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Since 2008 – Progress Through Politics

There are reasons why Obama's Health Care Reform will go through…

Robert Creamer wrote a really good piece in the HuffPo  called: Why Health Insurance Reform Will Pass This Fall — It’s the High Political Ground.  I direct you to it since it blows a hole… no, four holes… in the stuff Morning Joe and his friends were putting out this morning.

The basic points (read the article for the expansions):

1). Most Americans – including swing voters – can’t stand the health insurance industry.

2). The Obama Administration will use every ounce of its political capital to win this battle.

3). As the vote grows closer, many moderate Democrats will begin to realize the price they will pay personally if health insurance reform fails.

4). Finally, the pundits have ignored a critically important new development : the Obama base has been energized.

Creamer has hit the nail squarely on the head: Obama is not going to lose this because he CAN’T lose this. It has been a long time since we have had a Democratic President with this kind of focus… and when he uses his incredible ability to have a positive finish we will find ourselves not only supporting him, but forgetting about most of the crap that has happened during the Congressional break.

The real losers in the Health Care fight are going to be the Grassleys, the DeMints, the Inhofes and the Enzis who will take the $17 million plus they have received from the Insurance Industry and try to explain to their constituents why their perceived strength was only an excuse to make a buck.

After this goes through the polls will show that Americans never had any doubt that Obama and the Democrats would get reform through.

Under The LobsterScope


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/ 27 Comments

27 comments

  1. hubiestubert

    Part of the reason that the opposition to health care reform have done so well so far, is that they’ve been the ones to define the debate at the local level. At town halls, they’ve been free to repeat lies and damn lies and misinformation given to them, and let’s face it, they have been organized to protect profit margins.

    By allowing the Wing Nut Brigade to define this debate, it has energized opponents for health care reform, and the more radical elements of the GOP to rally. It has been allowed to do so by a lack of Moderates and Progressives from either side of the political spectrum organizing.  Part of the failing for my own party has been the lack of organization by Moderates, and part of the failing by Democrats has been a lack of organization by most elements to operate at the local level to combat these pernicious lies.

    Yes, it’s nice to see advertisers bailing from Beck. But relying on merely having the moral high ground is NOT enough when you face an opponent who is more than willing to lie, cheat, and lie some more, and organize astroturf on a scale that hasn’t been seen since Hillaryis44 and the PUMAs.

    Health care reform is important to the nation–and I still have reservations on how it will be accomplished, but not why it needs to be–and while I hope that folks will pull this out, without a genuine outpouring of support by the public, this effort to paint the opposition as “grassroots” is going to cause many of our lawmakers to take a more cautious approach that will wind up blunting the effort to neigh uselessness.  

  2. HappyinVT

    I will agree that healthcare reform will pass but what kind of bill will it be?  I’ve seen multiple reports that Obama is in negotiations with Olympia Snowe to get her onboard.  Apparently, though, she does not support a public option and would rather go with a trigger.  Someone needs to explain to me why this one Republican senator is being given this much power.  She’s from a state that Obama won handily; she was one of those who watered down the stimulus bill; and she’s against a part of the reform that 70+% of Americans support.  She’ll most likely be the only Republican (with a possible exception of her fellow Mainer, Collins) to vote for whatever crappy bill she’s happy with.

    I am most anxious to hear what the president tells the AFL-CIO Labor Day get-together on Sunday and then what he tells Congress on Wednesday.  Because he’s losing me.  I’m trying to be hopeful but we’re getting conflicting comments out of the White House; apparently they are fighting on the public option which might be why we’re getting such to and fro on it.  If he’s willing to give up the public option he’d better be able to explain in very clear language why.  And the rest of the bill better be a humdinger with lots of regulations on insurance and pharma companies.

  3. anna shane

    because business wants it, to compete internationally in nations where health insurance isn’t provided by employers.  

    but I agree with the rest of you, in what form?  It depends on Barack’s speech, we’ll all be tined in?  

  4. GMFORD

    Including a public option is the only way healthcare reform will be a success.  He know this and so do the Republicans.  They think he’s a young guy, wet behind the ears and they can bamboozle him into giving up the most important piece.

    I think otherwise.

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