The Depts. of Caving In, Selling Out and Self-Deception Weigh In...

Barack Obama reminds House Democrats that it really is all about him:

President Obama's message to progressives who are dissatisfied with the Senate health care bill is two fold: First: Don't forget about the uninsured. Second: Don't forget what failure to pass this bill would do to the party and my presidency.

Translation? Please sell out. And while you're at it, ignore Howard Dean jumping up and down behind me. Things will be fine in November. After all, you may end up unemployed, but I'll still be president.

And here's the shocker: It looks Congressional progressives are going to go without a fight:

Speaking to reporters in the Speaker's lobby off the House floor, Congressional Progressive Caucus Co-Chair Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) said the President reminded them that "If this opportunity passes, much of our agenda, on the progressive side...it would be difficult, if not impossible for a generation to get back to this issue."

I asked if the message was convincing to those in attendance.

"It's pretty compelling," Grijalva said.

That's a significant change from his tone earlier in the week, when Grijalva said he was inclined to vote against the bill from the left.

Translation: Don't worry. We'll cave. Just throw us a bone of some sort to mollify the dimwits.

Cue Obama, with bone:

Progressives aren't without demands of their own. They are looking for all assurances that the Senate bill won't pass without a companion reconciliation bill amending it. Obama assured the members he sees the two bills as companions.

And if there's one thing we've learned in the last 13 months, it's that Obama's word is gold. Right? As an aside, remember back in the day when the public option was the only way to truly fix our horribly dysfunctional health care system? Yeah, me too.

Anyway, enter, stage left, Washington Monthly dimwit Steve Benen with the appropriate lipstick for this particular pig; pass the Senate bill that doesn't do what you want, and then fix it later with a separate bill offering the public option:

That's not an unreasonable plan: "A bill offering a public option and Medicare buy-in to age 55 would be a popular bill, and a good bill, and could be done after health-care reform had passed. The administration and others like to say that the Senate legislation is just a start, and they should begin acting on that belief. Pass the start, and then begin trying to make it better with smaller, discrete bills that are easier to message and pass."

The translation: Here's how we justify caving in and selling out... We'll say we'll pass it later.

Right. Congressional Democrats are gonna be all over that. Probably in December. After the public reaffirms its faith in the Obama White House, Congressional Democrats and the Democratic Party in general.

It's fun watching all the progressive politicians, as well as the progressive media's Kept Men, suddenly decide the Senate's bill isn't all that bad after all. Evidently they were mistaken when they railed against the bill's horrendous shortcomings all those months. But it ain't their fault, you know. That's what happens when the Republicans get obstructionist. 

Comments

[Eric Blair]

In the end, they'll settle for something rather than nothing, it looks like, just to be able to say they did something.

It isn't going to help them in the next elections though.

[Satanam in computatrum]

"...pass the Senate bill that doesn't do what you want, and then fix it later with a separate bill offering the public option..."

This has been the plan all along. Cross the bridge and burn it behind them; get people to swallow that government should have a hand in running health care. After that, it will incrementally grow, despite who controls Congress, until full-bore socialized medicine and oppressive, feudal-era taxation funding shitty health care is the norm. And it will be no more removable than the DOE was when Reagan took office. Politicians will be arguing over which font to write it in when the problem is the whole damn thing shouldn't exist in the first place.

Yeah, I'm in a bad mood. Happy fucking Friday.

[bandit]

If I were a Dem in any Red to moderately purple state I'd have to vote no. There's enough unemployed losers now.

[Jeff B.]

Just a well-heeled foot in the door to eventual universal health care. Suddenly, simultaneously, immigration "path-to-citizenship" "reform" is on the O's agenda.

Universal is spelled the same in English and Spanish and means muchas mas personas to vote Democratic and for us to pay for. Olé.

[just passin by]

Look for sugary and fatty foods to be prohibited for us plebs pretty soon, as it will "cost" the health care system too much.

Smoking? Costs the system too much. Drinking? Ditto. Driving a car? Hell no, you need to bike to work for your required daily exercise.

These examples are just the tip of the iceberg. This was never about about healthcare for the "needy". It was always about finding another angle to legislate state control over personal choices.

[aelfheld]

They'll pass it for two reasons.

Primus, it gives them 4 years of tax revenues to play with before they have to spend a dime on whatever monstrosity they foist on the public.

Secundus, once it's passed (in whatever form it takes) it will be bullet-proof, like every other entitlement program. There will be tinkering around the edges to 'improve' (read 'make more pervasive and entangling') it, but the likelihood of repeal is so minuscule as to be incalculable.