Senate Repubs echo Boehner's "No You Can't", sending Health Care Reform back to the House

by: One Citizen

Wed Mar 24, 2010 at 23:13:18 PM EDT

That Republicans are now attempting to block all Congressional hearings could be their unified push back at the looming possibility of the public option being introduced.

The polls are certainly showing that since the bill's signing, more and more Americans either like the bill as passed, or else wish the reform did more.

In all of the joy and confusion leading up to the passage of the Senate version, most Dem Obamacare watchers probably thought that Congress stripped the public option out because it somehow lowered the bill's overall chances of passing. Actually, it now appears that all they really need to do is simply put it to an up-or-down vote in the senate to get it passed.

Since 45 senators have already publicly declared support of its passage, which of the remaining Dems would hold out? And even if the option did fail, it certainly wouldn't kill the chances of bill's passage altogether, would it?

BECAUSE THE BILL HAS ALREADY PASSED, HASN'T IT?

The more times HCR bounces back to the House from the Senate during reconciliation, the more people will learn what's actually in the bill. So naturally the more they'll begin to realize they like what's in it.

Except for that nasty lack of cost containment. Thanks to the right-leaning Senate Finance committee, it has the same insurance giveaway loophole as Massachussetts' universal HCR system.

Anyway, the more voters learn the details, the more likely a public option will pass. Especially since it has long been quite obviousthat most folks want a strong one.

Its just too bad that the media and many progressive websites have been so silent about its virtues. Particularly regarding the CBO score that a strong public option would reduce the deficit at least 500 million bucks, and that other prestigious institutions have valued the measure worth as much as a cool trillion in deficit reduction.

It is notable that the senator who sponsored the strong public option in finance committee markup flatly refused to sign any statement that he'd vote for the measure in the reconciliation process, claiming that to do so would be "too partisan", and has cautioned to "never let the perfect be the enemy of the good". Rockefeller also inexplicably failed to mention that a strong public option would reduce the deficit to the finance markup committee.

Hmm... Too bad there's no really dedicated  progressive to actually champion a strong public option to introduce it in the Senate, eh?

I'm willing to bet that Senator Sandbag -- (Coalocrat*-WV) will never introduce it. He's got too much riding on it not passing.

In fact if anyone introduces it, I'd lay odds that it'll be Bernie Sanders (I-VT).

*COALOCRAT:

   1. Any partisan politician or political appointee that will to do anything and everything within their power to benefit coal operators.

   2. Coal-powered bureaucrat.

See more about our Coalocrat Senator at this link.

Not to mention this link.

One last observation: The sore loser astroturfers all across the country either threatening or doing violence to those who voted for the health care reform remind me of the mercenary jerks who bullied coalfield residents during the mountain top removal permit hearings here in WV.

Although the FBI hasn't yet connected the pattern to any corporate body to this latest dustup, it certainly wouldn't be the first time in American history that robber barons hired thugs to harass and harm people over their political views. I'm just wondering how long it'll be before they start mailing the anthrax to Dem congressional leaders again.