While earlier in the debate most liberals vastly preferred the House version of ObamaCare to the Senate debacle, suddenly everything is rosy now that something has actually passed. New Republic senior editor Jonathan Chait goes so far as to call it a “masterfully crafted piece of legislation.” Sadly the internet has a longer memory than last night… Let’s look at how liberals viewed the Senate bill back in December.
Markos Moulitsas founder and publisher of the Daily Kos (self proclaimed “the largest progressive community blog in the United States”) tweeted:
Insurance companies win. Time to kill this monstrosity coming out of the Senate.
Howard Dean the liberal former DNC Chairman said:
This is essentially the collapse of health care reform in the United States Senate. Honestly the best thing to do right now is kill the Senate bill, go back to the House, start the reconciliation process, where you only need 51 votes and it would be a much simpler bill.
Representative Louise Slaughter of the now infamous “Slaughter Solution” wrote at CNN:
Senate bill isn’t health reform
The Senate health care bill is not worthy of the historic vote that the House took a month ago.
Even though the House version is far from perfect, it at least represents a step toward our goal of giving 36 million Americans decent health coverage.
But under the Senate plan, millions of Americans will be forced into private insurance company plans, which will be subsidized by taxpayers. That alternative will do almost nothing to reform health care but will be a windfall for insurance companies. Is it any surprise that stock prices for some of those insurers are up recently?
…Supporters of the weak Senate bill say “just pass it — any bill is better than no bill.”
I strongly disagree — a conference report is unlikely to sufficiently bridge the gap between these two very different bills.
It’s time that we draw the line on this weak bill and ask the Senate to go back to the drawing board. The American people deserve at least that.
David Broder of the Washington Post had to hold his nose over the Senate ObamaCare bill:
The health-care reform bill coming out of the Senate presents a real dilemma for spectators: How do you applaud while holding your nose?
…The taint has rubbed off on the bill.
…Liberal Democrats do not like the independent commission in the Senate bill having power to enforce savings in Medicare and the private health system. And labor does not accept the Senate plan to tax high-end insurance plans.
