There's an unpleasant truth that many in DKos will be loathe to admit: right now the number one thing holding Health Care Reform from passing is the House Progressives. It's not Stupak. It's not Lieberman. It's not a whole number of targets who deservedly have earned our scorn. It's House Progressives who refuse to act and pass the Senate bill and then quickly pass reconciliation.
But so many have chimed in to explain why the House passing the Senate bill and then quickly passing a bill of fixes that can get through the Senate via reconciliation is literally our only chance to get ANYTHING done. A group of leading health care experts just said that very fact:
"These bills are imperfect. Yet they represent a huge step forward in creating a more humane, effective, and sustainable health care system for every American. We have come further than we have ever come before. Only two steps remain. The House must adopt the Senate bill, and the President must sign it."
The unions. Healthcare experts. Paul Krugman. All say the only route forward is to act NOW and send a bill to Obama's desk to sign.
And the House progressives?
Here's Raul Grijalva:
"If the Senate chooses not to close the donut hole, that’s their damn problem," Grijalva said. "They’ve had it too easy. One vote controls everything. Collectively, we’re tired of that."
News flash to Grijalva: the Senate is a dysfunctional mess. Response: who cares about these inside baseball issues? People are literally dying for lack of health insurance and could give a shit about how tired you are about process issues.
Get over your ego trip and vote for the bill then work quickly to fix it.
Elise has the right idea: CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVES NOW and demand that they vote for the Senate bill ASAP. They represent you. You're the base. Demand that they act.
True change comes from the bottom-up. Tell your reps - and especially any progressive reps - that you, as a progressive, demand that they vote for the Senate bill now and then fix it quickly.
This isn't about politics anymore or the Dems losing seats. This is our one chance to cover tens of millions of people, prevents thousands of needless deaths a year, and make the kind of positive impact that we got into politics to do.