Reid was right to reject "the trigger". This is war.

[Tom Rinaldo]

Even if Reid knew he didn't have 60 votes locked up, Reid made the right choice. Even if the White House worried that he didn't have 60 votes, he made the right call. The corporate centrists in our Party have too long grown accustomed to winning through refusal. Their refusal to even allow serious discussion of a Single Payer plan was just one recent example.

We are essentially in a state of war regarding health care. About as many Americans die annually as a consequence of poor or non existent health care insurance as died during the entire Viet Nam war. Our adversary, many would say enemy, is the private health care insurance cartel. They run the system that is responsible for those deaths. Not only do they run it, they profit off it, which makes them war profiteers in my book.

This matter is infinitely more grave than mere power politics. It far eclipses getting re-elected or defeated, being in the majority or minority in Congress. Those concerns effect how the ship of state is run, but protecting the lives of American citizens is the purpose of our ship of state. There is no business as usual during a state of war. For too long a war on Americans has raged undeclared as Senators posing as our protectors collected their special interest campaign contributions, while consigning thousands to their deaths through malign neglect.

It's time we declare a domestic war to protect American lives. That's what this is about and it must be declared for what it is. In war, one does not protect the interests of your adversary over those of your own people. One does not negotiate terms of surrender with a deadly foe as an alternative to engaging it in battle. It is time for the American people to ask of our elected leaders, whose side are you on? And it is time for the answer to be given. If Harry Reid sticks to his guns, the curtains will be pulled back and the answer to that revealed.

Life and Death and special interests. Let the battle lines be formed. The insurance industry had 40 years to get it right, the handwriting was on the wall after Medicare was established. Clean up your act or else. It is time for "or else", the trigger has long been pulled. The Republican Party essentially controlled the entire Federal government for 12 years, officially for much of that period. They had a chance to prove good faith, instead they proved the opposite. Let them filibuster now, and let our traitors be flushed out. Let the fight begin and let the truth be known. No more business as usual when the business being run is a Congressional brothel for corporate johns.

Harry, don't back down.

[OHdem10]

1. Amen!!!!

[LibinMo]

2. K & R

[cliffordu]

3. Kay and Are.

[Tom Rinaldo]

4. Thanks for the K's (& R's)

which lets me kick this also :)

[Vincardog]

6. K & R some more

[Tom Rinaldo]

9. The problem with a "Rant"

is it doesn't always lend itself to much of a discussion, so it keps sinking without some kick starts :)

[drm604]

5. K&R

We need drastic change. Both in health care and in government.

This isn't just about health care, this is about corporate power over our country and our lives. People are literally dying while people like Lieberman vie for attention and CEOs pad their paychecks.

This has to stop.

[Cha]

7. k&r

[patrice]

8. K + R + MORE of the same please, Senator Reid!!

[Tom Rinaldo]

10. I just sent this to Senator Reid

I changed it only to addresse him in the first person and attached it to the Move On Petition now being circulated thanking him for his leadership on this issue and backing him on it:

http://pol.moveon.org/thankreid/index.html

[jenmito]

11. K&R. I'm going to sign the petition now. Thanks.

:hi:

[Honeycombe8]

12. Reid did make the rt. decision. BUT I heard on TV a reason for the decision...

and it's not altruistic. The reason for Reid's decision (as we all know, Reid has not been recommending or even saying he favors a public option, at all) is that so when he doesn't get the 60 votes needed to pass the bill, the bill can be changed in order to get the 60 votes, and he can say, "See? I told you we couldn't get 60 votes for the public option." It's a win-win for him.

Reid has been the brunt of some negative TV ads recently, I heard, for not backing a more comprehensive bill in the Senate. So maybe he felt the pressure.

But his state, Nevada, is fairly conservative. Not backing a public option may not hurt his chances for re-election in that state.

[Tom Rinaldo]

15. That's a theory

Reid did the right thing. He was attacked in Nevada for, among other things, not showing leadership. What I have gleened is that his strength as a leader came under question. It can be argued either way, but I lean toward Reid taking a real chance with real risk here. If he tries and fails to deliver a triggerless public option, it will not enhance his reputation as a strong leader among the voters in Nevada. Minimally it can be argued that he is making a gamble, but the more relevent point is he is taking a chance for the right thing. For those of us who reject a trigger as inadaquate to give Reid anything less than credit for making the call we believe in is, I believe, mean spirited and short sighted. Harry Reid earned our support on this for making the call that he did.

[peaches2003]

16. Absolutely right

The Move-On petition mentioned above, which I also received, infuriated me! Harry Reid has NOT been a leader and deserves no thanks. He knows the PO is going down so he put the bill up to go to the Senate, has done little to lead on it, and will wimp around when the PO fails and go right to a trigger to get the Snowe vote and get a crappy bill passed. What the hell are we thanking him for?

[Tom Rinaldo]

18. We can thank him now for backing the correct bill from out of the committees

And we can always blast him later if we truly believe he did not sincerly fight for it. One thing at a time. Personally I would have blasted him had he backed the trigger at this stage, so I feel it only fair to give him credit for the call he made. This thing obviously isn't over and opinions are subject to constant reevaluation and change.

[shimmergal]

26. I think it would.

I'm a Nevada resident, and the right-wingers and so-called libertarians aren't going to vote for him no matter what. It's true that he's managed to bring some benefits to Nevada, but these types just ignore that fact, no matter that they benefit from them.

What he was in danger of was losing the left vote, which has become more significant in recent years. By pushing for the public option, he's redeemed himself with progressives for the moment, at least.

[TankLV]

28. Harry has redeemed himself with progressives LIKE ME!!!

I am among his most vocal critics - and what he has done has now caused me to turn 180 - I WILL now support him in his tough re-electoin battle with the crazy repuke woman who is likely to be the repuke's choice...!!!

[mvd]

13. K&R, thanks for another well thought out post

:hi:

[ProSense]

14. This post indirectly provides an interesting perspective on the current debate

The Senate bill, which includes an opt out, is a war against the insurance companies. Yet the House bill announced today is a win for the insurance companies.

I realize the difficulties and differences in each chamber, but eventually the two bills will be combined into one. So which is it?

[Tom Rinaldo]

17. A good and fair observation

There is no contradiction in my views. I think both the current House bill and the bill that Harry Reid is introducing in the Senate move the ball in a positive direction. Maybe the movement is more like three yards and a cloud of dust than a long precision touch down pass, and some can argue that with a different strategy we could have had the ball further down the field by now. I watched Howard Dean on Countdown tonight, and while he could have been happier with different legislation, he was clear that he can easily support either of the two bills over the status quo. There is good grist for debate of differing views to be sure in the realm of possible woulda coulda, but right now we are locked in a real legislative battle and real lives are at stake. And Democrats are on the verge of delivering some important health care reforms to America.

I think part of what you observed comes from the fact that there were some expectations for a weaker bill being introduced by Reid than the one that finally came forth, and expectations for a stronger bill from the House than the one that Democratic caucus settled on, hence different reads on who won or who lost the LAST MINUTE battles. But to me the overall outcome still looms positive for reform IF we can hold onto the core of the bills both houses are introducing. There isn't much more room left for slippage though in my opinion for that to still hold true. This OP gives thanks and credit where credit is due to Harry Reid who made a risky decision for real reform in the Senate, and urges him to fight for us now, with our strong backing.

[ProSense]

19. Frankly, a lot of progressive Democrats stepped up on this.

In the past, a solid coalition to counter the blue dogs didn't exist. From the more than 30 Senators who stood steadfast in supporting a public option to the more than 80 house members who maintained support for a robust public option, they forced the leadership to deal only with a public option.

[Tom Rinaldo]

20. Agreed. A definite positive development.n/t

[Tom Rinaldo]

21. The outcome in the Senate is critical.

I know many progressives, myself included, are tempted to second guess some of the political decisions made by Democrats that brought us to this point. For me I think that is something we can return to later, right now too much hangs in the balence. If we get a real public option set up, even one like the Senate and/or House bills seem to now envision; a program that will provide services to tens of millions of Americans, we get something real we can start to build on. It's not what I hoped for, even as recently as a month ago, but it is a tangible something that can lead to further more sweeping changes.

I fear neither Congress nor the public will have the stamina and focus to attempt something this sweeping against so much resistance again, once Congress wraps up whatever reform package comes out of this year's effort, for a very long time to come. If we can't get a public option up and running now after all of this effort, I don't see the political I.O.U. called "a trigger" getting pulled for a generation. We will live with whatever private mandate system we are left with for many long years to come.

The insurance industry knows it, and that is why they are fighting so hard to kill it. They know too that if a public option is created, expanding on it from the opening it would give us would take far more money and effort for them to prevent than they are using to kill it before it is born. With far worse chances of them succeding. That's what is riding on the Senate.

[Lugnut]

22. K&R n/t

[maxpower]

23. Right On

Peace,
Max

[Tom Rinaldo]

24. We can't let the House Bill distract us

If the public option dies, or is re-packaged as the Trigger to Nowhere, the Senate will be the slaughter house where it dies. It won't matter what is in the House bill at that point.

Lieberman is the point man for killing the public option, but what matters the most now is whether or not any blue dog Dems join him. Lieberman's role is to break the ice and crack Democratic unity, leading to up to 5 Democratic defections which would destroy any bargaining power the House version might have in Conference.

The so called moderates are paying close attention to how strong a backlash from the Democratic base Lieberman draws, before they decide whether or not to join Lieberman in his opposition. That is why the Senate needs to hear from us NOW.

[grantcart]

25. It is a national defining moment.

We move 5 degrees from barbaric to simply midevil.

[Tom Rinaldo]

27. Yep.

Thank God we will not have to settle for incremental reforms instead. We may get to jump right past threequarterevil.