I'm going to abandon my usual practice of carefully constructed arguments and detailed hyperlinked posts with blockquotes today. I'm going to do that because all I want to do today is communicate some basic common sense, with a simple message:
Pass healthcare with a public option with 51 votes during the reconciliation process. Do it yesterday. It's a win-win situation, and little else matters.
Harry Reid's latest statements on the issue are heartening, but Reid and congressional Dems have a long history of doing stupid and/or immoral things in the name of "bipartisanship." That must not happen on healthcare.
The reasons for that are simple: while other issues are critically important to the American people and to the world, they are also deeply confusing or fraught with political peril. We desperately need legislative solutions on climate change, true, but cap and trade legislation polls at 50-50 at best. We need reversal of course on the occupation of Iraq, but moving too quickly could destabilize the situation. Bank regulation is so complex that Republicans can easily pretend any economic problems are the fault of a new regulatory scheme, and a large number of people will believe them.
But much as pundits pretend otherwise, there is really no real political peril in creating a public option for healthcare. Many people--especially those with decent insurance afraid of losing what they have--may be wary of so-called "government intrusion" into healthcare. That creates peril in advancing the legislation in the first place. But there is no political peril once the legislation is actually passed, and people see the rapid benefits to their bottom lines, their standard of living, and the standard of care they receive.
Once it is done and done right, the American Public will be immediately grateful for the Public Option. And they won't care about the procedural methods it took to get it done.
And what of the GOP minority who will go ballistic by the use of the reconciliation to pass healthcare? Who cares? The nice thing about having an opposition party that opposes you no matter what, is that they have no leverage with which to negotiate.
There will be no Republican support for cap and trade. There will be no Republican support for any new Wall St. regulatory structures with any teeth. There will be no Republican support for any other major piece of important legislation desperately needed by the American People.
If the GOP chooses to shut down the Senate with procedural garbage, so be it. Let the record show that the GOP chooses to stop the public's business in its tracks because they choose to throw a temper tantrum over the passage of healthcare reform. Seriously, let them do that.
And in 16 months or so, we'll clean up and win 3-4 more Senate seats. And provided that our Senate Democrats aren't too corrupt or bought out by special interests, we'll be able to do pretty much whatever we want.
The GOP has no bargaining chip to play in this game. Without some realistic promise of compromise on another important bill, there's no reason to pay them any mind whatsoever.
Pass the public option. Pass it yesterday. Pass it with 51 votes if need be. Then reap the benefits at the polls for years to come. It's really that simple.