If the Dems don't even need the Reps, what's the hold up on passing the bill for healthcare reform already?

I’ll go out on a limb and predict that they will split the whole issue into two bills. One will be to include more people, and to ensure some consumer protections. It will not address a Public Option. Some Repubs will be shamed into voting for this, Obama will claim bipartisan success, and then they will enact a Public Option through resolution, requiring only 50 votes, which will be all Dems. The right will shriek and scream for a bit, and soon we will wonder how we did without it.

@pdworkin One can only hope. I can no longer stand the suspense of this lunacy.

The Reps are doing everything they can to stop it from happening. Believe me, I’m tired of hearing them cry like babies too. Can you believe they’re comparing him to Hitler now?! What the heck? He’s black!!! He would have been killed by Hitler!! Plus, even if they’re trying to compare his bill to a Nazi bill, what the heck are they complaining about. Hitler lifted that country from the dirt into a powerful empire within a few years! It doesn’t mean Obama is going to go kill Jews if they pass the bill. If the Reps are not going to come up with a better plan then they need to just give the Dems a chance and let it be.

@kheredia Yeah… I saw the coverage on one of the Martians who held up that ridiculous picture before getting shut down by Barney Frank. As sorry as that was, Frank was equally hilarious. The only reason Hitler is being brought up in the conversation is because they are trying to convince people the public option will eventually lead to socialized medicine and, Oh NO! That must mean the U.S. is socialist/communist nation now. Hmmm… it’s funny how that’s not the case in other industrialized wealthy nations who are not Commies and seem to be pretty happy with the healthcare that is guaranteed to all its citizens.

I’m at the point where I think they should just ram it through, bi-partisanship be damned.

It doesn’t seem like the conservatives in US government are very interested in bi-partisanship.

politics in almost all forms has seriously convinced me that nothing will ever get done that actually helps anyone in a significant manner….

The problem the Dems have had for the last 50 years is they aren’t willing to throw their own party members to the sharks if they don;t follow the party line. The GOP has punished incumbants who misbehave. That’s how Arlen Specter became a Democrat

I’m not sure if I’m reading the wrong reports or watching the wrong news, but the main hold up is being caused by the liberals. With the Dems holding the majority in all the offices, it would have passed by now without voting Dems not agreeing with it. Obama will get it passed regardless; unfortunately it will raise taxes for the middle class which was one of Obama’s selling points in the election, but they all lie to be elected.

Seems there are these Blue Dog Democrats who can’t be counted on, and Obama’s political calculations tell him that it’s riskier to try to force them to play ball than to compromise now, so that a bill (albeit a mostly useless one) passes now, placates the masses and allows him to keep enough political capital so that he can try for a public option in the future. And though I usually agree with Obama, this time I really don’t.

the repugs dont want national health care, plain and simple. they will, as always, protect the interest of big business first.
they had six years of republican rule, and did not pass national health care, so why would they now?

Obama can’t overcome the disunity in his own party. As much as I’d like to blame the impasse on the teabaggers, the fact is that they would be irrelevant if the Democrats could find a way to pull together on this. I said it before, but Obama needs to sit down and talk with each and every Democrat who isn’t behind him and lay out the facts. If the bill doesn’t pass, or we end up with a meaningless bill (which seems to be the likely outcome now), the Republicans win. If the Republicans win, it’s very, very bad for you as a Democrat, no matter what color your dog is. To abuse the metaphor even more, it’s dog eat dog in Washington, and the Red [state] Dogs are very hungry.

It’s depressing. I’m really beginning to accept how useless politics are. Nothing ever seems to get done.

Blue dog Democrats. Conservative enough to be weirded out by the public plan. Liberal Democrats who understand that anything short of single-payer is pretty much worthless. Republicans with their knee-jerk anti-government bias.

Enough said?

I think we’re waiting on one or two Republicans to compromise and vote for this bill. That way, when the whole system fails it would be called a “bi-partisan” bill, rather than a Democrat bill. It’s going to be a doozy either way, if it passes.

They don’t need Republicans at all. They could pass it in a heartbeat, but they just need someone to blame when it fails- and they know it’s not going to go over well.

Even though the dems have 60 seats in the Senate, they either need ALL 60 to keep Republicans from fillbustering, or they have to invoke parliamentary rules (aka the nuclear option) to push it through with 50. But there are enough “blue dogs” that there are only 43 Senators so far who have committed support for a reform bill with a public option. The more fear the industry raises, the more constituents in the most conservative districts will call their Democratic Senators and raise hell, scaring them into thinking they’re risking their futures in politics unless they allow the public option to go by the wayside…they figure as long as they pass something, enough people will be happy to keep them safe.

@NowWhat Why does it have to fail? You have to give it a chance. It may fail but it also may not. We won’t know until we try it.