Howard Dean, for whom I generally have a lot of respect, today calls for liberals to unite to "kill the bill" - scrap the Senate healthcare reform bill and try again later by going back to the House for a new bill that would be easier to get through the Senate using budget reconciliation- and critically needing only 51 votes.
The problems with this are numerous- There's a lot of chance that, having failed once in the Senate, the House (which only passed their bill by a small margin) won't pass it- many reps will be loathe to stick their necks out for what they perceive to be a failing process. Even if it gets through the House, there's no guarantee that there is any willingness in the Senate to push it through the reconciliation process.
Are there problems with the compromise bill? Sure- removing the medicare buy-in and the public option makes it much less likely that the bill will "bend the curve" of healthcare costs. Does it rankle that Lieberman and Ben Nelson are shoving progressives around? Yeah, it really does.
However, passing the bill will have real consequences- 30 or so million Americans who currently don't have health insurance will get it. That's huge- by far the biggest progressive domestic legislation since LBJ. Over time it will save hundreds of thousands or millions of lives. This country will have made an affirmative statement that healthcare is a right and not a market commodity. That's what's at stake.
We can always go back and try to add the public option or medicare buy-in later - and frankly we'll probably have to do so, as something will have to be done about geometrically rising costs. We can punish Lieberman by stripping him of his Homeland Security Committee chair. These are all things for tomorrow, but for today- let's keep our eyes on the prize.
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