The Simplest Thing

[bemildred]

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Look at the facts that we are dealing with:

* There is a very big and very solid core group of members in the House (way more than enough to block a bill from passing) who have pledged multiple times in writing to only vote for a bill with a public option.

* That group in the House is backed up by an extremely determined activist core from the netroots, and increasingly intense organizations like the AFL-CIO, MoveOn.org, and Democracy for America.

* A majority of House members are on the record in favor of the public option.

* While there are procedural issues to be resolved in the Senate, many of the top experts on Senate rules are saying that the public option can be included in a reconciliation bill which only needs 51 votes. Such a bill could be combined with a second bill to deal with the less controversial issues that can't be included in reconciliation.

* While some of the most conservative Senate Democrats want there to be a bipartisan bill, which would require no public option, there are not enough of them to stop a bill being passed on reconciliation. In fact, there are now 51 Senators on the record in favor of the public option.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-lux/the-simplest-thing_b_278072.html

[Joe Chi Minh]

1. Since when has "bipartisanship" come to mean a preferential option in favour

of the wishes of the Republican opposition on a core issue for Democrats - indeed in this case, Republicans, too, nationwide?

I'd heard of a "preferential option for the poor" in Catholic theology - the scriptures, for that matter. But never a "preferential option for the rich", in abject deference to the opposition and their lobbyists (including "blue-dog" Democrats) - as an expression of bipartisanship.

Bipartisanship should cut two ways, as the word suggests - even the Democratic party should occasionally be considered to have some kind of precedence/seniority on core issues, now and again, when its the party of government.

[bemildred]

2. Bipartisanship means "screw the public" in my observation.

It is essentially and always an excuse for not doing the right thing when you have the power. The Bushites never even gave lip service to bipartisanship and nobody went out of their way worrying about it. Bush said so, and that's the way it was.

[Joe Chi Minh]

3. Precisely. What happened to the executive orders? Not that Obama needs

one now.