Is Healthcare Reform Sinking Or Swimming?

Roll Call has put out a report on the Senate-House healthcare negotiations that sounds quite alarming:

“We’ve got a problem on both sides of the Capitol. A serious problem,” Ways and Means Chairman Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) said Tuesday evening.

The difficulty in hashing out an agreement between the two chambers is largely due to there being so many different factions with a stake in the matter, Rangel said. “Normally you’re just dealing with the Senate and they talk about 60 votes and you listen to them and cave in, but this is entirely different,” he said. “I’m telling you that never has 218 been so important to me in the House.”

Another senior House Democrat familiar with negotiations on the bill said no progress has been made this week on any of the key sticking points in the House and Senate bills, despite steady meetings with union leaders and the White House.

“There’s no agreement. No deal on anything. Nothing,” the lawmaker said.

Huffington Post, though, had a post late last evening that — while it includes Rangel’s “serious problem” quote — doesn’t seem to share Roll Call‘s grim assessment.

Stay tuned to see what’s going to be realized, our worst fears or our fragile hopes.