I think they feel that the financial stuff is clearly a winning issue for them right now, and may be right. They are going to win that fight. By doing that first, it could create some big momentum, particularly if the GOP tries to obstruct. It's not insane, in my opinion, to finish health care with more political capital in the bank.

"If I were a doctor, I'd downgrade health care's prognosis considerably atop this evidence."

Perhaps what needs to be downgraded is Rahm Emanuel.

"Dems, he said, can get back to healthcare, after tackling a jobs bill, deficit reduction, and Wall Street reform first."

The Republican Congress is going to stone-wall all efforts in those directions too, will they not?

And then they use the lack of verifiable results of the Obama Administration on any of his hot button issues to win more seats in 2010 than they deserve.

Fox News down here in the South is pressing this into the minds of their single-source audience in a horrific way. The brain washing down here is ugly and getting uglier by the day. I am talking scary ugly.

Obama and the Dems need to have Fox News running in their offices every day to remind them of what they are fighting for, and to motivate them to ACT.

Here's another reason to not delay, there are people who will lose their coverage THIS MONTH. Not later this year, not next year, not some day.

THIS MONTH.

Some of them have life threatening conditions. Which means they'll die.

It is inexcusable to delay this any longer. Forget the politics, forget everything else.

Just PASS. THE. FUCKING. BILL.

I agree, we should rush through an incredibly flawed bill that will discredit the cause of health reform because doing things in a panic is always a better solution than the alternatives.

Rahm Emmanuel was this political genius with razor-sharp elbows. What on earth has happened to him?

Good god, grow a pair and Pass.The.Damn.Bill!

The Senate has gone completely wobbly on HCR and would very much like to see it disappear. The House will only have leverage to make changes to the bill after they pass the Senate bill, not before. You cannot negotiate a better deal with someone who doesn't want a deal at all which is where we are now. If Pelosi and the House want to provide subsidies and exchanges and insurance reforms and cost controls, etc., they will have to vote for the crappy senate bill and the quicker the better.

Did you not read the post, squiggleslash? What is there about this bill that was done in a rush or a panic? Name another bill so chewed on. I seriously believe there are those in the Dem party who do not want this bill to survive even after voting for its passage. They just KNEW they would get additional shots at obstruction and delay.

Beginning in July 2009, I began giving $30 per month (automatically charged to my credit card) to the DNC in response to an "Organizing for America" e-mail campaign requesting financial support to help pass health care reform. After reading Emanuel's comments this morning, I called the DNC and asked them to immediately cancel my automatic contributions. I also sent an e-mail to the White House explaining why I canceled my contributions.

If the Dems are losing me, then they're losing their base. Putting HCR on the back burner is not only cruel to the millions without access to quality health care (among others), but it's political malpractice of the highest order.

Politically, there are all kinds of reasons to get this done now, many of which were enumerated in Steve's post. I read today that a recent poll found that only about 1 in 4 Americans understands the Senate's filibuster rule; so to the other 3, there's just a government full of Democrats that can't get anything done, somehow. Taking a break on HCR now will just play into that narrative, with probably terrible results.

But fourlegsgood has the real reason that action is needed, and it doesn't have anything to do with politics, but with morality. The bill, imperfect though it is, is meant to help people in genuine need, people who are on the brink, be it of death or financial ruin, RIGHT NOW. It is them that provide the imperative to act, not political considerations. It's not even the shame of being the only developed nation in the world that hasn't come to the seemingly obvious conclusion that access to high-quality health and medical care ought to be a fundamental right on a par with universal suffrage and free speech. It is simply this: there are those who are suffering, and it is within our power to give them succor, and it is the right thing to do.

The rest is just window dressing.

I have watched this bill evolve from a somewhat decent bill comming from the House, to a less decent bill comming from the Senate. I don't really like it, nobody does, but it is a health care bill that can be amended once passed. I am not completely sure of this, but I believe it will be hard to reconcile a health care biill that has not passed. I think the House needs to pass the Senate bill and try to fix it later through the reconcilliation process.

Delay means death to some. What about this fact is not clear? Those families and loved ones of those directly effected better take some action. They need to be "living" on the doorsteps of the obstructionists. Forcing them and their own families to see the consequences of their inaction and lies. Until and unless the reality of inadequate health care is exposed in graphic detail, little will happen. The anti-life folks (anti-abortion) had no compunctions about displaying graphic depictions of oborted fetuses(feti?), sometimes even faked to make their point. Why not photos of people dying in pain and agony as they are denied life-saving and pain-reducing treatment? We could photo-shop images from Haiti of people's limbs being amputated by dull hack saws and anesthetized with Vodka. We may not be that far from the same in this country.
Just a thought!

It's time to send that shiny little schmuck back to Tel Aviv. Either that or have his little brother take him in out here in Hollywood, where the only thing he can fuck up are bad movies.

Faxing is apparently among the best routes to have correspondence get noticed. We sent a fax to the White House at 202-456-2461, addressed to the President with CC: to Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, Deputy Chiefs of Staff Jim Messina and Mona Sutphen, Senior Advisers David Axelrod, Valerie Jarrett and Pete Rouse.

Here is what we said:

Dear Mr. President,

We are more than certain that you are inundated with opinions this week on the future of Health Care reform and the correct path toward completion. We would like to add our two-cents.

We are writing this week to urge you to take leadership on quick and resolute passage by the House of Representatives of the Bill already approved by the Senate, along with the solution referred to as the “sidecar,” by which, at the minimum, the Senate passes the already agreed upon changes to the bill via the reconciliation process.

This is NOT a plan which we believe should be delayed for one more moment, much less until after Congressional consideration of the proposed jobs bills, deficit reduction measures and Wall Street reforms. Delay does not make the math—electoral or passage—kinder, it simply makes passage less likely. Indeed, it would seem almost obvious that if Health Care Reform is not completed, once it has come this close, the Democratic Party will lose this as a campaign initiative for generations to come… who in their right mind would believe again?

We were inspired by the SOTU address, and thrilled by your recommitment to crucial Health Care Reform measures. As a couple with a small child, and devastated by the current economy, we have been postponing our own Health Care decisions as we await to see the products of yours. Please, Sir, we urge you to work toward passage without delay. We believe that these are the most obvious steps to be taken, and should be taken in days or weeks, not months.

Lastly, you and your staff are no doubt aware that the “Public Option” still remains among the most popular components of all proposed Health Care Reform measures; aside from having majority support in both the House and Senate. The “Reconciliation” approach would appear to provide a method of including the Public Option without threat of filibuster. It would seem an inclusion perfectly suited to Parliamentarian rules. Your leadership could bring this about as well.

With or without the Public Option, history seems to, again, be yours for the making. Please supply the leadership necessary for Congress to get in line behind fast passage.

Thank you,

Shantyhag and Spouse (names, obviously, altered for publication here)

How much delay is due to the rumored price tag of the reconciliation fix? The House won't accept the Senate's low subsidies, and the Senate won't accept the House's cost-saving public option.

I'm guessing they need to go back and forth with CBO a few times to get a deal, and they don't want to hold up other legislation while they do it.

That said, Emanuel's comments are just unacceptable. Financial reform is going to have powerful opponents and take a long time. They need to walk and chew gum, and get health care out the door as soon as possible.

Have one of our "liberal-bias" media outlets ask for testimonials of those without health care to send in their (verifiable) stories for publication in said media. Why do the unwashed masses have to be kept silent?

Those same verifiable stories should also find their way into the inbox of every legislator in Washington. Perhaps it would be like sand against the concrete barriors between the haves and the have-nots, but one or two might get through.

If it is open season for utilizing corporate media to sway public political opinion, how about using it for humanitarian purposes?

...think I will do that...

Rahm's political genius was always overrated, and his sharp elbows have always been used to prevent Democrats from actually doing something that might be seen as progressive.

"Of course, the official White House line is that they're not easing up at all. Obama's public rhetoric backs that up..."

This is absolutely ridicoulous. Obama's public rhetoric about any issue has turned out to be of little or no value what-so-ever. This is one of the most maddening aspects about this administration. It pains me to state this, but in fact I will go as far as to say that his public rhetoric on a policy issue almost always turns out to be the opposite of the end result of where that policy initiative will end up. As a once ardent and now very frustrated supporter of this President it is becoming increasingly difficult to listen to his positions and hold it with any seriousness. Its gotten so that whenever I hear or read a new initiative from the administration and the inevitable republican opposition, I make a wager in my mind on how soon before that policy is either reversed or abandoned. Sadly, I am yet to loss any of these mental bets with nyself. Is there a position this administration will stand and fight for. How long do you expect to maintain the support of anyone if no one knows the depth of your belief in your own positions. As I said very sad...

You wonder whether they are waiting in the hope that public views of the Republicans will take a tick downward, that the tide will crest, and that will provide an opportunity.

If the Republicans keep subjecting themselves to embarrassment like they did in Baltimore today, that day could come soon.

It is astonishing and pathetic that the Party whose righteousness and courage 150 years ago paved the way for Obama should immediately set about destroying him.

So much for Democrats giving a flying fuck about Americans dying from lack of insurance. It's all a big game to them.

It's this attitude that is going to kill Democrats in November -- unless it gets done very, very soon. Even a couple of months will harden the correct notion that every frickin' one of them deserves defeat for having no convictions whatsoever, and it will be too late for some of them to recover by passing something then.

The reason for the fear is absurd. When Americans come to understand what the bill actually does, its proponents will benefit -- especially if it gets amended through reconciliation as it should be -- and opponents can be made to suffer badly.

There's only one way to get it done when it needs to get done.

REASON NOT TO PASS HEALTH CARE REFORM: THE PEOPLE DON'T WANT IT!!!!

IF THE DEMOCRATS USE ANOTHER BACK ROOM RECONCILIATION PROCESS TO PASS HEALTH CARE REFORM WHEN IT IS CLEARLY AGAINST THE WILL OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE THEY ALL WILL BE VOTED OUT OF OFFICE .

The voters in Massachusetts and the people of the US have spoken in no uncertain terms that the are soundly against the Health Care Reform Bill. They are against their: (1) taxes going up,(2) the catastrophic cuts to Medicare, (3) the use of force that mandates they buy insurance they neither want or need, the unfunded State mandates, (4) the special kickbacks to Unions where Unions will not be subject to the same taxes everyone else is, and (5) all the dirty back room deals used to buy votes in order to get the bill passed in the Senate.

The fact that anyone would think it is ok to cut old people off at the knees when it comes to their health care while at the same time giving Unions tax breaks that no one else will get is just plain despicable if not evil. According to Richard Foster, the chief actuary for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Medicare cuts in the Bill will effectively destroy Medicare services for Seniors due to the fact physicians and hospitals will be forced to drop Medicare patients because the Medicare reimbursement rates will be lower than the cost of providing their care. Mr. Foster adds that other planned Medicare cuts would damage doctors and hospitals: "Over time, a sustained reduction in payment updates, based on productivity expectations that are difficult to attain, would cause Medicare payment rates to grow more slowly than, and in a way that was unrelated to, the providers' costs of furnishing services to beneficiaries." ref. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703652104574652563562216036.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_AboveLEFTTop#articleTabs=article

The people do not want Medicare cuts, tax and premium increases or rationing of medical care by an autocratic government. Don’t ruin our health care (which 85% of the people are very happy with) and ram through this terrible Bill that the vast majority of people are against. Do the right thing for the people you represent and KILL THE HEALTH CARE REFORM BILL.

re: Henry @ 6:51 PM -

Thank you. You may now collect your check from (pick one): the RNC, the Chamber of Commerce or the Health Insurance lobby. We now return to our regularly scheduled postings.

Doug, FTW!

the President's own chief of staff is undermining any chance of passing this. Jesus H. Christ.

Emanuel is a fucking liability. As clueless as any DINO conservadem. WTF?

They want to back off because they're cowards.

call your senators, call your reps. demand they pass the damn bill and for good measure, reinsert the public option. make your voice heard where it will matter.(instead of just bitching about rahm on steve bennon's blog).this is a freakin' representative democracy and make sure that your representative knows it. we slept thru last august when the teabaggers were making all the noise. let's make some noise! enough of this bitching amongst ourselves. keep calling and demand a response. they work for us. i called my house rep. and both senators today. have you? they're all in, by the way. i got 2 senators and my rep. in favor of the public option thru reconciliation(VT. i know, i got it easy). what have you got? WHIP THE VOTE. 51 senators voted for the public option before that bastard lieberman stepped in. even with the MA loss that leaves 50 with VP joe as the tie breaker. getoffyourass and WHIP YOUR VOTES.

obama tried HCR, he would have liked to have a parade, but he clearly has decided that its a loser for him - next!