Taylor Marsh – TaylorMarsh.com – News, Opinion and Weblog on Progressive Politics

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Mike Lux on hcare tonight and I must agree. The chairs are set. Pelosi and Reid are going to bring the public option to the floor. What was unthinkable 2 weeks ago is now real for the Senate. Why? Durbin says its because of us. The progressives like FDL, DFA, and the folks like I and you who got on the phones and made calls, emails etc. Getting this far is a PROGRESSIVE VICTORY. IT WAS US, GRASSROOTS WHO AR GETTING THIS DONE, NOT POTUS SO FAR.

Mike Lux, a seasoned dc veteran and dem has a great post on hcare tonight. This is the fight of our lives. It will be hard. Progressives will have to organize amendments, floor strategies, and push ALL IN to improve the bills esp on what I think are crucial: kill the opt out clause in conference, expand and improve medicaid so it covers dental and rxs, kill pharma deal and get drug cost controls, improve subsidies, make sure tax burden is one on the rich not working folks, support opening of Medciare to 55 and over (Rockefeller amendment).

Some may say no way we can do this next set of things-but progressives are emerging as a force again in this country. PCCC, DFA etc fund ads pressing for change. These scappy groups are change agents. The final rounds here will be real tough but today was a big win. BIG. A bill with the po in it, no triggers, Reid shunning Snowe by not opting to have CBO score her trigger deal means we may get a dem only bill and better changes made.

The cost of Snowe is delay and Im glad Reid is fed up. Snowe wants to dillute the bill. Reid said today- I hope u support us, but..

These are epic days. read what Lux is saying here. The great fight is on. Key victories have happened. We must shape the finale here. The burden of history is now on the progressives.

Game On

by: Mike Lux
Mon Oct 26, 2009 at 19:25

Okay, folks, we progressives got what we wanted. A comprehensive health care reform bill with a reasonably strong public option will be going to the floor as part of leadership bills in both the House and the Senate. We don’t yet know whether we will get the best version of the public option in the House bill, … But strengthening the form of the public option can be negotiated over in conference committee, once we get there.

For now, we can thank Harry Reid (HCAN has a page here) and Nancy Pelosi for their gutsy leadership, and fight like hungry dogs to win the floor fight and deliver on this hope. In the coming weeks we will have an all-hands-on-deck, all out public war with the insurance industry over whether we finally pass comprehensive health care reform or once again fall short at the bitter end after coming so far.

Here’s where things are as we head into the floor fight:

1. White House staffers confirmed for me this afternoon that they are backing Harry Reid’s decision “100 percent.” Now that’s not to say they aren’t a little nervous about it. I suspect that there are still some feelings by some people working in that building that progressives should have given up and rolled over,…But us irritating progressive folk got in the way of doing that, and now Obama knows it’s time to stand and deliver. I believe my friends at the White House when they say they will do an all-out fight for this bill. They know that starting down this path, and not being able to pull it off, would be a huge embarrassment and destroy all the momentum we’ve built by making it this far. They are all-in, and know how much is at stake….

2. The entire progressive movement has to go all-in supporting an up or down vote on health care reform. We should try to strengthen this bill with an amendment strategy on the floor, and we should be prepared to fight for a strong, tough negotiation strategy in conference committee. But first, we should be putting every ounce of work, dollars, and muscle we can to convince all the Democrats in the Senate to support Reid on the cloture vote in the Senate.

The White House and Reid are on the line to deliver, but so are we. This is a history- making fight, one of those huge moments in American history, and if we win, this progressive movement will be written about in the history books the way the big change movements of the 1960s, 1930s, 1900s, and 1860s are. This is our time to deliver, too.

3. Senate Democrats who are reluctant to support this need to be clear: there are plenty of things none of us like in this … bill. Personally, I think the idea that states could opt out of the public option is a tragedy, and I will fight for a better bill in conference committee. There are plenty of other provisions I don’t love as well. But to step on history, to stop the entire rest of the Democratic party from making history because you don’t like one provision in a bill, is fundamentally wrong. Go ahead and vote against it on an up or down vote, but do not stop this incredibly important, incredibly historic bill with a filibuster. And as a loyal Democrat who wants all Democrats to win, I want you waverers to be very clear about the political consequences. There is a huge political upside to supporting Reid on cloture, and an even bigger downside to not doing so. I don’t speak for the entire progressive movement at all, but I have spent my life working in it, and have a pretty good sense of it, and I will tell you this: this is of truly massive importance to progressives. If you think this is just another issue, you are dead wrong. You will be helping yourself an enormous amount with progressives by letting this vote happen, and letting the Democratic party and the president get a huge win. It would be harder to raise money for anyone running a primary against you and easier to get our help in any tough general election you might face. On the other hand, if you screw us on this issue, you are opening yourself up for enormous political problems. The odds of serious primaries, with a ton of funding, go up dramatically, just as the odds of ever getting help in a tough general election fight go steeply down. …. What I am suggesting is that everyone in the progressive movement is going to have very, very long memories about this highest of high priorities for us.

This is the fight of our lives, and after all the preliminaries, we have made it to the finals. Reid and Pelosi have delivered. The White House is ready to roll. Now let’s get this done.

http://www.openleft.com/diary/15699/game-on-by-Mike-Lux

 

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