Yes – 219
No – 212
Here is President Obama's email message (minus the DONATE button) that arrived in my email box moments after the vote:
For the first time in our nation's history, Congress has passed comprehensive health care reform. America waited a hundred years and fought for decades to reach this moment. Tonight, thanks to you, we are finally here.The result is imperfect; we did not get everything we wanted; and the process has been contentious and ugly. Nevertheless, President Obama accomplished what no other president has done in a 100 years. Without doubt, tonight is a historic moment.
Consider the staggering scope of what you have just accomplished:
Because of you, every American will finally be guaranteed high quality, affordable health care coverage.
Every American will be covered under the toughest patient protections in history. Arbitrary premium hikes, insurance cancellations, and discrimination against pre-existing conditions will now be gone forever.
And we'll finally start reducing the cost of care -- creating millions of jobs, preventing families and businesses from plunging into bankruptcy, and removing over a trillion dollars of debt from the backs of our children.
But the victory that matters most tonight goes beyond the laws and far past the numbers.
It is the peace of mind enjoyed by every American, no longer one injury or illness away from catastrophe.
It is the workers and entrepreneurs who are now freed to pursue their slice of the American dream without fear of losing coverage or facing a crippling bill.
And it is the immeasurable joy of families in every part of this great nation, living happier, healthier lives together because they can finally receive the vital care they need.
This is what change looks like.
My gratitude tonight is profound. I am thankful for those in past generations whose heroic efforts brought this great goal within reach for our times. I am thankful for the members of Congress whose months of effort and brave votes made it possible to take this final step. But most of all, I am thankful for you.
This day is not the end of this journey. Much hard work remains, and we have a solemn responsibility to do it right. But we can face that work together with the confidence of those who have moved mountains.
Our journey began three years ago, driven by a shared belief that fundamental change is indeed still possible. We have worked hard together every day since to deliver on that belief.
We have shared moments of tremendous hope, and we've faced setbacks and doubt. We have all been forced to ask if our politics had simply become too polarized and too short-sighted to meet the pressing challenges of our time. This struggle became a test of whether the American people could still rally together when the cause was right -- and actually create the change we believe in.
At first, I thought the strange popping noises outside were the celebratory fireworks, but I now realize that those are right-wingers' heads exploding. Mmm...
ReplyDeleteIn a related development, right-wing trolls must have entered a period of stupefying grief, since their presence has dropped dramatically on the left-leaning blogs I've visited tonight. It'd be nice if they could remain invisible for the next, oh, I dunno, millenium?
And here is a message from Alan Grayson:
ReplyDeleteDear Elizabeth,*
In 1968, a ten-year-old boy had to go to the hospital four times a week for treatment. Without that treatment, he had trouble breathing, and he felt like he was suffocating. Because he was suffocating.
His health care was covered by his parents' health insurance. But then they lost their jobs. They were worried about how they would pay the rent. He was worried about whether he would live or die.
How can we let a 10-year-old think about such things? Whether you are Democratic or Republican, left-wing or right-wing, liberal or libertarian, you know in your heart that that's wrong. And it's what you know in your heart, your empathy, that makes you human.
I was that 10-year-old boy. And I haven't forgotten.
That's why I support universal, comprehensive and affordable health care for all American. For you. For me. And for sure, for my five young children, and yours, too. The supposed "sins" of joblessness, homelessness and poverty, those "sins" of the parents, should never descend on the children.
I'm fighting for a decent life for all, especially our children. That's why I voted yes on today's health care reform bill. It's an historic first step. Historic.
But we're not done. The framework for a comprehensive health care system is in place. Now we must finish the job.
Our Medicare You Can Buy Into Act now has over 80 cosponsors in the House and over 40,000 citizen cosponsors at WeWantMedicare.com. It's a simple bill, to let you and me buy into Medicare. You want it, you buy it, you got it.
www.wewantmedicare.com
Let's do it,
Rep. Alan Grayson
*Ahh, music to my ears. ;)
Elizabeth, listening to the after-vote commentary tonight, the Reprehensibles in Congress are pushing the argument: “President Obama is not listening to America …”
ReplyDeleteBullshit. Despite the hyper-partisan rhetoric, the Reprehensibles seem hellbent on ignoring a simple fact: Elections do matter. The votes of 69.5 million people (53%) do matter. Those who elected Obama wanted healthcare reform, and their votes do matter. Contrary to their own rhetoric, it is the Reprehensibles who are not listening.
The mendacities and legislative obstruction of the Reprehensibles are disturbing, but what concerns me more is how this debate has changed our culture. These days, all gloves are off. Bigots and punks have taken over … crossing every all boundary of civilized discourse. Meanness and ugliness are rationalized in the name of freedom and democracy. More than unacceptable, the Reprehensibles have instigated and exploited this crap for political gain, and it is time to hold them accountable.
The Republicans have defiled my country.
Oh, I agree, Octo. Republicans have created their own reality (and wasn't it what Karl Rove was so proud of, way back when?) and even managed to infect a sizable segment of the population with it.
ReplyDeleteBut this too shall pass (not soon enough, however). Right-wingers are a dying breed, although a noisy one, unfortunately.
The GOP is in a shambles this morning. How Sen. in DeMint: how's that Waterloo thing working out for you?
ReplyDeleteThe Republicans are so thoroughly lacking in ideas that all they have are lies and fear. And their base is so mind-numbingly stupid, so ready to believe the most whacked out fabrication about the President of the United States, that they believe it.
Seriously, how do you present s a massive expansion of our private health insurance system as "socialism" and have anyone BELIEVE it? And yet they did.
THat should have read "HEY Sen. DeMint" not How. Sorry.
ReplyDeleteI am avoiding all right wingers that I know today. Don't want to deal with the BS.
how's that Waterloo thing working out for you?
ReplyDeleteSB, LOL!
(O)CT(O), I have been writing this on my blog for days: elections have consequences. The American people voted in a Democratic majority in 2006 and 2008. They also elected Mr. Obama, knowing he was for health care reform. Half the country supports the reform.
ReplyDeleteSaying this was "crammed" down America's throat is a lie, of course, but lies are what the GOP had to deal in to try to defeat the reform. Death Panels anyone?
David Frum very nicely tells the GOP the truth in his essay "Waterloo," which is posted on my blog.
SoBeal, I had to sadly shake my head in agreement with your characterization some of the stupids on the Right. I've read some really excruciatingly dumb posts on their blogs, but this one is the dumbest:
"Sunday Is The Day Of Decision
One of these days, God willing, we won't have health care to kick around any more. But hold the champagne. No matter the out come in Congress, the final vote won't be the end of the raging national conflict. In fact, get ready for the sequel. And Part III and probably Part IV as well. That's because the battle over health care is merely a front in a larger war. Thanks to President Obama's statistic agenda, America's new civil war is, at heart, the mother of all culture wars."
What is Obama's "statistic" agenda?
ReplyDeleteSB: What is Obama's "statistic" agenda?
ReplyDeleteTo make the Republicans see that the statistics on how many votes each party got in 2008 do, in fact, matter.:-)
You see, the Republicans do sometimes say something that makes sense -- it's just that that isn't what they were trying to say.
Infidel: priceless. (LMAO)
ReplyDeleteNo one seems to have noticed yet, but we won a far more substantial victory yesterday than most people realize. This is not just about health care- for the first time in decades, we now know that, if we stick together, we can win against the corporations and their agenda. We can force them to act like human beings, and treat the rest of us decently, if we really want to.
ReplyDeleteYes, we can.
One of the advantages of being older than Moses is that I remember aunts and uncles and grandmothers who went through the arguments about women's suffrage and hear the same states rights, not listening to the people, big government, commieliberal yada yada over that and other things.
ReplyDeleteLet's not get lazy - Tancredo can still preach that illiterate negroes elected Obama and they're certainly not going to lie down and accept this bit of progress, if indeed it is. The voice of the past is suddenly very, very rich after all.
Yes, we can, yes we did and yes we're going to have to keep it up.
for the first time in decades, we now know that, if we stick together, we can win against the corporations and their agenda.
ReplyDeleteI hate to piss in anyone's Wheaties but I fail to see how the healthcare vote was anti-corporate. Blue Cross, WellPont, etc. all just got 32 million new customers courtesy of Uncle Sam. The good news is that Republican threats to repeal healthcare reform if they win the midterms would seem to ensure that health insurance companies won't back their campaigns; the bad news is that Democrats seem to be just as married to our corporate overlords as Republicans.
Facts is facts, people.
Yup, I followed this vote yesterday with interest and am glad the bill has finally passed since it's better than the status quo.
ReplyDeleteOtherwise, I’ve avoided watching the news recently, preferring to stick with my language studies. The lack of even mid-term perspective one encounters from supposedly respectable sources is stunning: a month before the health-care-access reform bill passed, we were being told that the Democratic Party was in total disarray and sure to be obliterated altogether come November. We were told that passing the current legislation would be detrimental to the Democrats – now how mixed up would you have to be to think THAT? Yet it was without question the consensus view amongst those respectable commentators.
Now, quite hilariously, we're told that the Republicans are ready to commit hara-kiri because while they were triumphant but two days ago, now it's hopeless for them. That's silly, too.
Whatever happened two minutes ago, for a lot of these media chaps, swallows up all other consideration and represents for them the entire spectrum of possible thought and event.
SoBe,
ReplyDeleteI don't like that about the bill either -- I would just as well outlaw the big insurers altogether. But this bill is a step towards forcing them to behave like honest merchants, delivering the "product" they allege that they have been offering. In that sense, at least, it's a good deal for America.
Yes, the bill is not perfect and the big insurance companies are getting something out of this but it is a step in the right direction.
ReplyDeleteWhile I may be required to carry insurance, at least I have the assurance that I can't be kicked down over a pre-existing condition or priced out of my ability to have insurance by exorbirant premiums.
Change comes slowly, we move forward in baby steps. The key is to keep moving forward and not allow anyone to make us take a step back.