This document, prepared by the House Tri-Committee staff, outlines the topline differences between the House and Senate bills that need to be resolved. In almost every case where the two bills differ, it is because the Senate bill is dramatically worse.

There is no better proof that the Senate bill is a massive giveaway to the health care industry than the radically different enforcement mechanism for the individual mandate and the new insurance regulations. This Senate bill will force you to buy insurance from only private insurance companies. It will use the power of the federal government in the form of the IRS to make sure you buy private health insurance.

Henry Waxman, chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, announced at a constituent meeting Sunday that he was headed to Washington today to begin discussions with Senate leaders and the White House, aimed at reconciling health care legislation to find a final bill which can pass both chambers of Congress. “The differences on the health bill will be hard to reconcile,” Waxman said.

Obviously, the large part we’ve played in driving and reporting on the health care debate, the dominant story of the latter half of the year, gives FDL a big leg up in any annual overview of the best of online reporting, but the other three stories on Sargent’s top five list were also, for lack of a better word, “ours.”

This bill has a terrible foundation. It is a starter home built with the equivalent of toxic drywall, lead paint, a poorly mixed cement foundation, and faulty electric wiring.

Paul Waldman’s piece about the differences to be worked out in the House-Senate conference committee on health care is a pretty nice recitation of the issues we’ve been discussing for several weeks. He offers ten specific issues. . .