I guess Harry Reid reached 60 votes for cloture late last night. I haven’t had a chance to look at the abortion language yet. Meanwhile, the Republicans are forcing the Senate clerk to read Reid’s manager’s amendment aloud on the floor. Despite that, it looks like the Senate will pass something before Christmas after all. I hope so. I have been wanting to get this bill to the Conference Committee for a long time. Once we are there, the pressure switches in favor of progressives. Yes, we’re very limited in what we can get without losing Nelson or Lieberman, or other ‘centrists.’ But we can make improvements and the centrists can no longer take those improvements out. Their choice will be to pass or kill the bill. No more stomping of feet, no more negotiating for pork or concessions. Yes or No. And that means we will have leverage for really the first time in this whole process.
About The Author

BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
Personally, I’m thrilled.
I’m going to continue to disagree about your view that progressives have any real leverage at the conference stage. Nothing will change that doesn’t get the complete approval from Nelson and Lieberman.
I think they might allow a little nibbling around the edge, but the final bill will be virtually identical to what comes out of the Senate.
Perhaps, but any movement will be in our direction. And that has never happened before in this process.
Look here: http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/12/nelson-ill-filibuster-post-conference-health-care-bill-if
-house-forces-major-changes.php
Nelson has been guaranteed that no major changes that he might disapprove of get made during the conference.
In light of that development (which really was not unpredictable), can’t you agree in hindsight that Reid did not commit any major blunder by initially including the public option in his version of the legislation?
oh, hell no. He could have had Snowe’s vote. No abortion bullshit, and at least a trigger for a PO. Instead, he has this piece of shit.
Why you think a trigger for a PO would do anything – but anything – at all aside from cluttering up the law and constraining debate next time around is beyond my understanding.
Pelosi needs to figure out how to get more leverage on the World’s Most Pompous Legislative Body.
Part of me wants to see what happens to the internet progressive community when they have to thank Joe Lieberman for saving us all from The Very Bad Bill? Will they apologize for Lamont?
Hello Booman from Ocracoke. Just some random thoughts during your snowstorm.
I was thinking about bipartisanship today and wondering to myself how far to the right this bill would have to be to get even a single Republican vote. I think it would be impossible. So those on the left should realize that anything remotely progressive that can be achieved ought to be achieved. Obama and team may have been realists about this bill all along. We elected him for his realism, I hope. Some of us cling to idealism. But it’s obvious from this bill that idealism has very, very, very little place in the Senate.
Then, I was listening to the reading of the bill. It includes language protecting 2nd amendment. Why would that be in a health bill if not for some conservatives worried that insurance might be denied to someone because they have guns and bullets in their house, I suppose? Pages and pages about gun rights. If this is what makes up the 2000 pages it’s no wonder it’s so long!
This has been dispiriting to watch and hear — and I hope that it’s over soon. And that the American people understand who has stood in the way of a good conscience effort to help save lives and give comfort to so many Americans. The moral obligation of this bill has been missing from the calculation for a long time, IMHO.
Good luck with the soon to arrive BooBoy.
I wish I was in Ocracoke right now. Although you have some weather down there right now, too, don’t you?
Cloudy, very windy, rain on and off, 50 degrees. Water is high.
Abortion language is better than Stupak if you live in a pro-choice state.
I’m exciting about watching the Niners-Eagles game tomorrow. Love watching games played in snow—from 3000 miles away.
Maybe they could move all this healthcare stuff out into the weather. I’d love to see Misty McConnell trying to defend the run.
This is great news.
The main thing for me is the subsidies and the timing of the exchanges and insurance reforms. Those are key. If people feel this in their lives, and if we let folks stay on their parents insurance til 26 a lot of families WILL feel that change, we can run on this bill in 2010 and come back and expand this reform.
This will also allow the administration to turn the focus where the public wants it; jobs, jobs, jobs.
Looks like Nelson got a little Nebraska gift tucked into the Bill. Can’t help but compare it to the diplomatic mantra of ‘we don’t negotiate with terrorists’. The cynic in me would have relished the idea of treating the holdouts like Iran with economic santions.
And while I’m on a crank, I wish the CBO would give us a score on the Bill for people with pre-existing conditions and how their new insurance rates will effect bankruptcies in this country.
Yes, Nelson has got a gift for Nebraska. Can you imagine, one state out of 50! Filth, no matter how the system works.
Also .. this bill doesn’t save as much as those prior … go figure!! .. so basically the CBO says Nelson is a corporate whore .. he’s not the deficit scold he holds himself up to be
If some kind of bill passes and is signed by the President, I want to see progressives offer legislation to improve it – the very next day.
To some degree, having no PO in the bill keeps the progressive base fired up to make sure that the bill is revised (for the better) in each future Congressional session. Now they can’t wipe their foreheads and say “phew, now health insurance is saved!” We were always going to need to follow up on this bill, but now that follow up will have some energy and the attention of the right people.
That’s certainly the way it could go and turn into an asset for real Dems. I wish I had some confidence that the leaders won’t try and sell it as the be-all and end-all of health care reform. They’ll sure have a bunch of loser consultants telling them that’s what they have to do.
I dunno, somehow it feels to me like a burden has been lifted and Obama and the real Dems are in a better position for real reform if they commit to making that happen. Can’t quite define where that comes from. How do you tell the difference trying to be a lefty in America, being bipolar, and being schizophrenic? The symptoms look pretty much the same.
Personally, my feelings are “Fuck ’em all!” Any motherfucker and I mean that double word from the bottom of my heart, who votes for this bucket of porcine afterbirth is on my enemies list. I will donate, and do everything physically possible to see they do not hold office ever again… What a bunch of ass licking cowards. Everything for the Corporations, Rich, Powerful and of course the effing Religious Reich out there and nothing for the poor or ordinary voter or person. The more I read, the happier I am not being an american these days… I just have this feeling that your “democracy” is nothing but Fascism wrapped in a shit stained pox infected blanket… Sorta like you kind people passed out to my ancestors many decades ago..
No, I think that I am much happier being French than being lied to all the time by feather merchants getting their marching orders from the rich… Our founding fathers, are probably busy being whirling dervishes these days (if you believe in all that mystical shit).
Just this old Chief’s 2 cents
Oh, I forgot to say my language is a little salty as I am a little/lot salty…. I despise ignorance of all kinds and hypocrisy and if you are offended by my language, all the fucking better… I hope that it causes you nightmares….
Well, OK, I’m willing to “pardon your French’, but should not the focus be more on the true representatives of the riche ? The true intransigents are the other side.
They are the ones who have violated their oaths to Support and Defend the Constitution of the United States. They retard the General Welfare.
Their actions clearly show that they support and defend the Republican Party, Big Capitalism, and those defined by the upper reaches of the 6 plus figure annual earnings.
Hang the pirates, not the crew.
Sorry to disappoint, dude, but your language doesn’t have the wattage to cause an eye blink, much less a nightmare.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1209/30811.html
I really hope Marcy Kaptur is happy.
Hallelujah!! At long last. In retrospect I think this is where we should have started in the first place: a rolecall vote, and then negotiate. This counting votes first for weeks and months is a mistake. It just pisses everybody off and gives every fat mouth a chance to grandstand and bluff ad infinitum. I hope next time they’ll just bring the best bill they can get out of committees and let the real votes fall where they may. Then consider compromises for the next round.
I have a feeling that, in the end, this will be a much bigger step forward than some lefties want us to believe. Not anything close to what I’d want, but it will make life better for millions of Americans. What else has Congress done in the last quarter-century that can make the same claim? I caught Patty Murray on CSPAN doing a very effective presentation on why this bill, especially after conference, will change the health access landscape in this country.
The only thing that scares me now is that Obama and the Dems will try to spin this into an unqualified win instead of a first step. The honest story and the best partisan spin are the same: we fought hard against a blindly obstructionist opposition and disappointments in our own caucus, and opened a door that we’ve been trying to pry open for half a century or more. We didn’t get all we want, but we learned some lessons for next time. This bill represents a step onto firmer ground from which to fight for the rest of what health care reform should be. This is the beginning of historic change, and we’re not done yet.
I would only note the language used by the WH after the Copenhagen Accord, they were praising the Accord but at the same time saying it is only a first step. I think that is the likely direction of the language, especially because they need to rally off of this bill in the short term yet recognize that it needs to be revisited if it is to be the bill everyone wanted it to be.
Yeah, but they’re going to have to show a much, much fiercer fighting stance than anything I heard from Copenhagen. Not that they should have been more aggressive there at this point, but I’m not sure it’s a model for ongoing HCR battles. Now is the time we’ll see if Obama is capable of doing some street fighting or not. He used to be.