History in the Making

It's not often that an historic event is so widely apprehended in advance that virtually everyone gets to see it as it happens. This is likely to be such a day.

As disappointing as it is that there is no public option in the pending congressional medical reform bill, and that "Medicare for All" remains only a fond dream embraced by a substantial majority of Americans, today is very likely to be a watershed moment in our nation's history. The question to be resolved is, Will we or won't we join the rest of the civilized Western world in achieving near-universal medical coverage?

Uniform opposition is expected from what remains of the Republican Party, for purely political reasons, the good of the nation be damned. Democrats, typically, are sufficiently divided to cast the matter in considerable doubt, although as the Booman says:

[T]he Democrats who vote against it and survive are going to regret their vote more than the Democrats who vote for it and lose. That's just reality. You can't be a Democrat and vote against historic legislation like this without looking and feeling like an asshole later on.

For a projected time-line of events (subject to the usual slippage in sausage-making), click here.

Here's a video of President Obama's latest appeal. Ezra Klein has the transcript.

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