Making The Rounds

Reaction last night to news that Harry Reid is going to jettison everything from the HCR bill to appease Joe Lieberman is not being received well as I make the rounds this morning:

TBogg, TBogg's blog:

If Rahm Emmanuel is all he was supposed to be, we can safely assume that the Obama White House either never gave a shit about health care reform, or they managed health care reform so horrifically and incompetently that they are now willing to settle for a “win”, no matter how meager.

I hope they enjoy their Pyrrhic victory because they just burned the base.

Desmoinesdem, My DD:

The new spin is that this bill will still save lives despite its flaws. If this were about saving lives, Congress could adopt a few simple reforms without creating this elaborate structure to transmit taxpayer dollars to profitable corporations.

Chris Bowers, Open Left:

I don't really know what to think right now.  Too angry to think straight.  After a very long campaign, we had appeared to secure a deal that I thought was acceptable.  We promptly get stabbed in the back by none other than Joe Lieberman (and the CBO, btw), and then just as promptly told by the White House to accept it all.

Digby, Hullabaloo

There you have it. Everyone knows that liberals must lose, so down goes the public option and the Medicare Buy-in. The question remains whether King Joseph will allow the government to help older people with long term care needs or any of the other things that anyone could possibly construe as liberal policies.

I think we have a way to go before this bill is bad enough for him and his cronies to allow the Democrats to commit political suicide with it.

BooMan, BooMan Tribune:

I had one other positive in mind to write about, but it must not have been very important or convincing because I've forgotten what it was. That happens when DC is in the process of crushing your hopes and aspirations. But, it's true that we really were only two or three votes shy of passing a damn good health care bill.

In other words,  this:

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.  If the good parts of the House and Senate bill were combined, we'd have an outstanding bill.  Instead, we're left with the Baucus bill in the Senate and over the next couple of days the White House will give Lieberman, Ben Nelson and the Snowe Queen everything they want.  What's left will be "insurance reform" the same way Bush's Medicare drug benefit legislation was a "cost control measure" and not a $1.2 trillion gift to Big Pharma.  This plan too will fail.  The Republicans will not vote for it, will run against it, and ride it right back into power.

I didn't think the Democrats were this stupid.  Silly me.  Only corporations matter in Washington.  The end of this week may seal the fate of the Obama presidency.