Apparently, after his Massachusetts humiliation, President Obama has seen the light and he's heading back to the future...back to 1992 and that mantra "It's the Economy Stupid".
His peeps aren't saying so, but it looks like they're about jettison health care and cave, after telling us that comprehensive reform was vital to the nation and engaging the opposition in a brutal political war.
Now, however they want to couch it, it appears they're preparing to beat a hasty retreat, looking for some face-saving way out while leaving the millions of uninsured to fend for themselves.
Sure they got their butts kicked Tuesday and they truly do need to be much much less "stupid" about the economy. But should that mean they should abandon health care as a lost cause. Why not take one last, principled stand? Instead of looking for an easy way out of their war with the Republicans, why not take it to them?
Let us not forget that even with their carelessness and ineptitude in
blowing Massachusetts and their Senate super majority with it, Democrats will continue to have their plain old regular one. It'll still be substantial,59 to 41, meaning that they can pass a bill once it comes to a vote.
They have tons of wiggle room. Even if nine defect, Vice President Biden can cast the tiebreaker. This means they can tell the joe Liebermans and Ben Nelsons exactly where they can stick their outlandish demands.
A big test would be whether trembling House and Senate Democrats were up to this fight and even capable of agreeing on a single piece of legislation that actually accomplishes something. The alternative would be to scatter as they encounter more GOP lockstep opposition.
For the sake of discussion, let's assume House leaders can herd their cats long enough to pass the newly reconciled bill. Then it's on to
the Senate.
It's safe to assume that all of the Republicans there, including the new guy, will continue to dig in their heels. That means Democrats cannot get to the magic number of 60 for Cloture, which means they cannot stop debate. So LET THE GAMES BEGIN!!
It'll be time for the aforementioned Majority to call the aforementioned Minority's bluff. If they do the American people can witness a grotesque honest-to-God Filibuster where the opposition tries to talk the legislation to death, or each other.
Taking full advantage of the absurd Senate rules that the Segregationists
utilized in times past, the GOPs would block final consideration with floor speeches and parliamentary tactics. The Democrats would have to match them bluster-for-bluster.
It would be a Bombast Marathon...droning around the clock, seven days a week where the esteemed members could talk till they dropped, or until they realized that the people had decided they were a bunch of pompous out-of-touch buffoons.
Actually, they already had that kind of opinion of the Democrats after watching all their sleazy wheeling-and-dealing to create a passable health care bill. A final battle could at least expose the Republicans to some of the scorn.
Maybe, just maybe, they would blink. In that case, Health Care would get its up-or-down after nearly a year's warfare that revealed how UN-united the United States can be.