We have House Democrats suggesting we spend the rest of this year passing piecemeal legislation to enact the popular parts of health care reform.
We have senate democrats kicking the can to the house and unwilling to commit to reconciliation unless they're sure the public option is not included; at least that is how I read Kent Conrad's comments.
Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-ND), who would likely take the lead on moving such a package through the Senate offered no promises either.
"If the House passed the Senate bill, could reconciliation, that process, be used to fix things that might be improved upon? Yes," Conrad told reporters yesterday. "Would I support it? I can't know that without knowing what would be included in the package."
We have the White House MIA and pivoting (at the same time!) towards financial reform in a bid to separate Republicans from the quasi populist banners they've rapped themselves around.
Welcome to the clusterfuck, my thoughts below the fold.
(1) I do not understand how anyone can seriously consider reconciliation right now as the main way to pass health care reform.
Unemployment is rising, foreclosures are rising, banks are not lending enough, it's hard out there and folks are sick and tired of hearing about health care. After a year, if nothing gets done, the Republicans can credibly say the Democrats can't govern. And you know, everyone recognizes the Republicans had smaller majorities and still got their way by staying unified. Fuck the big tent, no one understands why the Democrats are not unified. Bill Frist was willing to kill the filibuster; I can't even imagine Harry Reid being able to credibly make that threat or the 49 Democrats that would stand with him.
Bill Clinton is right, people will go with strong and wrong over right and weak every single day and twice on Sunday. That's how MA went red and Ted Kennedy's seat is being filled by Scott Brown.
(2) Democrats do not stick together.
We saw them sticking knives in Clinton from jump and in delaying and blowing past the health care deadlines President Obama set in the senate ; we've watched the senate take control of this administration and the party to the detriment of the country and democrats at large.
And Evan Bayh and Mary Landrieu and Co. were out there doing it today to the party and the administration. Matt Yglesias saidwhat I was thinking about that...
....the reality is that the pivotal members of the House are moderate Blue Dogs and the pivotal members of the Senate are moderates like Mary Landrieu. Consequently, governance in the Obama era has been determined by what moderates like Mary Landrieu are willing to do. Which is fine as far as it goes, but it means that if voters don’t like the results Landrieu doesn’t get to complain that someone else screwed things up:
Other centrist Democrats said the results in Massachusetts could become a blessing in disguise by forcing Democrats to rein in their legislative agenda and focus on less expansive policies than the health care overhaul now teetering with the loss of the Democratic majority’s crucial 60th vote.
"The loss in Massachusetts should serve as a wake-up call to the wing of the Democratic Party that wants the federal government to overreach and overspend," said Senator Mary L. Landrieu, Democrat of Louisiana. "We need to get back to the basics."
....But in the world that exists, the only "wing" that matters is the Mary Landrieu wing. They decide how much stimulus we get. They decide their can’t be a public option. They decide their needs to be a months-long quest to get Chuck Grassley to offer "Republican cover" for a health care vote. Either the strategy is working better than the alternatives, or else it’s the Landrieu wing that needs to change things up. But defeats can’t be the fault of the people who haven’t been in the driver’s seat since the seventies.
When you spout shit like that Ms. Landrieu you are not hurting blue state democrats or house members in safe seats; you're taking yourself out. You know why? Because people can vote for a Republican if they're Republican; they vote Democratic to get a democrat. So after the party bows and scraps to the likes of you and yours in the conservadem part of the caucus; have the decency not to piss all over the party.
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I'm rambling and I'm going to step away from the computer for a while but I needed to vent into the internet ether. This shit is dead simple ladies and gentlemen. You need to pass health care and sell the shit out of it from day one; not ignore the basic blocking and tackling of politics as you did with the stimulus and allow Republicans to define the efforts that saved us from the depression they caused as a failure.
(Something that chaps my ass: Cantor has held two or three stimulus related job fairs without calling them that in his district and I have not seen ANY VA democrats do that or actively sell the benefits to their constituents. But Cantor, who voted against it, is tying himself to the good it's doing. Folks get a job, they think Eric Cantor's job fair hooked me up not Obama's stimulus which Cantor is tearing down. Great job Democrats.)
Then, you need to shoot the bankers. Wall Street must be fucked and they need to be freaked out. Today was a good beginning with the Volcker Rules, it gives me hope something good is coming out of the MA mess.
After that, you need to get a second stimulus and sell it as a second stimulus. The economy is floundering. This is the democratic solution: another broad and large stimulus. If the Republicans refuse let them filibuster it; let them state what they think will solve the economic problems facing middle America today.
I honestly believe a stimulus fight and a financial reform fight will strengthen democrats. And I think like all things; they should do a second stimulus first and state explicitly it won't kick in til 2011 likely. That will be a fight that the money folks won't stand in front of IMO b/c they want stimulus money and know it's the only thing holding up the economy. Winning that fight and tracking financial reform along a parallel line will IMO create momentum for the party if the Republicans hang together against this.
Stop fearing the filibuster; use it.
Like I said in my title, shutting down the government saved Bill Clinton's presidency; don't be afraid to go to the edge and jump folks. The Republican Party is going to come hard and strong against you to push you off the political cliff anyway. This way, you have a fighting chance. What the fuck do you have to lose? Like the man said, the fall will probably kill you anyway.