Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA), the new chairman of the Senate's health committee, "predicted that a health-care reform bill would pass Congress before Christmas, with Republican votes," the Des Moines Register reports.
Speaking at his annual Steak Fry fundraiser, Harkin also declared that the legislation would "have a strong public option." With two key moderate Republicans declaring today they do not support a public option, it will be interesting to see how this plays out. http://snipurl.com/rtho1 [politicalwire_com]