Obama needs to make a prime-time speech to the nation... and make it the greatest the speech of his life.

This is his strength, and this is what the rethuglicans fear most.

Obama must get the people engaged, and in a big way. If the people sit back and depend on the current political system to spontaneously act in their best interests, they are sadly mistaken.

Even if you want to negotiate with the other side before bringing it up for a vote (which seems like a bad idea; isn't that what amendments are for?), it would be nice if our Democratic compromisers could be bothered to simply look up the dictionary definitions of "compromise" and "negotiation." On every one of these bills that all the Republicans (or in the Senate, nearly all) vote against, can any of these Democratic negotiators answer the question of what they're getting in return for their compromises?

If your "partners" are serious about negotiating, and the only thing you want from them is their vote, they should be able to tell you what it will take to get it. Here's a hint: if their answer is "just keep giving me more and I'll know it when I see it," then what you're doing isn't a compromise.

Max Baucus setting up a sellout? Say it ain't so! Why just last week, after 30 years being a Senator, Max learned how to negotiate, or so he said!

With Democrats like Baucus, who needs Republicans?

But lots of Democrats will also oppose reform - a public option. For some Democrats which might be persuadable, they probably would like to have some bipartisan cover for voting for the bill, which means getting *some* Republicans to vote for it.

I think near zero Republicans will vote for it. Will the Democrats stand together?

When the one thing you want is the one thing your opponent doesn't want you to have under any circumstances, what's the point of compromising? Compromises are what you aim for to get a little of what you want at the expense of something you don't want. A public option is not a little of anything. It's all or nothing. Republicans are demanding concessions while being fairly upfront about the fact that they'll never vote for this bill. What should we do, wait for a Republican to regain the White House, because THEN they'll think a public option is a swell idea? Something tells me that's a when-pigs-fly option. So let's go for the public option, and put the onus on the voters (remember nearly half of REPUBLICANS want a public option as well) to contact their Senators and Representatives and tell them the holy hell they will pay at the ballot box if the public option is not supported.

So, to review, Republican lawmakers -- the ones Democrats are trying to find some common ground and consensus with -- don't want to lower health care costs, don't want to spend money on health care reform, don't want to do anything that might upset the insurance companies, don't want to give the government any additional authority in the health care system, and don't even want to discuss possible reform options with the Democratic majority.

...because, as Bill Kristol told his fellow conservatives more than a decade ago, a successful Democratic effort on health care reform would further repudiate the conservatives' faith-based ideology and put Republicans at even more political disadvantage.

Every Democratic lawmaker should read Kristol's memo and ask loudly and repeatedly how the Republicans are going to prove they're bargaining in good faith this time. Then it'll be the Republicans making consessions, not the Democrats -- for a change.

doubtful gets to the key point (although i'm counting how many posts until someone tries to blame harry reid): when people like ben nelson and mary landrieu and evan bayh and blanche lincoln and joe lieberman are part of your votes, you are already crossing party lines to line up 59 votes.

in a better world, those would all be moderate republicans and moderate republicans and democrats could have a bipartisan compromise until the cows come home.

but since they are all sitting there in the democratic caucus, and since the republican caucus is almost entirely populated by right-wing hardliners, there is no chance for bipartisanship.

and it is my guess that every last one of these senators would rather have no health-care insurance reform than not to be able to say that they were part of a "bipartisan" consensus on health-care insurance reform, and there is zippo that harry reid can do about that.

insofar as anyone can do anything about it, it's obama, but this is not reagan in '86 on tax reform: it's much too early in obama's term, so i'm not so sure there's much he can do.

what we can do, of course, is find people in the states represented by those clowns and, you know, flood them with phone calls and letters.

So pass the damn bill with only one republican on board. Many of today's Republicans would have happily opposed the the minimium wage, the 8 hour work day, the Federal Reserve, social security, and workplace safety laws, the FDA, the EPA, in essence all the progressive legislation of the last 100 years.

Oh yes, and they would have opposed anti-trust legislation as well feeling that whatever was good for Standard Oil was good for America.

Obama likes the quote "Don't let the Perfect be the enemy of the good."

He says that to remind people that sometimes you can't get everything you want and you have to give up something (even important something) to get a 'good' piece of legislation passed that at leasts help some people.

The problem now is, Obama is letting the 'good' become the enemy. In a bid to pass 'something' Obama (and the Democrats in congress) are compromising everything away. There are some things that can't be given away even to get a 'good' bill.

Now is the time for Obama to step up and spell out clearly what items he will not allow to be compromised away. Now is the time for him to demostrate leadership.

The country is begging for LEADERSHIP.

I wonder where we would be if we waited for bipartisan support of civil rights?

Get out in front of this frigging issue.
And push like goddamn hell...

Crikey.... this isn't rocket science.
It is supposed to be change we can believe in.

Wake the fuck up...
And show us some spine.

"The appropriate response isn't to keep making the bill the worse, in the hopes that the GOP will eventually do the right thing; the appropriate response is to write a good bill, invite Republicans to support it, and pass it."

Yes. Obama and the Democratic Party needs to remember they are accountable to the American public at-large, not a few Republicans.

Passing a worthwhile and much-needed healthcare bill is what counts.

It's too bad that we don't have some really forward-thinking strategists out there.
Here's the nuclear option:
Obama gives a speech where he calls out any legislator (R or D) that opposes changing the status quo in this cycle. He then sends the signal that the NEXT round (after the next election) will include or possibly simply be the Single Payer system.
Period.
By spelling out that too many lawmakers are bought out by the big money of the current for-profit, let-them-die system, Obama can tell the nation that he will work to defeat every legislator that is an impediment in this cycle.

Perhaps I'm too simplistic, but I thnk that a push in that direction would scare the shit out of many lawmakers, and more than a few insurance companies.

So pass the damn bill with only one republican on board.

NO!!! You will have to water it down to satisfy the 60th vote, and that means a lot of Republican compromise, even if there is only one or even no votes from them (Franken). If you can't get a seriously good bill, hold off until October when reconciliation kicks in, and then you compromise only to 50 votes.

Meanwhile, Obama needs to keep lots of pressure on key committee members, especially Baucus, because he could single handedly kill healthcare.

As John Cole once wrote:

"I really don't understand how bipartisanship is ever going to work when one of the parties is insane. Imagine trying to negotiate an agreement on dinner plans with your date, and you suggest Italian and she states her preference would be a meal of tire rims and anthrax. If you can figure out a way to split the difference there and find a meal you will both enjoy, you can probably figure out how bipartisanship is going to work the next few years."

Best comment?

"Tire rims & anthrax with tomato sauce is the obvious compromise here"

It's still totally inedible but it LOOKS edible. This is what Baucus is leading us to in health care with the notion of co-ops.

We keep trying to understand the inexplicable. I'll say again what I've said before--the Dems don't want healthcare reform. They are also bought and paid-for by the pharma/medical industries. They are using the beyond-the-pale Rethugs for cover when they obviously can pass anything they want. They don't want to vote to reform healthcare!!!
Let's stop wondering why and start giving these f*ktards primary opponents.

Now is the time for Obama to step up and spell out clearly what items he will not allow to be compromised away.

Should we also ask him to stop bullets with his chest and use his x-ray vision to find evil doers? He's not Superman and he's doing far more than any of us are. It's Congress that's the weak spot, not Obama. Expecting him to shoulder all this himself is a sure recipe for stupid disaster. He might be the most powerful player involved, but he's not omnipotent. He'll do what he can, but we need to do our part. And that doesn't involve us criticizing him for not doing everything himself.

I don't think Obama, or any other dem with an IQ over 70 ever expected the GOP to sign on to a Public Option. It is the wingnuts and Conservative Movements last foothold against the New Deal, and they weren't ever going to give that up.

The only questions that remain are 1) Will the dems have the nuts to use 51 vote option 2) If so, will 9 dem senators vote no to defeat a simple majority 2) And, if a bill passes without a PO, will Obama sign a bill that won't lower HC costs (the public option is the only way to do that in any meaningful and lasting fashion, and everybody knows it), as he has promised not to.

At a time when we need an FDR in office, it'd be nice if Obama at least tried to be more like him. When the Republicans obstructed important New-Deal-related legislation back in the day, Roosevelt was not above naming names & explaining in no-uncertain terms what was happening and why.

But Obama won't do that because of this stupid fetish about bipartisanship. It's one thing if the minority party is actually willing to work with the party in power. It's one thing if the minority party brings substantive ideas to the debate. Neither thing applies here. We have Democrats abrogating their promises to their constituents so that they can keep the peace with a bunch of unruly and stupid bunch of overaged children who simply want to obstruct everything coming down the pike.

The result is bad law-making.

Can we afford that now?

I have been in the negotiation business for over 35 years and have never seen such an inept bunch of fools as the Democratic Senatorial leadership. The only thing that makes and sense at all is that the a "fix" is already in place and they are going through the motions to give themselves cover. The Democrats are going to give away genuine and needed health care reform to pass a crappy give away bill they can pretend lives up to a campaign promise. All the while the big players are going to feast on the bones of the regular folks.

Too bad, because shitty bills and more economic blunders is exactly what the Repubs are trying to do. They are counting on tens of millions of out of work, home foreclosed, health careless, ex-middle class voters ready to blame the Dems for national economic misery in 2010 and 2012.

Dems compromising are killing their chances to stay in office. It isn't as if Baucus will be able to say the health care mess is not his fault in his next election, he's putting his name on this mess right now. At this rate it's going to be the "Bend over for Baucus" health care insurance boondoggle bill.

The Democrats are going to give away genuine and needed health care reform to pass a crappy give away bill they can pretend lives up to a campaign promise.

I hope you are wrong, but fear you are not.

Dems offered an employer mandate.
Dems offered an individual mandate.
Dems offered a public option to buy private ins.
Dems considered co-ops.
Dems put single-payer off the table at the start.

Repubs said "No"

The public is for reform.
The public is for a public option.

The Dems can pass the bill with a public option run by the gov't.

Any Repub who wants to join-in is welcome.
Any Repub who wants to make suggestions within this narrower range of possibilities is still welcome.

But, compromise isn't likely now. What's the use?

Pass a good bill which gives the uninsured a public option and which protects consumers of private insurance (from pre-existing-condition rejection) or other maltreatment.

Perhaps include more subsidies for the poor, but don't break the bank.

Perhaps include monies to push for more salaried doctors and not-for-profit care centers (preferably private).

Include assistance to the health care people to improve quality of care.

Fix the Medicare donut.

These are not hard and they make a lot of sense to most everybody.

Look, it's not as if Democrats such as Baucus are so stupid that they cannot figure this out for themselves.

It's not as if they are zoombies who have this lemming like drive for "bipartisanship."

It's that they themselves are looking for some sort of sell out. They mean to water healthcare down or sabotage it outright.

And make no mistake. This healthcare legislation is the Democrats last chance. If they fail to pass healthcare now, then their credibility will be shot forever. There's no tomorrow.

Is the issue really about it being "bipartisan" because I know that word gets thrown a lot in regards to health care and other issues but it sounds more like whatever debate is going on is not between Democrats and Republicans but between Democrat and Democrat. To say there's an attempt at finding a bipartisan solution would mean that the Democrats are a united front and that's not true. It seems to me that the Democrats don't have enough votes to pass it through reconciliation and they might not even be able to from a legislative standpoint so most of the debate is trying to to somehow get the "Blue Dogs" on board.

Obama probably could get more out there but it's becoming apparent that the problem in most of these things has been with Congress, mainly in the Senate. And, yes, Harry Reid is a study in ineptitude.

Given that Max Baucus will eventually find himself much happier as a member of the new "for real" conservative party that will be born once the far right masquerading as the Republican Party are smashed, it's time to remember he's only partially a Democrat.

Which makes it even more time for Obama to step in. As I recall, the Democrats have made health care reform part of the budgety reconciliation process, so they only need 51 votes, right? So let the 7 Democratic idiots go diddle themselves - they're good at it, got lots of experience. And the Republicans can go do to themselves the kind of perverted things best done in the dark of the moon that they're so good at.

Screw bipartisanship. Let's have some PROGRESS.

Well, yes, but remember that Democrats in Congress can't be trusted to vote their party's platform. The lingering ties with conservative Democrats of the South in particular and a liberal management style that refuses to punish insubordination... Which makes us the party of the center, which probably would suit most people best, if only the wealthy far right hadn't gained control of so many media outlets and used those outlets to lie in the service of the black and white world they live in...