Irrespective of Democrat’s veto proof majority, they are unable to procedural bring policies and bills that one would expect them to easily pass to the floor. This is the nature of passing legislation in the Senate. This is not new to Progressives. The inability to pass a strong progressive bill would only have been possible if Progressives were successful in owning the debate and educating Americans to the reason why at least a public option to healthcare or at best a single payer system would be the most efficient way to pay for healthcare. Unfortunately Progressives failed to step up to the debate as effectively as the GOP, Insurance Companies and many other Right Wing misinformation machines.
Democrats have been fiddling with this bill for the entire year and have come up with some policies that are good. It is granted that this bill is a panacea for insurance companies given the increased customer base they will get. Until Progressives find a way to decouple the Right’s ability to have a large plurality of American citizens believe that any government provided health insurance is tantamount to a government takeover of healthcare the insurance will maintain monopoly on our healthcare dollars.
In that light it behooves us to see the big picture. There are policies in this bill that cannot be attained through reconciliation. There are many other parts that seem to be there as compromises to Senators owned by the insurance industry or some other industries in the healthcare arena that likely without the 60 votes would be unattainable. As such we must hold our nose and pass this dog to move a few steps closer to the goal. This will prevent a Right embolden victory march that will likely affect every other Democratic policy. More importantly immediately upon passage is when our work begins anew. As I have mentioned in many a post, Progressive’s failure to win over the minds of Americans and instill confidence in a government run insurance system was a major reason for a less than stellar bill. We must not be polar opposites of the Right seeking ideological purity. We see what that can lead to. Simply killing this bill misses the big picture.
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