Sen. Kent Conrad said his fellow members of the Finance Committee are having second thoughts on imposing a tax on high-end insurance coverage that workers receive on the job. Apparently they were spooked by polling data from a number of sources showing Americans didn’t fancy that idea. It’s unclear whether that means another alternative – a 4% surtax on adjusted gross incomes of more than $200,000 -- is gaining further traction. That could raise as much as $850 billion over the next decade.

Meanwhile, Roll Call reports Harry Reid has instructed Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus to stop chasing Republican votes on health care and not to compromise on a public option.

Editor's Note: A post on the DailyKos echoes Reid saying "this bipartisan fetish has to stop." The post demands that lawmakers must set "the public option as the line in the sand" creating "a strong, robust Medicare-like public option." By 'Medicare-like' presumably they mean 'broke.' This particular ideological fetish on government run health care is truly the biggest impediment to responsible reform. Recent polls have shown that 8 out of 10 Americans are happy with their employer-sponsored health insurance, and these same American realize that the proposed public plan is a threat to their current care. Which is why...

When it comes to winning support for the health care reform bill, Washington Post columnist Harold Meyerson says Obama’s vaunted army of activists is missing in action. Meyerson says Obama has done brilliantly in winning support from major industries, but that’s no substitute for the kind of heat grass roots support can exert on wavering members of Congress.