Remember those words. They were spoken late Thursday evening by Senator Sam Brownback before he voted to sustain an attempted filibuster of funding for the troops in Afghanistan and Iraq early this morning.
And remember this: in the House, with no filibuster, 164 of 175 Republicans voted FOR the emergency bill to fund the war effort.
And remember also this: Sen Thad Cochran of MS, who had 45 earmarks for his state totaling $167 million, voted against closure, and thus against his own earmarks.
The Republicans played hardball, but lost on the vote 63-33, but the three Republican women who voted for cloture, Hutchison and the two from Maine, did not do so until all 60 Democratics had voted Aye on cloture, as you can read in this Washington Post piece.
The Republicans had hoped to get Russ Feingold, who opposes the wars, to join them in the filibuster, but
At a closed-door meeting Thursday evening, Feingold delivered a stirring talk to Democrats and indicated that he would vote with them, leading to applause that could be heard outside the room.
"I am not going to be part of a partisan and cynical effort to delay passage of the defense bill in order to block the Senate from considering health-care reform," he said in a statement later.
Feingold still plans to vote against final passage of the defense appropriation.
The Democratic leadership has moved the health care bill forward enough that the only remaining holdout is, according to the article, Nelson of Nebraska. Bob Casey has offered language that would clarify the use of public versus private funds on abortion to avoid inclusion of the Stupak amendment. Nelson has praised the language, but said it is insufficient. At this point the leadership needs to play hardball with the Nebraskan, giving him total freedom to do a Feingold - feel free to vote against final passage, but do not block the vote.
Get something out and fix it in conference.
Look - I am NOT happy with the current structure of the Senate bill. But starting over from scratch is unfortunately a non-starter. Remember those words from Brownback: I don't want health care. Remember that Demint has said he wants to make health care Obama's Waterloo. Remember that failure to move the bill BEFORE the August break gave life to the Tea Party movement, which undercut support for health care reform, and made the Senate's task that much harder.
Democratic senators should be told bluntly that while a vote on final passage can and should be a matter of conscience, a vote on cloture on bills of major importance to the President and the party are not negotiable. And they should remember words from our Revolution, spoken by Ben Franklin just before he signed the Declaration:
We must, indeed, all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately.
Those Senators who doubt the relevance of Franklin's words should be reminded pointedly of what happened in 1994 when the Democrats failed to deliver health care reform.
And then there is this: the Dems, all of them, need to hammer the Republicans on this morning's attempted filibuster. We can use words of a Republican, Secretary of Defense Gates, who is probably the most popular member of the Administration at this point:
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates sent Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) a blistering letter Thursday warning of a "serious disruption" in the military's ability to pay troops. "It is inconceivable to me that such a situation would be permitted to occur with U.S. forces actively deployed in combat," Gates wrote.
Inconceivable
with U.S. forces actively deployed in combat
And then remind people what this is about. That Senate Republicans are willing to hurt people in order to damage Obama and the Democrats. They will hurt the troops, and if they will hurt the troops, they will also be willing to hurt the American people.
For a political victory.
I don't want health care.
We need to wrap those words around the neck of every Republican who voted to filibuster money for troops "actively deployed in combat" in order to block health care.
And we need to insist that Democrats move things forward, that no Democratic Senator be allowed to threaten a filibuster without some possible consequence - that includes Casey, Lieberman and Nelson.
And when he returns from Copenhagen, the President will then have an opportunity and a responsibility. He will have an opportunity to move the bill forward. He will have a responsibility to push for what he advocated during the campaign, a public option or the equivalent.
He has the power of the bully pulpit. He can shame individual senators. He should not use that power to change votes on final passage, because there are 51+. He should - and perhaps he must - use that power to force the Democratic coalition to hold together to overcome Republican obstructionism.
There is a possibility of a Republican Waterloo if he does. If decent health care can get done, which means something closer to the House bill than the current Senate bill, and Republicans are still attempting to filibuster, to block reform, they are handing the Democrats the rope with which to hang Republicans.
The party of "no" has yet again demonstrated that.
Make the point, Dems. Use Brownback's words to hammer them. It does not matter in what context he meant them. He has made the point clear:
I don't want health care.
Well, I do. So do most Americans. And it is time to let them know that Republicans will do anything to prevent us from getting it, and it is high time we make sure the American people know how far they will go.
Republicans hate the troops. They hate them enough to deny them necessary resources in order to gain a political advantage.
Oh, and one more thing. Last night I posted REMOTE AREA MEDICAL Coming to DC in January!!. That will give us a real opportunity to make visible WHY we want health care - not just health insurance, but without health insurance such fairs as RAM puts on are for many people the only access to health care. We Dems WANT health care for all. And Republicans?UPDATE: that diary was updated as of 11:30 - location not yet fixed, and still one permission from DC Government is needed.
I don't want health care. - so said Sam Brownback, so said the Republicans.
Let's put it that bluntly, and then see what the American people really think.
Peace.