[Note: The current HCR debate has gotten so contentious within the various 'liberal/progressive' factions that it felt important to me to amplify my position about the importance of breaking through this first barrier with an imperfect bill, and why I believe the prospects for improving it over time are stronger, not weaker, if this bill passes.]
Enacting health care legislation is like threading 3-ply thread through a tiny needle eye
In the days before the filibuster was abused with regularity, Hubert Humphrey counted the number of obstacles before a bill became law. His conservative total was 28. At any one of those 28 intersections, it could die. In fact, most do. They die because someone wants something they didn’t get, or because there’s just a fundamental philosophical difference that can’t be surmounted. When a bipartisan effort is impossible, the odds of death increase exponentially. Humphrey went on to observe this: “At each stage of the legislative highway, a few legislators lurk, like the pirates of Tripoli and take toll of the passing traffic…”
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