So the dust is beginning to settle after the President's great speech Wednesday night. His poll numbers are up, his plan's numbers up as well. Republicans are on the defensive because of their tea party style histrionics. Democrats are feeling more confident and more unified.
That's all good. The question is where does the debate go now, especially on the center stage issues such as the public option. Unfortunately, I am beginning to fear that instead of using their newfound momentum to win a decisive victory and pass a strong reform bill, too many Democrats want to revert to their old conventional wisdom, culture-of-caution instincts, and move toward a safe "centrist" bill -- centrist meaning one that doesn't take on the insurance industry too much.
The combination of conventional wisdom-laden political analysis ("We could never get a good bill past the Senate"), political caution (not wanting to face the wrath of the powerful insurance industry), and a belief by the policy technocrats that regulatory fixes mean we don't really need that strong a counterweight to the insurance industry in the form of a public option is moving this dynamic in the wrong direction. But there is still one counterweight that might save the day, the same counterweight that progressives have been hoping will stand strong since this debate started: progressives in the House.
The point here is not to blow up the bill. Few progressives, inside Congress or not, want to stop comprehensive health care reform -- it is something a lot of us have been fighting for our entire professional lives. But we also know that without some kind of strong, available to everyone competition to private insurers, they will run amuck in this new system -- raising rates at will and finding ways around the new regulations to keep denying people coverage. Take a look at Massachusetts' skyrocketing insurance rates, where their have universal coverage, but no public option, if you want to understand the problem. Health care consumers are guaranteed quality insurance at an affordable price only with a strong competitor to private insurers. That is the bottom line, end of story. The president has said the public option is only a means to that end. Fine, but nothing proposed so far by public option opponents -- not a co-op, not a trigger -- comes even close.
It is more and more likely we are going to get some kind of bill. What progressives in the House have to do is hold strong and hold together. Negotiating as a block of 60 members makes you a thousand times stronger then letting yourself get picked off one by one by one. If progressives hold strong and hold together, we can still get comprehensive reform with a decent public option. If they don't, the all-important details of this legislation will get worse and worse.
This is what it was always going to come down to: how much courage and moxie House progressives would have in the final negotiations on this bill. The end game has arrived. It is time to stand and deliver.
James Heffernan: Why Obama Should Have Been Lying
Handicappers who rate this episode a win for Obama overlook the fact that what the president said should have been false. If your parents are illegal, says the bill, we don't care how sick you get, or even if you die.
Roy Ulrich: What It Will Take to Win the Healthcare Debate
Most Americans are schizophrenic about their views of government. They hate red tape, bureaucracy, and waste, but they want the airlines they fly, the products they use, and the food they eat to be safe.
Simon Sinek: Will the Public Option Cover Barack Obama's Democrat's Disease?
Obama is failing to lead America into a new era of health care reform not for lack of vision, but because he's not talking about it properly. Worse, he's starting to sound like "just another Democrat."
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But without a public option there is no reform, just a bureaucrat
First, the president sits on the sidelines saying little about and giving little support for the public option.
The Democratic leadership supports a public option, particular
The president gives a speech in which he mentions a public option. He also gives indication
Suddenly, the leadership backs down on the public option, in particular once strong supporter Nancy Pelosi. Has the leadership been called off while the president continues to show strong support?
The president will then be able to say he really wanted the public option but Congress just didn’t come through for him. Sounds like a well constructe
This idea may sound conspirato
Kinda' sends chills up my spine. Those eyes.... those eyes....
The private insurance is very competetiv
What Mr. Obama is asking for is very moderate in comparison to what exists in other countries, yet the GOP and others make it sound like a big deal. It is not, and I wish Obama could start showing some numbers of what people pay in other countries, so that this debate is correctly framed : it is not how much this is going to cost the U.S. , but how much is the country going to SAVE.
A better alternativ
Mr. President, please save Americans from greedy insurance company death panels. We need justice.
Except it misses the lesson that has been repeating over and over.
Ralph Nader says that this is a one party system. No, it's a two party coalition government
Even Rachael Maddow goes on about how important it is to have a 2 party system to foster debate. And everybody knows that unless this were a parliament
The problem is that the coalition government is between Democrats and Republican
The society has already moved from Blue and Red to Blue and Green. The evidence is everywhere
P.W. Botha's message to South Africa that it must 'Adapt or Die' also applies to us and the planet as well.
What I said was that it's a coalition government
As far as evidence, just look around at society. Do you see any advertiser