Victory!

Danimal just called me to concede that I did in fact win my $10 bet with him -- although his call might have been premature given that the GOP can still pull all sorts of delaying tactics to prevent the final vote from happening before midnight --but it is clear now that Health Care Reform will pass the House.

This is a huge accomplishment, historically and politically. If the bill hadn't passed, Obama's presidency would have been crippled and the Democrats would have been absolutely screwed in the upcoming Mid-Term Elections. Now they can campaign from a position of strength. In fact, with regard to the Health Care Reform issue, the Democrats need to do three things to the GOP during the run-up to the Mid-Terms: (1) attack, (2) attack, and (3) attack more.

Even though these reforms really aren't all that different from the stuff that the Republicans were supporting during the Clinton-era health care debate, the GOP nonetheless decided that the best thing for them to do politically was to sit on the sidelines and instead do anything and everything they could to turn this Health Care debate into Obama's Waterloo. They need to pay for that decision, and the Democrats can make them pay if they do the following things:

** The Dems need to constantly point out that the reforms passed today are very moderate. In fact, the whole thing was a huge compromise. The so-called "public option" was actually a compromise on the single-payer deal, which is hilarious because the public option wasn't part of the bill that was just passed. When Obama signs this bill into law, it should be a very somber moment -- he should simply point out that these basic reforms needed to be passed decades ago, and he should say that he signs on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of U.S. citizens who died because the American people did not have the political will to get this done sooner.

** The Dems need to constantly point out that the GOP didn't do squat on Health Care Reform when they were in control all those years, and as a result 45,000 Americans died each year who wouldn't have died had they had health coverage. The GOP loves to protect unborn fetuses, but they don't give two shits about folks after they are born and Obama and company need to point out this hypocrisy at every opportunity.

** The Democrats need to constantly ask the Republicans this question: Why in the hell did your party uniformly oppose a bill that actually reduced the deficit and extended Medicare solvency by at least nine years and provided health coverage to 32 million Americans who didn't have it before!? One of the GOP's talking points on this issue is that these reforms will increase the deficit, and Republicans continue to make this argument even though these reforms actually reduce the deficit by $130 billion in the first decade, and $1.2 trillion in the second. The GOP will continue to bring up this fake issue; and every time Republicans do it, the Democrats should simply call them out as liars.

On that last point, Obama and the Dems need to rid themselves of their fear of calling Republicans "liars" on this (or any) issue. I hate it when Democrats use phrases like "well, that's not exactly true" or "Mr. So-and-So has his facts wrong." Lies such as "death panels" or "government takeover of health care" were able to gain traction because the Democrats' response to all that bullshittery was weak at best. That needs to change.

All you hear about these days is how badly the Democrats are going to lose this November. But that doesn't have to happen, especially if our economy starts creating jobs again over the next few months. But it will happen if the Democrats continue to act like a bunch of political weaklings.