A morning after observation.

[Skidmore]

My best friend and her husband down the road still will be making a choice between heating their home and buying groceries AND they are not able to get healthcare coverage due to pre-existing conditions. They've explored every avenue possible and cannot afford to pay premiums out of pocket and are not eligible for Medicaid. If you need to make these types of choices, you are not celebrating this loss. I have other friends and relatives who are struggling. My husband and I also fit into this group. We are holding on and not by much. And there are millions of us in this nation who have been basically given the message by the right and the left that their lives are not worth sitting down and developing constructive policies that serve the nation. If nothing has happened by now, nothing will. I will not see any legislation in what is left of my life. The winners last night were the teabaggers, progressives, and the corporations, all of whom were doing high fives and backslaps last night. The status quo has been preserved and we can look forward to more of the same.

Arianna Huffington seemed to think that you can do some thing at 59 in the Senate. I don't see how. Rs will stand still right where they are and scream "No", and Ds will try not to make waves now. So it continues. Yes, such a morally superior victory we have been served cold this morning. I'm trying to marshal my spirits for when I talk to my friend and try to comfort her when she is in pain. I'm feeling damned morally superior this morning.

[MannyGoldstein]

1. Somehow, The Republicans Ruled & Ran Roughshod With < 60 Votes

Democrats can do it too - if they want to.

They need to show results now, or they will perish.

[ShamelessHussy]

5. Exactly, I was so frustrated with how the rethugs ruled and my ONLY consolation was

every dog has their day, and now that we have overwhelming majorities we still can't seem to do jack for the people... now when it comes to the elites, there is no problem, so what MSG does that send to the voters I wonder?

[KharmaTrain]

2. The Political Will Is No Longer There...

Did you feel the earth move about 15 minutes after Coakley conceded? That was the stampeding of the "moderates" and conserva-dems from any concept of healthcare reform. Unless the House votes on the existing Senate bill (which I sure hope they don't), this issue is soon to find the political dead-letter office. So will Cap & Trade and anything else that is controversial and Democrats in purple or red areas will move to "the center". That means don't do anything to piss off voters the way Coakley did...and in their mind (pumped full of right wing talking points) this means healthcare is dead.

It's a shame as so many people are going to continue to suffer as insurance companies play god and our country's overall health deteriorates. A small window opened, instead of going through it, President Obama and specifically Senate Democrats decided to measure for drapes and futz around...turned off everyone on the process and contributed to boxing this administration into a corner.

[Skidmore]

3. I agree with you, and I am furious

that so many on the left, colluded with this crap. And, yes, I hold "progressives" responsible for their role in this. I don't consider these people to have more concern for the true welfare of others beyond the rhetoric they put out. I don't understand the mindset that allows suffering to score a point. Don't even get me started on the Senators we have. That's a whole other source of anger for me.

[peace frog]

19. I felt the tremor

They abandoned us so quickly my head spun around, starting with Barney Frank.

[democrank]

4. I disagree.

I don`t think you`ll find many high-fiving, backslapping Progressives around here. I`m sorry you have a problem with a wing of the Democratic Party that actually stands for something. We`re not big on caving in on life and death issues like a soldier getting his legs blown off during his THIRD TOUR in Afghanistan or a low income person paying $43.00 for a $4.00 bottle of Big Pharma pills or a slammed-shut steel mill or a homeless child while congress uses our money for bronze statues. Progressives (and Liberals) are the people in this party who stay true to age-old Democratic principles.

The reason we can expect more of the same is because that`s what our "leaders" are offering. The longer we keep making excuses, the worse it`s going to get.

[Skidmore]

6. I expect more too.

I also support the principles you outlined above. What I don't support is the notion that, if you use the same scorched earth tactics that the Rs use, you will accomplish nothing more than what they do, and it is not progress. It is standing still and causing suffering at the same time. It is going to get worse, with our without excuses.

[ShamelessHussy]

8. excuse me

the reTHUGs were NOT standing still, they were able to get a lot of their policies enacted.

being tough, and actually LEADING is PROGRESS, when it is our reps doing the leading... what we got NOW is not even standing still, it is LOSING GROUND.

[Skidmore]

10. I see a stalemate.

Rs scream "no" and don't move; Ds screech to a halt and stand still too. That is not leading on either side of the equation. Rs are not getting their policies enacted; they are preserving the stuff they slammed in under *.

[ShamelessHussy]

15. my point

they got most of their policies enacted when they were in power, and with less of a majority than what we have, so what gives?

I had held out hope when Obama was elected but after witnessing 1/4 of his first term, I don't think he has what it takes to actually LEAD.

He needs to buck-up.

But, hey... this is just how I see it from the cheap seats.

:hi:

[blogslut]

12. Enjoy your superiority

Me, I'm about to have my phone shut off and will probably be eventually kicked out of my apartment. The only bright spot has been knowing that soon, I would be eligible for medical treatment after having been without insurance for the last thirty-odd years of my life.

Pardon me if I point out the line of dung trailing your high horse.

[HillbillyBob]

17. We are sinking fast here too

We dont have a phone line. we have internet because its a requirement for my partner to keep his job with the ever more paycuts.
IM sick and on disability and its not enough to hold up my end. I can't work even part time now.
Medicare/medicaid / ADAP pays my medical bills , but that will likely get gone too with the so called reform I fear.
9$ in food stamps does not cover much of anything. I don't even bother.
I would not be so disabled if I could have gotten decent care in 89 when I needed it instead of being homeless and sick under a bridge and or staying on friend couches.
Now I m afraid the cancer that I have been 3 rounds with is back. I have a host of other health stuff that comes with AIDS, the roof is leaking the second car which is an old truck lost its motor a few months ago so I don't really have a way to go the 45 miles to the dr since rural drs do not treat HIV AIDs patients. We have been through so many outsourcings/downsizings that I don't know how we are going to keep the lights on and the car payments up.
This after being homeless 2x and so close a third time as to make little difference. We have sold everything we could get a few dollars for.

30 yrs of being screwed over by the pigs, I can't tell you how many times I ws let go because my boss found out I am gay or had hiv. I had to lose job, home car, life savings when I got sick with pneumonia, and my insurance that I had been paying in to for years bailed on me after collecting some 100,000 in payments to that date..and this is not all reacent it started when someone outed me in the navy then rr killed the air traffic controllers union that could have helped me. This is only a small part of what I have been through, most of it started way before the current bullshit.

I am near the end of endurance.

[blogslut]

23. Oh, man

I hear you. I guess, like the song says:

"If you can hold on...hold on.'

[damyank913]

7. DID SHE EVEN CAMPAIGN?

I mean besides not knowing that Kurt was a Red Sock in a huge Baseball state like MASS. Or acting like she was above shaking hands. Was she really the best the dems could do in arguably the most Democratic state in the union? Maybe the dems in Mass didn't like that she was a woman not attached to a Kennedy-a possibility I suppose.

Talk about your ship of fools...

[Skidmore]

9. Well, I'm sure you'll support Kurt Schilling for on the ballot

in next presidential election. Is that what it takes to get your vote?

[damyank913]

11. I can't believe you judged me based on my avatar...

I actually wrote things (represented by the letters forming words).

[Skidmore]

13. I read what you wrote, and your first concern

was that she didn't track baseball.

[damyank913]

14. My 1st concern was that the dems lost an important seat.

Hence the post. Perhaps your willingness to not get the facts straight and jump to conclusions is indicative of whats wrong with our party.

[DefenseLawyer]

22. That was a huge gaffe

You can blow it off if you like but it was a huge gaffe. Not because she "didn't track baseball" but because in her answer she appeared completely out of touch, ready to give her canned response regardless of the question. "If they mention Rudy, say he's a Yankee fan". That's exactly what she was told to say by her handlers. Rudy= Yankees. So when the follow up came about Schilling she had no answer prepared so she panicked and said "Oh he's a Yankee fan too!" Come on. That's a stupid answer no matter what name they had thrown out. I mean really, if George Bush had campaigned against her would her best response have been "Oh yeah, well he's a Rangers fan."? But in reference to Curt Schilling it's not only a dumb response, it's nonsensical. She sounds like a politician who has no clue spitting out prepared lines. Huge gaffe. No way around it.

[damyank913]

26. ABSOLUTELY!

Did the dems not learn a thing after observing the huge mistakes involving Sarah Palin? I think she was just an empty suit. Better she didn't get in if that was the case.

[cap]

16. We are going to take out Italian citizenship

because I do not see how in the near future where my husband and I can pay for health care if he loses his jobs. We will take out a crappy policy with a high deductible to cover hospitalization and go to Europe for health care.

[seabeyond]

18. i made pastrami, swiss and rye for dinner and got coffee. apples. $30.

thirty fuckin dollars for a dinner and coffee.

i didn't buy ects. the only thing was coffee

30 fuckin dollars.

prices has escalated. utilities, groceries, all we buy. and if there are jobs, the wage is stagnant or in our case has decreased.

that is the unrest.

[LWolf]

20. While I'm not now, nor will I ever,

celebrate any republican win, I was just wondering this morning: How much will it matter? ...the 59 or 60?

It's not like the Senate Democrats, with 60 votes, were willing to push through a good health care bill anyway. What is going to happen now? They're going to compromise?

They've already compromised any hope of health care reform away. A majority doesn't seem to matter to them.

[seabeyond]

21. we wouldnt have had 60 anyway with lieberman. so i am not really seeing a loss from 60 to 59. nt

[lonestarnot]

24. So your contention is that progressives were doing high fives and backslaps last night

:wtf:

[boston bean]

28. They don' get it.

[Bobbie Jo]

25. Recommended.

[eridani]

27. And any "coverage" they get under the Senate bill would just empty their pockets

--before any actual medical bills came due. Then they'd have the choice between paying for their immediate needs or to pay insurance that they can't use until they run up tens of thousands in bills.