Many progressives have been longing for the day when the Democratic leadership would drop futile, even counter productive, attempts to win Republican votes on major legislation and instead focus on developing long overdue, popular, sensible solutions to major problems.
Well, it appears that day has come. A progressive bloc in the Senate has given the Democratic leadership a blunt choice: pursue a strong public option, or lose 10-15 left-wing votes on health care. From Roll Call:
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Tuesday ordered Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) to drop a proposal to tax health benefits and stop chasing Republican votes on a massive health care reform bill.
Reid, whose leadership is considered crucial if President Barack Obama is to deliver on his promise of enacting health care reform this year, offered the directive to Baucus through an intermediary after consulting with Senate Democratic leaders during Tuesday morning's regularly scheduled leadership meeting. Baucus was meeting with Finance ranking member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) Tuesday afternoon to relay the information.
According to Democratic sources, Reid told Baucus that taxing health benefits and failing to include a strong government-run insurance option of some sort in his bill would cost 10 to 15 Democratic votes; Reid told Baucus it wasn't worth securing the support of Grassley and at best a few additional Republicans.
This is like some beautiful dream come true. At the behest of a determined bloc of progressive Democrats, the Senate leadership is dropping futile attempts to appease Republicans by weakening major legislation. It is difficult to even count all of the times Open Left and other blogs have urged the Democratic leadership to do just that.
This has happened because the Progressive Block strategy is starting to manifest itself. Rather than Democratic leaders voluntarily turning legislation into a warm pile of corporate mush in order to appeal to a center-right business, media and political status quo, and then having those leaders browbeating the left into supporting said warm pile of corporate mush because that is just "political reality," now progressives are determining the limits of political reality themselves. Progressives are offering the leadership a simple choice: pass a strong public option, or you don't get a health care bill.
The Progressive Block strategy is working. Have you ever remembered another major legislative debate where the momentum of fight is to actually make a bill more progressive? Neither have I.
Remember: it is not about what Democratic leaders say, but instead about what they are forced to do. Stop worrying about this or that latest statement from the leadership, and keep working to keep the Progressive Block strong.
Update: The House Progressive Caucus has also released a statement saying they will block passage of any health care reform bill that includes a "trigger" on the public option. This is getting good.
Update 2: Progressive Caucus Co-Chair Rep. Lynn Woolsey says a trigger means "no deal at all" to Rahm Emanuel himself, and gets huge applause from across the Democratic caucus:
Progressive Caucus Co-Chairwoman Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.) warned Emanuel that he would lose the caucus' votes if the White House compromised on the issue and included a "trigger" that could delay a public insurance plan indefinitely. The trigger idea is backed by conservative Democrats but is anathema to liberals.
"We have compromised enough, and we are not going to compromise on any kind of trigger game," Woolsey said she told Emanuel. "People clapped all over the place. We mean it, and not just progressives."
This is like some dreamy, alternate reality.
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