| Here's a helpful chart on the Democrats who voted against the healthcare reform bill. Most appear to be from Southern districts that went overwhelmingly for McCain in the 2008 election...
Christopher Hayes makes an excellent case for reforming the Senate filibuster: "The filibuster may seem like an arcane procedural issue to rail on about...but it has serious substantive results. America desperately needs a twenty-first-century social democratic reformation, but no such thing is in the offing as long as the filibuster remains in place. As I write this, there are almost certainly fifty-one votes in the Senate for a healthcare reform bill with a public option and good subsidies, the Employee Free Choice Act, and cap and trade. But there aren't sixty votes for any of those....
"Many progressives then, shamefully, marshaled arguments in favor of the filibuster, and many today will no doubt fear that its revocation will come back to haunt us in the future when the right regains power. But the filibuster is a conservative impediment in the deepest sense: it maintains the status quo. And, Lord knows, this country needs change."
Chris Bowers lays out a plan on how to destroy the filibuster.
Feministing's Ann on the Stupak amendment: "...I don't care about the nitty-gritty details of this amendment. This isn't just about how the money is allocated or what workarounds exist. This has me so incredibly infuriated because it further segregates abortion as something different, off the menu of regular health care. It is a huge backward step in the battle to convey -- not just politically, but to women in their everyday lives -- that reproductive health care is normal and necessary, and must be there if (or, more accurately, when) you need it.
"This also sets apart women's rights from the Democratic/progressive/whatever agenda. As something expendable."
Amanda Marcotte: "There's two lessons here. One is that there is no such thing as "common ground". Obama and other conciliatory pro-choice Democrats keep insisting on believing that anti-choicers are in this for the fetuses, and therefore will be wooed by common ground attempts to reduce the abortion rate through contraception use. But while a few moderate anti-choicers will play along like they were eating their vegetables, their hearts aren't in this. Fetuses aren't what excite people; sowing fear and loathing about female sexuality does. This amendment will do nothing to reduce the abortion rate, but it will increase the suffering of women seeking abortion. The real goal is and always will be punishing sexual women, at least scapegoating the ones who have the misfortune to have unintended pregnancies."
A friend on Facebook wrote, "Wondering why I'm supposed to suck it up when my tax dollars go to faith based initiatives when, legally, there's supposed to be separation of church and state. Meanwhile hcr passed by the house seeks to deny access to reproductive care that is perfectly legal. WTF?"
"Senior Democrat" thinks Stupak amendment will be stripped from final healthcare bill.
Ian Welsh: "I would suggest that if progressives ever want their threats to be taken seriously by anyone again they go into opposition against this bill until such a time as it both has a robust public option and the Stupak amendment is out. Failure to do so will show that their threats were always hollow, that they are willing to sell out child-bearing age women, and that they prioritize the interests of older people over younger and poorer people."
Climate Progress: "What energy and climate security require - what the future of the American Dream demands - is audacious big-picture ideas that capture the imagination, stir the emotions, speak to the souls, rally the support and win the involvement of the American people. That's been lacking so far in the President's climate leadership."
Business groups want to relax provisions that ban the "import of all goods made with convict labor, forced labor, or forced or indentured child labor" included in a bill in the Senate Finance Committee. A test for Baucus: will this be his Marianas Islands moment? Or will he stand by principle? |
