I know...I know, this last week has been a roller coaster like every other week here at dkos. The re-birth of the Public Option has gotten us all very excited that the Democrats may be unto something.
They sure look like they are onto something.
The Bennet Letter was like a god sent manna from heaven to rally all of us into believing, even if remotely, there could be a chance that we may pass HCR with PO via reconciliation.
FACT: We have 20 Senators who have openly signed in on supporting PO via reconciliation according to PCCC per the Public Option Whip List.
FACT: We need 30 more Senators taking a stand to get to 50 but we don't seem to have them yet or may never.
So, where are these 30 Senators and what is taking them so long to sign-on to supporting the Public Option?
Personally, I would like to avoid the pissing match after we have a clear understanding of what is included and achievable in the coming HCR proposal. In other word, I am preparing myself to not let down if PO is not included. How about you?
Follow me below the fold...
While I am excited about the momentum to get us to 20 Senators supporting reconciliation for PO, I tell myself to put up my guards and not let down if the proposal to be released does not include PO. I hope you are doing exactly that too because it is important we realize while most of us are charged emotionally and working diligently to have the PO as part of the HCR bill via reconciliation, it is more likely that it might not happen. So if that is the case, what will you be saying?
As Ezra Klein wrote:
No one I've spoken to -- even when they support the public option -- thinks that its reemergence is good news for health-care reform. It won't be present in the package that the White House will unveil Monday. Everyone seems to be hoping this bubble will be short-lived.
Personally, I have to agree with him. I am asking myself, if the public option is a likely outcome from the proposed bill coming out tomorrow, why is it that the Bennet Letter still does not have over half of the votes needed to get to 50. Yes, I have heard what Ezra had said on KO's Countdown about having some 40-45 votes, etc. but we still are short of 30 votes officially on the Bennet Letter.
This is also what Ezra Klein said when he wrote from the same article:
I've spoken to a lot of offices about this now, and all of them are ambivalent privately, even if they're supportive publicly. No one feels able to say no to this letter, but none of them seem interested in reopening the wars over the public option.
I am sure we have all read BWD's diary that was on the rec list this morning that sourced the Hill's article,Reid: Dems will use 50-vote tactic to finish healthcare in 60 days.
This was what was missing from the article -- The lack of detail as to what will be included for reconciliation. The presumption by some Progressives that it will include PO has been amplified without much questioning and connecting an easy logic that is pretty obvious on the ground - which is the lack of 30 more Senators coming out full force publicly supporting PO via reconciliation. Now, aiming high ain't bad but aiming high creating an unrealistic expectation because of our current limitation is not cool. It makes folks that are hurting because of their personal situation and invested emotionally in this debate unforgiving of any short coming. This creates folks to be so angry that it creates a pissing match with those who are more than willing to take HCR with out PO.
My take is that the new proposal to come out will more likely include the fixes such as "increase the threshold on the Cadillac tax, include more affordability credits, close the donut hole in the Medicare Part D drug benefit, and eliminate the Cornhusker Kickback" as was what Pelosi's office suggested a week ago will be done after the Senate Bill was passed. Well, we may not have to wait for the Senate Bill to pass and fix it after all as it appears that we may have the votes for these fixes via reconciliation. I believe that is what is going to happen optimistically.
For those who think the HCR without PO is nothing worthy of moving forward, I beg to differ. Here are some of the benefits in addition to the above potential fixes Americans will benefit from: "NO denial for pre-existing conditions, No cap on lifetime benefits, Cap on maximum out-of-pocket expenses, Subsidies for those who cannot afford health Insurance, Closing the Medicare doughnut hole, Tax credits for small businesses to afford insurance plans, Requirement that insurance companies spend greater portion of every dollar directly on health care, Children stay on parents plan until age 25, No gender discrimination in pricing, Minimum benefits package, give tax subsidies to help moderate-income people buy private insurance" and more...
So, what do Democrats have up their sleeves? I can guess...
- The POTUS putting forward comprehensive health care legislation intended to bridge differences between Senate and House Democrats - technically speaking I bet you, we have a deal already on the surface.
- The POTUS attaching reconciliation fixes on the table which is going to happen regardless of what Republican'ts say or do again because I believe a deal may have been reached b/n the house and senate already.
- Forcing the Republican'ts to compromise which they will continue saying NO to, exposing them for what they are - a party of NO.
- The Senate I believe has the head count for pushing Reconciliation fixes without PO because unless we have the votes at a minimum, I don't believe the POTUS will be talking reconciliation PERIOD.
- Giving a political cover to those who signed and/or want to sign onto the Bennet letter from the many hard core Advocates of PO.
However, no one knows how next week's turn of events will make us feel. As much as some are emotionally driven, I would not be surprised with some calling on the President and Dems spineless, sellouts, etc. if things do not go their way. But, that is exactly what we must stop doing from here on. We must PASS THE HCR BILL and we must rally around our President, our Representatives who have been put in between a rock and a hard place for taking very difficult votes on either side.
I am hopeful for Public Option today or someday. Hoping makes us all human. I am still hopeful. Damn, I have been hopeful since November 4, 2008, when Americans elected BO as POTUS. Hoping is natural. Hoping is happiness. Shoot, if there is any Democrat who would not Sing Hallelujah if we get the Public Option, come out and tell me who you are. I would say you got some nerves.
We need to be practical. For the most part, we are all in this together one way or another. We want progress. We have progress to date. We are on the way to progress on HCR. We need to embrace progress so we can build progress on the progress we have made or will make.
So, no more of this divisive bullshit that "We are mortified by the specter of a Republican victory in November, but equally horrified by the idea that Democrats may throw the American people into the gutter, and abandon us on healthcare" because that is as good as throwing the towel and embracing defeatism or a way to fuel up non-stop resentments. I reject that sentiment. You must too!
I am a PROUD DEMOCRAT and I will fight. I will be canvassing, phone banking, doing everything in my power to electing progressives through the Primaries as well as in the General. Will you? I hope so!
It is time for us to shape the message and not be shaped by the negatives. It is a rough road and if you read Klein's narrative: The strange politics of the public option revival you will understand why things are not just a walk in the park.
Like BO said:
Hope is what led a band of colonists to rise up against an empire; what led the greatest of generations to free a continent and heal a nation; what led young women and young men to sit at lunch counters and brave fire hoses and march through Selma and Montgomery for freedom's cause. Hope is what led me here today -- with a father from Kenya, a mother from Kansas; and a story that could only happen in the United States of America. Hope is the bedrock of this nation; the belief that our destiny will not be written for us, but by us; by all those men and women who are not content to settle for the world as it is; who have courage to remake the world as it should be. [January 3, 2008]
The road to that perfect union ain't going to come at ones but incrementally.
Keep HOPE alive and stay POSITIVE!