Progressives Win One, But Will Obama Listen?
27 October 2009 10:45 am by Taylor Marsh
Give yourselves a pat on the back.
Then get back to work. It’s not over by a long shot, but this win is huge.
Read Ryan Grim, who along with Sam Stein and the Huffington Post’s blaring “Leaderless” headline on Sunday may have been the final straw. After all, it’s not every day the White House pushes back on a Sunday night. Grim:
Democratic leaders were forced to include a national public health insurance option as part of health care reform by progressive Democratic senators who refused to support anything less, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said on Monday.
… For many years, it’s been centrist and conservative-leaning senators who have been scoring legislative victories by digging in their heels, so this represented a quite dramatic turnabout. It is difficult to remember the last time that progressives won a legislative victory by laying down firm demands and sticking to them. In the House, the Congressional Progressive Caucus has found its feet, too, and is locked in a final battle with conservative Democrats over the shape of a public option.
But in the end it will Pres. Obama who plays mediator, the role he relishes, between the two chambers. It’s not close to being over.
We still don’t know if Pres. Obama will spend capital to support the best bill, which means a public option with an opt-out, the bottom compromise progressives should make.
