The storm of health care reform is forming now around the public option. The policy and politics of it are very well explained by Paul Krugman and DK's own Jed Lewison. The question now seems to be what will the progressive caucus in the House do. Will they cave on the public option because that means getting some bill out and besides they always cave to leadership when the chips are down? Or will they stand firm and force the hand of leadership and run the risk of the bill failing and all of the strains that will place on the remainder of Obama's first (and only?) term.
One of whines heard constantly from the right are "What's the rush with doing HCR this quickly?". This ignores the fact that we are all aware of that this is a cornerstone plank of the Democratic party and that this day has been coming for 100+ years if you count Teddy Roosevelt's first breaching the subject of universal health coverage or 60+ years if you count from Truman's proposal. I say the time has come to have this fight now.
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.
The republicans keep saying that they have better ideas, well, let's see 'em. Let's show all those teabaggers exactly what their leadership has in mind. The republicans have been against any sort of health care reform since the beginning. Let us have a shot at attacking their ideas or crackpot schemes. Let's see how much of our treasury they are willing to transfer to the private sector because it works so much better than government. I'm tired of their waving some 4 page "outline" of health care reform. Lte's shine a light on that pig they've smeared lipstick on and see what it really looks like in the daylight. Come on, I dare ya!
On the other hand, as a progressive, I feel like we've already made our big concession when single payer was dismissed coming out of the gate. Now we are suppose to give up public option too? What the hell is anyone else having to compromise on? Surely someone has a Medicare For All bill that could likewise be forwarded to CBO for scoring. Let's look at the costs and coverage for this proposal. A lot of the feedback I'm seeing from reports is that people don't understand the public option. Well, you'd think that they should be able to understand Medicare or Medicaid since they've been around over 40 years. Let them ask parents or grandparents how they like their coverage. Are there any government bureaucrats coming between them and their doctors? No? Thought not.
Let's really open this debate and have this out right now. Let's force the republicans to explain why they are defending the insurance companies. Has anybody ever been healed by an insurance company? No. they are middlemen who handle the money taking their piece out of the transaction. No other country in the industrialized world allows for profit insurance from what I've read. If our system is so damn superior then why aren't more nations coping what we have? Why? Because the rest of the world thinks our system is crazy, but that's were they are wrong, because we don't even have a system, just a crazy quilt that we've patched together over the last half century of historical accidents (employer based health insurance) and because old people were getting screwed by the insurance industry 40 years ago (Medicare).
I pick up the paper every day (or read the internet) and I survey the smoking ruins of 30+ years of conservative rule and legislation and deregulation from both sides of the isle. The republican party is in shambles, the leadership left to Limbaugh and Beck and Palin for crying out loud. And the batshit crazy people stirred up by the extreme right are marching on Washington in the 10's of thousands. The Wall Street Journal is pushing Dick Cheney for 2012, that should be enough to scare anybody. People complain that Obama is trying to do too much too quickly. Well, then you conservatives/neocons/republicans shouldn't have broken everything you touched for the last 30 years. There is a ton of work to do and not a moment to lose.
The progressives need to hang tough on this issue and completely upend the existing power dynamics of the situation. This will give Obama the room on the left he is going to need to tackle cap and trade and the coming fight over financial re-regulation not to mention gettng any kind of real investigation and prosecution for criminal wrongdoing in the last administration. We need to put the blue dogs back in their place and force them to rethink their strategy. Personally, I'm tired of being the 98 lb. weakling with everyone kicking sand in the face of the progressive left. I'm tired of everyone thinking that at the end of the day, we'll cave. Let someone else have that job for a while.
I say you want to have a fight about this? Well let's throwdown right here, right now. You want to talk about Waterloo? I think you're fighting the wrong war. I say I want to talk about Gettysburg and Pickett's Charge and the high water mark. I want the full throated defense of progressive liberalism what it sees as the governments proper place in protecting the citizens from excesses in the market and the corporate takeover of the government. Something that would make Teddy proud.