So maybe we shouldn't be calling MA voters Massholes and things like that. They might have just finally taught Harry Reid an important lesson in all of this.
Check out this Harry Reid quote from the Wall Street Journal:
Mr. Reid said Wednesday that "reconciliation is one of the things we need to look at with the change in circumstances," but that "no decisions have been made."
Yes, Harry Reid finally said that reconciliation is on the table! And if reconciliation is on the table, the public option is on the table.
That makes me feel good about the public option and perhaps for November House/Senate races.
Read on after the jump ...
Up until today, it looked the usual self-destructive Democratic behavior in Congress. In fact, it looked like 2010 would become a repeat of 1994 when Democrats pissed away their control of both houses on Congress by failing to deliver on Health Care Reform.
Again they seemed to do the same thing. Of course, Joe Lieberman was mostly to blame. The moment he was placated with the removal of the public option, public support for the bill plummeted. With the drop in support, the Congress and Obama's public approval levels dropped as well - in lockstep - exactly as it did in 1993/1994 when Clinton's attempt at health care reform failed.
If I may, let's look at the parallels to 1994:
There was a segment of the population that was against health care reform - as it is now. However, most of those folks were Republicans - as it is now. Insurance industry spending started to peel away support from Independent voters - as it's been doing now. But when the Bill collapsed, Democratic approval plummeted and the Republicans took over both houses for 12 dark years - as could again happen now if a public option doesn't pass before primary campaign season begins.
But now we're seeing some folks wake up. Most importantly the Senate Majority Leader. But also the Majority Whip, Sen. James Clyburn has also stepped up talk for reconciliation. See Clyburn: 'Magic number on healthcare reform is 50, not 60'; measure not dead.
Now, sadly, the worst thing I heard today came from Pres. Obama:
“It is very important to look at the substance of this package and for the American people to understand that a lot of the fear-mongering around this bill isn’t true,” Mr. Obama said in an interview on ABC News. “I would advise that we try to move quickly to coalesce around those elements of the package that people agree on.”
What we should have learned from the MA election is that paring back to a subset of "elements" of the package is not what people want. The Research 2000 polling is pretty clear about that.
The existing Bill, as passed by the Senate, doesn't need to be re-voted on by the Senate is the bill doesn't change. If the House votes on it and passes it, it's done and it heads straight to Pennsylvania Ave. But, there are grumblings among Democratic representatives that the bill isn't good enough to pass there. And the public option isn't there to boost public approval.
But that's actually pretty easy to fix:
- Give the House enough of what they want in a new, short, and sweet reconciliation bill before bringing the current bill up for a vote in the House. Put the public option in it and fix (don't remove) the tax on high cost insurance plans that could anger union voters. Restrict the tax to company officers.
- Vote on the add-on reconciliation bill in the Senate and House. Since it's reconciliation, only 51 votes are needed. Goodbye Joe and Scott! They can pout all they want and it won't matter.
- Now vote on the existing HCR bill in the House.
- Both bills go to the Prez for signing. Obama simply signs them in the order they were passed by the Senate.
For those wondering why not just do everything through reconciliation, it won't work. Law changes that are not strictly tax/budget/government changes cannot be put into a reconciliation bill. In addition to a public option, we still want reform on private insurance that reconciliation cannot accomplish.
With the above steps the majority of the American population (who want the public option) get exactly what they want and it's all within the boundaries of acceptable Senate rules. Heck, they can go ahead and seat Mr. 41 right now and it won't be a problem. It could just prevent a repeat of 1994.
Like the procedure? E-mail, call, harass or otherwise tell your Senators and Congressman about it NOW! Just click here to go to Congress.org, enter your zip code to find your Congressperson and Senator, click on their names, then the "Contact" tab, and then "Web Form". You might need to look up your Zip+4 here.