In an Op-Ed for Washington Times, no less. Here's the description:

One little-noticed proposal has attracted an ideologically breathtaking span of senators and seems to have been unjustly overlooked in the debate: the Healthy Americans Act, sponsored by liberal Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon and conservative Republican Sen. Robert F. Bennett of Utah. The amazing list of 15 co-sponsors includes eight Democrats, from Bill Nelson of Florida to Maria Cantwell of Washington, and seven Republicans, from Bob Corker of Tennessee to Charles E. Grassley of Iowa.

I had heard about this bill but never took the time to look it up and research it. How is it possible we know so little about it? And why hasn't Mr. Obama invited these 15 senators to the White House to have them explain it better? Maybe he should before his speech Wednesday.

The basic idea of the proposal is, in effect, to "liquefy" everyone's current employer-provided health insurance policies -- i.e., require all employers to pay in cash to each employee the actual cost of that individual's insurance policy, and that extra compensation would have to be used by each employee to purchase health insurance policies. All those receiving this boost in pay would receive a tax deduction, varying in amount according to their income -- i.e., you get some or all of the tax deduction the employer currently gets for paying your insurance.

So, it's another backdoor way to get rid of the employer exclusion, yes?

Single Payer Action

About ten minutes into the event Rick Staggenborg MD, of Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP), asked Senator Wyden if he would sit down with single payer advocates.

Wyden remains steadfastly opposed to single payer, but said he would sit down with the single payer advocates.

But Senator Wyden did nothing to ensure that single payer advocates were represented in recent Senate Finance Committee hearings.

Just keep showing up, whether or not you're invited.

What Does Specter’s Switch Mean For Health Care Reform?

When it comes to health care reform, Sen. Arlen Specter may be one of the few (former) Republicans open to negotiation. A co-sponsor of the Wyden-Bennett health bill, Specter has been a strong proponent of reforming the health care system.

The healthy parasite act would disolve the current employer based system and replace it with a mandate that we all buy our plans individually.

CD updating the update to reflect the latest news: Reid has pulled the bill.

Well, we're into it - a full-throated Senate debate on many of the dearest, in all senses of that word, fundamentals of constitutional government,

The opening, as Lambert has suggested, was a bit confusing.

Dodd gave a passionate analysis of the many strands of this new FISA legislation, meant, mainly on the Democratic side, to correct the excesses of last August's Protect America Act, which more or less gutted the FISA court as a check on the power of the executive branch to secretly ignore the civil liberties of Americans not to be spied upon by their own government.

To talk process for a moment, the thrust of Dodd's first speech was in support of the many and profound reasons why the Senate should not proceed on the matter at hand as long as the Intelligence Committee's version is the basis of the debate and the subsequent voting on the entire issue. In other words, he was arguing against the imposition of cloture, so that the Senate might spend time debating the merits of substituting the Judiciary Bill as the basis for debate and amendment.

It didn't look or sound to me like this was Dodd's attempt to get a genuine filibuster going, and indeed, the vote was lopsided in favor of cloture, all Republicans voting yes, only ten Democrats voting no.

This is not the end of the debate by any means, though, and from what I've seen thus far, do not despair that passage of the Intelligence Committee's version of this new FISA bill is a done deal, including the extending of amnesty to those Telecoms which choose to go along with the administration. Here's why: