Somehow, though, health reform is not dead. Despite all of the setbacks and all of the missed opportunities—despite this train wreck of a month—the situation remains remarkably similar to what it was before the recess. Significant health care legislation is likely to pass, particularly if Obama manages to give a good speech on Wednesday night. And while the possibilities for what that legislation might accomplish have certainly diminished, mostly for worse, it’s not clear how much they have diminished—and to what extent progressives may yet have the power to change that fact. But then the reality about the Gang of Six started to set in, particularly at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue. Mike Enzi and Charles Grassley, two of the three Republicans, made clear through statements and actions they wanted no part of reform—that their goal was to stop Obama’s proposal from becoming law. That prompted terse dismissals from the White House, which focused all of its energies on the third Republican, Maine’s Olympia Snowe. As my colleague Suzy Khimm has reported, Snowe has been negotiating about health care in good faith. By all accounts, she wants a bill and she wants a good bill. And if her notions of a good bill don’t always gibe with those of liberals, they’re closer than those of some Democrats, including some of her colleagues on Finance. Most of these developments took place last week, culminating in perhaps the most intriguing news of all: Baucus was finally offering legislative framework to the Gang of Six. He distributed that framework over the weekend with a request for feedback before Obama’s speech on Wednesday—a clear indication that he realizes his window for action is closing. The proposal is not good as it could be, at least relative to what the other committees have produced. But it’s certainly not as bad as it could be, given expectations and the demands Republicans have been making. Rather than gut the proposal in order to keep the price tag down, Baucus has kept most of the basic structure and offered financial assistance that’s close to—if not equal to—what the other committees have offered. As a result, the bill will require between $800 and $900 billion in outlays over ten years rather than, say, between $600 and $700 billion—as some recently circulated language suggested. But with that extra money, the proposal delivers at least some financial relief to people with incomes up to four times the poverty rate, rather than cutting off assistance at a much lower number. (It also reduces the deficit in the budget planning window, something no other bill does. More analysis of the proposal to come soon.)