I actually agreed with Dean when he said let the bill go down in flames. As it is now, it's mainly a pander to the middle class, doesn't cut costs nearly as much as it could, and is way too friendly to big insurance and big pharma. The notion that the Dems will come back a fix it later is absurd. Just like campaign finance reform, it will be whittled away until there's nothing left. Let the voters start screaming when nothing passes, and rightly blame the Republican obstructionists. Maybe that will get people's attention. Start the debate over, and this time shoot down the Teabaggers and other assorted crazies - like should have been done the first time. Don't stop until there's a public option.
I don't think we need to start over.
The bill is never going to be perfect the first time. Social Security wasn't. Medicare certainly wasn't either. Even these measures had to be adjusted over time. We have enough ideas between the House & Senate versions of the bill to put together something that can get us started, then we can add additional changes as we go along. All we have to do is enter reconciliation. That way, we can put in some of the House bill ideas (like the Public Option) into the Senate version, or take the best ideas from both and make one complete bill. You also eliminate the threat of the filibuster, which means all 41 Republicans can vote "No" in the Senate and it can still pass. :wink:
With 59 Democratic senators, we only need 51 of them. It would take 10 Senate Democrats to say no in order for this bill to not pass. There's supposed to be 8 fiscally conservative Dems in the Senate. Even if they all said no and convinced one of the other Democrats to side with them, that would end in a 50-50 tie and it would be up to Joe Biden to break it. And even though we all see him as a loose canon, just how loose is he? Most likely, he'd side with the Democrats here.
This would be a better way to go at things now, instead of starting over from scratch. I would have been fine with this back in August, but now it's overdue. If we started over now, it'll be yet another fiasco in the Senate and I don't think anyone of us want to see that again.
I've said it before, the Dems (my people) are mostly pussies.
No argument here. They can be pretty weak.
Furthermore, while the Repubs are precision goosestepping the Dems can't even get in a wiggly line. 'Herding cats' never rang so true as it does now with the Democrats.
I can only wonder if we had more people like Howard Dean, Al Grayson and perhaps even Ed Schultz on the Senate floor? But I digress...