Enough

No, seriously, enough. The parodies were funny there for a while on SNL and on the Report and on the Daily Show for the summer and the fall, but it's too much now. Now we're talking about homes and jobs, now we're talking about lives. We don't' want an empty promise that we'll get it right the next Congress, or the next presidential term, or the next decade. No. We want every damn piece of what we wanted right now.

They're telling us that passing some Swiss cheese in the name of health care reform will be a "starter home" for things down the road. But what is going to change? Will "next time" have even bigger majorities? Will "next time" be coming off an amazing grassroots victory across the board? A starter home is fine, if there's an actual plan for adding improvements later. Now all we have are pinkie swears.

Actually, it's worse than that. It's worse than that because there are 44,000 people every year who don't have the option that senators have of just putting it off every year. They cannot wait for our little sweetened improvement projects on our "starter homes". They don't care who's buying Joe Lieberman dinner next week for a vote, because all they care about is getting what they need passed. We would be advised to follow their lead.

Some might say that letting Republicans have the victory of passing nothing and killing the bill without a public option would spell doom for Democratic chances in the 2010 midterms. I wholeheartedly agree. This is exactly why we need to put pressure on Reid and Durbin and the entire caucus to get a public option in the bill: they don't want to be labeled as the people who stood by, the people who did nothing, the people who missed a chance. If it really is their wishes to be reelected that's driving their votes, then let them put their money where their mouths are and see how November of 2010 looks after doing nothing.

Some might say that killing the bill means we have to start all over again. But isn't that what we have to do if we pass a bill, anyways? Not only do we have to wait until the next time senators feel like passing something, but we give confidence to everyone who doesn't need it. We let insurers and PACs get away with a big victory, we let Nelson and Snowe go home free as dealmakers and moderates who got something done, and we let complacency seep into the senate. If we get a public option, then every single conservaDem there is will be painted as somebody who stood in the way of groundbreaking reform. If we miss that chance for better Democrats to try to pass garbage, in the end, none of the three goals of electoral success, better (not necessarily bigger) majorities, and getting something done will come to pass.