Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) has been a hero on gun violence. He's been a solid progressive voice and vote in the Senate and an asset. So he should not be saying things like this:
“The public option was a good idea in 2009, and it’s a still a good idea today. [But] I don’t know that the politics have changed at all on it,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a top ObamaCare advocate, said by phone Wednesday.
Particularly after this:
Both Sanders and Hillary Clinton, his former rival in the Democratic presidential primary, have touted the public option on the campaign trail, with Clinton mentioning it in a speech as recently as Thursday. Last month, President Obama also urged Congress to “revisit a public plan to compete alongside private insurers” to help boost competition.
With Democrats having a real shot of winning back the Senate this fall, Sanders and other public option supporters are making their move.
Here's a reminder about how much a united progressive narrative matters: just five years ago President Obama had Social Security cuts on his grand bargaining table. He had plenty of congressional Democrats with him. Look at how the politics have changed on that one.
"It is time we finally made Social Security more generous and increase the benefits so that today’s retirees and future generations get the dignified retirement that they have earned," Obama said in Elkhart, Indiana, during a speech in which he spoke against Republican economic policies.
Social Security cuts aren't on anyone's table right now. It's been relegated back to a GOP pipe dream. A full-throated defense of it from Democrats united with the grassroots made that happen. That's how you make good stuff happen. That's what has to happen again for expanding health care to everyone.