"We must get it passed now" is a loosing strategy. This thing is going down the drain fast. And it has been for at least the past month in the public opinion polls. HCR started with over 60 % approval from the American people. We have fucked around long enough, and with the wrong people and wrong Corporations, and with the wrong policies to the point that we are resented for it, laughed at for it, ridiculed for it, and yes, voted out of office for it.
The American people never saw Health Reform in the making. What they saw was ineffective politics and governing, back room deals with both Corporations and corrupt politicians. They saw campaign promises of no tax increases on the middle class fall to the way side with the Senate version of HCR and its excise taxes on health care plans. And they saw lack of clear leadership, and the lack of a clear pathway from the White House.
The end goal kept moving. What people initially understood and latched on to, the Public Option, was thrown to the way side in favor of Corporation favored mandates. That was the single biggest mistake. That was the clear turning point. It was the moment when people began to feel that the process was turning from reform to status quo. The second biggest mistake was the deal with Big Pharma and the closely linked voting down of the Dorgan amendment, which meant the continued rip off of Americans by the drug companies. The third death knell was the sweetheart deals with the Corporate Whores in the Senate that held out for the pork and money for their states and for their votes. It all added up, each of the ugly deals, to a big stinking pig.
And its not the reforms in the bill that stink. Its every give away, every back room deal, every gift to Big Insurance and Big Pharma that it took to get those reforms. It was ugly American politics with a big fat bright spot light shining on every single ugly turn and every single deal.
So here we are, after a big loss in the Senate in one of the most liberal states in the nation. And now we are suppose to decipher the meaning of that loss. And importantly, how shall we proceed with health care reform now that the magical 60 th vote is gone?
Some say pass the bill now. We need to get it done ASAP. It will be seen as a "win".
Will it? Or will it be seen as a last desperate attempt to pass a bill that the American people no longer support? And if the American people no longer support the bill, will they suddenly support it once it passes? What theory is that based on? Can we rely on the American people changing their minds about this bill, or about the process and route the Democrats took to get to this point? Do all the things that the people reacted negatively to suddenly dissipate into the background once the bill passes?
These are the questions the White House is going to have to answer.
I would submit that they need to accept that mistakes were made. That the bill was too big to hold together with all the moving parts. That it was too difficult to bring all the interests together under one umbrella. And finally, that it was too easy for Republicans to obstruct at every single step along the way.
Its time to tell the American people that they are going to be given HCR, but that they are going to get it one bill at a time, so that they can evaluate all of its parts on their individual merits. Every law maker will have to record their vote on recision, then pre-existing conditions, then funding for preventive care, and on down the line. Let each and everyone of the Corporate Whores, Democrats and Republicans alike, have to record their vote on each and every bill, for the American people to see with the clearest of understanding and utmost transparency.
At the same time they introduce a public option, or an expansion of medicare as part of an aggressive jobs bill and pass it through reconciliation.
Its balls to the walls time. And its truth serum time for Barak Obama. Going this route means all the deals with Big Pharma and Big Insurance are out the window. False populism is gone, done. What is it going to be Democrats? Is it going to be change we can believe in, or business as usual.
Its your choice.