Charlie Rangel says the House-Senate negotiations on the final healthcare bill are going badly. "We've got a problem on both sides of the Capitol. A serious problem."

The WashPost story this morning sounds a little less bleak than that:

Negotiators for both chambers have been working virtually around the clock to resolve their differences, and aides say a broad framework for compromise is beginning to emerge. House leaders, and union officials, have signaled that they might be willing to accept a tax on high-cost insurance plans if the exemption for the tax were set high enough. The lost revenue would be replaced by some version of a tax on the wealthy, aides said.

Rangel is close to the unions, and he's representing their opposition to the "Cadillac plans" tax. The unions are going to lose that fight mostly, so Rangel is probably reflecting that.

Remember back last summer when people were saying why isn't Obama cracking heads? That was not really needed then. But now is the time to crack heads. The ball is on the three yard line.

If these negotiations blow up and the Democrats somehow don't pass this legislation at this point, they are done as a political party for the foreseeable future. The Republicans are already done--despite the tea party enthusiasm, GOP poll numbers overall are in the toilet. The party has no solutions, no ideas, nothing. It's great at daily political combat. And that's all.

So we'd have two failed parties. Would anybody then get the message that maybe our system is broken nearly to the point of disrepair?