Thanks to everybody for coming by the last month, which has been our busiest ever. Thanks to everyone who called their Congressmen. Thanks to Tim F for making calling Congressmen easy for everyone.
It’s been a long time coming.
Reader Interactions
104Comments
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Rommie
oooo rah Michigan State!
rob!
Doug–you’re the one always posting the Dylan lyrics. Ever hear/see the time he covered this at the Apollo? F**king awesome:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMIYY9aFYKQ
dr. bloor
You guys are to be commended for all the heavy lifting you did here.
Brandon
It ain’t over yet. Still have to rely on Harry Reid and the Dems in the Senate to muster the necessary 51 votes. That means that 51 separate Senators could pull the full Stupak before all is said and done.
thejoz
Now we can spend a lot of time making fun of Freeper’s and other’s heads as they explode more or less in succession, if not unison.
That’ll be very, very fun.
Chat Noir
And thank you DougJ, Tim F, Anne Laurie, and (our hostest with the mostest), John Cole. This is the best blog evah!
DougJ
@rob!:
You know what I’ve always wanted to see? Footage of the time that George Plimpton played at the Apollo. (He wasn’t booed.)
booferama
Thank you guys for the constant reminders to call and fax.
Bill E Pilgrim
@Brandon: Ah, I remember the days when that was called a full Lieberman.
Ailuridae
@dr. bloor:
This. Many times.
Also, DougJ apparently you didn’t realize site traffic has been down since you all started defending the Senate bill as good legislation.
Snark mode off. I’m happy. In more pain than I can imagine but happy.
Also, Cornell won and they eliminated a loathsome Big Ten School.
Violet
So are they still expected to vote at 9 p.m.? Or will be it earlier now the votes are lined up? Or run late because, well, that’s how the roll?
demo woman
@Rommie: Michigan State fans are jumping for joy and just waiting for their next opponent. Northern Iowa University.
gwangung
@Brandon: Which is why Stupak needs at least a good close call, if not primaried.
Cacti
It’s all over but the…
Teabaggers freaking out and killing someone.
OldK
I’ve got $50 I’m itching to give to Congressional Democrats, in the spirit of rewarding good behavior, especially when it’s difficult. Where to? DCCC? DNC? Somebody specific? It ain’t going to Stupak.
The Sheriff's A Ni-
@Brandon: And a meteor could crash into the Capitol building during the middle of the vote. Sheesh.
Mr. President has some words of advice for you.
Ailuridae
Ezra is joining MSNBC for the next two hours. That might make it less painful to watch.
inkadu
I’m just here for an exhausted celebration; I’ve never in my life added my Rep and Senator to my cell phone’s directory. I guess now that they’re there I will use it more often.
Hooray.
And I thought this passed the Senate bill, so the Senate could just STFU at this point.
stickler
Nothing’s over till it’s over (see above, re: Senate), but man, this is so close I can taste it. They vote tonight, and the President signs it and, BAM. The Democrats win one. Ugly, but a win.
And I can’t believe after the last year that I’m tempted to trust Harry Reid, but he has said repeatedly that he has “a majority” in the Senate. If he doesn’t, he’s just set himself up to look like an even bigger jackass than he already does. He’s surely not that stupid, is he?
Anyhow, I’m going to crack a cold one later tonight while I watch the coverage on CSPAN. Whoo-hoo!
Thanks to our hosts for their hard work.
Trinity
If it weren’t for this blog I think I would have pulled all of my hair out by now. As grateful as I am for today, I won’t really be happy until Reid gets this through the Senate.
Max
@OldK: I’d wait until after the vote and see which dems in tough red districts stand firm.
I’m guessing some are going to ask to get cut loose now that we’re above the 216 mark.
Cowards.
Axel Edgren
Is there any stream for watching the teabaggers outside going insane?
Joe Beese
Huzzah! Individual mandates for all! (You remember: the ones Obama campaigned against.)
Shame we’re not getting a public option to go with them. But Obama promised the hospitals we wouldn’t get one and he’s a man of his word. (Except on unimportant things like telecom immunity, Guantanamo, DADT…)
Style points for giving progressives a final “Fuck you” by giving Hyde the force of an executive order. He wouldn’t want there to be the slightest misunderstanding of where they stand with him.
J.W. Hamner
@Brandon: There won’t be much incentive for Dem revolt, since HCR will be law at that point and the fixes are all popular. I expect the GOP to still be jerks, but Dems should hold together.
unabogie
Seriously, I’m listening to C-Span, and I finally understand why you guys always turn this into a drinking game.
How can these people just lie through their teeth so constantly?
Elie
Saw on Huffington Post picture of Nancy and the House Dems walking together — Nancy is holding the gavel used when Medicare was passed.
I am just crying now… and though I know that there is still the senate to go, I am so proud of our side, the hard work and courage this has taken — so painful but so necessary…
Thanks to all here on BJ and everywhere where people cared enough to brave this difficult process…
I also send a special note of love to all those who have suffered from the lack of health coverage both in the past and currently — Our country is finally working to do the right thing, to take care of our people…
Brandon
@The Sheriff’s A Ni-: I am chill. But this is the Senate we are talking about and the Democrats for that matter. Until we see Obama actually sign this sucker in the Rose Garden, I will continue to believe that they will screw this up and shoot themselves in the foot.
CT
The most fun is going to be watching the Firebaggers try to slink back to the herd. I bet a lot of them just wanted something to celebrate and got tired of waiting.
AkaDad
When the bill passes and Republicans’ heads explode, insurance companies wont be able to drop their coverage.
Martian Buddy
@stickler: Both my senators (Specter and Casey) are solid “yes” votes for reconciliation. Next up: bugging Congress to do something about the bankstas.
Nied
Anyone else notice that FDL has basically gone dark since right before Stupak announced? Did Scaife pull Jane’s funding or something?
/only slightly sarcastic
Cat Lady
These are Democrats remember. I’m not doing the fist pump yet.
In the mean time, kudos to all of the front pagers here. Yeoman’s work every day, and this O-bot is very grateful to have this island of sanity to survey teh crazee from. It’s not every day you get to witness the extremes of left and right merge on the spectrum in real time, and extreme lows turn to extreme highs in two short months. Wheeee!
Brandon
@Joe Beese:
Am I the only one laughing at this? Best. troll. ever.
Karmakin
@Joe Beese: There was never a chance of a public option as it would basically devastate the investment markets. Not because Democrats are in cahoots with Wall Street, but because the dreamy middle-upper class “swing” voter takes a conniption shit about the concept that they might have to live in a smaller apartment when they retire.
inkadu
It’s all over but the…
wall-to-wall coverage of the resurgent Republican party. Some people are asking, “Is this the beginning of a conservative backlash?”
very reverend crimson fire of compassion
This site has been my happy place throughout this ordeal. Thanks so much to all of you front-pagers, especially Tim F. w/the constant cheer-leading. (Wipes eyes, manfully pretending that it’s only sweat). And to (almost) everybody who posts here. Thank you.
rikyrah
BalloonJuice has been terrific on the activist front. I want to thank you for your phone guide, and for keeping us up-to-date as to whom we should call.
you all rock.
tripletee
@Joe Beese:
FDL is that way. -> (Follow the trail of bitter, bitter tears and the pungent scent of burning hair if you get lost.)
The Main Gauche of Mild Reason
What’s up with the conga line here? Does this endless parade of Repub congressmen think that this sentence in opposition to the HCR bill is going to be that critical? The no vote isn’t enough?
The Moar You Know
@Joe Beese: Your tears are delicious. Here’s hoping we can punch you again.
Soon.
Shalimar
Do I have to wait until they actually hurt someone before I point out that the tea party protesters are the brownshirts of the Republican party, or is it an applicable analogy now when they’re just threatening violence?
MIchael
@Brandon:
Harry Reid has already produced a letter of 50+ Senators pledging to vote for the reconciliation bill. See here
JenJen
Chuckle-worthy from K-Lo, whose twitter feed has been a real treasure this week:
Bulworth
And there’s still that Newsmax.com ad running at the top of the screen pleading Obama Care…Stop Him.
Heh, indeed. That’s so cool.
JGabriel
I ask for unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks in opposition to this flawed, repetitive, and really boring Republican delaying tactic.
.
inkadu
Shalimar; Are you blogging through a time machine from a year ago? Tea Party folks have been borderline violent mobs since at least last summer.
Max
It appears Loretta Sanchez showed up. From her Twitter…
I still say she was chicken-shit disappearing like she did.
Cacti
@Joe Beese:
Jane, is that you?
The Sheriff's A Ni-
@tripletee: Or he could just follow the shouts of ‘nigger’, ‘faggot’, and ‘where’s mah gun’. Same difference.
Dannie22
Congressman Dingell is on msnbc holding a gavel. He must be so elated right now. His father began this journey and now he gets to be there at the finish. I’m very proud right now.
FormerSwingVoter
If you’re gonna listen to “A Change is Gonna Come”, check out Grandpa Elliott singing it down in New Orleans:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvayzIktTJ4
AnotherBruce
They still gotta get this done.
But I’m calling my reps tomorrow and thanking them, I’ll even call Baird, who isn’t my rep to thank him.
Brandon
@MIchael: Yeah but, these are Democrats we are talking about here. Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory comes very naturally to them. Same with their defensive crouch style of politics.
robertdsc
@Joe Beese:
Why don’t you shut the fuck up?
I had my own emopants moments throughout this ordeal but I’m grateful to all the folks who took the time to patiently explain things in thread after thread.
ds
The House is passing two bills today.
First, the Senate health care bill, which once it is passed, will go to Obama’s desk and be signed.
Second, the reconciliation “sidecar” which then will go onto the Senate.
Even if the Senate screws up on the sidecar, HCR is passed once the Senate bill is passed.
Island in Alabama
@Shalimar:
No waiting needed, but accept that those that don’t see this don’t want to see this.
freelancer
@Cat Lady:
me too.
but it is fun to read the words of the idiot from Indiana from this morning:
Victory lap, bitchez.
Veteran, Great War of Yankee Aggression
All over but….the delicious schadenfreude; my current joy is reading the comments at RedState, blustering about revolution by God-fearing, gun-owning Merkins.
Ailuridae
@Joe Beese:
I wonder if the rest of you faux progressives are going to pop our of your crazy time fully on the other side, David Horowitz style the way Jane has already gone.
demo woman
@Brandon: I actually thought that was pretty weak. It might become a new talking point among the wackos… Obama has never signed an executive order for the right to bear arms.
Phyllis
Gah, do I have some bad karma to make up for? Dreier is at the podium yapping every time I flip over to the coverage.
Ailuridae
@The Moar You Know:
Your tears are delicious. Here’s hoping we can punch you again.
Soon. And harder
FYP,
FormerSwingVoter
@Joe Beese:
That’s great, I guess, but you may want to save that sort of thing for the next Open Thread.
Chyron HR
He forgot the GOP’s new catchphrase, “Beware the Ides of March”.
IT’S A TOTALLY RANDOM SHAKESPEARE QUOTE THOUGH, WINK WINK, WINK.
Leelee for Obama
@JenJen: It’s just that she cares so much about the Democrats and their souls and wouldn’t be just grand if there were pro-life Dems who would try to overturn Roe v. Wade. Hahahahahaha!
There are days when I hope the HCR will be able to provide mental health care for these people, for their own good and that of others. Other days, I would just as soon just lock ’em up.
Fitzwili
Woof! This has been a long haul but since I’m superstitious – I won’t put the party hat on till it’s official. Thanks to everyone here – this really was a place that I could come when I was feeling frustrated and get support I needed : a kick in the pants to DO something about my frustation!
special thanks to Tim F for the call lists!
Elie
@FormerSwingVoter:
I like this version very much — thanks!
General Egali Tarian Stuck
I heard today the topic of universal health insurance/care was first breached by TR. Long time coming indeed.
gregw
JFK film just now on MSNBC talking about how the US was 30 years behind Europe in providing healthcare. The set of his jaw was amazing, and amazing how long it has taken and is taking to get anywhere with this simple concept. Health care for all.
What a day this is!
Max
@ds: Other way around.
First the sidecar, then the Senate bill.
CaseyL
Tuning in late, and MSNBC has old footage of JFK making a speech for healthcare reform. Jesus H Christ: took us this long to get this far, and we’re still “behind Europe,” as JFK said.
Still, I’ll be celebrating as hard as anyone when and if this damn thing finally passes.
Aspasia
Chiming in with thanks for the hard work done by writers on this blog helping to pass HR.
The pix of Pelosi and John Lewis marching arm and arm toward the capitol made me cry too. This is not the first time Lewis has braved angry mobs, and it probably won’t be the last. It’s a national disgrace that such a hero has to suffer taunts from the ignorant thugs who are protesting on the mall.
I suppose it will be considered sour grapes of me to point out that women’s interests have been sacrificed one more time in order to get something good done. Fourteenth amendment anyone? It took us another 80 years to get the vote after that.
To echo Sam Cooke: How long? Goddess, how long?
Restrung
watching unanimous consent requests is fun! They look so mopey.
I really wonder how I’m going to be less free, though. Medical liberty? shit..
Mike in NC
What do you mean “going”?
Seriously, this setup is a win-win for the wingers. If the bill passes — they run full steam against it this year through 2012. If the bill fails — right wing orgasms until 2012.
General Egali Tarian Stuck
@The Moar You Know:
Mr. Speaker, I hereby submit for approval the new politically correct term of “Punching Idiots” all purpose and non denominational.
freelancer
Cspan and the conga line is like a sad parade of butthurt.
Your tears, they sustain me. Hmmm.
Brandon
@demo woman: Why doesn’t Obama just sign an EO that reads, “Every Article, Amendment and Public Law will for now and ever be recognized as the law of the land, as interpreted by the Supreme Court.” That should satisfy everyone, right?
srv
Me thinks Stupak has a little problem:
http://twitter.com/#search?q=bart%20stupak
inkadu
@Veteran, Great War of Yankee Aggression: I like how the top post on Redstate right now counsels the minions away from violent revolution. After all, he points out, unlike our brave periwigged ancestors, American citizens are allowed to politically organize, vote, and elect actual representatives.
It’s funny in a sad sort of way.
licensed to kill time
Gawd I love this place. Thank you, gracias, mil grazi and tash a kor. A bottle of wine is calling to me but I will resist the siren until the final vote is cast because I’m paranoid. I hope I can remove all the tenterhooks I’ve been on all day.
me
@Axel Edgren: Fox News
hamletta
A change is gonna come, indeed!
This shit-and-banana sandwich is the first step toward justice for the American people!
God bless you all! I finally called my Congressman’s office today to wish him and his staff safety and to thank him for his vote.
He’s a “serious” health care policy wonk, so I don’t think he would have voted against it, but it was a little touch-and-go for a while there.
TN-5 is the birthplace of the Democratic Party, so it’s not like he could vote against the party’s 65-year-old plank on a historic vote like this.
Cacti
@Restrung:
A country where I’m no longer free to go bankrupt after a cancer diagnosis is no country I want to live in.
I’m moving to the right wing paradise of Somalia: no functioning government and lots of guns.
Mike in NC
Will Pence show up on the Capitol steps dressed like a Buddhist monk and carrying a can of gasoline?
Shalimar
@inkadu: There is still a huge difference in scope and level of violence between what the brownshirts did regularly in pre-Hitler Germany and what the tea partiers are doing occasionally now. It is unmistakeably the same type of behavior and organization though.
FormerSwingVoter
@srv:
I love the hash bouncing around twitter right now:
#stupakisthenewlieberman
Shalimar
@Mike in NC: More likely he will pull out a gun and shoot a few yes votes so Dems will fall short.
Martian Buddy
@Restrung: You’re losing your freedom to have your policy arbitrarily rescinded. Don’t you feel frightened already?
Napoleon
@Mike in NC:
I hope so. That would be like a flambe dessert on top of the satisfying main course of health care reform passing.
inkadu
@Shalimar: Of course. Brown Shirts are just the most effective and well-known historical example of orchestrated “popular” violence. The modern conservative fringe (with a rather generous border, I must say) hasn’t been as bad yet; it is still fair to make the comparison, if only to remind people what it is and where it leads.
Ecks
These are democrats we’re talking about here. I don’t need the ink to be dry, but I’m not popping any corks until it’s at least wet….
but today’s vote WILL be enough to start the legit celebration. The senate sidecar after this is just nice fixes to go on top of fait accompli passed-into-law HCR.
Brandon
@inkadu: OMG, I had to read it for myself. Surreal.
Veteran, Great War of Yankee Aggression
Watching Stupak on MSNBC. I have to make the same comment to liberals that I made on conservative blogs re: abortion funding.
Its all a red herring. If one is morally opposed to abortion, whether there is government funding or not has almost no bearing ont he subject. I can’t believe that any of the players in the debate have ever actually known women who had abortion- I have known two, and it was obvious to me that the cost of it, and whether it was covered by insurance or not, had not one effing thing to do with their decision.
Whether abortions were given out free like Halloween candy, or whether they were priced like Ferraris, would (IMHO) not increase or decrease the number of abortions by even one. Women who make that decision do so for a lot of reasons, but cost is not one of them.
So this HCR bill won’t have anything to do with the rate of abortions, no matter what language they put in or not.
But it WILL have a drastic affect on the number of the 45,000 people who die each year without coverage. THATS a pro-life stance that Jesus would applaud.
Jenn
@inkadu:
Me, too. Thanks, everyone, for information, encouragement, and much-needed snark! What’s next on the B-J political to-do list? Financial regulation? :-)
Restrung
@Martian Buddy:
been uninsured for five years. Maybe I’ll be more free if I can get some. !!
inkadu
@Brandon: And this bill isn’t even that big a deal in the grand scheme of things. I also like how they implicitly compare their situation to the slave holding South.
hamletta
To those who doubt Harry Reid: You must be new. He delighted us a Minority Leader with his subtle FUs to Bill Frist.
He may come off like milquetoast, but he’s one tough old bird. I can’t find the profile article on him, but it reads like something out of Steinbeck.
The anecdote I remember was from when he was Nevada Gambling Commissioner: Some people were trying to bribe him, so he called the FBI, and they set up a sting. The cameras were out, and the bad guy gave up the cash. Reid set upon him like a rabid dog, saying, “You tried to bribe me, you $^&I^%!”
The FBI dudes had to peel him off the guy.
Bostondreams
And now that idiot McCollum, the AG of Florida who has no problem with a local church in Gainesville putting up a sign that says ‘No Homo for Mayor’ and campaigning against that candidate, has declared that Florida will sue over the constitutionality of this bill.
Incredible. The guy wouldn’t know constitutionality if sat through a lecture from John Marshall and James Madison.
Mal Carne
@Axel Edgren:
“Going”?
chrome agnomen
lifelong red sox fan here, feeling about like i did after the league championship series in ’04. it ain’t over, but the big hurdle has been cleared.
my gratitude for this oasis of sanity in a certifiably crazy world.
leo
Nice coincidence. That song’s been in my mind recently as well.
gogol's wife
I have a very strong “evil eye” element in my nature (based on being immersed in Russian culture for 35 years) that won’t let me celebrate yet. (Because if you get in the car at the Moscow airport and compliment your friend who just got his license on his driving skill, he’s sure you’ve just made it inevitable that he’ll get into an accident on the way home.) But I can certainly, once again, thank Balloon Juice for keeping me sane through this process, however it may end.
kevina
I think several steps back is needed to appreciate this. Yes, TR (in truth, the first Dem. POTUS-domestically- of the 20th Century) was the first to discuss universal health care. From there, Wilson had WWI to deal with. FDR had the Depression and WWII.
Truman picked up the mantle, but got nowhere. Ditto JFK (albeit cut short). LBJ got Medicare and Medicaid, arguably the last major piece of progressive legislation… until today. Still, the overall system was not changed/challenged.
Nixon proposed something very liberal in ’71, which, had it been enacted, would have gotten us to single-payer years ago. He did so for purely cynical reasons, trying to divide Democrats, while helping so-called “Rizzo Democrats” (read Perlstein). Unfortunately, Teddy rejected it, in part, to better position himself for ’72.
Watergate gave us Ford (along with the cynicism that defines modern politics), then Carter. Carter came in during AWFUL economic times, with an ascendant conservatism. Further, his relations with Congress were terrible. He might have tried, but he wasn’t going to get health care.
As for the ’80’s, well, we all know that don’t we? Though I kinda think Poppy Bush would have had no policy qualms with signing today’s bill (Lee Atwater would have told him otherwise, though). Insert “Overton Window” here.
Bill Clinton tried, oh did he try. It was a signature issue in ’93-94. In the end, there was no vote. The issue died for 15 yrs.
Today, then, hard as it has been, Barack Obama, along with Speaker Pelosi and Leader Reid, prepares to walk a path of ghosts. The ghosts of Truman, Kennedy, Johnson (even Nixon), Carter, and Clinton. All tried to reform the health care system. Their journeys ended in failure.
Today, Obama completes that journey. Think about that tonight.
And, again, remember, we have not done anything this big, this important (even if it ought to do more) since Johnson.
Momentous.
Elie
@kevina:
Beautifully stated…
I deeply remember my Grandmother crying with joy during the 60’s when civil rights was passed — a sight that will stay with me forever..
This is not perfect legislation, but its good and good for the people and the Dems are doing the righteous thing in an era when the right thing is very very hard to do..
The other countries that have had this, well, they all had their own stories but for the most part, they were not as big nor diverse, nor with such a huge portion of the economy already sucked onto healthcare. We did it in the face of relentless opposition with a new President — a new black President, during an era of extreme corporate influence and control. This is not a trivial thing but of course, the lecture follows on how perfect it should have been…
I do not want to jump the gun, but if as we believe this passes, please lets take this evening to celebrate — just for once before all the nay sayers give us the “but,but,buts” — PLEASE.
Thanks so much to BJ — my one sane place during a horrible period when I could barely visit many sites on the net or read the paper, watch tv etc. My husband will tell you he is deaf in one ear from my screaming to “turn that shit off!”