"Or will he use the reconciliation process to allow a simple, democratic majority rule?"

Using "reconciliation" is not a Democratic process. Using that to pass a bad bill will have long lasting consequences for Democrats, Progressives and Liberals that are fairly bad under the best of circumstances. Only the short sighted would advocate it.

As far as 72% of the American People supporting a "Public Option" such as found in this bill.....a pathetic claim based on wishful thinking that will sink the entire ship.

Twain's three kinds of lies.

I want universal health care,
not a anti-abortion mandatory ins. co. profit bill.

The Senate itself is not in anyway a democratic institution. 2 Senators for every state was a compromise made at the nations founding to keep the south and the small states like Rhode Island and Delaware in the union. For far to long the Senate has allowed a small minority of Regressives to dominate our system. In the 18th and 19th it allowed the Slave culture to expand and eventually brought on a Civil War. In the late 19th and 20th it allowed the Segregation of the South and fought women's suffrage tooth and nail. Today it is allowing these same regressives to block Health care reform and other badly needed reforms.

from counterpunch

The Killer and the Kid
Health Care's Historic Flop
By HELEN REDMOND

I get weekly emails from Levana Layendecker of Health Care for America Now (HCAN) and Mitch Stewart from Organizing for America. In increasingly shrill prose, the two try to convince me to support whatever legislation emerges from Congress. They warn, “IF THE INSURANCE COMPANIES WIN, YOU LOSE.” I agree completely. That is why I won’t support any legislation Congress passes because the insurance companies have already won and we have lost.

We need only look at the check lists of two of the most powerful people in health care reform to see who is benefiting most from the proposed legislation in Congress.

Karen “Killer” Ignagni, President and CEO of America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) won the following:

Still in business making billions of profits for Wall Street investors and CEO’s of insurance companies

No cost controls that would decrease profits

Mandate giving us at least 30 million new customers and fined if they don’t buy coverage

Still able to deny doctor recommended care

Still able to increase premiums

Kill or weaken public option

Investment in 3000 lobbyists and 1.4 million a day paid off

Then there is Billy “The Kid” Tauzin, President and CEO of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA.) He was able to check off everything on his list:

Get a meeting with President Obama behind closed doors and make a deal to protect PhRMA profits

No drug reimportation from Canada or Mexico

Extend protections for lucrative biologic drugs

No negotiating drug prices for Medicare Part D

U.S. drug market continues to be the most profitable

Senator Baucus has taken more money from the health and insurance industry than any other member of Congress. Elizabeth Fowler, Baucus’s chief health advisor, is a former VP of public policy for the insurance giant Wellpoint. She “helped” write the Senate bill.

Here’s an inconvenient, honest-to-god truth: the legislation does nothing to solve the health care crisis. It’s estimated up to twenty million people will still be uninsured. There are no effective cost containment mechanisms in either bill because that would reduce profits. There are no controls on the price of premiums and the House bill permits charging twice as much for older people as for younger ones. More profits. Insurers can continue to deny physician recommended medical care and patient claims. Medical-loss ratio in favor of insurers, million dollar salaries for CEO’s and Wall Street investors untouched. The caps on out-of-pocket expenses are $5000 for individuals and $10,000 for families. These amounts result in medical bankruptcy now. Employers must pay 72.5 percent of premiums for individuals and 65 percent for families. That gives companies who currently pay a higher percentage an incentive to shift costs onto employees then dump them into the insurance exchange because it will be cheaper. The plans in the exchange will be high deductible, stripped down, tiered plans much like the ones available through the Commonwealth Connecter in Massachusetts. There will be an expansion of Medicaid but the history of the program reveals that just as it expands, it contracts. Eligibility criteria and reimbursement rates for Medicaid change with the fiscal fortunes of the states and federal government. It is truly stunning that health care reform will be paid for with billions in “savings” from the health care program for the elderly; Medicare. Why not use “savings” from the bloated 700 billion dollar military budget? The talk about fraud and waste in the Medicare program is a cover to cut benefits and seniors are right to be angry and mistrustful.

Any bill that passes will be hailed as historic. It will be historic: historic in the sense that it’s yet another sellout in a long history of sellouts of the American people - bankrupt and broken, still desperate and dying for reform that makes health care a human right and where profit has no place.

Hamsher's article is thick with hypocrisy and ignorance. The "corrupt" Senators she cites as pawns of Wall Street were lured into voting for cloture apparently by big promises of advantages to their states and themselves for their votes. If they turn around and vote against the bill on final passage, it will be because of the "corruption" of their ties to Wall Street funding. Then she cites a 72% approval rate of a "public option" when almost NOBODY (including some I suspect in Congress) has any or much idea of what it is about. What the people want is a Medicare-type universal no-questions-asked coverage, not some puny fake "public option" that will only further enhance insurance company domination of the health care system. I've been beseiged with requests to sign "public option" petitions since, it seems, the beginning of time, and over this time its backers have refused to see the obvious about the public option as simply a sop to impress "progressives" who actually think they will have gained something for the public from the "public option."

I think the Senate health bill is not a reform bill at all. I think in fact it will accomplish essentially nothing of note in our lives. I don't think most providers, patients and families will notice anything different about their health care situation.

Having said all that, I signed the petition to Harry Reid. Hamsher is correct, in my view, that knuckling under to Lieberman et al would be political suicide for the Dems. They are teetering right now on losing the Senate and the White House in 2012. Failure to pass this would probably put them over the edge, which is of course, the Repubs aim and appears also to be the goal of Lieberman, Nelson, Landrieu and the other hack whose name I forget. Their careers did not suffer when the Dems were in the minority; why should they care? There is always a $1000000/yr lobbying job if the Senate thing doesn't work out.

If the Dems manage to seize political defeat from the jaws of this otherwise completely winnable political victory (and they very close now), then they no longer have any reason to exist. The voters, dumb as they often are, will take note and put the Repubs back in the driver's seat. Get used to hearing from John Thune...

Just get rid of the filibuster, that would reinstate majority rule.

How about reconcilation for "Medicare For All"?

The Dem Party needs to get rid of it's wimpy, groveling posture if it wants to win in 2010. Reconciliation could be a way to polish their image and give us a much improved bill. Another bill ending the war will assure Dems a win in 2010.