12/10: Divided They Stand

Here at the Blogometer, we tend to make a lot of statements to the effect of "liberal bloggers support X" or "conservative bloggers oppose Y." However, the blogosphere is a diverse place, and certain topics elude such generalizations. A recent example is the health care reform compromise reached by a group of ten Dem senators, which would remove the opt-out public option but (among other things) "would allow some people ages 55 to 64 to buy coverage through Medicare." Liberal bloggers appear to be split on this agreement, with some supporting it, some opposing it, and others ambivalent.

In related news, several liberal bloggers are criticizing the proposal to legalize reimportation of prescription drugs from Canada, calling the idea "odd", "ridiculous", and "pernicious". However, other lefty bloggers support the proposal and are criticizing the Obama admin. for opposing it. So, on issues related to health care reform, it appears that liberal bloggers are divided in more ways than one.

HEALTH CARE REFORM: Obama FAIL

Two prominent liberal bloggers unloaded on the health care reform bill after Obama sent out an email urging Dems to donate money to the DNC to "support our campaign for reform":

• Firedoglake's Jane Hamsher: "I can't tell you the number of people who have contacted me furious about the OFA fundraising email that went out yesterday. [The health care reform bill is] so far from what Obama promised when he announced his health care plan in 2007 it's not even funny."
• Daily Kos' Markos Moulitsas: "This is so freakin' obnoxious I can hardly stand it. We are about to get a turd of a 'reform' package, potentially worse than the status quo. We have the insurance industry declaring victory, Republicans cackling with glee, and the administration is using that piece of shit to raise money? Obama spent all year enabling [MT Sen.] Max Baucus and [ME Sen.] Olympia Snowe, and he thinks we're supposed to get excited about whatever end result we're about to get, so much so that we're going to fork over money? Well, it might work with some of you guys, but I'm certainly not biting. In fact, this is insulting, betraying a lack of understanding of just how pissed the base is at this so-called reform. The administration may be happy to declare victory with a mandate that enriches insurance companies, yet creates little incentive to control costs or change the very business practices that have screwed so many people. But I'll pass."

Moulitsas continues: "Democrats are demoralized, and have little incentive to turn out next year. The teabaggers will turn out. If this is how the Obama camp thinks we can energize the base -- by promising them a health care pony for $5 to the same Democratic Party that is home to the likes of Baucus, [NE Sen. Ben] Nelson, [AR Sen. Blanche] Lincoln, [CT Sen. Joe] Lieberman, and the rest of the obstructionist gang -- then we're in for a world of hurt in 2010."

Meanwhile, Hamsher is urging House progressives to vote against any bill that doesn't include a public option. She's also asking readers to sign a petition asserting that "the failure to establish a public option to control medical costs and increase competition is President Obama's failure alone."

HEALTH CARE REFORM II: Don't Throw Out The Baby With The Bath Water

Not every liberal blogger shares Hamsher's view that progressive Dems should kill any bill that doesn't include a public option. BooMan writes: "Throughout this year I have watched Hamsher's efforts on health care with a mixture of admiration and alarm. Her indefatigable efforts for a progressive bill have been amazing to watch, but her rhetoric and strategy have been questionable at best. I am not surprised that, as this effort approaches the end, she's left out there alone still railing against strawmen. In the end, her greatest accomplishment may have been to convince Harry Reid to include a triggerless public option in the base Senate bill. Ironically, for supporters of the public option, that was the worst possible procedural move. It allowed the moderates to pick it to pieces at the point of their maximum leverage. And, yet, smart progressives seem to be happy with this deal." [Hamsher responds to BooMan here]

Similarly, Mark Kleiman criticizes MoveOn for urging progressive Dems to "unravel this deal": "MoveOn has decided that since the health care bill coming out of the Senate doesn't have the label 'public option,' the best thing to do would be to kill it, or threaten to kill it. [...] I'm not sure whether the Move-On leadership thinks this is really smart tactics, or whether they figure that stirring up trouble keeps their membership active and happy. In either case, it seems to me that killing the bill would be terminally stupid, and encouraging the Democratic netroots base to regard what would in fact be a great progressive coup -- something that ought to energize them as we go into the coming election year -- as instead a defeat wouldn't be much smarter."

Conservative blogger Allahpundit doesn't understand why so many liberals oppose the new compromise: "If the compromise is a relatively sweet deal for the left, why are nutroots activists opposing it? Would they really rather have an age-unlimited public option [than] a Medicare expansion that might lead to the progressive dream of single-payer?"

HEALTH CARE REFORM III: To Compromise Or Not To Compromise...

The liberal blogosophere is split on the latest health care reform compromise. Some lefty bloggers are arguing in favor of the compromise:

• Open Left's Chris Bowers: "At its fundamental core, the goal of the public option campaign was to get more people onto public health insurance plans. The Senate compromise will result in 16-17 million more people entering public health insurance plans than current law. This is down from 21 million in the bill that passed House committees in July, but it isn't zero. How can a campaign that was designed entirely to get more people on public health insurance be a failure if it resulted in 16-17 million more people receiving public health insurance? [...] Covering 16-17 million more people on public health insurance than current law, among an overall decline in the uninsured population by 30-35 million, with a cut in health insurance industry waste and profits from 30% to 10%, is, in my estimation, much better than the status quo."
• TAPPED's Tim Fernholz: "If the reporting is correct, the last six months have taken us from letting three or four million people buy into a public health insurance option -- a technocratic, public-private scheme that uses market incentives to save money -- to allowing approximately three million people to buy-in to Medicare, a rock-solid heirloom of Great Society liberalism. [...] Should liberals pretend to hate it -- and, given my druthers, I would probably prefer the public option! -- so that the moderates don't figure out what they've done? It's safe to say that of the two options that could (but probably won't) lead to a single-payer system, Medicare expansion is a much bigger step than the public option."

However, other lefty bloggers are more ambivalent:

• Daily Kos' mcjoan: "While the Medicare buy-in is getting accolades from progressives like [ex-DNC Chair] Howard Dean, it's important to keep in mind that we don't know that's what we're even go to be getting (and just watch ConservaDem opposition line up to it, now that they know Howard Dean likes it). What looks like a relatively decent idea now could just be a ghost of its former self by the time it becomes sausage. [...] Until some of these details are made clearer and these problems resolved, there is one thing that cannot happen. The House cannot agree to forego conference and allow this bill to be ping-ponged."
• Matt Taibbi: "I get that some people think this is a good idea, and it's hard to argue that any kind of expansion of Medicare is a bad thing, given that the program has been popular and successful throughout its history. But this move just smacks of the bass-ackwards Solomonesque bargaining that has marked this whole health care effort from the start. If expanding Medicare is good for people aged 55 and up, why isn't it good for everybody? Why isn't it a good idea to provide cheaper insurance for people in their preventive care years, so that they cost Medicare less as they do get older?"
• Open Left's Mike Lux: "I am not going to sugarcoat this for you: [the demise of the public option] is a bitter disappointment. The result is a deeply flawed bill that will not control costs or provide a check on insurance company power the way it could or should have. I also think the politics of this are going to be very tough for the Democratic Party in both 2010 and 2012: people mandated to buy insurance without a public option they can go to will result in a lot of heartache for Democrats with middle class voters, and the disappointment the base feels on this issue will mean it will be much tougher for Democrats to recruit volunteers, raise money online, and turn out the base vote. They have just screwed themselves politically with this deal. Joe Lieberman, the conservative Democrat who absolutely refused to compromise or bargain in good faith, has just leveled a tough blow to his entire party."

THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Dems Will Own All Of Health Care

Duncan Black:

"I hope Dems in Congress take a moment or two to think about the politics of health care reform. Once it passes they will own all of it, not just the reforms. Republicans will turn every health insurance horror story in a story about how the Dems' HCR is a tremendous awful horrible failure, whether or not it has anything to do with specific reforms enacted.

All of this is my subtle way of suggesting they'd better pass something that people like and that works, because otherwise every insurance company dick move will be their fault."

LEST WE FORGET: You Had A Bad Day

From FMyLife.com:

• Today, I learned when you're babysitting a 5 year old, and you hear the toilet flush and then the words "uh oh", it's already too late. FML.
• Today, I was hanging out with a group of friends when I got into a conversation with this really attractive girl who I've liked for months. She asked me what school I go to. I sit to her left in biology. FML.
• Today, my landlord asked to borrow my truck to move some furniture. When she returned it, I noticed she had filled the gas tank up. I thanked her for doing so, and she handed me the receipt and said "just add it to next month's rent". FML.
• Today, my dad met my boyfriend. The first words out of my dad's mouth were "If my daughter sees your penis, I'll cut it off". FML.
• Today, I had a stressful day at work and decided to go in the jacuzzi. I hadn't used it for a year, so it was a little dirty. After I cleaned it, filled it up, and jumped in, I pressed the jets. Immediately, thousands of dead moths shot out at full speed towards me. FML.