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02 February 2010

I Wrote To My Congressman asking that he vote for the Senate's health care reform bill. .. [More:]

He's in the progressive caucus, and here is part of his reply:

One proposal that is being talked about is to have the House simply vote for the Senate bill and send that to the President, bypassing the need for the Senate to vote again. This would be coupled with assurances that we would "fix" all the problems with the Senate bill later on. Let me be clear. I am adamantly opposed to such a plan. The Senate bill was a disaster and I will not vote for it. It included a 40% tax on so called "Cadillac" health plans that would in reality hit millions of middle class Americans. The Senate bill completely removed my language to eliminate the antitrust exemptions held by the insurance industry, which was a vital tool in ending the insurance industries abusive practices and saving consumers billions of dollars in premiums. The Senate bill is also loaded up with special interest provisions to secure the votes of Senators. That is not health care reform. As for the promise of "lets pass it now and we'll fix it later," I have been in Washington long enough to know that promises of "fixing it later" almost never happen. I was told the same thing before we passed NAFTA, which I voted against. We're still waiting to "fix" it.

This means basically that he gets to keep his progressive creds but we will now wait another generation for health care reform because the liberals in the House will not vote for the Senate bill. I am pretty upset about this.

He goes to my gym when he's in town and I am tempted to engage him on this but I probably won't.
That is not health care reform.

Well, on that I agree with him. It's insurance reform at best.
posted by muddgirl 02 February | 17:45
But I still think that passing it is better than not passing it.
posted by danf 02 February | 17:48
Well, passing the Senate bill isn't the only way to health care reform. A compromise bill that has the votes in both the house and the Senate is still possible, if Reid would get over his silly phobia of filibusters.
posted by muddgirl 02 February | 18:07
I share some of your frustration, danf. The bill is toast precisely because of this kind of grandstanding, which only wasted precious time.
posted by Miko 02 February | 19:38
The more I see of the wretched Senate Bill, the more it looks like it deserves to be toast. It has turned into a step BACKWARDS in many aspects that will make insurance companies richer, sick people poorer, the Party of No look good and future real reform impossible for the next generation. Letting it die will keep the possibility of real reform possible (if not likely).

Grandstanding is not what Progressives have been doing. Grandstanding is what obstructionists and corporate stooges have been doing since Day One and it has worked wonderfully for them.
posted by oneswellfoop 02 February | 22:06
Grandstanding is not what Progressives have been doing

That may be true for true Progressives. But a lot of the (perhaps non-Progressive) Democrats have definitely been grandstanding - particularly over the abortion coverage issue, which is when things started to slip, as every Senator realized that their individual vote had enough power to stall out the process. And that ended up being just as obstructionist as the outright opponents.
posted by Miko 03 February | 09:31
I think we need to pass something. How is it that a Republican presidential team can convince us to spend gazillions on an optional war, but Demo/Liber/Progressivalcrats can't figure out how to get a health care plan started. Sheesh.
posted by theora55 03 February | 14:34
Ten minutes of Star Trek: TNG sexual innuendo || Trees are neat.

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