Christmas Eve, early in the morning. The United States Senate came together to pass a comprehensive health care reform act in a historic and dramatic session. After a century of inspiration, months of hard negotiations, and twenty-five straight days in session (almost a new record), the Senate came up with a compromise that passed the sunrise session with a vote of 60-39 (retiring Republican Jim Bunning of Kentucky decided not to show). Thus, as with all legislation, the package moves to conference committee with the House of Representatives before final votes in Congress on whether to send the agreed compromise to the President for his more-than-willing signature. (more…)

It’s a bitter pill to swallow. For us ideological Democrats who envisioned pushing America into the ranks of the other major industrialized nations by creating affordable, universal health care, the Senate bill is a brutal disappointment. Our President appears to have compromised his promises away. Republicans have defied reason by bending to the will of corporate insurance giants. Joseph Lieberman has proven to be motivated by pure spite. But it’s time for us Democrats to grow up and look at what we do have. For the first time since FDR’s New Deal, we have a serious (albeit less than ideal) proposal to expand the reach of affordable health care coverage to millions of Americans. Unlike Quentin Tarantino’s blockbuster film, this would certainly not be a time to kill the bill. (more…)