Tag Archives: Stimulus

JESSICA BADER: There has been a lot about the healthcare reform debate, especially in the Senate, that has frustrated me to no end – the objections by conservative Democrats to even a weakened public option, the immense leverage that a single Senator can have over the entire process, the way that filibusters have gone from a rarity to the norm, the way that opponents of abortion rights have used the debate to impose further restrictions on access to a legal medical procedure – but in the end, I cannot condemn the tactics used by those who have shaped the legislation in ways contrary to what I would like. My basic philosophy of political negotiation is to take what you can get, but up until the take-it-or-leave-it moment fight like hell to narrow the gap between the world as it is and the world as you’d like it to be. That seems to me to be exactly what Ben Nelson did.

HOWARD MEGDAL: It’s never made much sense to me that people find it difficult to sell the idea that elections matter. But clearly, the re-election of Joe Lieberman in 2006 may well have cost Americans an incalculable amount of money, since Ned Lamont was certain to be for a public option. More concretely, Lieberman instead of Lamont has clearly resulted in the inability of those 55-64 to buy into Medicare. These most vulnerable in the health care system were set adrift by Joe Lieberman. Continue reading →