The Democrats’ big health care choice

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On health care reform, the Democrats really seem to have reached a ‘glass half full/half empty’ kind of moment. On the one hand, there’s a bill passed in the House, and debate initiated on a bill in the US Senate. Mitch McConnell, the Senate Minority Leader, already acknowledged that most bills that make it to the point of being debated will ultimately pass. And yet…

There is this disquiet. A sense that so much work has been done already, and Democrats aren’t going to get what they want, they’re going to get what the insurance companies want. And this is leading some of them to declare that they’re not willing to make any more concessions. And let’s face it, that’s what the Republicans want.

Brian Beutler’s latest at TPM sort of captures that sense, with Ohio’s Senator Sherrod Brown effectively saying he doesn’t want to make anymore compromises. But it’s the end of Brian’s story, where he contrasts the following statements from Senators Carper and Durbin, that really leaped out at me about the choice Democrats are making:

“For me, I want to make sure at the end of the day that Senator Snowe will feel comfortable in joining us,” Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE) told reporters today. Carper has been attempting to broker a compromise on the public option modeled on Snowe’s trigger.

“What I’m beginning to conclude is that the concerns that have been expressed by centrists…and the concerns that are being expressed by our liberal colleagues–and that’s the need for more competition in states where affordability is a problem–I think those concerns can be met,” Carper said.

The goal in the coming days, then, will be to bridge the gap between Brown and Snowe.

“Harry Reid had a tough decision because overwhelmingly his caucus supported the public option, and he gave an opt out to satisfy those who were opposed to it,” Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) told reporters. “I think it was a reasonable position, Senator Snowe saw it differently.

via Brown: No Negotiations On The Public Option, As Far As I’m Concerned | TPMDC.

Of course, the poles presented here – between a position that would satisfy moderate Republican Senator Olympia Snowe, and one that would alleviate the more progressive-minded public option-wanting Democratic senators – changes the terms of the debate to a certain extent. After all, the ‘opt-out’ stance on health care was one that would hopefully bring on the ‘moderate’ or ‘conservative’ members of the Democratic conference – Ben Nelson, Blanche Lincoln, Mary Landrieu, and, oh, that guy, Joe Lieberman. Durbin seems to be acknowledging in his remark that satisfying those 4 isn’t even really the issue anymore.

And that’s a big deal. Because the choice that Democrats are now facing is what kind of party they want to be. Do they want to be a party that is lasered in on their 60 conference members, trying to court every provincial concern (Nelson, Landrieu, Lincoln) or egomaniacal outburst (Lieberman)? Or would they rather be a party that routinely gets to 60 by giving Republican senators cause to cross the aisle?

If I were Harry Reid, I’d rather be the party that routinely finds ways to flip a couple of Republican votes than one that counts on 60 Democrats marching in lockstep in every instance. For one thing, he’d have 40 minority members to attempt to pick off, rather than being forced to regularly alleviate 4 to 6 Semicratic (semi-Democratic) senators whose egos are so overstuffed they need a motorized cart to get around the chambers. He’d be reminding those aggravating egocentric ‘centrists’ that each time around on a big issue like health care, their vote just might not be that important.

But it sends a stronger political message, too. He’d be saying to America that Democrats are the party of pragmatic solutions to pressing policy problems.

And that’s why I think it’s better for the Democrats to make a deal with Olympia Snowe than it is to worry about whether or not the Joe Liebermans of the Democratic conference can ultimately be swayed. It shows all of America, not just the progressive Democratic faithful, that the Democrats are a party that’s capable of governing. And isn’t that the message that you’d rather be taking into 2010 if you were Harry Reid, or any other senator up for re-election?