So, Obama is going to fight for health care reform. And he’s going to do it in the most interesting way. I hope it works. I think it might.
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.
In other news, Richard Shelby has now placed holds on all Obama nominees until he gets funding for projects he wants to do.
Will this spur the senate to positive action? I am betting no.
projects he wants to do = “earmarks”
Some $35 billion of them with no PAYGO offsetting them
Get my popcorn; this is getting interesting. Seems the GOP does not want earmarks to go away. Kit Bond’s (SEN-MO) 9-month hold on the GSA Administrator was to force a $175 million GSA project to be built in Kansas City, MO.
Yes. But earmarks are not bad things necessarily. Getting funding for something you need built, like bridge repair, firehouses, etc. is a good thing and those things are definitely “earmarks.”
I really, really hope you’re right…..but I don’t see much that’s encouraging in that link. He still has said nothing specific about the way forward, and fer Chrissake, he’s STILL talking about reaching out to republicans.
I’ve been a hard core Obot from the get go, but I’ve been feeling really discouraged lately.
The key will be in what manner he chooses to make it public. If he invites them in and puts in on C-SPAN, then there won’t be silly grandstanding, I hope. We’ll see. But I like that he’s looking for a way through, and to fulfill his promise of more transparency…!
Wow. That’s the most interesting thing I’ve seen about the health care process in days. I’m having a mixed reaction to this proposal. On the one hand, a televised meeting with Democrats, Republicans and independent experts would 1) educate people about what’s proposed (sorely lacking), 2) keep Democrats from dirtying up the bill, 3) show in a public forum that Republicans have no serious health care proposals, and 4) partially fulfill Obama’s campaign pledge of transparency.
On the other hand, I don’t trust the media not to divert people from the real issues so that #1 and #3 are lost, and the right-wing noise machine will do all they can to obscure the obvious. The belated transparency is good, but nothing is going to stop Republicans from criticizing deals made in secret. WH and Congressional spokespeople will have to have a MUCH better messaging game than they have so far if this is going to work.
Obama referenced public opinion in a way that sounds like he thinks Congress should rely on opinion polls when deciding their vote. That makes me very nervous, both in this instance and in general.
The whole thing is pure Obama, though, and I view that as a huge plus. His instincts are fantastic, and he’s been way too muted since he took office. I’m happy to see him come out swinging again in his own inimitable style.
What possible say do the Republicans have? They have none. They voted no all the way down the line. What is the goddamned point of even talking to them?
Who knows? Revealing the GOP as a group of nihilistic liars has already gone about as far as it can go with this piece of legislation.
Nope, most people have no clue whatsoever. Sounds like Obama’s trying to set them up to take a fall where the world can see.
Sad thing is that they’ll probably all still vote no… but if this works, we’ll still get a bill through reconciliation, and a lot more people will understand what happened.
The problem is that Fox will cut away to the latest missing white girl instead of showing Obama explaining his plan in a reasonable manner, and their viewers will continue to believe in death panels and government takeovers because they don’t know or care that c-span exists.
But a major part of the problem is that the Democratic base is moribund and despises this bill.
I read this as an intention to further water down a bill which is already extremely diluted. This may be an interesting development but it doesn’t look like a good one.
Booman, what do you think of this?
http://jamesfallows.theatlantic.com/archives/2010/02/turnip_day.php
Most on the left think that running on obstructionism will fail and I tend to agree, but there’s obviously precedent for doing it successfully.
Why do you consider this an interesting development?
I’m not sure what it will do to get us 51 votes in the Senate for reconciliation. It seems more like a plan to reveal the GOP as empty and stem some of their momentum for the midterm elections than a plan to actually pass health care reform.
My I suggest you write a longer post to elaborate your thoughts on this?
I would like to hear booman’s elaboration on his thoughts as well. HuffPo referenced this same article under “Obama admits Health care may die in Congress”, which is closer to what I was afraid of when I read the link booman posted. I’m heartened by reading some of the comments on this thread, but apprehensive. I don’t see why he is being so vague and nuanced? I am a HUGE Obama supporter, I consider myself an Obamacrat-LOL-but I don’t understand WHY he doesn’t just say “Pelosi-get the Senate bill passed. Reid-get the ‘fixes’ passed through reconciliation. Make it happen! Go!” Even if the process isn’t quite that simple, it would be heartening to hear . . .