The newest Dem in the Senate, Arlen Specter, is sounding a lot more like a Democrat than some of his colleagues.
Speaking at a Pennsylvania Progressive forum on Saturday, Specter suggested that the only way to get health care reform passed would be to placate House Democrats who were concerned about passing the Senate bill pro forma. The only way to placate House Democrats, he added, would be to pass amendments to the Senate's legislation "simultaneously" through the use of a process known as reconciliation.
"I believe we ought to pass comprehensive health care reform and we ought to do it now and there is a way to do it," Specter said. "I provided the 60th vote. We passed it in the Senate. Let the House accept it, simultaneously with a bill to make certain changes through reconciliation and 50 votes. There will be no disagreement about taking away the giveaway to Nebraska and Louisiana and the other inappropriate measures but let's move ahead and let's move ahead now."
The move wouldn't just "placate" the House, but would allow for critical improvements to the bill--removing the disastrous Nelson deal for Nebraska, which even he has abandoned, and increasing subsidy levels to make mandated insurance more affordable for more people.
Specter's insistence could be coming from his long experience in the Republican caucus, knowing that there's no way in hell anything substantive gets passed with Republican help. But it's undoubtedly also coming from the challenge of running in a primary against Rep. Joe Sestak, who has been consistently and publicly progressive on the issue of healthcare reform.
It's also a reflection of a seasoned politician, Specter, understanding how important the Democratic base is going to be November, something the House intrinsically gets, since they have to run every two years, but the Senate all too often forgets.
More discussion going on in slinkerwink's diary.