You Want To Go Through This Again?

To all the incrementalists out there, I have one simple question for you: Do you want to go through this again?

If Democrats settle for a half loaf or a third of a loaf or whatever you call this lame plan to slash reform down to non universal coverage plan in hopes of winning one Republican vote, they are dooming themselves to fight this insane battle once again. Eventually Democrats are going to need to fix the mess they left for themselves this time. At some point they are going to need to fight this battle over again when they do go for a full loaf (real universal health insurance coverage).

We have tried the half loaf before. Medicare and Medicaid were a half loaf, COBRA was a half loaf, The Children Health Insurance Program was a half loaf, expanding CHIP was a half loaf. Accepting a half loaf has never made the fight easier next time. The forces against reform always come up in full force looking for blood.

The party has already suffered this time through the lies, the angry town halls, the million dollar insurance company smear campaign. Democrats need to seize the opportunity to fulfill their decades old party promise of passing quality universal coverage. If they settle for some lame half loaf, they will dishearten their base, discredit the party when this half loaf fails, and force themselves to fight this knockdown drag out fight when ever they try this again.

Accepting this terrible half loaf will not only doom millions of more Americans to suffer without insurance, it will doom the Democratic party to reliving this health care fight all over again, except next time the insurance companies will have even more money and more power.

Crossposted on The Walker Report

Views expressed on this page are those of the authors and not necessarily those of Campaign for America's Future or Institute for America's Future