/archive/2009/08/18/fineman-the-democrats-new-strategy-on-health-reform.aspx

Dems plan to use Budget Reconciliation to pass it. However, as Fineman points out, this is up to the Senate parliamentarian: Alan Frumin. If he decides the bill doesn't meet the requirement, it ain't going through. And as Fineman suggest, the current bill doesn't appear to meet this requirement. The Dems would be taking a big risk in doing this.

However...

There has also been talk of the bill being broken up in parts (Sanders on Rachel's show last night discussed this, but not in detail).

The first part would be insurance reform: no preexisting conditions, no coverage caps or denials, etc.

The second part would be a public option, based on... you guessed it... Medicare. If the public option is based on Medicare, it easily meets the requirements of Budget Reconciliation.

I believe this is going to be the Dems strategy. First get the political momentum going by forcing the Repubs to vote on just the reform part. They will ultimately destroy themselves if they vote against it and so far, Blue Dogs would support the reform-only portion. After that passes, use the Budget Reconciliation to push the Medicare-based public option through. The Dems only need 50 votes to get the public option done.

This is it people. The Repubs squandered their opportunity to be part of a great change in America and they will pay for it come the next election.