Fellow progessives,
Right now our strategy is that the Prog Caucus in the House hold firm and refuse to vote for a bad bill - presumably preventing the bill from passing. There is a problem with that!
Why do we assume the house republicans won't vote for a bad bill?
Why do we assume the house republicans won't vote for a bad bill?
Remember that 1) their constituents also broadly support reform, 2) they are corporately owned, and 3) they would love to stick the Dems with a shitty bill so that they can campaign against it.
So, lets say a Baucus type bill shows up in the house, by voting for it the republicans can 1) say to their constituents - 'well it sucks but its better than nothing -so I voted for it', 2) give insurance companies a giant financial windfall, and 3) campaign against the dems for forcing people to pay for junk insurance that they can't afford and isnt getting any better.
Unfortunately, I think our senators know this and (some corporately owned ones) are trying to make sure that what comes out of committee conference looks more like the Baucus plan. Considering the above, I would expect house republicans to vote against the house bill (whatever it is) and then turn around and vote for the conference report assuming the public option is stripped out.
Here is the basic problem - right now our strategy in house will (probably) get a good bill past the house, but it wont stop a bad bill coming back from the conference committee. How do we do that?