A massive 8.8 earthquake hit Chile early this morning, causing 147 deaths so far as well as vast amounts of property and infrastructure damage. The quake also caused tsunami warnings across the Pacific, including in Hawaii. President Obama expressed condolences and solidarity of the American people with our Chilean friends.

There seems to be only one way to pass comprehensive health reform in the current Congress: the Senate health bill would need to be passed through the House as is, and a smaller measure to fix the areas of the Senate bill many House members find egregious needed to be pushed through both houses of Congress, and in the Senate through a procedure (called reconciliation) that allows the Senate to legislate by majority vote.

Many argued that the House must hold the Senate bill hostage to the Senate's passage of the reconciliation measure to ensure those fixes happen.  To me, however, common sense dictates that you can't fix something if it doesn't exist, and the Senate bill that the smaller reconciliation bill would fix does not exist in law yet!  Hell, it hasn't even been agreed to by both houses of Congress yet.  How can Congress amend parts of the law that, well, isn't law?  Therefore, I have argued that the House needs to pass the Senate bill first, followed by the reconciliation measure.

News came yesterday that the House, courageously, may be moving to do just that.  Rep. George Miller, Chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, and one of the closest confidants of Speaker Pelosi, is now signaling that the House may have to, and will, act first by passing the Senate bill.

Miller conceded that the House may have to pass the healthcare bill first approved by the Senate in December before the Congress can take up a bill using the reconciliation process in order to make fixes to the Senate bill. Using that process, the Senate could approve those changes with only a simple majority vote, instead of the 60 votes usually needed to end a filibuster.

"That may require us to pass the Senate bill first and then send the reconciliation bill to the Senate for them to pass," Miller said. "I think Sen. Reid believes he can put the votes together for that."

Today is going to be a very important day for health reform.  So most of today's readings and videos are of course focused on that.  First off, today is just a great day for video, but don't forget your readings!

First of all, the health care summit starts at 10am EST, 7am PST.  You can watch it on WhiteHouse.gov, MSNBC.com or other outlets.

Reading List:

• Read the President's proposal on health reform, if you haven't already.
• An excellent analytical diary from Monday by "jim bow" on Daily Kos comparing the President's proposal with the House and Senate passed bills.  I can't recommend this piece enough.
• Early this morning, the great Ezra Klein tells the truth: There's no plan B for health-care reform.
• An interesting take by Michael Stickings on why the President's strategy on health reform makes perfect sense.

Videos:

Jay Rockefeller is probably the strongest proponent in the Senate of the public option, and the Senator who proposed an amendment in the Senate Finance Committee to add a strong public option based on Medicare rates in the Senate bill.  And so, Markos Moulitsas, the hold-(or set)-the-Democrats'-feet-on-fire guy and the proprietor of the well-known blog Daily Kos, wants to primary Jay Rockefeller.  At least, that is the only logical conclusion if you read what he had to say on his blog today:

Give us an up or down vote on the public option. Then we'll know who to put on our primary list for the years ahead.

The implication being that if a Democrat in the Senate does not vote for the public option in reconciliation, he or she will be added to Markos' "primary list."  Well, if Markos is to honestly follow through on his threat and not just making empty howls, he has put on that list Sen. Rockefeller who said:

I think MoveOn Political Action has this exactly right. Today and tomorrow, MoveOn is organizing phone calls and faxes to Congress to pass health reform. Here is MoveOn's message, plain, short and simple:

Dear [Sen/Rep X]

In a year without health care reform...

2.3 million people lose insurance
930,000 people file for bankruptcy
45,000 PEOPLE DIE

As Congress stalls, real people are hurting. Our health care system is broken. It's time to finish health care reform.

I am a supporter of the public option.  But there is a meme going around that the public option is somehow the most popular element of health insurance reform, and that Democrats are stupid for not twisting enough arms to pass it by any means necessary.  In a scathing, fact-free piece accusing the President of gutting the public option because of the deals made with private industry, Huffington Post columnist Miles Mogulescu claims, "The most popular aspect of health care reform is the public option, which is supported by nearly 60% of voters."  Let's solve that issue once and for all, because we numerically can: The public option is NOT the most popular item in health reform.  Not by a long shot.

In fact, Mogulescu's "nearly 60%" number is correct.  Back in October, a Washington Post/ABC News poll put support for the public option at 57%.  I will use this number for comparison purposes.  So let's look at what is in the bill that is supported by a greater majority.  In an article for The Hill yesterday, Peter Fenn quoted recent Kaiser polls (here are actual findings from the poll):

76 percent support reforming the way health insurance works
72 percent support tax credits for small businesses
71 percent support creating a health insurance exchange/marketplace
70 percent support expanding high risk insurance pools
68 percent support providing financial help for low-/middle-income people

And when it comes to preventing insurance companies from denying coverage because of pre-existing conditions and putting a cap on lifetime benefits, the numbers are off the charts — 37 percent believe that it is Extremely Important to put this into law, 39 percent believe it is Very Important and 15 percent believe Somewhat Important. That is 91 percent!!!

This has been said, and said again.  For all the misdirected anger at the White House for not including the public option in its health care proposal, the facts on the public option itself has not changed from three months ago.  I know we are calling Congress today and tomorrow.  I know there is a letter going around on WhipCongress.org signed by Democratic Senators asking Harry Reid to put it back on the table.  And that is where the problem is. The letter has been signed by 22 Democratic Senators so far and an independent, bringing the total to 23.  That is less than half of the Democratic caucus of 59.  That is less than half the votes it will take to pass the public option even if it were allowed with a majority vote under reconciliation.

A similar letter signed by House members isn't doing much better, like it or not.  It has 120 House Democrats.  That is also less than half of the Democratic caucus in the House, and only slightly more than 218 votes required to pass a bill in the House.  The House has of course already passed a bill with a public option, and will do so again if given the chance.  But why, then, didn't all 219 House Democrats who voted for the House bill sign up to push for the public option?

Here are some things you should be reading today:

• The President's health care proposal
• this is a great proposal, improving on the affordability, coverage, and regulation provisions of the House and Senate bills, and it forces members of Congress to choose from the same exchanges as everyone else.
• New York Times on the Obama proposal 
• For something non-political, check out why the choice of your web browser matters.

Every day health care reform is delayed, we hear stories of insurance industry exploits.  Every day health insurance reform is delayed, more small businesses are crushed under the burden of health care costs and make the decision to drop coverage for their employees.  Every day health care reform is delayed, it's one extra day the insurance industry and their friends in Congress have to scuttle any help for Americans altogether.  Next Thursday, the President will have a summit at the White House with Democratic and Republican Congressional leaders on health care reform.  I believe that it will be a true exchange of ideas - at least for the Democratic side.  The President has announced that a unified Democratic health care bill will be posted online for everyone to see on Monday.  It's a near certainty that Republicans will take no similar step.

How long would it take to pass a health care bill, if Congress decided to do it?  Twenty four hours.  How is that possible?  Because that's all it would take for the House to pass the bill that has already passed the Senate.  Ezra Klein explained on MSNBC's Rachel Maddow Show on Monday:



Yes, a limited bill to improve the Senate bill can be, and should be passed through reconciliation, but the bottom line is that it's up to the House now.  Reconciliation is very limited in its scope, and as for those pushing for a public option in reconciliation, it remains a pipe dream with only 18 senators signing on in a letter in favor of it, and a 100-some House members (nowhere even close to what is needed for passage).

So, once again, the ball is in the House's court now.  They need to pass the Senate bill first, and then move forward with a fix process.  If they decide to do it - pass the Senate bill - we can have health care reform in 24 hours.  Twenty-four hours.

Hon. Raul Grijalva and Hon. Barbara Lee
Congressional Progressive Caucus
Washington, DC

Dear Representatives Grijalva and Lee:

First of all, as someone committed to liberal causes and progressive policy initiatives, I want to thank you both for your tireless work in the Congressional Progressive Caucus.  The CPC is the conscience of Congress, and I hope you will continue to fight on behalf of those of us who believe in and desperately need government to work for the American people.

In today's note, I want to draw your attention to an organization that you are both Board members of: ProgressiveCongress.org.  You may be aware that the non-profit education and research organization maintains an affiliated lobbying arm, Progressive Congress Action Fund, which you are not on the Board of.  However, ProgressiveCongress.org and Progressive Congress Action Fund do not separate their web presence, and far more notoriously, the Donate page of ProgressiveCongress.org defaults to the donation form for the 501(c)(4) lobbying arm, not the 501(c)(3) non-profit.  To donate to the non-profit, one must click on another link from that page.

Last Friday, I wrote about the website FixItAndPassIt.org, a project of Progressive Congress Action Fund, a 501(c)(4) and a partisan lobbying organization essentially mixing and mingling their non-partisan, non-profit 501(c)(3) operations of ProgressiveCongress.org.  Both organizations have the same Executive Director, Darcy Burner.  The Progressive Congress Action Fund launched the Fix It And Pass It project, spearheaded by Noelle Bell and Eve Gittelson, who apparently believes that President Obama is indifferent to the plight of uninsured Americans.

This morning, I woke up to a Politico story about Democrats sparring with the notorious Grover Norquist ally Jane Hamsher over a series of polls her blog commissioned in some Republican leaning but Democratically held Congressional districts.  The poll is nothing more than an attempt to rile people up about the individual mandate in the current health care bills.  At the request of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Emory University Professor Alan Abramowitz released a memo with what are in my judgment pretty strong and unavoidable criticisms.  Let me go through the memo (which can be found here), and test if each of its criticisms are valid.  We will take, for convenience's sake, the data for the polling of Indiana's 9th CD.

The first question Prof. Abramowitz raises is that the questions asked about the health care bill is biased.  Well, let's have a look at the questions.

Lawrence O'Donnell, pundit and contributor to the Huffington Post and former Senate Democratic stuffer is very fond of touting his Senate creds and telling everyone about where Congress is and what the Senate does and what has no chance of.  On Friday, O'Donnell guest hosted The Ed Show on MSNBC and in that show, he went on a great diatribe showing his mastery of legislative procedure and accused Congressional Democrats of wanting to kill their own health care bill.  Thankfully, Congressman Elijah Cummings set him straight:

I used to be a big fan of Darcy Burner.  She ran two fearless campaigns for Congress up in Washington state, and even though she lost both campaigns, she was someone progressives could be proud of.  But after her failed runs for Congress, she founded ProgessiveCongress.org, a 501(c)(3) a non-partisan non-profit (basically this means that her organization is not allowed to lobby a whole lot).  So of course, like most political 501(c)(3)s, her organization has a parallel 501(c)(4) so that it can lobby and engage in political activity to its heart's content, the Progressive Congress Action Fund.  She recently hired two bloggers from Daily Kos and started a new-fangled project, Fix It And Pass It (dot org).  It wants to have 1 million people calling Congress on February 24 and 25, ostensibly calling the House first asking them to hold the Senate health bill hostage¹ to a reconciliation fix.  I happen to think they should pass the Senate bill as is, and then follow up with a reconciliation bill afterwords to fix the rough edges.

But that's not really the issue I'm trying to present here.  The FixItAndPassIt.org site is essentially three things: an invite to join the aforementioned Facebook group, a Donate page, and a bunch of links leading back to the Progressive Congress website, the 501(c)(3).  Generally, the funds for that and the funds for these lobbying efforts (i.e. (c)(4) efforts) ought to be separated.  Their 'About Us' page links back to the explicitly non-partisan Progressive Congress.  Given that this calling effort is targeted to Democrats only, whatever else it is, it is not non-partisan.  There also ought be a firewall between the funds because it pertains to the donors.  Donations to the non-partisan 501(c)(3), Progressive Congress, are tax deductible.  Donations to the lobbying group, Progressive Congress Action Fund, are not tax deductible.  If someone goes to Fix It And Pass It website, clicks on 'about us', then clicks the donate button from that page, their money could not be used to fund this project.  This whole mixing and overlapping of the two organizations and presenting them as one (whether intentionally or as the result of pure sloppiness) is rather dangerous organizationally.  It  makes the operation look unprofessional at best and an attempt to put together a site in a hurry so money can start being collected at worst.

Otto Lee, a member of the Sunnyvale City Council, its former mayor, and most importantly my friend, has been serving in Iraq for the past year.  Otto is a Navy reservist.  We are all so glad that he made it home safely.  Of course, his first order of business put a smile on my face.

After his plane landed back at home last week, Lee couldn't wait to have dinner with his family.

"A home-cooked meal, especially a home-cooked Chinese meal, was something that you don't get in Iraq," Lee said. He described the meal as "the best thing I've tasted in awhile."

Indeed.  Welcome home, Otto!

I am going to try and make this a regular, if not daily feature. A reading list. News items, some in-depth reading and opinion pieces will mostly what this will consist of. So without further ado, here's today's:

• The President's Economic Report
• Senate unveils its jobs proposal (here's the text of the draft bill).
• For comparison and good measure, also read about the House bill passed back in December (and the text of the House-passed bill itself).
• On the question of service in the military, overwhelming support for letting gays serve openly, but not "homosexuals." Wording matters. I will update with links to the actual numbers when it becomes available.
• Iran amps up rhetoric on nuclear issue.

That's all for today. Happy reading!

The AP is reporting that President Obama, in a message to Congress, has said that the economy will add 95,000 jobs on average every month this year, while personal savings will remain high as credit remains tight.  That's moderately good news.  95,000 jobs a month - if the President is talking about 95,000 for the remaining 11 months of 2010, we are talking about a little over a million jobs.  If the President is talking about 95,000 jobs on average for the entirety of 2010, including last month, then we're talking about 1.14 million new jobs.

No jobs news that pertains to additional jobs being created right now can be bad news.  However, this will still be a modest pace of recovery.  To put things into perspective, in 2009 alone, 4.78 million jobs were lost.  Considering what the economy went through, thanks to conservative policies, however, the new ray of hope couldn't come at a better time.  Nonetheless, it is still going to be a very long, tough slug:

It was pretty good to see the President take the helm of the White House press briefing podium yesterday, and he laid out his agenda, and the way forward to move forward together in Washington.  He will continue to seek the best ideas, but the Republicans should understand that bipartisanship is not them getting their way or highway.

Here, watch the whole press conference.



I love this phrase: Math is not partisan. But Mr. President, Karl Rove has his own math, err, the math.  The president also called the GOP out on its Delay and Obstruct strategy.

In the past year, thanks largely to the Recovery Act and other help from Congress in terms of direct infrastructure and other spending, targeted tax cuts and humongous aide to the states, the economy avoided a complete collapse and a second Great Depression.  Thanks largely to that kind of spending, the job loss picture turned around to look like this:

 

So of course, the United States Senate, masters of mediocrity, decides it's time to slow things down a bit.  Senate Democrats released a draft plan of their new jobs bill today, and it is rather disappointing.  It is missing some pretty critical and important stuff.  CNN reports on the genius Senate bill:

Jim Dean, Chair
Democracy for America
Burlington, VT

Hi Jim,

You might remember meeting me once or twice.  I have been a member of Democracy For America since its founding in 2004.  I interned for Gov. Howard Dean's campaign in New Hampshire in 2003-04.  I am an active member and hold a leadership position in the my local DFA group (but I do not write this letter as a representative of any group).  I was a DFA Netroots Nation scholar in 2009.

I'm writing as a rather concerned DFA member about DFA's possible involvement in Noelle (slinkerwink) and Eve's (nyceve) Facebook group to organize a million calls to Capitol Hill on February 24 and 25 demanding reconciliation in the senate first before the House passes the Senate bill.  I think there are two dangers associated with it.

First and foremost, nearly nobody calling will have a clear idea about what may or may not be included in reconciliation.  The people pushing for the calls - at least one of them - is doing so on her other Facebook group demanding "Public option now."  It is not a realistic expectation to have the public option in reconciliation at this point.  In fact, Speaker Pelosi, her legislative director, and Tom Harkin have all made crystal clear what narrow provisions can be and will be included in a reconciliation package:increase the threshold on the Cadillac tax, include more affordability credits, close the donut hole in the Medicare Part D drug benefit, and eliminate the Cornhusker Kickback.  While all good ideas, I, frankly, do not think that those alone are reason to hold the Senate bill hostage in the House.

If DFA joins this campaign for a million calls, I want DFA to be very, very clear on what people are calling for - or holding the Senate bill hostage for - and that it isn't the public option.

Thanks for all you do.

Note to my reader: This is a modified version of an email I sent to Jim Dean via the DFA web site.  I love DFA, and I am posting this as an open letter because of my affection for DFA, not in spite of it.

I generally don't comment a whole lot on terrorism policy; it's not an area of expertise for me.  But I am so tired of this Republican bullshit about how the Christmas day underpants bomber should not have been read his Miranda rights by the FBI in the course of interrogation.  Here is the Miranda warning given to every alleged criminal - from a serial killer to a shoplifter.

You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed to you. Do you understand these rights as they have been read to you?

Never mind that this particular attacker did talk and is talking.  The argument goes that you can't give terrorists these same warning, because for some reason, terrorists in US custody should not be given the rights of a criminal defendant because we really, really hate them.  Wait, no, that's not it.  We don't want to give them the rights of a common criminal because this isn't a matter of law enforcement.  This is war.  And they are enemies of the United States in a war.  I see.  So I presume our Republican chickenhawks are fine with holding them as prisoners of war, following the Geneva Conventions, in which case,

Article 4 of the Third Geneva Convention protects captured military personnel, some guerrilla fighters and certain civilians. It applies from the moment a prisoner is captured until he or she is released or repatriated. One of the main provisions of the convention makes it illegal to torture prisoners and states that a prisoner can only be required to give their name, date of birth, rank and service number (if applicable).

Which, also, essentially Mirandizes them.  No, say the Republicans, and some Democrats.  They are "enemy combatants," who don't have any rights and can be waterboarded.

I read on the Daily Kos rec-list today the diary about how the Speaker's legislative director has now said that passing a reconciliation 'fix' through the Senate first is the only way to move forward on health care reform.  And to be sure, Wendell Primus, Speaker Pelosi's legislative director, said exactly that:

There is only one way to get it done at this stage of the game and that’s a process that the Speaker has outlined,”[...]

“The House would have to take up that first because it would involve revenue changes and then the Senate would pass it and then I think hopefully with the passing of that legislation, the House, only then would take up the Senate bill and pass it.”

Speaker Pelosi is creating the best pressure she can on the Senate, it seems to me.  However, Mr. Primus also educated us on what, precisely, would be included in such a reconciliation package:

I have said that the Senate health bill caps out-of-pocket expenses in the individual market at 10% of income or $5,950 for individual plans, whichever is less.  It came to my attention that while not far from the truth, it is not entirely the case, although there are absolute caps of $5,950 for individual and $11,900 for family plans for those with income over 400% of the Federal Poverty Level.  I will explain in a minute what had me confused, but let me actually set the record straight on the numbers first.

Here are the actual out of pocket limits, straight from the horse's mouth (Senate Democratic Policy Committee analysis of bill as passed):

A big debate is raging on the progressive blogosphere on health care. Do we have the votes to pass the Senate bill as-is in the House? Does the Senate have the votes to pass through reconciliation the things that most activists pushing for reconciliation want? What will the political consequences be if the Democrats pass nothing? What will those be if only the Senate bill passes? Hell, can a progressive vote for the Senate bill as is and not be assailed as a sellout?

That's a fine debate to have. It's great to say that because the Senate bill expands the private system of coverage without giving people the option to choose a public, government-run plan, it is so outside of one's principle that one is willing to take a principled defeat rather than compromised victory. But for 47 million Americans without health insurance coverage, millions of Americans who are losing their homes and filing bankruptcy because of medical costs despite having health insurance, seniors in the Medicare donut hole who are cutting their pills in half or choosing between a meal and prescription medication, the working poor who do not have a Community Health Center close by or a free clinic close by, the status quo is deadly.

No, that wasn't a typo.  Last night, Sarah Palin, the former half-term governor of Alaska and serious foreign and domestic policy feather-weight, was the featured speaker at the Tea Party Convention in Tennessee.  I don't usually go around listening to Teabaggers or to Sarah Palin for that matter, but for kicks, I wanted to hear what she's sayin' this days.  Of her many insanities, a few drew my attention.  Because I find incredible value when right wing lunacy accompanies comedy, I was rather amused to hear her say, amidst taking other run-of-the-mill potshots at President Obama's foreign policy about 14 and a half minutes into her speech:

...around the world, people who are seeking freedom from oppressive regimes wonder if Alaska is still that beacon of hope for their cause.

But more importantly, is Sarah Palin still Lady Liberty?

As you can see, I have been busy giving The People's View a new look. I think I like the way it looks. You can now easily share the contents of this site to all your social networking places - Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, to your heart's content by using the AddThis 'Share' bar that' follows every entry, and is also available on the top of each page. There is an 'about' section, and you can even use the 'contact' link above to contact me! You can click the little twitter bird on the right to follow me on Twitter.

So, what do you think of the new look? I think I like it!

I usually don't do short posts, and I am not terribly fond of political predictions.  Not this far ahead of an election, at any rate.

However, I do have something in mind that I think needs to be said.  A lot of Democrats seem to be afraid that that they are damned if they do and damned if they don't on health care.  I want to make the short point that Democrats are more damned if they don't - at least in their base - and at least pretty well off in the long run if they do.  How so?

You can throw a dart at the left-ideological blogosphere and if you aim it roughly for health care reform, chances are you are going to hit a post about how the Democratic party is violating its own platform with the Senate bill.  Horror!  Of course, you can look at the right wing lunatic blogosphere and they are screaming about Socialist Communist Kenyan (TM) takeover of health care reform.  But I'm planning on examining the claims of this serious violation of the Democratic platform today.  After all, Democrats are in power in the White House, the House and the Senate.

First let me introduce you to the 2008 Democratic National Platform.  As you will see, it divides each policy area into subsections about what the Democratic platform says about that policy area.  I am going to list them and assign points based on a rather simple idea: I wasn't at the platform discussions.  I don't know what was given the most weight and what was given the least.  So each goal under the main health care umbrella will get the same amount of points assigned, and each sub-goal within it will divide up those points equally.  Sound fair?  Ok.  So let's find out how the Senate health care bill stacks up against those goals.

There has been a big push by some on the ideological left (and I do not, at all, use the term negatively) about a reconciliation bill to "fix" the Senate bill before the House passes the Senate bill as is.  A big part of the push, though, has come from those who consider a public option sacrosanct and believe that a reconciliation bill is the way to push it through.  Indeed, some are positively giddy about the prospect of the public option (PLEASE NOTE: The link leads to a Google Docs spreadsheet form, and I have no idea where your information goes once you put it in, so I am not recommending you use it to sign, but just as an example) being revived now that any fix going through the Senate must do so by reconciliation and thus only require a majority vote.

However, those who are cheering on a "Reconciliation first" strategy simply or primarily because of the possibility of having the public option should take a breather.  Speaker Pelosi - who yesterday said that the Senate has no obstacle to move to reconciliation (and thus elated the supporters of the 'Reconcile First' strategy) - today poured cold water over the idea of a public option being included in a reconciliation package.  In no uncertain terms: "The Senate never supported the public option."

Today, Congress is holding a hearing on the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy that lets gay and lesbian Americans serve in the armed forces of the United States only if they hide their sexual orientation.

As a gay American, I am glad to see Congress moving forward on this, and I am pleased to see the President pushing for it.  Today, in some more encouraging news, Adm. Mike Mullen, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of staff supported the repeal of the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy, saying:

"No matter how I look at the issue," Mullen said, "I cannot escape being troubled by the fact that we have in place a policy which forces young men and women to lie about who they are in order to defend their fellow citizens." Noting that he was speaking for himself and not for the other service chiefs, Mullen added: "For me, it comes down to integrity — theirs as individuals and ours as an institution."

That's what Ezra Klein said Saturday at a forum sponsored by Families USA.  He was referring to the fact that for Democrats, there is no way to move backwards on this.  There is no going back on this.  There is no smaller piecemeal legislation.  Democrats can run on this bill and the success of it having passed, or they can run on a caricature of this bill and the failure of it.  Either way, Democrats are tied to it.  If we let health reform fail now - if we don't pass it quickly now - the failure will doom the Democratic party.  It's this bill, or everybody dies.  Not having health care reform will spell political and policy disaster for the Democratic party.  Not to mention, Ezra reminded the audience, this bill will save real lives.  Failing on this means more real people will continue to die.

Click here to see Ezra Klein make this point succinctly.

There are plenty of people running around in the Democratic party saying that health care reform has to be put on a back burner while Congress works on a jobs bill and so on and so forth.  There are two problems with that.  As I have pointed out before, the House is already ahead of the game, having passed its massive jobs bill back in December.  And secondly, Congress can do more than one thing at a time.  We cannot let health care reform lose steam just as the President is picking up steam and exposing the Congressional Republicans for the phonies that they are.