Listen to what Democrat Robert Shapiro, a top economist in the Clinton administration's Commerce Department, had to say in a recent analysis for the New Democratic Network: "Even so, the healthcare reforms being considered by Congress all involve even higher healthcare costs for most businesses, which will mean more job cuts even as the economy grows. No one questions that healthcare reform is an urgent, national priority -- as are efforts to contain the risks of climate change. But we gain little except a false sense of accomplishment by enacting healthcare reforms that also aggravate the new jobs problem, or climate legislation such as Waxman-Markey which cannot deliver significant reductions in greenhouse gases," he wrote.
Instead, Shapiro advises his party "to first focus on the underlying problems in the current downturn and the issues with jobs and incomes -- before we take on broad and urgent reforms in other areas. The politics, if nothing else, virtually dictate it, since a growing economy that creates large numbers of new jobs and pushes up incomes is always a prerequisite for the public's support for reforms that, one way or another, end up imposing new costs on them."
Meantime, some Senate Democrats were blaming Obama himself for opposing (correctly, in my opinion) a tax on some employer-provided medical-insurance benefits to help pay for healthcare coverage for the uninsured.
"The president isn't helping. He doesn't want it," Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus of Montana told reporters last week as he and his colleagues struggled to come up with alternatives to produce $320 billion in additional revenue.
Perhaps the most alarming manifestation of the Democrats' deepening divisions in the bitter healthcare battle was the specter of the Democratic National Committee running television ads against members of its party to pressure them into supporting Obama's plans.
Funded by Organizing for America, Obama's campaign in waiting, the ads are running against Democratic senators in Nebraska, Ohio, Florida, Louisiana, Indiana, Arkansas and North Dakota. An angry Reid called them "a waste of money." Their own president was "running ads against Democrats," he fumed.
As support for health care seemed to unravel, Obama sought to unify his party last week; the president brought doubting Democrats to the White House in a desperate bid to lure them back onboard.
"The president sought my views on where things stand in Congress, which we discussed. For my part, I suggested we not impose an arbitrary deadline to get something done," said Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska.
With polls showing public approval of the way he is handling the healthcare issue falling below 50 percent for the first time, the White House is desperate to pass legislation before Congress shuts down for the rest of the summer and his polling numbers weaken further.
But it now seems unlikely that Obama will get Senate action before the August recess, allowing opponents more than a month to mount full-scale campaigns against his grandiose plans. And that's when the Republican lobbying machine will be running full throttle.