Mikulski Signs On To Public Option Letter, Bringing Number To 15

call your senator; have your spouse, significant other, family and friends call their senator. tell him or her the 11% who self identify as tea partiers, are not the majority. tell him or her to pass the public option in reconciliation; and most importantly, tell him or her, you VOTE!

Great, now the base will get excited again, only to be let down again (since this won't get more than 35 signatures)! This is a great tactic by these Senators!

Man's best couldn't be more spot-on. Look, I still have the pro-Public Option sign I carried for hours around the streets of Manhattan on multiple occasions. There simply weren't the votes for it last year and there are even fewer now. A couple dozen relatively liberal senators pandering pointlessly to their deluded base accomplishes nothing. If I could wave a magic wand, I'd want something like single payer. I'd love to get for-profit insurers out of the system entirely. But, for the utterly deluded on here, passing legislation -- real legislation that actually gets to a friendly President and is enacted into law -- requires having enough votes. Why do you think it's been an incredible struggle for Democrats to get even this close over 75 years of trying? Because Barack Obama and Harry Reid let you down all throughout the 20th Century? Because progressives weren't "bold enough". No, because it's incredibly difficult, even with relatively large Democratic majorities, to get anything meaningful done in this country. All the money and entrenched interests are against us. Getting to 60 votes in the Senate -- even after making lots of concessions -- was incredibly difficult. We're closer than we've ever been. And yet so many are determined to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. By throwing a tantrum and holding out for more at the last second, because the legislation that could actually clear the Senate didn't match their wish list. Look, a lot of senators who grudgingly voted to let the Senate bill pass late last year would never, ever support letting improvements pass by reconciliation. You lower the threshold you need to clear by nine votes, but you lose even more by pursuing this method. I thought we were part of the reality-based community here. Do you want comprehensive health care reform to actually pass? Or do you want to occupy yourself with fantasy? I work two jobs, neither of which offers health insurance. Like many, I am one accident or diagnosis away from disaster. And I am sick enough already of my supposedly progressive left-of-center allies eschewing a giant step toward decency for tens of millions who have nothing and regulations that will significantly help everyone because they are fixated on this one pet idea that has nowhere near enough votes. People, you pass the best legislation you can. You show people you can get things done, you make an actual difference in their lives and then you keep building on it.