From TPM Reader JM …
I carry no brief for Joe Lieberman, but I’m getting mighty pissed at the netroots crowd (Kos, Atrios*) that wants to dump HCR just because Lieberman is vetoing parts of the Senate bill. I’d love to see a public option or Medicare buy-in, but even without those elements the Senate bill would represent a substantial step forward – one that could be pushed back for a decade or more if progressives “kill the bill,” as some are suggesting.
The sad fact is that killing the public option is more important to Lieberman than getting HCR done. But progressives talk as though keeping the public option is more important to them than getting HCR done – which is frankly insane. Is it more important than guaranteeing insurance coverage regardless of pre-existing conditions? Is it more important than offering insurance subsidies and security to millions of people who have never had access to routine health care?
We often hear that the Democratic leadership is incompetent, that the Republicans under DeLay and Bush were able to pass everything they wanted in their desired form, so why can’t we? Well guess what, those Congressional Republicans were mindless partisans who all wanted one thing – tax cuts, tax cuts, tax cuts. You don’t have to be Will Rogers to know that Democrats are different. We want lots of different things, in different ways, with different priorities. That any HCR bill this complex has come this far is something of a miracle in itself.
Do progressives want better HCR? Great – then stop acting like this bill is the only chance we’ll ever have to get there. Pass something, then improve it over time. Because if we fail to pass anything, there won’t be another chance for more than a decade. If voters see Democrats as complete failures, they won’t turn to more progressive candidates – they’ll turn to Republicans who will stomp out any efforts at real HCR. We’ll have nothing to build on, and our failure to bridge the progressives and conservatives in our coalition will leave only hyper-conservatives in power.
*Late Update: Not so! says Atrios.
