The post our Senators should read

by: Hopeful

Thu Feb 18, 2010 at 06:03:49 PM EST

I'm glad to read that Senator Frank Lautenberg has signed the letter calling for a public option via reconciliation. We know Menendez has said favorable things about it last month. But I hope they realize that while gestures are appreciated, they need to win for a change. And so I recommend what Digby says:

But I would warn them that if they think that building up the base's hopes on this again only to fail to even get 50 out of 58 Democrats it isn't going to work. If they are serious about rallying the base they need to deliver, period. No excuses. They have a majority. If they hold a vote that only requires 51, they need to win it.
I'm just praying they aren't going to have a spirited losing debate on the floor and then go the Evan Bayh route yesterday when he was on TV, righteously blaming the Republicans for being obstructionists (good) but also blaming Democrats for making the "perfect the enemy of the good". One more lecture about this and I'm going to put my foot through the TV. The truth of the matter is that liberals have been accommodating every damned step of the way, forced to eat dirt from backstabbers like Joe Lieberman and have been far more compromising than jackasses like Bart Stupak and Ben Nelson. It pays to remember that if liberals had their way we would be talking about a national, cradle to grave universal health care plan (Medicare for all) instead of this Rube Goldberg contraption that's been put together with toothpicks and ear wax. So lectures about demanding perfection really need to be aimed at the vaunted "centrists" and the conservatives, who made this mess a necessary requirement for passage....
But if they are running the same game they ran before I can't imagine how much worse they are making it for themselves. They need to be very, very serious about passing it. This Charlie Brown with the football routine is what's killing them with the base. They just can't afford to do it again.

I don't think it's hard for Blue Jersey readers to think of examples at the state level, but here there are really no excuses, because health care reform has been in the Democratic platform longer than most Americans have been alive. Pass a public option that covers anyone with a pre-existing condition, with subsidies for everyone without insurance and a tax on high incomes, and you are finished. And it's more popular than the current bill.

Hopeful :: The post our Senators should read

Tags: health care reform, public option, Charlie Brown and the football, What Digby Said, (All Tags)

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The post our Senators should read | 3 comments

As long as the insurance lobby (0.00 / 0)

continues stuffing certain Swiss bank accounts the games will continue. Some people are saying Max Baucus plays solitaire with Swiss bank books.

Restore democracy and the Constitution for which it stands.

by: The Wizard @ Fri Feb 19, 2010 at 04:13:37 AM UTC

Agreed Dems Are killing the Base and Losing Independents (0.00 / 0)

On Thursday's BlueWave NJ Obama's First Year Review with Jonathan Alter, Mark Alexander and Rep Pallone a group of NJ progressives were having the same debate: belt way wisdom VS. progressive desire for REAL health care reform. The debate was much along the lines of Hopeful's post.

If Democrats don't accomplish HCR they will alienate the base and the independent/centrists also. Who is impressed with the inside the belt way horse trading version of legislating? Would this ever appeal to anyone who was not a politician?? The lack luster arguments of the Democrats in the MAJORITY (that we worked hard for them to get) are not going to garner votes or support. People want to here their representatives FIGHT for THEM not endless negotiations, Louisiana purchases and big pharma and insurance give aways. Our politicians need to get back to basics and push hard for legislation that will help our citizens and our country- then everyone will be impressed left, right and center. Really.

by: Ann R @ Sat Feb 20, 2010 at 20:44:43 PM UTC

we are as much the problem as they are (0.00 / 0)

We are very long on words and short on action. We think that if we make the best argument, we will achieve our goals. However, politics doesn't work that way.

The only thing that the political establishment, Democratic or Republican, understands is fear or money. The teabagging wingnuts don't have money, but they have been successful at making the Republican establishment fear them.

The reason that so many Democrats have no qualms about going against our wishes is because they do not fear us. Bob Menendez has not signed the Bennet letter yet, because he does not fear us. We should be threatening to sign the teabagger's recall petition if he doesn't sign the Bennet letter.

Until establishment Democrats start to face serious primary election challenges from progressives, they are going to continue to follow the money, because they know that there are no consequences for doing so.

by: Bertin Lefkovic @ Sat Feb 20, 2010 at 21:31:38 PM UTC