Let's have this fight now

From "Daily Kos"

rockfish's diary :: ::

If the Democrats pass a bill that mandates having health insurance coverage but does not include the public option, I have seen no arguments that either coverage or costs will in any way be pressured to decline. And when the costs of the insurance goes up there will wailing and gnashing of teeth by the masses of what an odious burden and taxation the democrats have forced upon them and anyone who denies this is living in a fantasy world. So we are going to be right back here very shortly in the future to refight this battle anyway to either pull some kind of trigger of figure out how to put in the public option we should have had to start with.

And even if we make this compromise, what do we get? Has anyone argued that we will pick up a single republican vote in the house? I haven't seen it. And how many republican votes will we pick up in the Senate. One (Snow)? And this is bi-partisanship? Suppose we include the public option and instead of talking about watching the House progressives fold, we put the heat on the Senate democrats. First we dare them to vote against cloture, the vaunted 60 vote threshold, on THE key democratic initiative of the last 60 years. Will someone please explain to me the raison d'etre for having a caucus if the membership of that caucus impedes a piece of cornerstone legislation decades in the coming, that is so widely supported by the public? Polls show support ranging from 55% to 80% depending on how well the question is worded and explained. Why can't leadership flip the dynamic and put the onus on the blue dogs in the Senate?

I say we have this fight right here, right now. The conservative right says we are rushing this, well ok, here is how much I'm willing to slow this down. I don't know all of the legislative baggage comes with what I'm about to propose so help me out here. You want to discuss this, well let's go.

Rep Tom Price (R-GA-06)and the Republican Study Committee have written a bill now referred to Rep. David Obey and the Appropriations committee the Republican alternative HCR bill H.R. 3400 "Empowering Patients First Act". This should be forwarded immediatley to CBO for scoring. I don't know if this means that they need to first vote this out of committee or what needs to happen to allow this scoring. Then we can see exactly what they are proposing, how much it will cost, and more importantly expose the huge unfunded mandate they are pushing off to the states to create and administer the high risk pool for those applicants who can't otherwise get insurance.

(Read the rest!)
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/9/15/782302/-Lets-have-this-fight-now

Let's fight about something that is really worth it: Health care reform!

It's time to stop retreating. We need to take a strong postion, and fight from the higher ground. We need leaders and strategic thinkers who can provide the right ammunition, and pick the best place to defend. Forget lines in the sand. It's too easy to walk right over them.

The only real fight was in getting Harry to stand up.

Thanks grits for keeping it real. Right now any other story is just a distraction. It is playing out just the way Matt Taibbi forecast in his excellent article last month in Rolling Stone. Hope that Pres Obama can pull a victory out of this mess is fading.
What a shame. Please everyone call your congress people and senators today.

Well said.

Republicans will have their blueprint and pattern for how to stymie Democrats as they work to regain power.

if this fails, i do think there will be a back lash at us. this could also put some of our other initiatives in jeopardy.

no public option i believe would defeat the intent/spirit of this initiative.

would we have supported a government mandate for health insurance coverage (with no public option) if Bush had proposed it? - No we would not, it would have seemed like a government mandated buying of big insurance stock.