"Fiscal conservatives grumble over tab for reform"

pre-script: Hey Martin, I just tagged you because I know this is one of your core issues, but you aren't specifically mentioned.

The SF Chronicle posted an article(http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2009/07/20/MNAR18QUG7.DTL) about House Speaker Pelosi having difficulty getting her ten year, trillion dollar Health Care Reform Bill through the Congressional Budget Office. It is a pretty ambitious bill, covering pretty much anyone making between 43K and 88K, excepting illegal immigrants. I am guessing that exception is a compromise to make the bill more palatable, but think that the courts could very easily make it so that immigrants would have to be included or else throw out the bill if it were passed. There is a pretty high tax increase for those making 350K and businesses with payrolls above 250K and an even bigger bump for individuals making more than a million.

However, Democrats which the article repeatedly names as "conservative Democrats" have criticized the bill because it will almost certainly increase the federal deficit. I think that if the bill is having trouble in the house (the most radical part of congress) that it will die in the Senate (which is always more conservative). But what is more interesting to me is the politics within the actual Democratic Party.

The article reads: "Liberal Democrats warned conservatives that there would be hell to pay if they brought down the president's top initiative and denied health care to millions, while conservative Democrats warned that mounting federal debt and new taxes, especially on small businesses, would be the party's undoing."

I'm always interested in battles for the heart and soul of a party, Republican or Democrat. I usually root for the moderates on either side