This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Friday, January 22nd, 2010. I'm Caleb Brown.

What's left for Democrats who want to pass something in the realm of health care reform sooner rather

than later.

Should the House pass the Senate bill?

Should they start over what currency to free market ideas have at this point?

Michael Cannon, director of health policy studies at the Cato Institute, offers his thoughts.

Scott Brown won a really stunning upset in the Massachusetts Senate race to fill Ted Kennedy's term.

That really made things difficult for President Obama to get his health plan through

because Scott Brown is now the 41st Republican in the Senate and he

has vowed to be the 41st vote to block the President's health plan, the

legislation as it exists right now, so the president no longer has a

filibuster-proof majority in the Senate supporting his plan. So that leaves

Democrats with a number of options to try to get their health care plan through Congress.

The first option, the president has already ruled out.

That was to just try to ram something through Congress before Scott Brown can be sworn in.

So that Senator Kirk from Massachusetts would cast the vote for

that seat. As I said the president has ruled that option out. There are other options such as the having the house

passed the Senate bill as is which would send that bill right to the

President's desk. But the Senate, the House Democrats have thrown cold water

on that idea.

They don't like that idea because there are a lot of provisions

that are offensive to them.

...