That's all they had to do.

[cornermouse]

All Obama and the democratic congress had to do was put together a healthcare bill based on traditional democratic principles and come out fighting hard for it. That's all we ever wanted to see and that's all they had to do to avoid splitting the party and the infighting on DU. I"m not giving up my principles. This bipartisan junk should be stuffed into the nearest dumpster with all the other trash.

[FLDCVADem]

1. Bipartisan?

The fighting isn't with the Republicans, it's among the Democrats.

[Horse with no Name]

6. That isn't true exactly

The corporate wing of Dems put things in the bill that were "appealing" to Snowe and Collins HOPING they would vote for it so they could call it "bipartisan"...and in essence, stripping out ANYTHING remotely progressive in the process.

[WonderGrunion]

10. They were hoping for Snowe or Collins

because it was believed they would be easier to deal with than Traitor Joe. Just one defecting Republic would prevent Joe from his filibuster threat.

[cali]

12. and your post isn't true either

10 billion for CHCs is progressive.

[MNDemNY]

13. The only item in the shit bill even worth the ink.

But it is not enough to make this pile acceptable.

[Donnachaidh]

17. and that didn't happen until late in the game - so YOUR post is disingenuous

Bernie had to pout, ala Nelson, to get that.

[TheKentuckian]

22. 900 billion dollar expenditure does not justify a 10 billion dollar program

Sure expanding community clinics is liberal policy but I can't help but to think we'd get more actual health care by just putting a hundred billion into that effort than giving 800+ billion to profitcare that people won't be able to afford to use.

Don't get me wrong, I'd have zero problem using the resources to do something that would actually help the American people but this Senate bill is a joke without a funny punchline.

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. Great OP

I completely agree.

[cornermouse]

3. kick

[Better Today]

4. It's the conserva-Dems killing the "traditional democratic principles" that you

mention. So like it or not, your idea wouldn't have worked with the Senate we have now.

[denem]

5. Sure. Ask Joe (I-Aetna) Lieberman.

Democratic principles went out the Senate Door now every motion is filibustered.

[cornermouse]

7. They never fought for it.

They could have applied pressure to Lieberman and the conserva-dems. I didn't see any pressure being applied, did you?

[denem]

8. They could have shouted it publicly, and got Mr Integrity's back up,

hollered on by his Honorable friend Sen. McCain. Senators love to be publicly threatened. Ask McCarthy.

60 - Nil
The Bill needed 60 - Nil.

[JHB]

16. They could have even hit the Republicans over their lockstep conformity

Didn't you love the "Lockstep Watch" campaign, with Democrats bringing up the Republicans' Soviet-esque voting pattern (95% or more followink the Party Line) every time they had an interview or had face time on a talk show?


What? You didn't see that?

Neither did anyone else :mad:

[Echo In Light]

9. G.Carlin's take on it: "Bipartisan = a larger than usual deception is being carried out."

[DisgustedInMN]

11. "60" isn't now nor has it EVER been needed.

You'd think Senators would have read the Constitution.

Instead, we get nothing except phony excuses.

Never again.

[TheWraith]

20. Yes it is. Get your facts straight.

Not everything in life is written in the constitution.

[JoeyT]

14. Agree 100%

Even if they'd compromised down to what they have now, I'd have been happy if they'd at least come out fighting for and tried like hell for a much better bill. Instead they gave everything away right at the beginning, then caved further to Joe. There was no compromise, everything was tossed in the garbage from the start.

I think that's what pisses off the progressives/liberals I know the most. The fact that they didn't even try for single payer and bargain downwards. Had they done that, the insurance companies would've gotten on board with the compromises fairly quickly. Being allowed to continue to exist at all is a hell of an incentive.

[cornermouse]

24. Exactly.

[Dinger]

15. K & R

:patriot:

[treestar]

18. It would be so much better if you were in high office

You from your keyboard see how easy it all is.

[mmonk]

19. The bipartisanship claim is bogus. The Republicans wouldn't support

any bill. That was and is their strategy. The fact is, we must come to grips with the possibility that most of our elected representatives on the whole were against anything that had government involvement other than requiring the public finance private interests.

[TheWraith]

21. So your solution is simply to lose, give up, and go home?

Because that's what would have happened had some of the provisions not been stripped out. The "it's that easy" nonsense is just nonsense, peddled by people who have no understanding of the politics of the situation, and would apparently rather continue to have another 20 years of unregulated insurance, pre-existing conditions, and tens of thousands of deaths a year, instead of settling for less than their ideals.

[TheKentuckian]

23. The problem is the bill we got doesn't solve any of those issues

Insurance still largely unregulated. Allowing them to retain their anti-trust exemption clearly illustrates that no serious effort at regulation is in the cards.

Pre-existing conditions-We'll get part of the way, people with significant resources will no longer be denied access but low and average income people will never be able to pay the ransom and certainly won't have money for care.

Tens of thousands of deaths-If people can't pay for care then they will continue to die. Since profitcare will be shifting more weight to the consumer then probably even more will slip through the cracks and more suffering and death will ensue.

Profitcare has no shot at surviving another 20 years without government intervention and mandating we take their crap. The rich alone won't justify their existence.

This health care reform bill is the ultimate in not doing something and saying you did, except the money gets spent. Now, of course we can blame the dying sick for not making proper use of the provided bootstraps and they are off the collective conscience.

[Tashca]

25. K&R

Yup.....I agree. It's just as simple as that.