Howard Dean's money quote: "This is essentially the collapse of health care reform in the United States Senate. Honestly the best thing to do right now is kill the Senate bill, go back to the House, start the reconciliation process, where you only need 51 votes and it would be a much simpler bill."
In other words Obama and Harry Reid do not need to suck up to Joe Lieberman. Just get it done with reconciliation. That's all the Democrats ever needed to do. The Republicans were never going to do anything except carry water for the insurance industry anyway. So why bother trying to play footsie with them? RD http://www.taylormarsh.com/2009/12/15/howard-dean-best-thing-to-do-is-kill-the-senate-bill/#comments --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "do.rflex" <do.rf...@...> wrote: > > > Healthcare's Home Stretch > By Kevin Drum <http://motherjones.com/authors/kevin-drum> > > > [image image-_original] With the public option now out of the > healthcare bill, is it still worth passing? Regular readers will be > unsurprised that I think the answer is pretty firmly yesand that > liberals who now want to pick up their toys and hand reform its sixth > defeat in the past century need to wake up and smell the decaf. > Politics sucks. It always has. But the bill in front of usmessy, > incomplete, and replete with bribes to every interest group > imaginableis still well worth passing. First, here's me a few > months ago: <http://motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2009/07/community-rating> > > If you combine (a) Medicare, (b) our current employer-based insurance > regime, and (c) community rating along with subsidies for low-income > families, you've essentially institutionalized universal healthcare > insurance. Not everyone will take advantage of itthere will always > be a few people who go without coverage even if it's affordableand > you still a need a few other things like out-of-pocket caps. Still, > it's basically a statement that everyone in the country can and should > be covered. And once that becomes a cultural norm, it will never go > away. > > Even without the public option, which can be added on to the current > legislative framework later if we stay on the ball and scrape up the > votes for it, we're still getting community rating and subsidies for > low- and middle-income families. That's huge. And here's Ezra Klein: > <http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2009/12/is_the_senate_healt\ > h-care_refo.html> > > "This is a good bill," Sen. Sherrod Brown said on Countdown last night. > "Not a great bill, but a good bill." That's about right. But the other > piece to remember is that more than it's a good bill, it's a good start. > With $900 billion in subsidies already in place, it's easier to add > another hundred billion later, if we need it, than it would be to pass > $1 trillion in subsidies in 2011. With the exchanges built and private > insurers unable to hold down costs, it's easier to argue for adding a > strong public option to the market than it was before we'd tried > regulation and a new competitive structure. With 95 percent of the > country covered, it's easier to go the final 5 percent. And with a > health-care reform bill actually passed, it's easier to convince > legislators that passing such bills is possible. > > On its own terms, the bill is the most important social policy > achievement since the Great Society. It will save a lot of lives and > prevent a lot of suffering. > > Ten years ago this bill would have seemed a godsend. The fact that it > doesn't now is a reflection of higher aspirations from the left, and > that's great. It demonstrates a resurgence of liberalism that's long > overdue. But this is still a huge achievement that will benefits tens > of millions of people in very concrete ways and will do it without > expanding our long-term deficit. Either with or without a public > option, this is more than Bill Clinton ever did, more than Teddy Kennedy > did, more than LBJ did, more than Truman did, and more than FDR did. > There won't be many other times in our lives any of us will be able to > say that. So pass the bill. The longer we wait, the worse it will get. > Pass it now. > > http://motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2009/12/healthcares-home-stretch >
