“Trying to hold the president’s feet to the fire is fine, but first we have to win the big argument,” former President Bill Clinton said Thursday at the Netroots Nation convention, a gathering of liberal activists and bloggers who will prove most difficult to convince. “I am pleading with you. It is OK with me if you want to keep everybody honest. . . . But try to keep this thing in the lane of getting something done. We need to pass a bill and move this thing forward.”
“I want us to be mindful we may need to take less than a full loaf,” he said after recounting the political troubles that followed his failed reform effort in 1994.
It won’t be an easy sell. Even former national party chairman Howard Dean this week threatened Democrats who don’t support the public insurance plan with the prospect of primary challenges – the first rumblings of what could devolve into a Democratic civil war over health care…
Asked whether Democrats were still committed to the public plan, one congressional source said, “Democrats can count to 60 and know that what plays in blue states doesn’t always play across America. Everyone has learned the lesson of the failures of Hillarycare and knows that getting health care done is more important than drawing a line in the sand.”
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No Compromises. No negotiations. No bill. Nobama!
elduende on August 15, 2009 at 4:37 PM
Why doesn’t the media ask this very simple question: With the majority of the country opposed to this plan — in fact, with 54% in a poll today saying we’d be better off doing nothing at all — why are the dems choosing this hill to die on? What’s in it for them?
The answer, of course, is raw power.
Rational Thought on August 15, 2009 at 4:37 PM
I know there are plenty of reform ideas we would like, but do you think there will be any “compromise” that we would be in favor of? I know Beck has repeatedly said “there must be no bill.”
kc8ukw on August 15, 2009 at 4:37 PM
Awww, my heart aches.
/
Meanwhile: (warning – NYT link)
Health Debate Fails to Ignite Obama’s Grass Roots
misslizzi on August 15, 2009 at 4:38 PM
Any compromise that involves the federal government doing anything more than just regulating (in a sane way) the inter-state commerce of health insurance plans is totally unacceptable. The GOP must hold the line on the Constitutional limits on the federal government. This is where the battle lines are. Any federal mandates on individuals, with respect to health insurance, is beyond the pale and must be roundly and loudly rejected.
progressoverpeace on August 15, 2009 at 4:38 PM
My new protest poster will read as follows…
OBAMACARE: SCRAP THE WHOLE DAMN THING!
katy on August 15, 2009 at 4:39 PM
Don’t you think they also fear the wrath of Sugar Daddy Soros?
misslizzi on August 15, 2009 at 4:40 PM
Kos told Keith Olbermann he “would insist the bill be killed and voted on after 2010″ if it was watered down. Let’s hope it’s watered down.
Marcus on August 15, 2009 at 4:41 PM
No compromise…they’ve already lost the confidence of the American people…they need to just walk away and be thankful they can even walk.
AUINSC on August 15, 2009 at 4:41 PM
Compromise, on a moral imperative! What next indifference to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
rob verdi on August 15, 2009 at 4:42 PM
The signature of REAL compromise is meaningful tort reform. You don’t see that – it’s not a bipartisan conception.
Beyond that – nothing wrong with portability, shopping accross state lines, doing something with pre-existing conditions, etc.
But NO public option.
HondaV65 on August 15, 2009 at 4:42 PM
Mandated health insurance, a subsidy, and no denials. That is the compromise. If that fails, they will modestly expand medicaid and claim something is better then nothing.
rob verdi on August 15, 2009 at 4:43 PM
This is amazing…. A freaky little nutjob from SF is telling an entire political party what to do…
katy on August 15, 2009 at 4:44 PM
Honda,
Good choices, the thing is many of them could be done without bankrupting the US or expanding Federal control over our lives. In other words deal killers for Democrats.
rob verdi on August 15, 2009 at 4:45 PM
San Fran Nan does it all the time.
Disturb the Universe on August 15, 2009 at 4:45 PM
And a nice chant would be: SHRED THE BILL! SHRED THE BILL!
misslizzi on August 15, 2009 at 4:46 PM
I love me a good Dem civil war. Pass the popcorn!
BPD on August 15, 2009 at 4:46 PM
I prefer Uma Thurman’s chant, I’M GOING TO KILL BILL
keep the change on August 15, 2009 at 4:47 PM
Hey, if he “kills it” as promised, three cheers for “freaky little nutjobs from SF telling an entire political party what to do.”
Marcus on August 15, 2009 at 4:47 PM
At this point, a well-run GOP would re-sharpen its knives and drive a few of them through the heart of this pig of an idea. Maybe then it would stay dead for more than 15 years.
greggriffith on August 15, 2009 at 4:48 PM
Cue violins
Wah Wah Wah
gophergirl on August 15, 2009 at 4:50 PM
How about for forever?
misslizzi on August 15, 2009 at 4:52 PM
sorry demoncrats but America is more
important to us than your
teleclunker jesus
Locrian on August 15, 2009 at 4:52 PM
I occasionally drift to some lefty sites to check the pulse. Many of them are expressing the sentiment of no compromise on the public option. They blame the insurance companies for all the ills of healthcare, and want to see them eliminated.
ICBM on August 15, 2009 at 4:53 PM
True. But she was elected by millions of freaky little nut jobs. Kos is self appointed. Makes you wonder.
I like it better… makes for a better chant.
No arguement there. But it shows us what the hell has happened to the left.
Then again… Rush is the head of the right. /
katy on August 15, 2009 at 4:56 PM
I just want to add that the pre-existing conditions regulations of actual insurance plans must remain at the state level and must be shown to be acctuarially sound. So long as I have access to policies across state lines, it’s still appropriate for each state to regulate the policies originated from within it. If I don’t like the policies coming out of one state, I can look at those from another. The left is looking to ban the consideration of pre-existing conditions in order to raise the cost of private insurance and drive it out of business.
1000% The federal government does not have the power to open up a health insurance company, or to be involved in the creation of one, in any way – no Fannie Sick.
progressoverpeace on August 15, 2009 at 4:57 PM
so, how do they square Obama sleeping with the enemy?
katy on August 15, 2009 at 4:58 PM
The insurance companies and Pharma? He didn’t sleep with them, he raped them. And he’s out on TV everyday calling them sluts.
progressoverpeace on August 15, 2009 at 5:02 PM
Some are pissed about the lobbying. Others view his deal with Big Pharma as a tool to get to the insurance companies, hence, they give him a pass since they view it as a strategy to achieve their ultimate aim.
ICBM on August 15, 2009 at 5:02 PM
Wait a second. I thought conservatives were the ones who were hopelessly “regional”.
ddrintn on August 15, 2009 at 5:05 PM
There’a slready a thread about that elsewhere in the HA Headlines.
Del Dolemonte on August 15, 2009 at 5:06 PM
Another great sign/chant!
misslizzi on August 15, 2009 at 5:07 PM
Kos and Keef are the leaders of the Democrat party…
ddrintn on August 15, 2009 at 5:07 PM
Waterloo.
Just as many of us predicted, the Democrats are finding a way to self-destruct. If the current bill passess, it will be such a disaster that the Repubs will gain full control in 2012. If it doesn’t, the Dems will start a full on civil war within their party.
Awesome.
WisCon on August 15, 2009 at 5:23 PM
Politico baffles me sometimes. One never knows where they stand of even if they stand anywhere. Don’t know much about insurance co-ops. Does anyone here?
jeanie on August 15, 2009 at 5:26 PM
We need to get government out of the healthcare business altogether. That would be “reform”, so in that sense we can compromise with the libs by reforming healthcare, but just not quite the way they envisioned.
Buddahpundit on August 15, 2009 at 5:53 PM
They tried to get the country to jump into pot while the water was hot. A ‘compromise’ is just filling it with cold water. We need to pour the water out and smack them with the pot.
NO BILL! NO WAY! NO HOW!
Fighton03 on August 15, 2009 at 6:15 PM
If they get a compromise bill passed, we’re screwed because it will be easier for them to amend.
Blake on August 15, 2009 at 6:56 PM
This was a neat comment at politico:
Mommypundit on August 15, 2009 at 7:12 PM
That says quite a lot right there. Those evil PROFITS. Those evil insurance companies making a PROFIT from human misery. Those doctors should work for less money, nurses too, and all those hospitals should be non-profit, and drugs should be free, man.
That is what the word ‘reform’ means to the left.
Skandia Recluse on August 15, 2009 at 7:58 PM
No, this feels like a full loaf.
LibTired on August 15, 2009 at 8:15 PM
Compromise? What a hoot. I know people who think this is supposed to be free. If they even have to pay premiums they are going to think they are being ripped off. The Democrats allowed these people to believe all kinds of crap to get their support…and even now you can not find 2 of them who will agree on exactly what this socalled plan is going to provide for them.
But if it ain’t free, they will pissed.
Meanwhile the only GOP plan I have seen is this one, and it does not have any of the stuff you see in the House bill, which means the Democrats will not want to have anything to do with it.
Terrye on August 15, 2009 at 8:30 PM
Mommypundit:
Oh yeah, where as for the Democrats it is all about doing the altruistic thing.
BTW, how many people have you known that lost their insurance as soon as they got sick?
Terrye on August 15, 2009 at 8:31 PM