John Cole is wrong:He
writes: (emp add)
I’ve heard several bobbleheads state that “liberals and progressives want to go back to the drawing board” with health care, and this is just ridiculous. There is no drawing board to go back to. Period.
The notion that they could just go back, rewrite the bill, and somehow this time sneak in a medicare buy-in or public option is laughable, and there is no chance that, in an election year, Pelosi would be able to get the votes to get the bill we have now through the house again, let alone a more progressive one.
So it should be clear. If you are thinking that you can kill this bill and come back with a better one, you are fooling yourself. It is this, or it is nothing for decades, and that is why folks like Rockefeller and Sherrod Brown and Ron Wyden and other folks are sucking it up and still supporting the bill.
Re the bolded statements:
- Not many are saying a Medicare buy-in or public option can be included. Most bloggers opposed to the Senate bill are objecting to the mandate.
- The trajectory of health care costs and coverage is such that if no bill is passed this year (or next), it would still be a salient political issue in the near future.
posted by Quiddity at 12/16/2009 06:42:00 PM
You're the one who is wrong. If this bill dies, and the GOP is successful in using that failure to gain seats or even take over Congress...
HEALTH CARE REFORM IS DEAD
...for as long as the GOP is in a strong enough position to prevent it.
As Richard Nixon told Eliot Richardson during the Saturday Night Massacre: "I'm sorry you choose to place your purely partisan interests ahead of the public interest." Of course, Nixon was pissed off because Richardson refused to fire Archibald Cox in order to save Nixon's ass, but the quote applies here.
It's time to wake up and smell the coffee. This is not a perfect bill, but I agree with Kevin Drum here. It is a huge step forward. There are lives at stake here. It's time to stop playing politics.
