House Passes Health Care

In the wee hours of Saturday morning, an amendment passed the House and was added to its health care reform bill. The amendment struck out any way federal money could be spent for abortions, excluding cases of rape, incest and where the mother's life would be threatened. Language was also struck out that would allow states to experiment with single payer systems.

Still, today is a great day for Progressives. We finally made it through the long and tough process of "bipartisanship" and debate and deliberation and came out with a gutless, but still game changing, health care reform bill. Yesterday, a majority of Congresspeople (220) voted for the bill, which would create a not-so-robust public option to complete in a public marketplace with the other private companies, along with many new regulations for the health care industry.

In the best way to illustrate what "bipartisanship" means in the American government, only one Republican- Rep. Cao, of Louisiana- voted in favor of passage of the bill.

Look out for a detailed description of the bill tomorrow here at Operation: Democracy, and what it means for Progressivism.

Until then!