Hallelujah!

The Senate Finance Committee continued today its markup of Chairman Baucus's health care reform proposal. The Wall Street Journal reports that

A bipartisan Senate vote swept aside demands by liberal Democrats for a
government-run health insurance plan, delivering a potentially lethal blow to
the most controversial measure of the proposed U.S. health-care
overhaul.

Dramatizing Democratic divisions on the issue, five Democrats joined with
all Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee to defeat 15-8 a proposal by
Sen. Jay Rockefeller for a government plan to help those who couldn't get
affordable insurance through their employers. A similar proposal fell by a 13-10
vote.

Of course, we have not heard the end of this crazy idea (because it's found in both the Senate Health Education and Labor Committee bill and the House majority bill, HR 3200) but it may be the beginning of the end. Modern Healthcare reports that Sen. Baucus thinks that a bill with a public plan option cannot get through the Senate.