I can appreciate that perhaps the Obama/Axelrod talking points about wanting healthcare reform to be bi-partisan are part of a political game. I would like to believe that they are gunning hard for the public option, and that concessions at this stage are part of looking the more reasonable party. They are both masters of the game of political persuasion, and making sure that they appear in-step with the public, and that their opponents look the worst sort of political opportunists. I get that, honestly I do. However, when it comes to fixing healthcare, I don't think they should bother.
There are plenty of contentious issues like tax cuts, stimulus packages, DADT, that benefit from bi-partisan support: the thinking being that by getting Congressmen and Senators from the other side to support it, you render the issue election-proof in the next campaign, and reduce the chance of it being reversed when you finally lose the reins of power.
Healthcare isn't one of those: this can, indeed should, be the boldest - and if necessary, most partisan - piece of legislation that Obama will see passed. Partly because it matters so much, and partly because once passed it will never be revoked. With these big majorities in both Houses, this should be an internal issue, settled by the whips.
It is inevitable that when the Republicans next take control over the House/Senate/White House, that they will move the country back in the opposite direction to a greater or lesser extent. They will slash taxes for the wealthy, they will dismantle public service reforms, and in the worst case scenarios will act to prohibit abortion rights, further define marriage as being between a man and a woman, and re-institute DADT (assuming Obama keeps his promise first).
Reversals of progress are the price paid for democracy - eventually the Democratic Party's hold over government will become stale and out of step, and the country will demand a change. This has happened to every democratic government, of every political type since democracy grew up. One of the key challenges for any government is to leave a lasting legacy - one that is not, maybe cannot be, overturned by later governments of a different political stripe.
Most things, like I've mentioned, will face some later challenge. But some things would be so momentous, such an improvement, and so large that I think they could never be overturned. In this group, I'd include introducing a universal public option for Healthcare.
I can understand the mollification of the Republicans, but let us all acknowledge that it is amazingly unlikely that any of them would support a public option. That might be a problem if there were more than 50 of them in the Senate, and might even be a problem if there were more than 40 of them in the Senate, but there aren't.
What is needed in Healthcare will be opposed to the last sinew by Insurers, the AMA, and corporate lobbyists of both stripes. This is the battle of Obama's presidency, and his chance to leave a lasting legacy in the form of unversal healthcare as a public option.
By all means make the easy concessions, and give the Democrats some latitude on any other bill they like, but on this issue, on this policy, they should be whipped senseless.
"Vote against the President on this, and he will personally disavow you. He will endorse the closest primary challenger, appear at their events, and shower them with his cash. Re-election be damned, this gets 100% for the next 6 months, and anyone who stands in the way will be obliterated within this party."
The joy of having these historic majorities in both chambers of Congress is that there is no need to cross the aisle - this is a fight that should be won inside the Democratic Party, and winning a debate on the public option within the party should require nothing but muscle - no concessions, no amendments, no leeway.
In providing universal health coverage under the public option, not only do each and all of us know that the country would be measurably better off, but the GOP would never, ever undo it.
The UK's NHS was founded in 1948, and in spite of 18 years of the most vitriolic Freemarket Conservative governments under Thatcher and Major, there was never once a real move to end it. Once universal healthcare is passed, it will never ever be repealed, because there is no conceivable way to win an election by admitting that you would (or have) taken away health insurance from 20% of the population.
For all the fire-breathing now, the Republicans really fear a universal public option because once passed they know that they could never abolish it. It would be the death knell for the party, even assuming they were in the position to do so. Universal Public Option will be irreversable, so all that matters is getting it passed - not the frit of how centrist voters might respond to the unknown in polls, and not the empty rhetoric of the GOP threatening to target those who support it.
This is a battle that can be fought and won within the Democratic party, and it should be brutal.
I am a huge admirer of President Obama and his staff, but on this one issue I would rather he was Lyndon Johnson than Abraham Lincoln. No conciliation, no comprimise - this is too important, and too difficult to ever reverse. Whip them senseless - it's worth it.