Stern: It's Time For The Ineffectual Senate To Pass This Health Care Bill

Stern is just more genuine than the "kill the bill" folks who refuse to even admit there's some good in it.

Just how is the status quo better?

How about 20 questions?

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2009/12/20-questions-for-bill-killers.html

Huh?

I'm not questioning HuffPo's interpretation, or Brian's interpretation--it was a question about Arianna Huffington--since I don't read HuffPo mostly at all.

I agree with Leo Gerard. Enough is enough. I understand the policy view of laying foundations, but we're dealing with a group who are not willing to engage in governing, and they're not only republicans.
I feel Lieberman has to go. My sister lives in CT and she agrees. I will support a primary candidate against him.
I am disgusted. The Senate is broken.
Minority rule...paagh

Howard Dean, James Ridgeway on his own blog, Glenn Greenwald at Salon, and Dave Lindorff at Counterpunch are all correct: the current bill is much worse than the status quo, because it will not regulate the insurance companies, and it will force working people to purchase shoddy, expensive coverage at rates they can not afford. This bill is corporatism at its worst. Obama deserves to go down in flames on this one because he made an end run around the progressives of his own party and made common cause with the well-moneyed lobbyists of the health care industry, using the conservative democrats to attack supporters of the public option within his own party. Between this FUBAR situation and the escalation of the war in Afghanistan one has to ask: what would it matter if a republican was on the throne? The policies are the same!!

Andy Stern is another corporatist sell-out with his top-down, undemocratic, pro-business union model. His people need to vote him out and restructure the union. He needs to STFU and bow out.

"It's hard to imagine it getting it better in conference."

So what in the hell is the point of supporting a Senate bill you don't like in the hopes of it getting better in the House? What a bunch of nonsense. His position comes down to the fact that he is too much of a chickenshit to out and out criticize Obama.

Obama can't get involved, remember, he's executive, not legistlative.

This is a total moron. Do the people who are really spouting the ridiculous "let bill get improved in a conference committee" really think such a bill would be able to muster 60 votes in the Senate, given the "improvements to which they are referrring? If you think this thing is having a hard time getting past Lieberman and Nelson now, just wait until changes are made in conference. And once those changes are made, they can't be undone, but the bill can still be filibustered. There is no surer way to kill the bill than to move toward the House language.

Finally! A more accurate headline than Brian provided (but I usually think Brian is fantastic.)

Unions Withhold Endorsement of Senate Bill.

http://prescriptions.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/17/unions-withhold-endorsement-of-senate-bill/

Read the article.

Brian, what's up with you today?

Well said!! Time for Democrats to make an issue of this record-setting abuse of the filibuster and minority rights. Make life more difficult for the obstructionists and raise the costs of obstructionism.

You do that by speaking out, speaking up and getting tough.

"After this bill is passed," Stern said, "the Senate needs to take a very hard look at how it's going to deal with the future in our country."

"They have a process now that is not meeting the needs of the American people."

I read the article. "again" is correct. If the change to win coalition wanted to really push for a strong bill with a "robust" public option, they could have mobilized the base. Their base was certainly ready and willing to move on this issue. Stern is just another mealy-mouthed piecard. BTW, I support single-payer, but as a citizen would have backed a bill with a strong public option to compete with the insurance companies. The bill would also have needed very strong regulatory oversight. Read James Ridgeway's comments on the history of supposed regulatory agencies in this country, and you will see why this current bill should go down in flames.

Please note that Stern mentions fixing the bill in conference. I may yet get my cupie doll.

A cupie doll is about all you'll get. Without a mobilized an active labor movement rooted in a politicized working class, pushing washington to "put up or we shut you down", nothing good will ever come out of D.C. And one thing is for sure, leaders like Stern will have to be thrown out and new leadership will have to emerge. He can take Obama and the rest of his ilk with him.