Friday, October 23, 2009

The Dumbest Strategy In The History Of The World

It looks like we're gonna have to carry Obama over the finish line whether he likes it or not:

Multiple sources tell TPMDC that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is very close to rounding up 60 members in support of a public option with an opt out clause, and are continuing to push skeptical members. But they also say that the White House is pushing back against the idea, in a bid to retain the support of Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME).

"They're skeptical of opt out and are generally deferential to the Snowe strategy that involves the trigger," said one source close to negotiations between the Senate and the White HOuse. "they're certainly not calming moderate's concerns on opt out."

This new development, which casts the White House as an opponent of all but the most watered down form of public option, is likely to yield backlash from progressives, especially those in the House who have been pushing for a more maximal version of reform.

It also suggests for perhaps the first time that the White House's supposed hands off approach that ostensibly allowed the two chambers in Congress to craft their own bill has been discarded.

High level White House officials have floated the trigger idea a number of times, and it seems they continue to do so, even at this, crucial stage of the health care reform process, when their involvement is greatest. That has senators who support the public option concerned.

I repeat myself enough on this subject, so this is what I wrote one week ago yesterday:
There absolutely NO REASON we should be catering to the whims of Olympia Snowe on any piece of legislation. If she supports the bill, that's great. If she opposes a good bill and proceeds to lose in 2012, that's even better.

We don't need her vote, we don't need her to give cover for the White House's crappy ideas and we sure as hell don't need to give her cover on a vote that helps her stay in the senate.

If we get a good bill, people will say Obama passed good health care reform and he will benefit politically. If we get a crappy bill that forces people to buy shitty insurance, people will blame Obama and he will take the hit politically. One of those options will occur no matter what Olympia Snowe does or how much David Broader bows at your feet.
A willingness to destroy health care reform for the vote of single worthless republican senator! It's a strategy so mind blowingly stupid you couldn't make it up if you tried!


2 comments:

  1. This is truly horrifying. All of the head counts I've seen show we don't need Snowe. If the WH pushes thru HC reform that is this far away from what the people want the dems will get trashed in 2010 and 2012 and they will deserve it. It won't take long for people to figure out that no public option is the equivalent of writing blank checks to the insurance industry. Forcing people to have insurance with out a public alternative will only increase economic hardship, not alleviate it.

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  2. i dont know about you guys but im still pretty happy that we gave up on passing good legislation in favor of getting one or two pity votes from republicans...

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