All This Is That National Affairs Editor
- Sen. Jay Billington Bulworth"One man one vote
Now is that really real?
The name of the game
Is let's make a deal."
Can we save health care if Martha Coakley loses to Scott Brown in Massachusetts tomorrow? Maybe. Both houses have already voted...they have a big stake in all this. If we lose our "filibuster-proof" majority things become much trickier. But I think there will be hell to pay for both parties. And both parties will pay in November.
The way it could work is if the House passes the Senate bill, and then launches a reconciliation bill to iron out the kinks. This is probably the quickest way to get a bill passed. And it would short-circuit having to jam a bill through the Senate again. This will be very hard to swallow for House Democrats, who've made clear recently that they won't go along with every piece of the Senate's version.
If things go the wrong way tomorrow in Mass. (which now seems likely), the GOP and insurance companies will have us right where they want us--dead in the water. Next time, or next week, it's probably time to take it to the streets. There's something to be said for uncivil unrest.
Maybe the only way left to effect massive and real change is to take to the streets by the millions. It worked during the Vietnam War. It's probably time to see if it can work again, and if we can really set the stage from outside the Beltway for Real Change.
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