2009 Obama Administration

The good news is that under all the hullabaloo of the public option fight and the horrendous Stupak amendment, there is actually a lot of good things that are pretty well-settled assuming a bill gets passed.

When people over the weekend asked why getting the votes for the health care bill was so hard, I would have to say: it just is -- it is the nature of the beast.

With the Republicans becoming locked into being the party of No, Democrats are going to need to seriously consider revising the rules of the Senate at the beginning of next term.

I think we're still moving forward with health care reform. The next few days will tell us what kind of deals can be cut, but no matter what, I think the strategy for progressives remains the same as it has been.

At a retreat this last weekend sponsored by the Roosevelt Institute on financial reform issues (I have to take a break from health care every once in ...

I am excited because this is a whole lot further than we got to when I was in the White House health care war room in 1994. At every stage, I think progressives have the ability to make progress.

The generic Congressional polling numbers are in a statistical dead heat, and Democratic base voter enthusiasm is trending down. But, there is no reason for the party to panic, yet.

The insurance industry has given health reformers the best argument we ever could have had to pass a public option and the strongest possible regulations on insurers.

Progressives should not panic if the language on the public option, or any other major issue in the health care bill, isn't great. Don't give up on the conference committee process: this time, the House will be a player.

If government bails you out, subsidizes you, forces people to buy your product, or otherwise does business with you, we the people are owed some basic accountability on the other end of the deal.

Most Democratic Senators are not going to want to have to defend the unpopular mess that is the Finance bill, and the pushback against it is gearing up.

While traditional media outlets everywhere are reporting that today's vote is a massive defeat for the public option, I don't see it that way -- in fact quite the opposite.

With polling numbers on the public option, and an activist base on fire on this issue, it is going to be more and more difficult for Democrats to vote against it when they have to vote in the light of day.

A worried Senator called me last night to tell me they were extremely nervous that the White House was on the verge cutting a deal with Olympia Snowe on her trigger-that's-not-a-trigger amendment.

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 importance of Ted Kennedy's letter and goes far beyond sentimentality. The letter was a handoff, and in his speech Obama seemed to accept the baton.

This was one of the very best Presidential speeches I have ever heard. And more importantly, Barack Obama did everything he needed to do.

Going into tonight's big speech, the question is this: Is the relationship between Obama and the progressive community broken or just bent?

Passing a strong, comprehensive bill, with a public option, through the Senate is eminently doable. Let's look at the actual facts in terms of passing a bill acceptable to most Democrats.

Health care reform will live or die on whether the White House, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid can figure out a way around the massive barrier in the middle of the road, the public option.

The traditional media has talked itself into believing certain things about the fight over health care reform, whether there is any serious evidence beyond their own self-reinforcing stories or not.

There are a lot of folks in the conventional wisdom, establishment-oriented Democratic circles who are trying the sell the argument that reform without a public option is still big, transformational health care reform.

In the Clinton White House, we fought for the most progressive budget bill since 1965. And we did it without a single Republican vote. We are now on the verge of a much greater achievement.