Atrios:
A bit tired of people demanding that progressives support a bill which doesn't exist, even as conservative assholes continue to make it worse...
One shouldn't agree to deals which don't even exist.
Indeed, this is a mystery. People are so quick to rush to embrace a bill that's not set in stone, which has been consistently eroded over the past year, at an exponentially accelerated pace, with each major concessions not just making the bill worse, but emboldening critics to make further demands. As crappy as the bill is now, it's inevitably getting worse, and then, it'll get even worse after that.
And every time progressives shrug their shoulders and say, "all right, we'll take whatever we can get", you empower those critics. Rather than draw a line in the sand and bolster the efforts of true reformists, you are leaving them high and dry. And the weaker progressives get, the more Ben Nelson and Joe Lieberman and Blanche Lincoln and the rest of that bunch can do to make this not just a bad bill politically, but a bad bill policy wise.
It's clear at this point that if we get anything at all, it won't be much good. That's an obvious political reality. But every shrug of the shoulder helps make this even worse.
And at what point do supporters finally bail on this? When the subsidies are removed, medicaid expansion curtailed, Stupak anti-abortion language included?
We're at the point, I think, where you strip this thing of anything remotely controversial and pass whatever is left -- maybe tougher rules against rescissions, some regulatory reform, etc. But as far as substantive reform, we live in a legislative world were a majority can't accomplish shit because idiotic rules prevent government from governing. And we can't resort to reconciliation because we live in a world in which procedural tactics that were okay for Republicans, are somehow off limits for Democrats.
Senate reform needs to be on the agenda for the next Congress, including a reduction of the filibuster threshold, from 60 to either a bare majority, or at least a small supermajority (55?). And yes, I've always thought so, and supported efforts by Republicans to institute the "nuclear option" when they last held the Senate. The filibuster is anti-democratic and must go or be significantly watered down.
But on more immediate matters, it's time for people to stop supporting the current bill until we know what it will actually look like. Because it doesn't just enable its opponents, but will also leave you looking stupid when that bill turns out to be nothing more than a backdoor expansion of abortion restrictions, and assorted other horrors.