Adam Nagourney, known for internalizing right - wing talking points, actually has a good piece on the thinking of vulnerable House Democrats. (h/t The Plum Line)
"The health care vote is critically important to me," said Representative Mary Jo Kilroy, a first-term Democrat from Ohio, who said she would support the bill. "I told people when I asked them to send me to Washington, it was because I wanted to make health care reform successful."
Rep. Kilroy voted for reform and against the Stupak amendment. She's the kind of majority maker we need more of, and deserves the strongest possible grassroots support in 2010.
The House health care reform bill is a solid piece of legislation. It has flaws, and provisions I'd change if it were up to me, but this is, on the whole, a very good bill that would bring vast improvements to a fundamentally flawed system. If this bill were to become law, it'd be reform Americans could be proud of and benefit from.
But listening to the debate on the House floor, it's striking how misguided opponents' arguments really are.
...
It's sad, for lack of a better word, that in the midst of the biggest, most significant, most consequential domestic policy debate in recent memory, an entire political party has committed itself to repeating talking points with no basis in reality. Claims have been routinely presented, debunked, and shamelessly repeated anyway. Arguments ranging from "fascism" to "death panels" to "socialized medicine" have become eerily common, despite having no connection to reality.
We're watching one of the rare instances in which a bill's actual flaws are ignored, while confused politicians debate the merit of ideas that aren't being proposed. What a waste.
The Stupak Amendment has got to go. Very bad policy. Very bad politics.
President Obama - "Now it falls on the United States Senate..."
Unless Joe Lieberman is allowed to get in the way.
