History, is it too much to ask for a bill which isn't absolutely terrible?  I know you know the arguments, but you are swayed so much to believe that this _must_ pass for the hypothetical future good of the country that you are not thinking about any other ramifications.  You are saying that we cannot strive for total Purity.  I agree.  Can we strive for--30% of what we wanted?  Is that too much?  Can we strive for a bill that doesn't doom the Democratic Party for the next 15 cycles?  Is that too pure?  You are acting as though this is a good though not perfect bill, so we are trading away real assets for the mystery behind Door #3.  But this bill is a disastrous failure.  What are you hanging onto?

It is a death knell to Progressivism in the eyes of the voters.  Democrats will be blamed for the raising of premiums, for the restricted abortion access, for the higher taxes, for the fact that, when the subsidies get cut by the next Republican administration, people will not be able to afford their mandatory coverage, and for the fact that they will look "arrogant" for pushing ahead with this unpopular bill.  There aren't enough Liberals in Washington to fight to make this better or to make the case for a greatly enhanced Progressive bill down the line.  And with the country soon to run out of money, the campaign finance laws now rigged even more toward Corporatists, and the general wave of falsely blaming the Left for this bill, how can you imagine that there will be a Progressive Congress that is going to make this bill much, much better in the foreseeable future?  And have the political leverage and resource and courage to do so?

We HAVE to have a line beyond which we can't be pushed any further.  We have given up everything.  That final line was crossed in December and we just continued to cave.  WE WILL ALWAYS GET 1% UNLESS WE ARE PREPARED TO WALK AWAY.