Country First!

Seriously, this tactic wins in boxing if you have a knockout punch in your back pocket to unleash after your opponent has gotten tired from chasing you around the ring. If at the end of the bout, it looks like your opponent has consistently been the aggressor, and you’ve constantly been the one stalling, you lose on points as judges award points for the aggressiveness.

That’s the danger of your tactic. The Dems are starting to get out there declaring that the Republicans are not interested in ANY meaningful reform. If Baucus does so, pronouncing his “gang of six” to be defunct in the face of active sabotage by the Republican members of the gang, it’s going to suddenly be game over for the Repubs. The only tactic will end up being a filibuster of whatever comes to the Senate floor, no matter what it looks like, for fear that reconciliation will end up sticking in a public option.

At that point, either Dems and Repubs both hold unity in a cloture vote, and a bill gets passed without any input from the Repubs … or some Repubs cross over, giving the Repubs legit call to have a voice in the reconciliation process, and a few of those Repubs end up voting for the final bill … or some Dems cross over on the cloture vote, blocking the legislation until 2011.

Scenario 1 – if the public option becomes as popular as the Republicans and insurance companies fear it will, then Dems get all the credit, and probably lock in major gains for a few cycles. Scenario 2 – some Repubs cross over … and we have Sinz’s fear of splitting the party turned to reality. Scenario 3 – some Dems cross over, bill dies in filibuster, and the message goes out that there will never be a Republican vote for healthcare reform, and the only way to accomplish it is to elect more Dems.

In other words, the strategy at this stage works only if the boxer Reid forgot everything he knew about boxing scoring … or if the Repubs have some counterpunch coming that makes them look like the aggressor, and knocks out any Dem proposal. Given that the latter is looking increasingly slim, given the rhetoric here, you’re down to depending on Harry Reid.

EXACTLY RIGHT!!!
That’s what I’ve been saying for weeks now!

The GOP is on a roll, as the Dems continue to struggle and the public grows increasingly disenchanted with them. Let it ride, as they say in roulette.

The congressional Republicans should continue to play rope-a-dope: Keep saying nice things about working for a bipartisan bill, playing on Obama’s desperate hopes for some Republican cover; and then when pinned by the Dems on a specific proposal, dance away. Approach the Dems and then dance away. Again and again. Stall and stall and stall.

“Never interfere with the enemy when he is in the process of destroying himself.”
— Napoleon

With universal health care Europeans have been able to depend on themselves instead of their unions. Britain has a higher percentage of its population self employed than the United States. Britain has moved fairly consistently to right sense the establishment of universal health care. British government is far more privatized than the United States. The Labour government recently tried a partial privatization scheme of the last major government run industry, the postal service. And it will almost certainly be privatized under the Tory government, something only dreamed of by Reagan.

The bus services are privatized and unsubsidized. Drivers tests are given by private companies. And, it goes on and on.

Health care is a middle class issue because a major health incident leads to financial ruin. Health insurance in the United States has ceased to provide its most basic function, to prevent health emergencies leading to financial ruin. Health care is the golden calling card of unions. Many would be republican families, entrepreneurs and small business owners are tied to the Democratic party because they must keep one family member in unionized job, such as teaching for health benefits.