Letting the good or perfect be the enemy of adequate is not wise, neither is doing nothing

[uponit7771]

...Nothing is what republicans want, some are VERY willing to help them get it.

[ibegurpard]

1. how about enemy of the bad?

I want tax-funded single-payer...any compromises I could have lived with were thrown out the window at the start and now i'm staring at mandated purchase of private for-profit insurance.
This is a win-win for Republicans...they don't ever have to worry about reform (because we just codified the status quo) and they get to hang it around the necks of Demcrats and oppose it in a nice piece of political theater.

[uponit7771]

2. I don't agree with the republican position that this is worse than nothing, CHC's itself is worth it

[subterranean]

4. As others have pointed out, expansion of CHCs could be done separately too.

If it's worth doing, it could still be done even if this reform bill fails to pass.

[BeatleBoot]

3. Pre-existing conditions

Boy, eliminating that will be like lifting an anvil off of my family's collective chest.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

5. Second-Rate Thinking

Not on your part, mind you.

A second-rate thinker is the one who can find reasons to be opposed to anything and everything. This person is superficially clever and might even have a certain command of the facts, but there's really not much beneath the surface. Look at virtually every Republican currently serving in the House and Senate: As of March 10, 2010 -- after more than a year of discussion and debate -- they're still opposed to healthcare reform and have never offered a serious alternative plan.

That's second-rate intellect at work.

First-rate thinkers go where second-rate thinkers fear to tread. They'll create something rather than complain about having nothing. They'll take a chance with something untried in the belief that doing something is preferable to doing nothing -- and this is a key distinction between a first-rate and a second-rate thinker. The second-rate thinker can't get past "First, Do No Harm" because all he can do is think of ways that people might be theoretically harmed, and so doing nothing is always -- ALWAYS -- preferable to doing something.

Dennis Kucinich is a second-rate thinker. He has a memorized list of reasons why he should say no to health care reform legistion. It doesn't have a Public Option. It has a Public Option, but it's not robust enough. There's a Mandate. There's not enough oversight. There's not enough of anything. There are a hundred reasons to vote against this bill, and Dennis can recite them all.

Meanwhile there are more than 40 million Americans who lack basic health insurance -- and the access to actual health care that it provides. And some 50,000 Americans are going to die in the coming year from a lack of basic health care if we don't do something. This is not a perfect bill, and I'm truly sorry if it offends Rep. Kuncinich's delicate sensibilities. But as long as he's receiving health insurance coverage paid by the American Taxpayer, he has a moral obligation to do whatever is necessary to ensure that every American receives some kind of coverage, no matter how flawed that coverage might be.

Do Something.

Now.

Not Next Year.

Not After the 2010 Election.

Now.

Do Somthing.

[Captain Hilts]

6. Giving up on something important BEFORE you sit down to negotiate is even worse. nt