We are now in the final acts of Health Care Reform. There has been some progress as the Legislation works its way through Congress and actual passage of a HCR Bill is closer than it has ever been. Getting to this point in the legislative process is a monumental accomplishment. A Bill has passed the House. A Bill is schedule to begin debate in the Senate this coming week.
And now the hard part begins.
The next few weeks (until HCR is passed) will be a rough time. It is going to be hard and we all need to keep the pressure on the Senate and the House as a Bill come out of the Senate, then out of Conference and moves to final passage. As things stand tonight getting any Legislation passed will take effort and getting the changes made to improve the legislation will make the process an emotional roller coaster. Still, I think we will prevail. A decent Public Option will be included and the Stupak language will be removed.
Yeah, I think a Bill will be passed and I think it will suck.
To the jump...
I am not an expert on Health Care Reform Legislation. I’ve tried to keep up and follow the debate. In all versions of HCR moving through the legislative process there are some really great things, some iffy things and some that just seem designed to fail. All in all, I think this is critical Legislation that must pass. I hope it does. And yet, I also know that the moment it is signed into law we will discover how much it sucks. While the ink is still wet we will need to organize to improve the new HCR Law, identify flaws and advocate for solutions. Passage will be a victory, but it will also be just the beginning of the next battle for justice. That is how progress works in America.
When the House passed HCR last week it was a tainted victory. As everybody knows a wicked hate-ball of hypocrisy was added to the legislation in the form of the Stupak/Pitts Amendment. There have been many excellent Diaries at DKos and posts all around the tubes of the internets that have explained how bad this amendment is and expressing justified anger that, once again, we have to deal with a few old white guys trying to control the bodies, life and liberties of the majority of Americans. Stupak/Pitts is a blatant effort to transform HCR Legislation into a backdoor way to remove options for reproductive choices and freedom. Beyond the target at abortion, the Stupak language is sloppy. If passed, it will have many unintended consequences. It should be removed and I think it will be.
More and more Senators seem to be adopting the "This is a Health Care Bill, Not an Abortion Bill" framing provided by President Obama in an interview with ABC News:
I think that this framing will hold and that the Stupak/Pitts language will be removed from the final HCR Bill that the President signs. This is not a slam dunk. It is going to be a fight to get HCR out of the Senate, Conference and then final passage. The Republicans and ConservaDems will throw everything they can into the path to obstruct progress and reform. They will do what they can to weaken the Bill and in some places they will be successful.
We need to be active like never before. If you haven’t written, called, faxed and emailed your Member of Congress and Senators about HCR, now is the time. It is fine to spend time in the comment threads and Diaries of DKos, but make sure you are using the power that you have to demand the removal of the Stupak language, a strong Public Option, a fair funding mechanism and passage of HCR. To do that, you will need to get active and contact Congress and the Senate Together we are more effective and more powerful than DC gasbags think we are.
We have proved our ability to make a difference. We proved it in Dean’s election to the DNC in 2005 and in the 2006 and 2008 election cycles (we also have a decent record on special elections). This year we have been learning and using the levers of power that we have in Congress and how we can impact the legislative process. This is new for us (and Washington), but the fact that they have not been able to kill a Public Option shows that we have some hand in this fight. The battle for HCR is where we are learning how to use and expand this power that we have. You should be part of this effort. I hope you are.
Everyday, there are recommended Diaries here with actions you can take to help the effort. Read them. Recommend them if you wish. Follow the links. Take action. We are in this together and we are very powerful—far more powerful that anyone believes.
I think we will help to pass HCR and yet, I know that it will suck.
For example take the Stupak/Pitts language. Yes, I think it will be removed and the status quo will be maintained. But the status quo sucks. The Hyde Amendment is a shameful restriction on reproductive freedom, justified on the basis that some folks find abortion objectionable and do not want their tax dollars to pay for one. Well, there are quite a few things I find objectionable that my tax dollars have been used for. For example, I find it objectionable that slave labor was used to build the Embassy in Iraq during the Bush years. There should be a law banning tax dollars supporting neo-slavery and indentured foreign contract workers, but I digress. The point is that even if HCR is passed without the Stupak/Pitts language we still have to work to repeal the Hyde Amendment which for 30 plus years has limited the reproductive freedom of our military, their families and, as usual, the working poor and folks in desperate poverty. So just on this count, HCR will suck. I’m certain that there will be many other problems as well with any final legislation. Like all progressive legislation that was ever passed, HCR will need to be an ongoing process of change and improvement. We should be ready for a fight that will still take decades—not months—to resolve problems and perfect HCR legislation.
President Obama often uses the rhetoric of "A more perfect Union" in his speeches (it was the theme of his speech on race during the campaign). His speeches and comments are filled with awareness that justice, change and progress is an ongoing process. That it is not easy concept for our impatient, cynical age to grok, but progress is measured not in months, but in decades. From the start of our Nation, our reality was in conflict with our ideals. This conflict was explicitly inscribed in the Constitution of the United States:
Article. I. Section. 2.
Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons. The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct. [snip]
Article. IV. Section. 2.
The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States.
A Person charged in any State with Treason, Felony, or other Crime, who shall flee from Justice, and be found in another State, shall on Demand of the executive Authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the State having Jurisdiction of the Crime.
No Person held to Service or Labour in one State, under the Laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in Consequence of any Law or Regulation therein, be discharged from such Service or Labour, but shall be delivered up on Claim of the Party to whom such Service or Labour may be due.
It took a Civil War and the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to count African Americans as a full person for the census and begin to correct this Constitutionally sanctioned injustice. It took almost another Century to pass Civil Rights and Voting Rights Legislation and despite the fact that we have elected our first Black President only a fool would claim that we have resolved the issues of race in America. The fight for justice goes on.
Now when Rights were extended to African Americans in the wake of the Civil War it was only for men. It would take almost another sixty years for women to win the fight to be recognized by our Constitution as full Citizens with the right to vote. The Hyde Amendment, the ongoing pay gap and that we needed to pass the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act are all signs that there is a lot of work left to do when it comes to justice for women in America. A real HCR Bill without the Stupak language would be a step towards justice, but let’s not celebrate too much because there is still a lot of work to do. The fight for justice goes on.
There have been many Diaries and comments about the fight to win equal rights for the LGBT community. This is part of our ongoing effort to perfect our Union. Some progress has been made, but there is a lot left to do. In the coming months—in an election year—Legislation to end DADT and DOMA will get onto the Legislative calendar of the House and Senate. This is where this fight needs to be fought and it will be a difficult fight to win. We all need to be ready to support this effort and when this legislation passes; it will still suck because the work to end the injustice our fellow LGBT Citizens face will need to continue. The fight for justice goes on.
In Article. I, Section. 2 of the Constitution Native Americans were identified as non-people for the Census. In many ways that still seems to be how Native Americans are still treated in America. Perhaps no group in our Nation faces greater ingrain and lasting injustice, prejudice and contemptible neglect than these folks who share a dual citizenship with America and their Tribal Nations. Examples are everywhere. Activists for HCR and women’s rights casually let phrases like "...they’re going off the reservation..." glide off their tongues as they discuss the issues on The Rachel Maddow Show. The Washington DC football team carries an outrageously racist name that seems to outrage very few folks and so do many other sport teams on the High School, College and professional levels. The corruption of Jack Abramoff and the Republican Party was extended to Native Americans because Jack and the GOP ripped them off and way too many folks bought into that spin that the victims of the crime were somehow also guilty.
I could go on. Immigration. Workers Rights. The Environment. There is so much to do and the fight for justice goes on.
Each of us who are concerned with social justice, environmental sustainability and progress are part of this long effort to perfect our Union. We can not measure our success in weeks. This is an ongoing effort that began when our Nation began. It continues and it is our time to fight.
We stand on the shoulders of giants—those named and those unnamed, those celebrated and those forgotten. What justice we have now has been earned through their struggle. Now it is our moment to do what we can.
HCR legislation will pass, but it will also suck. It will be a few steps forward and it will have problems. The day it is passed we will have to work to improve it. The same is true of any Legislation. HCR will be useful as a starting place, but it will not end the need for you to be an active and engaged Citizen.
The fight goes on. The dream for justice continues and my mind turns to Teddy Kennedy:
In many Diaries over the years I’ve ended with this line: We have a Country to take back and it is way past time to get to work.
It still works. Now is our time. Yes, once HCR or any progressive legislation is passed we will learn that it sucks, that it has weaknesses and that the fight we engage in as citizens seeking justice and a more perfect Union is never over.
We have a lot of work to do. No time for meta. Grab a mop.
Cheers