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Monday, August 17, 2009

Are progressives about to explode?

If the health plan goes the way the Senate Finance "gang of six" would like it to, lacking a public option but containing a mandate, won't that be a shock to the system?

It seems that, up until now, progressives have been willing to let Obama and the Congressional leaders (Reid, Pelosi) operate freely on the understanding that some basic policies - discussed in the election last year - would be firmly in the mix. But the peculiar attraction to bipartisanship, a 60-vote Senate threshold, and "small ball politics" (e.g. Obama in Grand Junction, Colorado - a replay of his caucus strategy), is taking the legislation into strange areas.

I expect an eruption, probably after the recess is over and the legislation becomes clearer.

posted by Quiddity at 8/17/2009 05:14:00 AM

6 comments

according to ambinder (now huffpos headline) a wh official says sebelius "misspoke."

i'm not talking about you, necessarily, but a lot of liberal bloggers are taking some sort of perverse pleasure in predicting failure. they are actually growing invested in it. they write very elegant prose laying out what they expect to happen next & announcing the end is nigh. they are laying the table so that if it does fail, they can then stand tall to bellow "i told you so." it's the equivalent to doing a play by play of your neighbor's house burning down without lifting a finger to run out to help put it out.

what kind of person looks forward to reforms failing just to validate their ego? i doubt many of these doomsayers have even done the minimum of calling their senators to register their support for a public option.

instead of crystal ball gazing, why aren't bloggers calling for more activism?

here is a good place to start that makes it easy to participate:

http://www.healthcareforamericanow.org/

By noname, at 8/17/2009 6:37 AM

a 60-vote Senate threshold

obama has made it clear he'll push through the legislation through the 50 vote reconciliation process if he has to.

legislation has already been laid down to facilitate it. this, from a while back:

Yesterday, when Congressional negotiators agreed on the budget bill, they gave President Obama virtually everything he wanted, including the fast-track budget reconciliation rules that smooth the way for passage of his healthcare initiative.

By noname, at 8/17/2009 6:52 AM

"small ball politics"

Obama has a town hall coming up at 10: am pacific. he should have something clarifying to say about the public option.

via halperin's the page:

1:00 pm [est]
President Obama delivers remarks at the VFW National Convention

By noname, at 8/17/2009 7:25 AM

after the recess is over

pelosi said she's going to bring up single payer for debate and for an up&down vote after the house returns from congress. single payer! that didn't get a lot of media play.

looks like the suggestion of a squeeze play here. pelosi hypes single payer so much that the public option starts to looks like the moderate alternative? obama plays good cop to pelosi's bad cop. works for me.

from the activist page i posted earlier:

A Public Health Insurance Plan Option Is Centrist Reform

By noname, at 8/17/2009 8:05 AM

i meant after the house returns from recess.

By Anonymous, at 8/17/2009 8:08 AM

The game is still in the first quarter. Ask me in late October.

By Urban Sombrero, at 8/18/2009 8:46 PM