Jack & Jill Politics

1) Why? Because a bizzatch is sick of talking about it! We need to move on, people…

2) Because Rush Limbaugh has threatened to leave the country if it passes.

3) Oh yeah, because Americans are living sicker or dying because they can’t afford decent care. Or because healthcare costs are one of the leading causes of bankruptcy.

4) There’s another good reason though. Because if it doesn’t pass, a whole lot of Dems don’t stand a chance in the 2010 and 2012 elections.

From a couple of folks at TNR.com who are way smarter on this stuff than I am:

It is undeniably true that a Washington plan to reform health care is not overwhelmingly popular. But that’s mostly because Washington is unpopular these days. When the component parts of the Democrats’ plan are parsed out, surveys show high approval for nearly all of them, including removing preexisting conditions, ending lifetime benefit caps, providing tax credits to small business to get them to cover employees, subsidizing low- and middle-income families to enable them to buy insurance, and creating a health-insurance exchange to shop for policies.

We also know that voters are warming somewhat to the idea of a reform plan, in part because the president has ramped up his efforts on its behalf beginning with the State of the Union and the health-reform summit—letting voters know what is actually in the bills. The actions of insurance companies like Anthem and Wellpoint, raising premiums sharply before enactment of reform, has also contributed to a public receptiveness to change. And we know that there was a noticeable bump in public approval when bills passed the House and the Senate—voters like action, and like success. Even where we are skeptical about the benefits of government programs, we want government to work.

It is also true that the health-reform plan, contrary to conventional wisdom, will not simply frontload the costs and backload the benefits. The plan will move quickly to erase the unpopular “doughnut hole” that results in a costly jolt for many seniors buying prescription drugs, to end discrimination based on preexisting conditions for children, to ease the insurance burden on those losing or leaving their jobs, and to enable parents to carry children up to the age of 26 on their family policies.

Many House and Senate Democrats are understandably nervous about voting to enact health reform. We are convinced that the political damage will be far, far worse if they fail to do so.

There’s more history over at TNR that’s worth checking out, btw, on what’s likely to happen if the Dems flub this one. Bottom line time = Once healthcare is passed and the mainstream media stops freaking out and starts covering what the actual benefits are — people are going to LOVE it. And folks who voted against it — well, chile, they gonna look like uncaring jerks in the pockets of cruel insurance companies. The same kind of companies that led us into the Great Recession. The same kind of self-interested and stupid people that Americans really hate right now.

So what’s it gonna be, fence-sitting Democrats? Do you go down in flames in the next election? Or will you be counted as a hero for bettering the lives of sick people and seniors in your district? Choose wisely and well — vote for the healthcare bill. Or else you can kiss that cushy Congressperson seat buh-bye.