Here are the FDL Action health care reform highlights for Wednesday, December 2.1. Jane Hamsher announces the launch of One Voice for Choice, "a national phone bank that will launch calls into the districts of the Representatives who voted for Stupak." For more on this, see Politico. To volunteer, please click here. Thanks.
2. Jon Walker reports on Day #3 of the Senate "debate" on health care reform, with not "a single vote on any amendment." Given this snail's pace, Walker concludes that a final vote by Christmas is "highly unlikely."
3. Jon Walker says we can "get ready for Carper's non-public non-triggered co-op non-option." Walker believes that Carper's proposal "will serve none of the goals of the public option, and will be completely worthless." Other than that, he loves it. :)
4. Jon Walker writes about Republicans spending the last three days "defending the massively wasteful corporate giveaway to private insurance companies," also known as the Medicare Advantage program. According to Walker, you "can’t be a defender of the broken Medicare Advantage program and still be a fiscal conservative." And yet Republicans will do just that and claim to be fiscal conservatives. Of course, these are the same people who racked up much of our national debt, so what else would you expect from them?
5. Jon Walker notes that "Ben Nelson is currently threatening to filibuster reform if it does not contain a version of the anti-choice Stupak amendment." Of course, as Walker points out, "for months now, Reid has had the option of using reconciliation to pass a decent bill without the Stupak language and with a public option." Apparently, that would be too easy.
6. Jon Walker believes that "Democrats made a huge mistake not pushing the bill through months ago using reconciliation" and that now, having failed to do so - and given Republican obstructionism and delaying tactics - "this is going to be an extremely long debate." So, pull up a chair, grab some popcorn, and "enjoy" (or, more likely, not)! :)
7. Finally, Jon Walker advises that we should not "confuse capitulation with compromise" when it comes to the public option, especially since a "handful of conservative Democrats" -- Joe Lieberman, Ben Nelson, Blanche Lincoln, and Mary Landrieu -- "have all the power." What's that saying again about Democracy being the worst system ever invented, except for all the other ones?
