This has been an excruciating and long debate over health care reform. It has brought out the best and worst in everyone. And it has fractured our party, the progressive community, and here we are...
In a few days President Obama could be signing an historic Health Care Reform bill that would extend insurance to another 30 million citizens of this great country. The bill will protect those who have real pre-existing conditions from not losing insurance or getting new insurance. This bill will help keep Medicare sustainable for many more years. And it will end other abuses by the health insurance industry, as well as lower monthly premiums. It is a big and bold bill, not what everyone wanted but a big step forward.
So, do we want to have a major "win" in our column? Or do we want to cut our own nose off to spite our face? This is the eleventh hour. It is the bottom of the ninth with bases loaded, and our beloved Babe Ruth is at bat. Will we, and our elected representatives, help the team leader win the game? (Sorry baseball season is looming.)
Stop and think about it. It hit me a minute ago. We could actually WIN this fight in a few days! Holy shit! It's like an election. Actually the fight over health care reform has lasted longer than the Obama-McCain general election. Let's win this!
Yeah I know, some want a public option or single-payer or some change to a tax, or provision, and so on. But let's look at the big picture. We will pass this major piece of legislation, Obama's key domestic agenda item. If this fails, oh my... don't want to go there.
This is the climax of the movie. Do you want to win the game?