{"id":355521,"date":"2010-02-23T21:01:00","date_gmt":"2010-02-24T02:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/firedoglake.com\/?p=68878"},"modified":"2010-02-23T21:01:00","modified_gmt":"2010-02-24T02:01:00","slug":"remind-me-what-reconciliation-is-for-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/355521","title":{"rendered":"Remind Me What Reconciliation Is For Again?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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So let me get this straight: Obama wants the Senate to take the drastic measure of ramming a sidecar through reconciliation, fanning a colossal GOP hissy firestorm<\/a> about the cheaty system-gaming Democrat Party thwarting the will of the American people who gave the obstructionists their 41-seat supermajority, all so that he can… fiddle around the edges and increase<\/em> the individual mandate penalty<\/a>?<\/p>\n

Wow.\u00a0 Way to think big, Mr. President.\u00a0 And way to use a legislative bazooka to shoot policy mosquitoes.\u00a0 It’s simply not worth it to push the Republicans into maximum-outrage mode for minimal tweaks that won’t make the bill more popular or make Democratic seats more safe<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

And that’s the key.\u00a0 Most Americans like the public option and hate the Senate bill because it doesn’t have the public option.\u00a0 The obvious solution to this electoral-disaster-in-the-making was to use the reconciliation sidecar to restore the popular public option and eliminate the unpopular excise tax, but according to the Obama administration<\/a> Congressional Democrats want <\/em>to get wiped out in November.<\/p>\n

Watching this process unfold is like watching the original Senate bill all over again: Golden opportunity for popular dramatic change to fix what is broken; popular dramatic change gets watered down to unpopular weak incremental tea; Obama and his apologists insist that we have <\/em>to drink the weak tea because it’s better than nothing; American people become disgusted and vote for Republicans.<\/p>\n

I love Glenn Greenwald’s re-enactment<\/a>, but I have one of my own where Obama is driving his family along the road to Grandma’s:<\/p>\n

<\/span>Daughter:<\/strong> Are we there yet?\u00a0 Why are you driving so slowly, Dad?<\/p>\n

Dad:<\/strong> I don’t want to get a flat tire.\u00a0 If we get a flat tire, we’ll never make it to Grandma’s, and you all really want to see Grandma, right?<\/p>\n

Tire:<\/strong> [Goes flat]<\/p>\n

Dad:<\/strong> Dammit!\u00a0 I guess we’ll just have to press on with three tires and hope the fourth one grows back.<\/p>\n

Mom:<\/strong> Honey, why not just use the spare tire in the trunk?<\/p>\n

Dad:<\/strong> [Opens trunk] We’re saved!\u00a0 I can use the tools in here to fashion a replacement tire out of tree bark and garbage!\u00a0 You’re a genius!<\/p>\n

Son:<\/strong> But… what about the spare, Dad?\u00a0 It’s right there and it’s in perfect shape.\u00a0 I’d be happy to help you with it; I really want to see Grandma.<\/p>\n

Dad:<\/strong> No no, that would never work – I’m only interested in practical <\/em>solutions, not wild-eyed immature fantasies.\u00a0 Now give me some help here, unless you want a good paddling.\u00a0 [Spends eight hours kludging together the world’s most half-assed tire out of tree bark and roadside debris]\u00a0 Now that <\/em>is how it’s done.\u00a0 I rule!<\/p>\n

Entire Family:<\/strong> [Is killed when Dad runs head-on into a semi]<\/p>\n

Yes, I know Obama has made his disdain for the public option abundantly clear<\/a>.\u00a0 I’m just amazed that he thinks he can find enough congressional Democrats with an electoral deathwish to implement his junk-tire strategy, and that he either doesn’t know or doesn’t care that it will lead to catastrophe.<\/p>\n

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So let me get this straight: Obama wants the Senate to take the drastic measure of ramming a sidecar through reconciliation, fanning a colossal GOP hissy firestorm about the cheaty system-gaming Democrat Party thwarting the will of the American people who gave the obstructionists their 41-seat supermajority, all so that he can… fiddle around the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4433,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-355521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4433"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355521\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}