Passing this "stack of paper with health care on it" will kill any chances we have to try again.

[smalll]

Some say that if we don't pass this bill, we won't have another chance anytime soon to have another crack at reforming our health care system. I think that's just backward.

If we do pass this "stack of paper" and it gets signed so that Democrats can claim a "win" then why would congressional Democrats want to try again? At the point of signing, the bill becomes a "win" we have to defend. If Democrats in Congress tried again some time before 2016 to bring real reform, it would be tantamount to ADMITTING that the stack of paper was just a stack of paper. Worse than that for the Democrats, as we have seen from this year, there's no guarantee once the legislative process gets rolling as to what you will end up with, or even if you will end up with anything at all. If Pelosi and Reid tried again next time to do something real and substantially helpful, and failed to get the votes to pull it off, then the original "win" would lose all it's political usefulness and would in fact stand as testament to the severe dysfunction of the federal legislative process.

My question is, will there emerge some time soon a senator (or a few) who were true-blue believers in real reform -- those who had supported a robust public option, for example -- who will stand up against the bill as it exists? If such a person or persons emerges, and explains - as many here on DU have - how this bill hurts average Americans, especially those who couldn't afford insurance to begin with, then there will certainly be a good chance to review this issue, perhaps best in the first year of Obama's second term.

Pass this bill though, and the Congressional Democrats, and even President Obama, have really no choice (I couldn't blame them) but to shut up about the myriad problems of our health care system -- it will be "their baby" at that point, the whole Rube Goldbergian thing, and they will have to talk it up. If we pass this bill, in fact, it will become REPULICANS who will suddenly start paying attention to the various failures, wastes and outrages of our system, and use everything they can find about it to hammer away at our party.

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I don't much blame Obama in all this mess. He made a tactical mistake, that's all. He decided to encourage the U.S. Congress to do it's job and legislate. It's not really his fault that they end up like Toonces the Cat -- they can legislate, but just not very well. In fact, it looks like they're about to take us over "the precipice" because of their hopeless driving.

[napi21]

1. I don't agree with that. Did you hear Sen. Harking on Rachel's show tonight?

"SS isn't the same as it was when it was passed, Medicare isn't the same as it first was, and neither is SCHIP. All have been expended upon and made better. We need a foundation to build on." He's right you know. I don't remember SS when it was first established, I'm not THAT OLD YET! But I know there was no disability bennies, and I believe only covered a portion of the population. All the programs have been expanded and improved. I think this is one of the reasons you don''t have ANY Pubs even talking about anything but kill it. They're afraid this is the camel's nose under the tent, and it will be a lot easier to improve something than it is to get it established.

[smalll]

2. Well that's somewhat re-assuring to hear from Harkin.

I'm not going to pretend I'm any kind of expert on what's going on right now, but when you say that Soc.Sec. and Medicare are examples of programs that "have been expanded and improved" I get the impression that means, especially with Social Security, that a good, solid, if relatively small program was built up and expanded -- that a good idea was taken further.

I don't get the impression that this bill we now face is setting up anything good, even if small, that would be natural to expand upon in the future. It seems to be just 2,000 pages of extra rope we're tying around the Gordion knot which is America's hopelessly baroque health care regime.

[smalll]

3. Lets try a couple of analogies --

If you build a Potemkin village, why would you ever come back and say sorry, let me build you a real village right now?

Or lets say you're a husband with a wife who's been pleading forever for a fur coat. So you buy her a "fur coat" at the last minute --

As long as she's happy with it at first, why the hell would you ever come up to her with a real one? Why would you do that? Why would you say, "Sorry dear, that coat is actually rat fur and/or some kind of petroleum-based artificial fabric -- let me give you a REAL coat now!"