Several recent front page stories and diaries have emphasized that a vote for cloture is not a vote in support of the bill. It's simply a vote to end the debate and actually get down to the business of having each Senator vote for a particular bill - in the current context, that bill of course is the health care bill with a public option.
That's a step in the right direction. We need to be doing more.
Speaking for myself, I have spent far more time than I had available phoning my (seemingly always) wavering Representatives in Congress and the President making my case in favor of the public option. I've written many a letter and shown up as many rallies as I could as well. The result?
Well, the good news is, we have well over 50 Senators, a President and a majority in the House ready to support a bill with a public option! The bad news is, despite our efforts, we're about to watch the public option die because Joe Lieberman and 3 other Senators are trying to conflate the difference between voting to end a debate on a bill with voting for the bill itself. So what we've done hasn't been good enough to get the job done.
Other recent diaries have pointed out that this was not the way the Senate acted when it was considering the Medicare D/ prescription medication bill. In that instance, 16 Senators who were opposed to the bill itself still voted for cloture.
I can't help but think that it's time for a new approach. As it turns out there is a strategy that we know works, and we know, too, that it works all too well! We need to start calling for the health care reform bill and a public option to get an "up or a down vote."
In my opinion, President Obama and Senator Reid need to be threatening some consequences for those who refuse to allow the bill an "up or down vote." And perhaps we should be considering a nuclear option of our own. Our nuclear option wouldn't necessarily be to end the filibuster. Our nuclear option could still welcome the principle of unlimited debate in the Senate. the world's "greatest deliberative body." Our nuclear option would simply require that if you're going to filibuster, you better have a phone book ready and you better be prepared to read from it at 4 am to an empty Senate.
It's only been a few short years since the Republicans charged that procedural filibusters amounted to obstructionism, which is where we Democrats stand today. Allowing the Senate to actually vote on bills rather than tie itself in procedural knots is as bipartisan a position as I can think of at this time.
The President and anyone else who would like to act in a bipartisan manner would do well to recall that. They should be calling for an up or a down vote. And if they don't get that up or down vote, they should be explaining the arcane undemocratic procedural rules of the Senate to the American people.
Let's think of the nearly 45,000 Americans, who are dying every year, and the countless others, who are facing bankruptcy because they can't get health insurance. We should think of the the millions of Americans who worry because they can't easily see a doctor for themselves and their families should they get sick. Don't WE deserve for the "world's greatest deliberative body" to give us an up or a down vote?
Peace and Happy Thanksgiving!