No public option, no mandates, no deal, no check-writing?
Submitted by James on Tue, 09/08/2009 - 8:52am
This sounds about right to me.
Do they think they have a chance of beating their next Republican opponents if progressive activists aren't enthusiastic about writing checks, making phone calls and going door to door?
This may not be true in North Carolina as a whole, but it's sure as heck true in my house.
My view is if Pelosi puts the bill for a vote, with the ...
public option, the pressure will be on the members who choose to vote against it. This is what they have been trying to avoid. A public record where they voted against a real plan that would make a change. Then you know who has been working for the bribes from the health insurance industry. And if it should pass in the House, there's going top be a panic in the Senate. This will be Obama's time to put some heat on that body of corporation ass-kissers. This will be "the moment" for this administration!
Rational politicians, clear choices, and a strong leader
After months of sound, fury, and tail-chasing, the baseline political equation is coming down to this. Will Obama stake out a strong position, lay out a clear choice for Democratic members of Congress, and push?
Yes or no for a strong reform bill.
Say what we will about the hedgers and the timid, I believe that most elected officials at that level (most Democrats, at any rate--I'm no longer sure about many of the Republicans) are at base rational politicians. That is to say, when they are confronted with a binary choice on which their future political viability depends, they will choose their viability.
Here, in the absence of another major domestic terrorist attack or economic reversal into near-depression, nothing will be more determinative of Democratic control of Congress next year than the outcome of the health reform debate.
Binary choice: Either Congress passes a bill which is viewed as real reform, or it fails. And failure will be punished severely at the polls. The GOP attacks will not be paused by any explanations by the swing-district incumbent, and no excuses will be accepted by the average voter.
Results--positive or negative--will override the best spin that money can buy, including all the heat and blather of the "town hall" astroturf.
217 votes in the House and 50 votes plus Biden in the Senate. That's all we need. That's available, without a single GOP vote, and without the small-minded dithering of political midgets in the Senate. Yes, Congressional Republicans will be "infuriated" by the bypass of the filibuster rules, as the pundits are proclaiming. Who cares?
The voters won't. This issue is too big, and the bottom line will be results, not spin or excuses.
Dan Besse
Hear, Hear!
Yet the cynic in me half-expects to hear the word 'trigger'. That's code for "the insurance companies won".
-b
There cannot fail to be more kinds of things, as nature grows further disclosed. - Sir Francis Bacon
Rational decisions
Thanks for a well thought out comment, Dan. I've been thinking the same way for the past couple of weeks. The issue is simply too big with voters. All the same I think letters, phone calls, e-mails and drop-by visits to offices of both parties are still important. Moderate republicans in swing districts nationwide are as vulnerable as blue dog democrats next year if they come out against reform. That's why I think it's important to keep the pressure on both parties for meaningful reform that includes a public option.
Absolutely
keep the heat on. Too many of them will waffle if they perceive that they can.
Dan Besse
Thanks Dan
You are right on. I dearly hope Obama comes out swinging tomorrow night. My hope against hope is that he takes a page from Franklin Roosevelt in 1936 ("I welcome their hatred..."), though I don't really think he will.
But we need real reform, and a President willing to stand up and demand it. My fingers are crossed.