Health Care Reform may pass! (posted by DT)

Sorry to my legions of fans out there for not posting for a few days, but I have a large Event coming up in my family this Saturday so I'm not spending much time writing.

I'm trying not to get too jacked up about the prospects of Health Care Reform, but I can't seem to stop the optimism from creeping in (we liberals are optimistic about human nature and the good government can do, after all). News reports indicate that the House may pass the Senate Health Care Bill as early as next week, which would be a huge win. Then the plan would be for some relatively minor "fixes" to the Senate bill would be passed, taking some of the best from the House bill that is out of the Senate one, and putting it back in. This would have to be passed through Reconciliation, so that only 50 votes (with Joe Biden casting a tie-breaker) would be needed in the Senate.

Republicans are stomping their feet about using Reconciliation, which is absurd given that it's been used often over the years, was in fact used to pass the Bush tax cuts in 2001, and is the only way to pass anything at this point given that Republicans have decided to use the filibuster to an unprecedented degree this term.

But this post isn't about the Republicans- they should be dismissed as irrelevant to passing health care. As I've noted earlier, the Republican party doesn't really want universal health care, in which case they're quite right to vote against it.

Democrats just have to be tough, which is unfortunately not in their nature. Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama need to tell wavering congressmen that if they don't vote for health care they'll be relegated to miserable, leaky basement offices, they'll face primary opponents from the Left, they'll lose whatever committee assignments they care about, etc. It's hardball, and it's how you get things done in the Big Leagues.

So here's hoping they can stick with it. I can't say I'll be shocked if it all falls apart, but I'm feeling good tonight- don't spoil it!