So now the high-pressure sale is on.
The proponents of the Senate bill in the media and here are in high gear to browbeat, if they can't sugarcoat, the call to support it regardless of its "slight flaws just short of perfect."
Nate Silver was on Hardball with a flipping thermometer graph showing how a "weak public option" was 1 degree only under the current senate bill, both of which are so close to full universal access. Can't you see how close we are? Can't you SEE? Here's a visual!
So here we have been, arguing amongst ourselves and pretty insulated from the Republicans on this bill. Now that we have paid some big prices for big undercutting of what we need (Nelson's bribe to say 'yes'), what will the result be in the bigger picture if this bill passes as is?
To be clear: the left will not be behind this congress moving forward with any degree of passion or enthusiasm, and in some cases, it will cost real votes (due to the attack on womens' abortion care access, mandates, and poor protections). But where does the right sit? One two points, it's clear -
- The right is against the bill's lack of competition. The right wants to see companies' ability to go interstate, and that isn't in this bill.
- The right, like most of us, is also against mandates. What will that cost, and what will the penalty be when people ignore the federal government's order to pay money up to 8% of their yearly salary to a private company? The intrusion at this level from the right's perspective is treasonous, the stuff of revolution. At least, that's how they're explaining it to me. This is what we want to activate in the current political climate? And for what? To pacify senators who have been successfully lobbied against the will of their constituents, and against the greater good they hold in their power?
The proponents of this bill are so hellbent on passage they don't seem to give a shit what's in it. The bill might as well say "Pass by Christmas" in the body, and just refer to an ever-changing appendix which includes the language du jour. This isn't a bill for health care; this is about salvaging a crumb from the demoralizing defeat this democratic house, senate and presidency has created out of making universal health care health insurance giveaway their one trick pony for 2009. They have squandered and undermined their credibility and political capital with their base; and they have turned a deaf ear to its wishes on this and many other important issues. While I don't think any progressive would be caught dead tea partying anytime soon, the absence of support will be felt if the lack of acknowledgement from our representatives continues. And imagining the right hammering these same points home come 2010, where will we be to refute them? If this bill is not a sliver, but an aberration of what truly will help the American people access real health care, what leg will we have to stand on? We are in a bad position.
The pro-big-insurance and the pro-pass-the-bill entities have had a field day threatening progressives with the horrible spectre of Republican majorities in 2010 if this bill doesn't pass. Well, as this is Christmas time, when many wishes come true, here's a thought: Be careful what you wish for. What you fail to grasp, apparently, is with the content of this bill in question, passing this bill creates its own nightmarish vision of Republican midterm majorities dancing on all of our heads.