Everyone understands that healthcare reform is needed. No one denies that. Perhaps we disagree over the nature that reform should take, but the importance of the debate going on in congress at the moment us overstated.
The important debate will come if the senate passes their bill. After that, the senate and house bills will have to be reconciled, meaning that amendments and provisions struck out by their respective chambers can be put back in through the other chamber’s bill, and vice versa.
For example: the Stupak amendment in the house bill can be taken out if the senate bill doesn’t have a similar amendment. And if the senate passes a bill without a public option, it can still be put back in through the house’s version.
So while the debate going on in congress at the moment is important, the true debate will come after the two chambers reconcile their bills into one. At the moment, it’s just petty bickering between ideologies and congressmen/women using extortionate tactics selling their votes to the highest bidder.
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