A week ago I thought it silly to think the Dems were losing on purpose, and that it went a step too far to completely blame Reid, Obama, the Dems. Were they doing enough? Absolutely not, but they seemed to be working, and the public option had some life left. The Senate version is yet to pass, and it still needs to go to conference, but every passing day brings a new disappointment and capitulation.
They say we need sixty votes to pass the bill.
Why 60?
That's the number necessary to pass a filibuster-proof majority.
Why avoid a filibuster?
A filibuster would allow senator(s) to delay the debate/vote indefinitely.
What's the difference between that and what they've been doing the past six months?
Not much
The Republicans have used every weapon at their disposal to try to kill, delay, weaken and confound any health care reform debate. Though their approval rates are low, congressional Republicans are yet to pay any price. Those that come out as the fiercest critics are now raking in small donor donations from the baggers, birthers, and deathers. Dems, because they're going into a midterm election, facing resignations, and now because of significantly diminished enthusiasm can expect a very very ugly November.
If in fact the Public Option is dead, Medicare buy in is dead, insurance antitrust is dead, then we now just have insurance reform w/ corporate subsidies attached. We got to this point because every step of the way one thing or the other had to be compromised (the slow death of PO's death has been chronicled at length). We compromised to get votes, votes to make sure we go to this point where we were last week. A bill, last week, that most of us hated, but could see as much better than the alternative - nothing.
Last week the PO died and we got a Medicare buy-in compromise instead. A huge disappointment, but a compromise that probably moved the chains on single payer more drastically that a very diluted PO. Why did it die, why the compromise? to get 60 votes of course - keep up. We need 60 voted to keep those republicans (and conservadems) from blowing our bill down.
Imagine if you can the image of three little pigs plying the wolf with gifts so that he won't blow down the home he's already firebombed. Once you have, you come close to approximating the damage the compromise has done. Don't get me wrong, I'm not so naive as to believe a lot of it wasn't necessary to get us back to where we were a week ago, but where we are no is unacceptable. It's not worth supporting.
Let them filibuster. That goes for Lincoln and Landrieu and Nelson too. And we can use that time to talk about the human cost of their indifference and delay. Are they willing to work through Xmas? Let's see. Call their bluff. Let's see how true they are to their convictions - and then lets show everyone the real cost we're all paying for them. Because as things stand, they're just getting better and better at watering down our ideals, As Obama said, the "stakes are too high" for the folks in this country that need Health care reform now. The stakes are also to high to ante up this much political capital and end up with very little. I never thought I'd say so, but at this point it would be better to fold than go all in on a bad hand.