Reply #7: Disagree

[frazzled]

If after a full year of grandstanding, bargaining, explaining, voting, and generally sucking all the air out of Washington on this one issue, and saying how crucial it is (all the while disagreeing on the substance) ... the Democrats do not pass a health care bill, any health care bill, they will be perceived as incapable of handling or accomplishing anything. They will be slaughtered in 2010.

So it is political suicide. Once it's passed, everyone will forget about it (and the fixes it needs can be taken up in smaller chunks).

But there's an additional pitfall to dropping it now: it will not get done in any form whatsoever for another 15-20 years.