As President Obama signed the Bill, one phrase came to mind....

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

Not This Time.

We've been turned back and denied every time we've tried to change healthcare in this country. But not this time. And I was trying to remember where I'd heard the phrase used in the last campaign.

And then I remembered. This is from Obama's speech in Philadelphia after the Rev. Wright controversy:

For we have a choice in this country. We can accept a politics that breeds division and conflict and cynicism. We can tackle race only as spectacle — as we did in the O.J. trial — or in the wake of tragedy — as we did in the aftermath of Katrina — or as fodder for the nightly news. We can play Reverend Wright's sermons on every channel, every day and talk about them from now until the election, and make the only question in this campaign whether or not the American people think that I somehow believe or sympathize with his most offensive words. We can pounce on some gaffe by a Hillary supporter as evidence that she's playing the race card, or we can speculate on whether white men will all flock to John McCain in the general election regardless of his policies.

We can do that.

But if we do, I can tell you that in the next election, we'll be talking about some other distraction. And then another one. And then another one. And nothing will change.

That is one option. Or, at this moment, in this election, we can come together and say, "Not this time." This time, we want to talk about the crumbling schools that are stealing the future of black children and white children and Asian children and Hispanic children and Native American children. This time, we want to reject the cynicism that tells us that these kids can't learn; that those kids who don't look like us are somebody else's problem. The children of America are not those kids, they are our kids, and we will not let them fall behind in a 21st century economy. Not this time.

This time we want to talk about how the lines in the emergency room are filled with whites and blacks and Hispanics who do not have health care, who don't have the power on their own to overcome the special interests in Washington, but who can take them on if we do it together.

This time, we want to talk about the shuttered mills that once provided a decent life for men and women of every race, and the homes for sale that once belonged to Americans from every religion, every region, every walk of life. This time, we want to talk about the fact that the real problem is not that someone who doesn't look like you might take your job; it's that the corporation you work for will ship it overseas for nothing more than a profit.

This time, we want to talk about the men and women of every color and creed who serve together and fight together and bleed together under the same proud flag. We want to talk about how to bring them home from a war that should have never been authorized and should have never been waged. And we want to talk about how we'll show our patriotism by caring for them and their families, and giving them the benefits that they have earned.

The work of healthcare reform is not finished, but we should pause to acknowledge that this time, we were not turned back.

[OneGrassRoot]

1. This is just the beginning...

The work of being an active, informed citizen is never done. The door is cracked open with this historic bill, but we all realize there is much, much work to be done to make it better, in many ways, for as many as possible.

Thanks for this OP. K&R.

:patriot:

[avaistheone1]

3. We don't need more than platitudes.

When is bill going to fixed in order to make health care affordable working class and middle class families this bill does not address?

[OneGrassRoot]

5. I obviously don't know when...

I just know it won't happen if all we do is bitch and moan. Work with what we've got and move forward to make it much better. That's all any of us can do.

This was a win for the dems, now we need to keep moving them in the direction to make it a win for more and more citizens.

That's only my personal opinion, obviously.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

6. One thing you can do...

I don't have the list, but there were eight Democrats who voted "No" on healthcare reform who represent districts that Obama won in 2008. Now while I'm willing to cut some slack to Democrats who represent red districts, these other eight have no excuse.

One thing you can do is make sure that these eight Democrats have well-funded challengers in the primaries (if possible) or have a strong challenge from a third party. Yes, I'm talking about supporting a Green Party candidate against a Democrat.

If that's too much effort, just make sure that you get out and support your own represenative (or his challenger,if he's a Republican) in the 2010 election. As this process has shown us, we need more (and better) Democrats in Congress is we're going to get to our goal of a Public Option / Single Payer system in this country.

[avaistheone1]

2. It is more important to get everyone onboard.

Millions of people are not eligible for this plan, and will remain without affordable insurance.

When will to be there turn?

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

4. We'll get there....

The mountain we have to climb first is to get the United States Congress to confirm that healthcare in America is a fundamental right. Once we get that done -- and today marks a HUGE step in that direction -- then there's no stopping it.

I work for a non-profit healthcare provider. We do millions every year in charity care -- not enough for everybody who needs it, but as much as we can and remain financially solvent. Insuring millions of Americans means that we'll be able to re-focus those charity care resources on the people who remain uninsured.

In that regard, today is a very big deal.

[bain_sidhe]

7. Yeah, me too... my phrase was...

"This is a big fucking deal!" ;-)

[mrgorth]

8. The one that came to my mind was

"This is what you get." To the republicans. This is what you get for 8 years of Bush. 8 years of tax cuts for the wealthy. 2 unpaid for wars. This is what you get for Cheney and Addington and Perle and all the rest. Here is our revenge. And we are not done yet.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

9. Wait till they get the new Wall Street Regulations

Choke on it, suckers!