Quick Hits: Does Rahm Believe Healthcare Can Get Done?

Will healthcare reform come about?

Ezra Klein of The Washington Post isn't terribly confident, especially after what Rahm Emanuel had to say

According to the New York Times, the "White House on Thursday signaled the outlines of its strategy for breaking the partisan logjam holding up President Obama’s agenda." And that outline is the most depressing thing I've read on the chances for health-care reform.

With Mr. Obama’s health care overhaul stalled on Capitol Hill, Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, said in an interview that Democrats would try to act first on job creation, reducing the deficit and imposing tighter regulation on banks before returning to the health measure, the president’s top priority from last year.

… Mr. Emanuel, the chief of staff, said he hoped Congressional Democrats would take up the jobs bill next week. Then, in his view, Congress would move to the president’s plan to impose a fee on banks to help offset losses to the Troubled Asset Relief Program, the fund used to bail out banks and automakers.

Lawmakers would next deal with a financial regulatory overhaul, and then pick up where they left off on health care.

It is very, very, very important to be clear on what the death of health-care reform looks like. It is not a vote that goes against the Democrats. It is not an admission that the White House has moved on from the subject. It is continued statements of commitment from the key players paired with a continued stretching of the timetable. Like everything else in life, policy initiatives grow old and die, even if people still love them.

Read Ezra's post in full at WaPo